Loaded Baked Potato Latkes

"These are the best latkes ever!"

Jeremy has spoken. You should listen.

These combine all the crispiness of fried potatoes with all the goodness of a loaded baked potato that's been cut open and filled with cheese, green onions, bacon, and sour cream. These are a very good time.

You'll notice that I didn't use real bacon - you may substitute this fine ingredient, if you'd like to. When I prepare Jewish food for posts, I always respect the dietary laws that forbid combining meat and dairy products and also ban anything having to do with pig. But really, truly, even with fake bacon, these were exceptional.

Chanukkah is a minor holiday that began this past Saturday at sundown, but it's a festive and fattening party which celebrates the miracle of one day's worth of consecrated oil having lasted eight days. The Eastern European (Ashkenazic) tradition is to eat latkes, the Israeli one offers sufganiyot [soof-GAHN-yoht] - jelly doughnuts.

Fried foods reign supreme! Especially these latkes ....


If you'd like to try other celebratory foods during Chanukkah, here are some options:

Spiced Beef Egg Rolls

Doughnut Delights

Provolone Fritto con Marinara

Curried Potato Latkes

Reuben Latkes


Loaded Baked Potato Latkes

• 4 cups hash browns, defrosted
• 2 tablespoons matzah meal
• 2 eggs
• 3 tablespoons water
• 4 pieces Morningstar Farms Bacon Strips, chopped
• 2/3 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
• 4 scallions, chopped fine
• oil, for frying
• sour cream, for serving

In a large mixing bowl, combine hash browns, matzah meal, egg, and water; let rest for 5 minutes.  Stir in bacon strips, cheese, and scallions.

Pour oil into a large skillet to 1/4" depth; heat over medium heat.  Take 1/4 cupfuls of latke batter, and fry for 5 minutes per side until golden; drain on paper towels.  Continue frying until batter is used up, stove and countertops are greasy, and your entire house smells of cooking oil ... ah, the traditions of Chanukkah!

Serve immediately, with sour cream.

Makes 10 latkes.

Triple Onion Salsa

I needed a quick dinner the other night between coming home from work and going out for the evening; so I relied upon frozen Morningstar Farms Spicy Black Bean Burger patties and glamourized them a bit with toppings.

A quick saute of some simple and inexpensive ingredients, and voila! A nutritious, substantial dinner magically appeared before my hungry eyes. I topped the burger with a homemade salsa, lots of grated cheese (simply because there's no reason to be stingy with cheese!), and some sour cream. Corn chips would have made a perfect side dish if I'd had any ....

Triple Onion Salsa

1 tablespoon oil
1 small red onion, chopped
1 small yellow onion, chopped
3 scallions, chopped
pinch of red pepper flakes
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon taco seasoning
1 cup diced tomatoes with chilis

Heat oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add all of the onions, the red pepper flakes and the salt; cook until translucent. Add the chili powder, taco seasoning and tomatoes; cook until liquid has evaporated, stirring occasionally. Place on top of vegetarian or meat burgers, chicken, pork ... whatever strikes your fancy!

Salsa Fried Rice

This is one of those, "I've got stuff to use up and need to make some sort of meal out of it all" dishes.

Call it Salsa Fried Rice (the catch-all phrase I came up with), or call it Mexican Hash (what Tom called it as he ate) ... it's a not-particularly-photogenic amalgam of stuff that is actually remarkably good! It even has nutritional value -- not bad for a dinner that took maybe 10 minutes to almost literally throw together. Who needs Rachael Ray and her 30-minutes meals???

A little brown rice ... a little of the Wholly Guacamole salsa that I'd received as a sample awhile ago ... the last dribble of corn that had been taking up space in the freezer ... some onion and a portion of an orange pepper ... one egg ('cause I'm a bit OCD-ed and there was an odd number of eggs in the carton; using one, as is done with traditional fried rice, made everything better -- and even!) ... some vegetarian burgers, chopped up ... a little cheese.

And these myriad little tidbits all came together to make an excellent dinner!


Salsa Fried Rice

2 tablespoons oil
1/2 small red onion, chopped
1/2 small orange pepper, chopped
2 Morningstar Farms Spicy Black Bean burgers, defrosted, chopped
2/3 cup corn
1-1/2 cups cooked brown rice
1/2 cup fresh salsa
1 egg
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup chopped tomatoes with chilis
1/2 cup grated cheddar
sour cream, for serving

Heat the oil in a large skillet, over medium-high heat. Add the onion and pepper; saute until the onion is translucent. Add the black bean burgers and the corn; saute 2 minutes. Add the rice and saute for 2 minutes.

Combine the salsa, egg, chili powder and salt; make a space in the center of the rice, pushing the rice to the edges of the skillet. Pour the egg into the center, and stir gently for 1-2 minutes as it starts to cook. Stir the egg and the rice together, sauteing for 2-3 minutes until the egg is cooked. Stir in the tomatoes and the cheese, and continue cooking until the cheese has melted into everything.

Serve hot, with sour cream.