Roasted Boiled Potatoes

I opted to save myself the trouble of planting a vegetable garden this year.  The past few years have yielded very few vegetables that weren't sampled first by the backyard critters.  After all this time of thinking that the neighborhood population of bunnies and squirrels was increasing, I was really surprised by the scarcity of the furry creatures this year.  No garden to lure them into my yard meant fewer nuisances  adorable bunnies and pests  beautiful squirrels hanging around.

I'm just grateful that the li'l varmints don't bother with the flowers that I've planted.  I can easily pick up locally grown produce at the farmers market every week, but there is no bouquet of beautiful flowers anywhere that could ever give me the amount of happiness that I feel every time I look at a vase of flowers that I cut from my own yard.

And speaking of furry creatures--

Clyde is a year old!!

I can't believe how quickly his first year went by.

Here he is when we brought him home last November.

And here is a picture I took yesterday, on his birthday.

And there have been lots of playful moments in between.

It's getting harder and harder to remember a time when he was smaller than Gus!

Maybe someday we'll convince him that he's not a lap dog.

Linking up with Share Your Cup...click on the link to check out what fills Jann's cup this week!

Today's Playlist

• "Ruby Soho"...Rancid
• "Jerk It Out"...Caesars
• "How Far We've Come"...Matchbox Twenty
• "Ain't No Rest For The Wicked"...Cage The Elephant
• "Lump"...The Presidents Of The United States Of America
• "Basket Case"...Green Day

Roasted Boiled Potatoes

• 2 pounds baby Yukon Gold potatoes
• 4 slices thick-sliced bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 tablespoons chopped chives
• salt and pepper

Gather your ingredients.

 Fill a large (6-quart) pot with water and put it on your stove to boil. 

Wash, peel and quarter the potatoes while you're waiting for the water to boil.  I used baby Yukon gold, so cutting them into quarters made them into perfect bite-sized chunks.  If you use larger potatoes, cut them accordingly--you want the chunks to be about 1-inch-ish in size.

And if your family is more adventurous than mine, don't even peel the potatoes!  I think these would be divine with the skins left on.

Add the potatoes to the water.  Boil them until they are fork-tender, about 10 minutes.

While the potatoes are boiling, chop the chives.

 Chop up the bacon.  First, slice it lengthwise.

Then chop at 1/2-inch intervals.

Cook the bacon in a large oven-proof skillet over medium-high heat.  

This will also be the same skillet that you roast the potatoes in, so make sure that it is safe to put in the oven and that it is large enough to hold the potatoes.

Cook the bacon until just before it starts to get crispy.  You will be adding it into your potatoes while they are roasting, so leave a little bit of bend to the bacon so that the additional cooking time won't over-crisp it.

Remove the bacon from the pan and put it onto a paper towel-lined plate.  Pour the bacon grease out of the pan and discard it, but leave whatever remnants and grease that remain on the bottom of the pan.  It will be just enough to give the potatoes a bit of flavor.

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.

Your potatoes should be boiled tender by now.  Drain the potatoes and return them to the pot that you boiled them in.

Drizzle the tablespoon of olive oil over the potatoes and crush the clove of garlic into the pot. Stir gingerly to

coat the potatoes with the oil and to mix in the garlic. 

Transfer the potatoes into the skillet.

 Stir them around to coat with the trace of bacon grease that you left on the bottom of the pan.

 Flip the potatoes so that as many as possible have their flat cut surface against the bottom of the pan.  This will help them to get brown and crispy while they roast.

Season them with salt and pepper and roast them in your preheated 450-degree oven for 30 minutes.

 After 30 minutes, remove them from the oven and stir them.

 Sprinkle the bacon on top.  Lower your oven temperature to 375 degrees, and place the potatoes back into the oven for an additional 15 minutes.

 When they have finished roasting, sprinkle the potatoes with the chives, and add additional salt and pepper if needed.

Enjoy!