ARF/5-A-Day #90

I, for one, am exhausted. It’s just past 9 pm and I can barely prop my eyelids open. I’d love to call it a day, dive under the covers and watch trashy tv until I fall asleep, but I still have work to do. Sigh. Enough about me … more about you guys! If it’s Tuesday, it must be time for an ARF/5-A-Day roundup and though it’s a small group tonight, it’s still packed with yummy inspiration. Here goes.

My favorite West Coaster, Madeline, from Everything Rachael Ray, joins us again tonight with Chicken Paillard Over Mixed Salad Greens – looks like a perfect, light dish for a weeknight meal.

Charise from More Bread and Cheese, Please is up next with the slightest hint of Autumn with her Spiced Applesauce … which reminds me — must make applesauce tomorrow with all those apples we picked!

I think I just may have died and gone to heaven after looking at this Caesar Club Sandwich from Cook. Craft. Enjoy. Must.make.soon!

Sarah from What Smells So Good gives us a two-fer this week with her Beet Roesti and Spicy Pumpkin Pie. Love, love, love pumpkin pie!

The doc is in! Claire from Cooking Is Medicine serves up a delicious-looking Baked Couscous with Summer Squash and Herbs:

As for me? I went with a new-to-me recipe from Nigella Lawson, called Blood & Guts Potatoes. She had an episode of Nigella Bites recently that featured with more kid-friendly fare, and this was one of the recipes she made. Nicholas didn’t care for them and The Husband doesn’t like baked or mashed potatoes, so they were mine. All mine. I gotta say, I was a little hesitant to mix the ketchup in with the potatoes, but somehow it worked. And speaking of Nigella, if you happen to be a fan, she has a new show coming to the Food Network called Nigella Express. Set your Tivo now – it starts in the next week or two.

Blood and Guts Potatoes
Recipe courtesy of Nigella Lawson

4 baking potatoes
3 balls fresh mozzarella, diced
2 tablespoons tomato ketchup, plus more to decorate

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Prick the potatoes here and there with a fork and put them into the oven, straight on the wire rack, for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, depending on their size. Take the potatoes out of the oven and let them cool down a little before you handle them. Carefully slice each 1 in half and scoop out the fluffy potato flesh into a bowl, reserving the skins.

Put the diced mozzarella into the bowl with the potato and add the 2 tablespoons of ketchup. Mix with a fork and then spoon the filling back into the potato skins.

Sit the loaded potato skins on a lined baking sheet, and dribble over some more ketchup in a gory blood-dripping kind of way. Put back in the oven to cook for 15 minutes, by which time the cheese will have melted and the potatoes be warmed through.