Patty Melts, Potato Chips with Dip and Lost Thumb Prints

Hello everyone!! I am excited to say that Dave and I have finally made a real meal! I have been dying to eat more then Mac and Cheese! 

First up:

Patty Melts

Can I just tell you that I LOVE patty melts!! I remember the first time i had one, oh it makes my mouth water! I have been craving one since "Reed's Drive In" in Spanish Fork, Utah. Now that place has a great patty melt!


So here is what you need:
1/2 small onion, sliced
mushrooms (I sliced about 6 to 7)
2 hamburger patties
4 slices of rye bread (I found some Jewish Rye Bread)
 2 Swiss cheese slices


Saute the onions and mushrooms in butter. Remove from pan. Place hamburger patties in pan and cook until your liking. Take one slice of rye bread in pan, place a piece of Swiss cheese on top of bread, layer with patty, top with onions and mushrooms, add the other slice of bread to the top. Flip the sandwich so the top slice of bread gets toasted a little. I left mine in the pan a little longer to get the cheese to melt too. 


I would say for making a patty melt for the first time these turned out pretty darn good! Need maybe a little work on seasoning the meat or the onions and mushrooms, but over all the flavor of just the basic ingredients were great!


Next:
Black Pepper Chips

Ingredients

Peanut oil, for frying

2 large russet potatoes, scrubbed

Kosher salt and

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Preheat peanut oil in a deep fryer to 300 degrees F with peanut oil.

Slice the potatoes into very thin 1/8-inch slices using a mandolin with a straight blade attachment or a V slicer. Keep the potatoes in a large bowl of cold water for 30 minutes. Drain the potatoes in a colander and blot dry with paper towels; you don’t want to put wet potatoes into hot oil.

Fry the potatoes in batches, only a handful at a time, for about 3 to 4 minutes. Once they reach a golden brown color, remove the chips from the fryer and drain on a paper towel-lined sheet tray. Season the chips with salt and lots of freshly ground black pepper.

Cook's Note: The biggest secret in making crispy chips is to soak the potato chips in cold water to wash away the excess starch. If you don’t have the time, then place all the potato slices in a big bowl of water and gently toss.

This recipe and the dip that follows I came across while watching the Food Network show "Down Home With The Neely's". We didn't use peanut oil, we used vegetable. And we turned the heat up to about 350 on our little fryer. These chips were so good! 

Finally:
Parmesan Sour Cream Dip

Ingredients

1(16-ounce) container reduced-fat sour cream

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Add all the ingredients to a bowl and mix well. Serve with black pepper potato chips.

Cook's Note: Season lightly with the salt since we are using Parmesan and it'’s a salty cheese.

These dip was perfect for those black pepper chips! It was super easy to make as well.

While Dave and I were getting dinner ready, I put him on potato duty. Barely into the first potato, he grunted, dropped the potato and quickly turned the water on. He had cut his thumb on this:

I even found the little chunk of skin under the blade! Don't worry I sanitized it! So while he was trying to get his thumb to stop bleeding, I took over cutting the potatoes. I found the protective handle but the potato wasn't cutting well so on the last potato I took off the protective handle. And what do you know....I sliced my thumb too! The exact same hand!

Dave holding his thumb above his head

Me with my sad thumb

Our bandaged up thumbs, they wouldn't stop bleeding! My actually still is bleeding as we speak. We went through a few bandages until we put flour on the wounds, it really helped stop the bleeding for Dave, and a little bit for me.

Ha ha I think it is hilarious we both cut the same thumb cutting potatoes. It took us FOREVER to make dinner. I am so grateful I have a thumb! Cause it was difficult without one.

One last picture of our fantastic dinner

Yummy!!