Monday Morning Fish Wrap: Sunday Dinner Edition

Perfect Roasted Potatoes... (photo credit below)

The title says it all. This random roundup was scheduled to come out yesterday, but Sunday dinner got priority, and as well it should.

Sunday is a time to relax, plan a fine table set with delicious comestibles, and execute.  Around the 101 Centavos household, Sunday dinner is likely as not to feature rosemary-crusted roasted potatoes. Easy-peasy to make, but a few little details are key to success.

First, the rosemary has got to be fresh.  Sure, you can go ahead use pre-packaged rosemary, and while you’re at it, you could also take the Lord’s name in vain or ask for ketchup at a French restaurant … in Paris.  It just ain’t done.  Non si fa.

Second, toss the cut-up wedges in a bowl with olive oil, kosher salt and fresh-cracked pepper from a pepper mill.  The thicker grains of the kosher salt bring out the flavor as you bite down on those perfectly roasted little nuggets of deadly carbs.

Third, potato placement is crucial.  Don’t just toss the potatoes in the pan willy-nilly and then expect perfection. What you’ll get are potatoes that are stuck to each other and to the pan.  Ensure that all wedges are skin side down.  Ensure that the pan is large enough so that the potato wedges have enough air space between them.

Fourth, cover the pan with foil for the first twenty minutes.  After about twenty or fifteen minutes at 400-425 degrees, take them out and toss with a metal spatula.  Discard the foil, no longer needed.

More Potatoes...

That’s pretty much it.  Substitute sweet potatoes for red potatoes, and you’re in for another treat. Or mix them up for some visual effect.   Or add some garlic cloves to the roasting pan, it’s all good.

Here’s a visual tutorial on Garlic Roasted potatoes from a great site called  Cooking for Engineers (they start out with the skin side up, but my way is better).

Right then, here’s a few worthwhile articles I saved up from the last couple weeks. A mini-carnival of sorts.

**********************************

I don’t get out much, Internet-wise. There must be all kinds of nifty corners of the Web where cool stuff abounds. Case in point, Bored Panda (“The Only Magazine For Pandas”), coming out with a list of 25 Vintage Ads That Would Be Banned Today. Some of them guaranteed to make you cringe. More interesting though, is the social sharing numbers: 1,606 tweets and 16,000 likes on Facebook… and those are not exceptional numbers by Panda standards.

A pair of algebra-related articles:

PK @ Don’t Quit Your Day Job with When Stupid Ideas Go Mainstream: Algebra on the Chopping Block. So much for the three R’s (you know, reading, writing, ‘rhythmetic) when professors opine in public that algebra is so gosh-darn hard that we shouldn’t burden the curriculum of our precious little snowflakes with it.

Not unless your precious little snowflake grows up to be a field artillery officer, like Dave @ 6400 Personal Finance. In which case, algebra comes in handy when smiting foes from afar with large explosive projectiles.

JT posting over @ Darwin’s Money invites comment and mild controversy in the comments section with Americans Subsidize The World’s Medical Costs. Fair?

A good one from the Christian Science Monitor, along the lines of water and agriculture, semi-recurring themes on this blog: Why Is Brazil The New America? Hint: Water Another reason I like ag-related stocks.

Shawanda @ You Have More Than You Think comes roaring out of the gates with a PF smack down to all slackers who might feel deserving of a micro-brew and special team jerseys for football night (purchased with a high-interest credit card, natch):

What I’m suggesting may cause extreme discomfort for entitled sissies. But true debt assassins and ninja savers welcome the opportunity to transform their sacrifice into a financial fortune.

Self-explanatory title, too: 4 Hardcore Strategies To Torch Debt, Rack Up Cash, and Build Wealth Now

Nelson @ Financial Uproar opines In Defense Of Normalcy and all things boring. As one who has standardized to Dockers D1 and D2 slacks and Academy Magellan polo shirts for office attire, I concur.

Sandy @ First Gen American has compiled a series of columns on valuable life and career advice, as imparted to her by various mentors.  Start with the first two ( Part 1 and Part 2) and then realize there’s a Part 3.

Must be election season. Funny About Money asks if You’re Better Off Now Than You Were Four Years ago? I think so, worked pretty hard at it…

Want to know what retired dudes do when they’re retired and able to make choices?  They take off to South America to vacation and explore investment options.  No, it’s not Jim Rogers, it’s Jim Collins from New Hampshire.

Speaking of the Live Free or Die state, this one dredged up from the archives of  Betty Kinkaid would find favor among many Free Staters: Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

Thanks for dropping in and reading the Wrap.

If you’d like to occasionally read more, a good way is to join the couple dozen handsome, smart, well-informed people on the mailing list.   It bears repeating, click here for email.   Or  Twitter, that’s good too.

Photo Credit:

The masterfully done photo of the roasted potatoes is authored by Niki at Hello Paper Moon.  Niki had a blog called Debt Free by Thirty, writing mostly on debt.  Niki realized — as many other Debt Bloggers should — that once that goal is all through and done, it’s time to move t0 other projects and interests. In Niki’s case these projects are creative crafts and cooking, and damn fine photographs of said cooking. A graceful exit stage left, and a good start on another chapter.  Photos used with permission.