This photo describes me well. There I am in a dress, bow on top of my head (not pictured, but surely there), barely pulling a giant bag of potatoes up the steps, but determined to do it anyway.

My independence is my biggest strength and flaw. I want to be self-sufficient but sometimes I still need help and often refuse it or take too long to ask. I’m working on it.

At the moment I don’t think I need any help lifting bags of potatoes but I imagine something will come up sooner than I think. For now, I just need help eating them. Anyone want to come over for cheesy potatoes?

I have loved potatoes for as long as I can remember.

I have been stubbornly independent for even longer.  

I thought about posting about Thanksgiving food but I imagine everyone may be a bit tired of turkey right now. Instead, I present to you, the best and only acceptable alternative to regular french fries, Sweet Potato Fries.

These fries turned out really well. I deep fried them and then seasoned with salt, nutmeg and a little brown sugar. My mom and I gobbled them up pretty quickly. I would have liked for them to be a bit more crispy. It’s easy enough to do, just cut the fries a little thiner. I imagine double frying would also help with the crispiness but I didn’t try it. If you ever want a quick and delicious snack give these a try.

Sweet Potato Fries
Serves 2

2 small or 1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into thin slices
3 inches vegetable oil
brown sugar
ground nutmeg
salt

1. Heat the oil in a deep fryer or medium sauce pan to 365 degrees or if you are like me just wait until it looks nice and hot.
2. Add sweet potatoes a cup at a time. Fry until golden brown, about 1-2minutes.
3. Place cooked sweet potatoes on a plate with a paper towel to soak up excess oil. (I like to use tongs to get them out, a slotted spoon works well too)
4. Sprinkle with a mixture of brown sugar, nutmeg and salt, to taste.
5. Serve hot with a little sour cream and enjoy!

Happy Friday!!

My mom and I celebrated Mexico’s Bicentennial with a delicious meal of Tacos de Papa also known as potato tacos. It’s a favorite dish of ours and one of the easiest to make.

I wanted to show off my Mexican cooking to my mom so I made a big pot of frijoles de la olla to go with the tacos. Making a great pot of beans is the true test of your ability to make delicious Mexican food. My mom says my beans are good but I think I still need a bit of work to get them right every time. The amount of salt is always a bit tricky.

Tacos de Papa are delicious so make extras. You may think you’ll only eat two but you’ll be wrong. It’s more like four. The best thing about this recipe is I usually always have the ingredients. Potatoes, corn tortillas, monterey jack cheese. That’s it! We top them with cabbage and salsa but that’s optional.

Tacos de Papa
makes 12 tacos

Ingredients
4 small russet potatoes (less if they are big)
12 corn tortillas
1/2 cup of shredded monterey jack cheese
1 tbs salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil

1. Peel and chop the potatoes into medium sized pieces. Boil in a large pot of water with salt until tender. Drain the potatoes and mash. Add more salt if needed. Set aside.
2. Heat a comal or frying pan to medium high heat. Warm the tortillas over the comal until soft. Place the warmed tortillas in a dish towel to keep warm and moist.
3. Heat oil in a rimmed frying pan over medium high heat. While the oil heats up, prep tacos. Place about 2 tbs of potato on a tortilla, sprinkle shredded cheese on top and fold in half into a taco. Repeat with remaining tortillas.
4. Carefully put tacos (2-4 depending on the size of the pan) into the pan and fry until golden brown and crispy on both sides. About 1 minute per side.
5. Serve tacos hot with chopped cabbage tossed in lemon and the salsa of your choice as toppings. The tacos can be slowly opened to add the cabbage and salsa.

Chicharrón are pictured in the middle. My mom says this yummy Mexican snack was created by the indigenous people of Mexico. The Spanish would give the scraps from the pig to the indigenous workers and they created chicharrones from the skin. Unfortunately, I was not able to find a link to this story but for now I’ll go with what my mom says. She is usually right.

Twitter, my new best friend, introduced me to someone else that I’d like to get to know. The one-and-only French Fry Fairy. (!!!!)

Five Guys twittered a thank you to the FFF and I curiously clicked through to find out more. Well, I am so glad I did. The French Fry Fairy aka Beth is a mid-westerner now living in Florida. Her french fry obsession began in her early-20′s and now she’s taking it public with her new blog.

I read a bunch of her posts and this girl knows her french fries. The next time I’m in Florida I will know where to go for fries. This is valuable information she is offering. And not only that, she’s a good writer. Her posts are entertaining and she offers great descriptions of the tasty spuds she’s trying. Nice.

Beth, if you are ever in DC let me know. I would be happy to take you around for some quality french fry tasting.

Check out her blog*. You won’t be disappointed.

*This blog was joyously reviewed by: Grace “never turns down a potato” Garner

I’m not sure what happened this week but I just could not think of anything to blog about. Or I would think about it at the most inconvenient times. I’m going to try blogging whenever I feel like it instead of waiting to do it once a day. I am just not ready for the once a day commitment.

But don’t worry, I have a Friday food post. There will likely always be a Friday food post.

Last week I made enchiladas and they were delicious! I don’t make them often because it’s a messy dish and a little time consuming. Plus when I do make them I often eat them every day for a week. Enchiladas are great to make in bulk and then freeze for later. It’s actually best to make them in bulk. Mexican food in general is much easier to make in large quantities.

I make mine with onion, potato and monterey jack cheese. Sometimes I add chicken. Mmmm….delicious.

Grace’s Enchilada Recipe

1 can enchilada sauce (the kind made in Mexico)
1-2 potatoes (chopped and boiled)
1/2 cup chopped onion
Monterrey jack cheese or queso fresco
corn tortillas (the good kind, Guerrero)
oil

1. Prep ingrediants. Chop potatoes into small pieces. Grate cheese. Chop onions, sautee if you don’t want them to be crunchy. Pre-heat oven to 350.

2. Heat oil, medium heat. Heat up enchilada sauce (or don’t, it’s not a big deal). Put enchilada sauce in a bowl. Keep it close to the stove, for ease.

3. Lightly heat up corn tortillas to soften. Place tortillas, one at a time, in the oil, for about 10-20 seconds. Then remove and dip in enchilada sauce. Get it all covered.

4. Place corn tortillas dripping with enchilada sauce in an oven safe pan. Add cheese, potato and onion. Roll tortilla closed.

5. Repeat steps 3-4 until you fill your pan. Add extra sauce and cheese on top. Bake on 350 for about 10 minutes.

6. Enjoy!

(note: this is my recipe. It is probably missing steps/does not fully explain things. Comment for clarification.)

The rice turned out great too. I’ve been perfecting my recipe for a while now.

This morning I woke up craving potatoes (surprise!). I decided to make one of my favorite potato breakfasts. Growing up this was a common dish at home. It’s basically huevos rancheros but with potato added in. Since I loved potatoes so much the traditional dish transformed into this one.

Ingredients
1 tbs vegetable oil
2 or more potatoes
salt
pepper
garlic powder
3 or more eggs
1/3 cup salsa (add more or less to taste)
queso fresco (Mexican cheese)

1. Heat a skillet with oil (1 tbs) on medium-high heat.
2. Chop potatoes into bite size pieces; once skillet is heated add potatoes.
3. Cook potatoes, covered and flipping occasionally, until almost cooked through adding salt, pepper and garlic powder to taste during cooking.
4. Beat eggs with a dash of salt and pepper and 1 tbs of milk.
5. Add egg mixture to potatoes. Cook as you would scrambled eggs.
6. Add salsa and cheese and let sit covered for a few minutes to allow cheese to melt.
7. Serve hot and enjoy!

I didn’t use salsa this morning because I was cooking for two and my
friend didn’t want salsa and insisted on cheddar cheese on his half.

For those who know me well (or maybe for those that have simply met me) it makes sense that I would have a blog called Sunshine and Potatoes.

It’s really quite simple. Sunshine and Potatoes are two things that I absolutely love!

I grew up in sunny Palm Springs, CA and have always appreciated the bright and warm sun rays on my skin every day. Living in DC these past two years has been a challenge but we have our beautiful sunny days here too. On those days it’s almost guaranteed I will be outside.

As for potatoes, I remember being very young (maybe 4 or 5) and eating dinner with my family. We were having mashed potatoes and meatloaf. I remember sitting there eating my mashed potatoes thinking “this is the best food ever. I could eat potatoes every day.” And I almost do.

This blog is going to be about all of the things that I love and am passionate about. It won’t always be sunny, but I’ll do my best to have a mix of posts. Coming soon: My favorite and beloved potato recipe, thrift store finds, job searching and Grace’s mom visits DC.

A beautiful sunny day in D.C.