"FingerlingPotatoes" news and stories

When trying to get rid of leftovers, it's easy to throw them into a stew, salad, or some other bowled smorgasbord of flavor. It can be a bit trickier to make a meal out of them that doesn't look like leftover land.

Granted, these leftovers aren't the pre-cooked kind, but what remained after a week of cooking and a journey through the freezer. We've got an eye of round dry-rubbed with a mixture of random spices, fingerling potatoes tossed in olive oil, herbs, and shallots and roasted in the toaster oven, and garlic and shallot-based saute of chard and bok choy.

The roasted shallots came off crispy, which made them the perfect topping to cover some old chevre. Now, I'm usually not a big fan of masking steak with other flavors, but when you're talking about a thick piece of meat, one that's been frozen for a few months, a little cheese and shallots go a long way. They swim with the juice of the meat, and team perfectly with garlicky greens and herby potatoes.

For a quick and simple meal, it really can't be beat.

• Portland area schools are embracing good nutrition and locally grown foods by planting gardens, teaching kids to grow veggies and enlisting the help of experts.
  
• Empowering kids to pack their own lunches is great, but here are a few safety tips to keep in mind before letting them loose in the kitchen.
• Katherine Miller is taking one of her extra roosters to the livestock exchange, in the hopes that he'll find a new home.
• The FoodDay enlists the cookbook reviewing help of several kids and an experienced grandma.
• Fingerling potatoes are great for steaming and roasting, and have thin skin that are packed with nutrients.
• Kathleen Bauer reports from the Hillsboro Farmers Market.
• Looking for a new way to dress up your dinnertime chicken? How about Yogurt-Marinated Chicken Cutlets!
• Need a cheaper source for free-dried foods (the kind that backpackers take trekking with them)? The FoodDay has done the research for you.
• This week, the Market Basket is all about soup. You'll find a Brunswick Soup Pot, a spoon and fork napkin holder and Gumbo Filé powder.
• Speaking of soups, how about taking this recipe for Tomato, Egg and Bread Bouillabaisse for a test drive.
• Here's a wine bargain for you - second label or declassified wines.
• Jacques Pepin whips up a gnocchi dish that is speedy and gorgeously rich.

In addition to all the wonderful greens, fresh onions and fragrant herbs that have been showing up in my CSA box recently, the last few weeks have been bringing with them bags of new potatoes, so recently dug that the dirt still clings to them. I tend to think of potatoes as a fall and winter type of vegetable, but I'm learning that that is because the store well, they still ripen in the summer and early fall like much of the rest of the produce.

I've been treating these potatoes simply, just cutting them into chunks, tossing them with a little olive oil, salt, pepper and some fresh rosemary and roasting them at high heat until they are tender. They are absolutely wonderful straight out of the oven, and if you have leftovers (I rarely do when I roast potatoes like this), they are also delicious cold the next day, reheated and scrambled with eggs or cut smaller and added to salad like a tender crouton.