Did you ever feel like cooking something you've never made before, like chicken fricassee, and then discover while reading the recipe that you were feeling lazy and just wanted to make something quick and easy? That's what happened with me this this time around and I ended up going the easy route by making Papas con Queso (Potatoes with Cheese). Besides, since our family decided on a Mexican themed meal, if I ended up making chicken fricassee it probably wouldn't have fit in. I'm sure Julia had days like this as well. You know, you want to do more than just popping a Hot Pocket into the microwave but you just don't feel like cooking a meal from scratch.
I was going to cook from scratch but I couldn't find any scratch at the store. (hahahahahahaha) Not a lot of scratch involved in this although I did use raw red potatoes and peeled them and diced them before boiling them. I used about 3 pounds of potatoes and diced them into approximately 1 inch cubes. The cubes went into a pot with about an inch of boiling water and then were boiled for about 20 minutes. I probably could have taken them out a bit sooner and they'd have kept their cube shape better but it turned out pretty good this way. While stirring in the rest of the ingredients it turned into what was actually a kind of nice texture of mashed potatoes as well as some solids. I know what you're thinking - lumpy mashed potatoes. Actually not, it was good!
After the potatoes were boiled they were drained and then 12 ounces of Velveeta cheese (or, as the recipe said, processed cheese loaf -- doesn't that sound yummy?) was placed on top of the hot potatoes in the pot with a cup and a half of salsa on top of that. I put the lid back on the pot, which is not on any heat at this point, for a couple of minutes while the heat from the potatoes softened the cheese.
After a few minutes, everything was gently stirred together to evenly blend the ingredients. The end results were then scooped into a serving dish and sprinkled with parsley to add a little color. It looked pretty good and tasted great. Not bad for three ingredients, two of which were pre-packaged! I suppose I need to say Ola instead of Voila this time around, eh?
In any case, you may want to try this out if you're facing a lazy day!
Bon Appetit!
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