Cure for the Common Leftover

Few things in this world are as delicious, and easy to make, as a baked potato. Your cooks are sure you’ve had your fair share of them – in restaurants, where they have been sitting in tin foil, heated through for hours. Or maybe off the grill, or heaven forbid, from the microwave. We have some shocking news for you. Those aren’t baked potatoes at all.

Sure, that’s what people call them, but really, those are all some form of steamed potatoes. A true baked potato is flaky and dense with rich flavor, unlike much of what you’ve been served over the course of your lifetime. If your cooks had to guess, they would say your potatoes have been more soggy than crisp, and overall unappetizing.

We chose Russets, the kings of baked potatoes.

Well, kiss those sorry spuds goodbye. We have some good news here – a baked potato couldn’t be easier to make.

Pennsylvania and Some Homemade Pumpkin Pie

Every  year for Thanksgiving, I head to my parents house for my mom’s famous frozen pumpkin pie – or rather, Sara Lee’s famous frozen pumpkin pie. Which is … lacking, to be kind about it. While there are always other offerings – I can name quite a few cheesecakes that I’ve slaved over for this get-together – pumpkin pie is the traditional choice. Anything else just doesn’t seem right.

So this year, I put my foot down. The pumpkin pie will be the only dessert available. I will make it. And it will include cream cheese, but don’t tell my father. Or else he’ll turn his nose up at it.

Feaston’s 17 Bean Soup

Dinner is finished. Kitchen closed.

It was soup night. Seventeen bean and barley soup mix from Trader Joe’s. But you missed it, so no soup for you.

Hurry and count before I eat it.

First of all, welcome to the Feaston cooking blog. It’s pronounced Feast-in, like Easton, Pa., where your cooks live. Bear with us while we spice up the flavor of our site. We haven’t gotten around to photos yet, so stay tuned. UPDATE: Obviously we got to the photos. Enjoy them.

While throwing around some ideas for the premier post, Michelle mentioned something about pizza bagels. It sounded delicious, but your cooks thought since we enticed you with soup we should clue you in to the recipe.