Hasselback potatoes

Its Friday of Halloween weekend and I find myself in the penthouse of the Hilton Hotel downtown. There’s chocolate covered strawberries, chilled glasses of white wine, and glitzy masquerade masks. Promising night?

Probably.

Unless you’re the babysitter.

Oh wait that’s me.

Chocolate monsters faced off with our little superheroes, Jimmy Two Shoes was watched, and “keep the bright green play dough out of the white shag carpet” was played. The last one mostly just by me. Think Bridget Jones trying to be Nanny McPhee:

Me: “Why aren’t you sleepy? I’m sleepy and I’m waaaay bigger than you.”

Much more intelligent individual: “I want to play superheroes. Spiderman. Flash. Batman. *flying noises*”

Me: “What if I bring you food and you can eat it in bed.”

Intelligent individual: “Okay, I want Raisin Bran” (Really, a five year old that requests fibre cereal. I think I met the Halloween fright quota for the night.) 

Needless to say, I spent the rest of the weekend indulging the five year old inside me. Candied apples were made, old shirts were stuffed with tissue paper (I was an M&M for Halloween, my boyfriend was Eminem; the candy and the w-rapper!), and the majority of my babysitting money helped me acquire additional Halloween candy. 

But before all that craziness, I made these: 

Afterall, even potatoes should dress up a little for Halloween.

Inspired by: Joy the Baker

Ingredients:

2 small sweet potatoes

2 small russet potatoes

Olive oil and/or butter
Sage, cumin, salt and pepper for seasoning

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Thoroughly wash the skins of the potatoes.

2. Start slicing through the potato being careful to not slice all the way through. Create very thin rounds connected at the base, working from one side of the potato to the other. (Also score the bottom of the potato to ensure the thicker base will cook evenly.)

3. Place the potatoes on a baking sheet. Drizzle about one tablespoon of olive oil onto each potato, trying to also get the oil in between the potato slices. Generously sprinkle all the potatoes with salt and pepper. Rub the sweet potatoes, with a generous sprinkle of cumin and top the regular potatoes with a generous sprinkle of sage (or dried herb of choice).

4. Bake the potatoes for half an hour at 450 degrees F. Take potatoes out of oven and re-apply with olive oil or scrapes of butter. The more oil you use the crispier the potato will be. Return to oven for an additional half hour. In total, the potatoes should bake for around 1 hour, (or longer depending on size of potatoes) until tender on the inside and crisp on the outside. Enjoy plain or with baked potato toppings or ketchup.

Happy belated Halloween!