The first Friday of the month is reserved for recipes. You can see additional First Friday Food posts here.

The Reason:

Obviously this is a pancake sort of blog, but *eeeevery once in awhile* I might eat something else for breakfast (shocking, I know). And when I do, there are no better accoutrements than hashbrowns and bacon.

(This is, however, a bacon sort of blog. No exceptions)

(Except maybe sometimes sausage)

The Journey:

Regular hashbrowns are pretty amazing. I mean, I wouldn’t have thought you could improve on hashbrowns. But you CAN and now you MUST.

Usually I make hash browns in a pan, but then I get entirely too impatient to eat them, so I don’t let them fry long enough to actually get crispy. Instead they end up as kind of warm, mush potatoes, that are still delicious. Intellectually I understand that they would be better if I could wait for a few more minutes, but…

However, imagine you could make ENTIRELY CRISPY hash browns, with no effort?!? And since they’re in the oven you don’t even have to sit there and look at them, waiting for them to crisp up but growing increasingly more impatient.

As for the bacon, I have cooked a slice or two in my day. Usually the grease is flying everywhere, burning your hands like liquid magma as you try (unsuccessfully) to flip the piece over with a fork. Then it starts curling up, so you try to hold it down, but it doesn’t work so you end up with one side that’s crispy and the other side that’s just like raw fat.

No more. This is going to change your life my friend.

It is so unbelievably simple, you end up with perfectly cooked, flat pieces, and you don’t even have to stand there and shepherd it the whole time. Set it and forget it. The strips are actually less greasy too, since most of it stays in the pan. AND! AND! It’s easier to clean up: just wait until the grease congeals a little bit, crumple the parchment paper, and throw it away.

Sometimes you really can have your cake and eat it too. And the best part is that you can cook it in the oven AT THE SAME TIME as the hash browns!

The Verdict:

The one slight knock I would say is that I am a crispy bacon kind of guy, and you can’t *quite* get the bacon to that perfect level of crispiness. However Sara, who claims I always overcook the bacon, is quite satisfied (and honestly this is probably somewhere in the middle between us as far as our preferred texture).

Still, that is a very minor complaint, especially when weighed against the obvious advantages.

I have no knocks against the hash browns whatsoever.

And naturally, it is Alex approved, so what more could you ask for?

The Recipe:

Recipe from Macheesmo.

• 1 bag of frozen hash browns (1 lb 4 oz)
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan

1. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a microwave safe bowl, combine butter, oil, and spices. Microwave on high for 30 seconds to melt butter.
3. Stir spice mixture into potatoes.
4. Stir in grated Parmesan cheese.
5. Spread potatoes out on sheet pan in a single, even layer. Some overlap is inevitable, but try to make it as even as possible.
6. Place sheet in a preheated oven on the bottom rack for 15-20 minutes. When edges of hash browns are browning nicely, move sheet pan to the very top rack. Bake for another 10-15 minutes so top can crisp up. Don’t stir the potatoes!

Recipe (is this really a recipe?) from The Pioneer Woman.

• Bacon

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Cook for 15 – 22 minutes (depending on thickness of bacon)