John and I drove 10 hours on Saturday so for our Labor Day Sunday Night Dinner I decided to keep it easy and thaw out some of Lynley’s black bean burgers. She’d made them at our house months ago and we froze the extras- yay for Lynley and for the freezer.

I’ve started adapting a recipe for spicy oven fried and have turned it into a non-spicy rosemary (with a touch of garlic) fries. After years of the original I think I almost like the new version better. I always intentionally make too many so I can have leftovers for breakfast the next day…sneaky cook that I am.

Rosemary Oven Fries Recipe:
(for 4 or 3 with breakfast leftovers)

3 medium sized potatoes (russet or other)
2 1/2 tablespoons of Olive oil
1 teaspoon garlic powder
2 teaspoons of dried rosemary
Generous sprinkles of ground pepper
And garlic salt to taste

How-to:
Pre-heat oven to 450f
Grease baking sheet with olive oil or cooking spray.
Slice potatoes thinner than a French fry, 1/2 inch thick or even a 1/4 inch.
Pile in a bowl.
Add rest of ingredients into bowl, toss to coat.

Spread potatoes out onto the greased baking sheet.

Bake for 20 minutes until edges start to brown slightly. Some edges may not brown at all, but the potatoes will have a cooked translucent-ish look. Stir potatoes once during cooking time.

Done!

We also had sautéed summer veg- mostly squash and zucchini with a little carrot, green onion and whole almonds thrown in.

Before cooking:

After:

I added smoked english seaside cheddar to the black bean burgers. Thank the cooking gods we had 3 in the freezer because Josh joined us for dinner.

Labor Day had always been the unofficial last day of summer to me, so I had to send it off with a lemon shandy ale. It only seemed right.

My plate with some sugar snap peas and watermelon too.

We talked about our trip to Indiana and the fire breathing dragon we saw along the highway, a cool comic book store in Bloomington (John’s childhood dream realized) and of course the Dr. Who season premiere.

For dessert it was chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches from a local dairy, Shatto.

After admitting that we all 3 had already had ice cream that day we dug into a true last day of summer treat.

Yeah, I wussed out and ate only half, BUT that means I have dessert for tonight too! See, that freezer thinking ahead really can pay off.