Scrumptious Saturday: Hot Potato, Cold Potato, French Fries!!

In my wanderings through Pinterest-Land, I've started seeing a lot of recipes for homemade french fries.  It peaked my curiosity, so when I was at Wal-Mart the other day, I picked up a giant bag of potatoes for 5 bucks.  I mean you can't beat that, right??  I made a couple different recipes and used some different techniques, so I thought that I would share them with you!

Now I have to be honest, the first recipe was somewhat of a fail.  I will let you know now, you probably shouldn't cook french fries coated in egg white directly on your baking sheet...they will probably stick.  Don't ask me how I know...

Recipe 1:  The first recipe I tried instructed me to coat the fries in an egg white mixture, I suppose this is to get them crispy.  Well, either I didn't follow the instructions well enough or something else happened, because my fries didn't get crispy.  They were more, tough on the outside but soft on the inside.  The hubby thought they were great because that's how he like his fries anyways, but I was a bit disappointed.  I might try this egg white idea again with a few alterations, but for now, my arms hurt from scraping the potato remnants off my pan...(I'm thinking parchment paper might be a good investment at this point..)

Recipe 2:  The second time around went much better than the first time.  This recipe started off much the same way, by peeling the potatoes and slicing them into sticks.  Then I put the potatoes into a bowl and poured enough olive oil over to coat them.  I added salt, garlic powder, and Italian seasoning (I just eyeballed it, sorry for no measurements!) and mixed everything together with my hands.  Once everything was good and coated, I spread the fries out on a baking sheet that I had sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.  I baked the fries at 450o for about 25 minutes, then flipped them over and baked them for another 15 minutes or so.  These french fries were much better than the first ones, they baked more consistently, and tasted way better too!

I enjoyed my fries with a hot dog and some cheddar cheese on the side.  And I have to say that the second recipe seemed far superior as far as my humble cooking skills are concerned..

Have you ever made french fries from scratch?  I'd love to know how it went and see your photos!!