18. & 19. Spicy Smoked Potatoes & Oven Steamed Asparagus

These are both super simple side dishes that take just minutes to prepare. We love both potatoes and asparagus. Potatoes are a treat for us, I don't care to eat the boat load of starch potatoes have to offer.

We do however eat a ton of asparagus. I make it for most meals, and a lot for work lunches. Since we work nights it's a little more natural to just eat dinner type food for our meals throughout our 10 & 12 hour shifts.

You'll need two large bakers potatoes & one large bunch of asparagus.

Any sort of spicy seasonings you'd like to incorporate on your potatoes. I've chosen a Traeger Beef Rub we picked up where we buy the pellets for our barbecue.

Olive oil, salt & pepper for the asparagus.

Go ahead and wash both. I made sure to get the potatoes nice and clean since we are leaving the skin on them.

Cut up the potatoes in to large cubes along with one stick of butter. Slice the butter up so you have about 10 little pads that we'll layer in to the potatoes.

Grab a baking dish you're willing to put in the oven and on the grill. Place half the cubed potatoes in to the dish and sprinkle with the seasonings of your choosing. Then place 4 to 5 pads on top.

Add the other half of your cubed potatoes and repeat.

Season the potatoes and place the last of the butter on top. I put a little extra seasoning on top just for good measure.

After washing & snapping the ends off your asparagus pull out a sheet of foil and place the asparagus on top. Drizzle with olive oil and generously salt & pepper it. You'll wrap the asparagus up in to a little pouch for the oven.

Place the potatoes & asparagus in to the oven and cook at 425 degrees for 30 minutes.

Here are the potatoes after 30 minutes. He's taken them out of the oven to place on the grill to add the smoky flavor. You can see I've thrown on a few diced onions. I had a little extra from our onion slices we grilled for the meal. If you choose to not place your potatoes on the grill for 30 minutes, just leave the potatoes in the oven for another 30 minutes.

Another pretty picture of the whole thing. Everything went back on together to finish cooking.

Here's the asparagus after an hour in the oven. It came out soft and perfectly steamed. They were salted & peppered to perfection. Be careful though, let the foil package sit for a few minutes to cool before you open it. The steam is hot and doesn't feel great on the fingers if you open it right away. Can I say this from experience? Yep.

When you pull the potatoes off the grill (or out of the oven if you skip grilling) give them a good stir, much of the butter will have collected in the bottom. We don't want them butter soaked, we just wanted to give them a little buttery flavor.

Beautiful! They were so tender. A few even came out a little crunchy. It was a really great mix of flavors. The buttery flavor was sporadic and soft, and the spice was the perfect amount.

Spicy Smoked Potatoes

2 large bakers potatoes

1 stick butter

Seasoning of your choice

Wash and diced potatoes. Cut butter in to 8-10 thin slices. Take half of the diced potatoes and layer in the bottom of a baking dish. Place half of the butter on top and sprinkle with your seasonings. Repeat with the second half.

Place in the oven at 425 degrees for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes remove from the oven and place on the grill. If you choose not to grill your potatoes, leave in the oven for an additional 30 minutes.

After 1 hour of cook time, remove from the oven and stir to ensure the potatoes are well coated with seasoning and butter.

Oven Steamed Asparagus

1 bunch asparagus

Olive oil

Salt

Pepper

Wash and trim the ends of your asparagus. Lay out a piece of foil large enough to fold in to a pocket around the asparagus. Lay the asparagus in a pile in the middle of the foil, drizzle with olive oil, then sprinkle with salt & pepper.

Fold the foil up around the asparagus and seal off the edges. Leave a little room to allow the steam to circulate. Place in the oven at 425 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove and allow to rest for 10 minutes prior to opening the foil pocket.