12 — FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2013 • THE FOOTHILLS PAPER
www.thefoothillspaper.com • VOLUME 9 • NUMBER 1
Herbed Potato Stacks Tap Dancing in the Kitchen Just ask any professional dancer that started out as a tot in a tutu. However, a common problem arises for many tap dance students regardless of age or skill level: Where can you practice outside of a studio without wrecking your home’s flooring or even find somewhere to practice at all? Torrance, California native and third generation tap dancer Jackie Covas has come up with a solution for tap dance students everywhere. The Dance Dot! For Jackie, tap dancing has always been a family affair. “My mother and grandmother have been teaching in the South Bay for the past thirty years. When I was younger, we formed a dance act called ‘The Generations’ and even danced along side tap master Arthur Duncan.” Covas also attended USC where she founded the non-profit organization Dance Included that offers free after school dance classes to children in public schools that lack arts funding. The organization will celebrate its 10th anniversary this year. After graduating, Covas landed a fundraising position at The Music Center in downtown Los Angeles, but her love for performing eventually led her straight to New York City. Soon after relocating, Covas began teaching tap dance and booking work as a dancer in a number of regional productions as well as three national tours. While on the road, she ran into a frustrating problem that many dancers face; lack of areas to practice. She began working on an idea for a portable practice surface that would be light enough for her
By Chef Randy
to travel, and fashionable enough to carry around the streets of Manhattan. Covas enlisted her husband Codey Girten to help create the first Dance Dot prototype in the basement of their apartment building. Keeping her younger students in mind, she explained, “We wanted to create something that was colorful and fun. Something that families could easily use in their homes and onthe-go.” The couple landed on an innovative and kid-friendly design that would allow young dancers to safely practice their moves almost anywhere at anytime. The couple spent a lot of time testing prototypes in their apartment. It wasn’t unusual to find Girten eating breakfast while Covas was tapping away in the kitchen on a Dance Dot. She was now able to create new choreography in the carpeted living room, rehearse her favorite steps on the hardwood floors, and transform almost any space into her own personal tap dance stage. Dance Dot made it all possible. You can also learn more about the product by visiting the company’s web site at www.mydancedot.com.
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This is a versatile side dish that is tasty, nutritious and looks amazing when plated. The Yukon Gold is the first Canadian-bred potato to be marketed and promoted by name. It received a Canadian license in 1980 and soon began exportation to the United States. So it’s fairly new to market. Red potatoes, on the other hand, have a much different pedigree. Red, and other colored potatoes, can be traced back to Peru in the second century B.C. Each of these varieties has distinctive flavors and pair excellently with Asiago cheese and fresh garden herbs. Ingredients: 1 pound Yukon gold potatoes ¾ pound red potatoes ¾ cup Asiago cheese (shredded) ¼ cup butter (melted) 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary (chopped) 1 tablespoon fresh thyme (chopped) 1 tablespoon spicy brown mustard ½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
½ teaspoon sea salt 4 cloves garlic (minced) Directions: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray muffin pan cups with nonstic k cooking spray. I use a cast iron muffin pan but modern muffin pans work just as well for this recipe. Cut potatoes into very thin slices (discard rounded ends). A mandolin is good for this, producing consistently thin slices. Place potatoes in a large bowl with ½ cup of the cheese, all of the butter, herbs, mustard, pepper, salt and garlic. Mix well with your hands being careful to separate potato slices so they get evenly coated. Stack potato slices in prepared muffin cups. Scrape bowl to remove all of the butter mixture and spoon over potatoes. Top potatoes with remaining ¼ cup cheese. Bake for 20 minutes, then tent with foil and bake for another 25 minutes or until potatoes are tender when pierced with a knife. Bon appetit!
See Chef Randy’s food blog for more recipes at http://valleyvegetarian.blogspot.com
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