Trips to the grocery store have become the week’s big adventure.

I keep a very full fridge. And it’s filled, now especially, with things I find most comforting – hint, my cheese drawer is packed.

I cook. I obsess about meals – maybe too much, many times beginning to mentally plan the next one even while I’m barely finishing up the one in front of me.

I haven’t succumbed to the bread baking craze that’s swept the nation, I do find myself craving carbs – pastas (preferably somewhat creamy ones), potato salad, and very often, buttery home fries – and fats, so I top the fries with a big dollop of sour cream to accompany the cheesy frittatas I also find myself craving.

While I have nothing against the fancier new potatoes – Yukon Golds, Fingerlings or Dutch baby potatoes, either oven or pan roasted in olive oil, those are great, too – these home fries are the old fashioned variety I ate so many of in corner Greek coffee shops in New York City, made with russet potatoes – and slightly caramelized onions, cooked in butter – lots of butter. Serious comfort food.

They were always a favorite at the yearly post-Thanksgiving brunch I catered for years – generally the first thing the hostess made sure to add to the menu. I would prep the potatoes ahead of time, and my sous-chef, Rob, would finish them off á point. Rob would throw in an extra hefty amount of butter that made me cringe a bit the first time I saw him do it, but hey – that’s what made them such a fav, so who am I to argue with success?

Old Fashioned Home Fries

Yield: 3-4 servings

• 1 1/2 pounds russet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
• 2/3 cups onion, large dice
• @2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 4-5 tablespoons unsalted butter
• Lawry’s Coarse Ground Garlic Salt With Parsley, 33 Oz*
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Sour Cream and freshly snipped chives and parsley, to garnish

1. Boil the potatoes in well salted water until tender.
2. While the potatoes are boiling, using a large pan, sauté the onions in the vegetable oil and a tablespoon or so of the butter, until they begin to very lightly brown. Sprinkle them liberally with the freshly ground pepper as they cook.
3. When the potatoes are tender, drain them, and add them to the onions, along with the remaining butter, and sprinkle liberally with the coarse garlic salt. You may need to do this in two batches if your pan is not big enough. It’s important that the potatoes have enough room to brown rather than steam. This is the moment, btw, when Rob would throw in that extra hunk of butter.
4. Let the potatoes cook until they develop a slight brown “skin” on the bottom. Scraping up the bits of brown from the pan, turn them over with a wide spatula and brown the other side.
5. Top with a dollop of sour cream and the snipped chives and parsley. Enjoy!

*I’ve been criticized in some “elite” food circles for using this product rather than fresh garlic, but it just works really well, when fresh garlic wouldn’t. I say so much for elitist…