we believe in exopat!

Today, I am going to write about one of my very favorite cooking items. I cannot believe the amount of enthusiasm that I am able to muster for a kitchen utensil. It makes me feel sorta boring. In fact, this may be the most boring blog entry ever. But if so, then at least I went ahead and got it out of the way. Now I can go ahead and write about other boring things without fear. After all, they can't be more boring than this.

This kitchen item is always dirty. That's because I use it all the time and also because I'm a crappy housekeeper. It is a powerful baking tool, and is useful in the preparation of many kinds of foods. It also has a great super-hero type name, and I wrote a song for it.

EXOPAT!

Exopat!
Exopat!
Exopat is lots of fun!
It is made of silicon!
We believe in Exopat!

If you don't have one of these nifty little mats, then I pity you. Not only do your cookies stick to the cookie sheet, you can't sing the song. What joy is in your life? We bake pizza, french fries, bread, and cookies on the Exopat. It as versitile as it is musical. We make pizza at least once a week, and fries might be made every other day. Our Exopat gets lots of use. Sometimes they go on sale on Amazon. Yes, they look expensive when you could just use aluminum foil. But considering other items made of silicon that cost much more and don't improve your cookie-baking at all, I think it's well worth it.

Last weekend, Josh and I were at my mother's house and we wanted to make french fries. I knew Mama had an Exopat and so I went about searching for it. I looked in a cabinet and found the beloved baking sheet. But when I pulled it out, I noticed - what's this? - it was torn! I screamed and fainted at the sight of the gory wound. To see a beautiful Exopat cut down in its prime, when it had many more cookies left to bake evenly without sticking! Poor Exopat!

For an example of what to do with your Exopat, here is our French Fry recipe. I mentioned it before, then had to give it to two people because I hadn't posted it. So here.

French Fries
Adapted from Allrecipes

1 large baking potato
1 T olive oil
1/2 t paprika
1/2 t garlic powder
1/2 t chili powder
1/2 t onion power
1/4 t cayenne pepper

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
2. Cut potato into fries. You can make them as big as you want, but you may need to up the temperature if you do so. You can peel them, but then you'd be missing some potato nutrients. Sing "My Name is Potato" while cutting.
3. Take a Ziploc bag and put in oil and spices. Add potato pieces. CLOSE THE BAG, and then shake it all over the place. You may still sing "My Name is Potato" and dance while doing this.
4. Look for your EXOPAT! Realize it's dirty from pizza yesterday. Wash it and put it on a cookie sheet. Sing the Exopat song.
5. Throw your delicious seasoned potatoes onto the Exopat. Spread them out in nice even rows if you're particular about things like that.
6. Bake in oven for 20 minutes. Take fries out, flip them over and put them back in oven. Bake for another 15 minutes.

We dip these in homemade ranch dressing while we thank the heavens for Exopat.