Two Potato Gratin

This is a super yummy holiday side dish!  This crowd pleaser is a bit more gourmet than a regular potato cheese dish, and adds a festive flair to your holiday feast. 

I made this recipe for the first time at least nine years ago.  The original recipe called for a crust, and then we realized it didn't really need one.  So, I revised the recipe a bit and now share it for you to enjoy!

Two Potato Gratin

1 Garlic clove minced
1 T. Fresh Rosemary (or 1 tsp. dried)
1 1/2 lbs Sweet Potatoes
1 1/2 Yukon gold potatoes
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
2 c. Gruyere cheese (divided)
2/3 c. Heavy cream


1.  Peel and thinly slice the potatoes.  We use our mandolin to get even slices. (Make sure you use the guard so you don't lose a finger tip...)

2. Place the potatoes into a greased 9-10 inch round pan, or 9x13 pan.  I place them in a pan by alternating every other type.  For a round pan, I make a round design.  For a rectangular pan, you can do one row of potatoes in one direction, the next row lying the opposite direction, and so on. 

3. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

4.  Roughly mince the fresh rosemary.  Or, if using dried - I usually put the dried in my hand and crush it up with my fingers. 

5.  Sprinkle the salt, pepper, and rosemary evenly over the potatoes.  (Honestly, I don't really measure. So, you can play it by ear a bit here.)  Sprinkle with 1 cup of the cheese.

6.  Microwave cream and garlic together on high just until boiling. Pour over the potatoes and cheese. 

7. Sprinkle with remaining cup of cheese. 

8.  Cover with aluminum foil.

9.  Bake for one hour.  Uncover and bake for 25 minutes or until the potatoes are done.  Check the potatoes at 45 minutes, if they are already soft, uncover and bake until the top is a light golden brown.

10. Enjoy!!

Cranberry Mousse Jello

My mom used to make some kind of fluffy cranberry jello recipe for some holidays.  Since she isn't around to ask, I've been trying to figure out what comes closest to her recipe!  This is pretty close I think, though not exact... This recipe calls for nutmeg, which I will omit the next time I make it.  Though, it gives it a holidays kind of taste, I don't like it in this recipe.  This recipe calls for pecans, which I also leave out.  

I use my Tupperware jello mold and it comes out great!  I made this for Thanksgiving, but it could also make an appearance at a Christmas dinner as well. 

Cranberry Mousse Recipe
Recipe from Here

• 1 package (6 ounces) strawberry gelatin
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1 can (20 ounces) crushed pineapple
• 1 can (14 ounces) whole-berry cranberry sauce
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
• 2 cups (16 ounces) sour cream

Directions 

In a large bowl, dissolve gelatin in boiling water. Drain pineapple, setting the pineapple aside and adding juice to gelatin. Stir in cranberry sauce, lemon juice and peel. Chill until mixture thickens. Fold in sour cream and pineapple. Pour into a glass serving bowl or an oiled 9-cup mold. Chill until set, at least 2 hours. Yield: 16-20 servings.

Southern Mac & Cheese

I found this recipe for John Legend's macaroni and cheese on Pinterest.  Apparently he not only sings, but makes great mac & cheese!

This macaroni and cheese was definitely southern style.  This is the kind of mac and cheese you find served in a southern BBQ place.  I usually make a smooth, creamy macaroni and cheese, so my kids approached this mac and cheese very tentatively.  Trevan said it was weird, but that it tasted good... It did taste good, it had a great flavor!!! 

I halfed the recipe because I only had one can of evaporated milk.  But, instead of halfing the noodles, I used two cups.  So, if I actually make the full recipe I will use 4 cups of noodles instead of 3. 

Also, I prefer soft noodles, so I would bake this covered and then uncover it the last few minutes. 

John Legend's Mac & Cheese Recipe

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, plus more for baking dish
• Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
• 3 cups elbow macaroni
• 2 (12-ounce) cans evaporated milk
• 1/3 cup skim milk
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 2 (8-ounce) packages extra-sharp cheddar cheese, grated
• 1 (8-ounce) package Monterey Jack cheese, grated
• Paprika, for sprinkling

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Generously butter a 13-by-9-inch glass baking dish; set aside. Bring a large pot of water to a boil; add salt and macaroni. Cook until al dente according to package directions. Drain, and return to pot. Add butter, and toss until pasta is coated and butter has melted; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together evaporated milk, skim milk, and eggs. Add seasoned salt, garlic powder, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper; set aside. In another medium bowl, combine cheeses; set aside.
3. Place 1/3 macaroni in an even layer in the bottom of prepared baking dish; cover evenly with 1/3 cheese. Repeat with remaining macaroni and cheese mixture. Pour milk mixture evenly over contents of baking dish. Sprinkle with paprika. Bake until top layer is lightly browned, 35 to 45 minutes. Let stand 10 to 15 minutes before serving

Honey Garlic Chicken

My neighbor came over one night to borrow some soy sauce for the recipe she was making and I asked what she was cooking.  She told me and said she had recently pinned it, so I looked it up almost as soon as she left, I pinned it, and we made it for dinner the next night because I had all the ingredients on hand. 

The picture of the original recipe, found HERE, is much lighter than how mine turned out, and I don't know how because the soy sauce darkened mine so much...  My sous chef (John) didn't flatten the chicken quite enough, so mine took a little longer to cook. 

I did change the recipe a bit, because it used much more flour, egg, etc. than needed for four chicken breasts, but if you want to double the recipe look back to the original (or just double this...). 

This was super flavorful, John loved it, but my kids did not... I served them with these roasted carrots from pinterest because the flavors seemed like they would go nicely with the chicken.  The recipe apparently came from this blog, but I couldn't find it on her blog, lucky for me someone put the recipe on the pin.  I'll include it below.  We really liked the carrots! 

Honey Garlic Crunch Chicken Recipe

4 large boneless chicken breasts

Place the chicken breasts between 2 sheets of plastic wrap and using a meat mallet, pound the meat to an even 1/2 inch thickness.

Sift together:

1 cup flour
2 tsp salt
2 tsp black pepper
1.5 tbsp ground ginger
1 tbsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground thyme
1 tsp ground sage
1 tbsp paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Make an egg wash by whisking together:

2 eggs
4 tbsp water

Honey Garlic Sauce:
In a medium saucepan add

2 tbsp olive oil
3 – 4 cloves minced garlic

Cook over medium heat to soften the garlic but do not let it brown. Add:

1 cup honey
¼ cup soy sauce (I use low sodium)
1 tsp ground black pepper

Simmer together for 5-10 minutes, remove from heat and allow to cool for a few minutes. Watch this carefully as it simmers because it can foam up over the pot very easily.
1.  Make sauce and set aside.  Put your rice in a rice cooker (or whatever your preferred method.) I like to have these started before my chicken is done. 

2.  Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper, then dip the meat in the flour and spice mixture. Dip the breast into the egg wash and then a final time into the flour and spice mix, pressing the mix into the meat to get good contact.

3.  Heat a skillet on the stove with about a half inch of canola oil covering the bottom. You will want to carefully regulate the temperature here so that the chicken does not brown too quickly. The thinness of the breast meat practically guarantees that it will be fully cooked by the time the outside is browned. I find just below medium heat works well. I use a burner setting of about 4 1/2 out of 10 on the dial and fry them gently for about 4 or 5 minutes per side until golden brown and crispy.

4.  Drain on a wire rack for a couple of minutes before dipping the cooked breasts into the Honey Garlic Sauce. Serve with noodles or rice.

 

 

Honey & Balsamic Roasted Carrots Recipe

 

1.  Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

 

2.  I put almost a whole small bag of baby carrots in a ziplock bag and drizzled a little bit of olive oil and sea salt over them and shook them up.  

 

3.  Roast for about 15-20 minutes. 

 

4.  Then drizzle with about 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 3 tablespoons of honey, and about 1 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar. 

 

5.  Pop them back into the oven for about 5 more minutes to achieve sweet, salty, still slightly crunchy perfection!

Yummy Baked Potatoes

These were simply delightful.  I didn't take a picture of the prettiest ones though...  They are so pretty!  Great side to have instead of a regular baked potato!

Baked Potato Fans

Recipe from HERE

6 Medium Size Potatoes
2 - 3 Cloves Garlic, thinly sliced 
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
2 Tbsp Butter

Sea Salt
Freshly Ground Black Pepper


Preheat the oven to 425˚ Put the potato on a chopping board, flat side down. (A tip from the blogger who posted this recipe:  Put the potato on the spoon part of a wooden spoon to cut your potato to help you not cut through the potato.)  Start from one end of the potato, cut almost all the way through, at about 3 to 4 mm intervals.

Arrange the potatoes in a baking tray and insert the garlic in between the slits. (I used garlic powder, I had planned on mincing my garlic and mixing it with the butter, but got lazy.  That's what I'll do next time.)  Use a pastry brush and brush some butter on top of each potato. Then drizzle the olive oil and sprinkle some sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Bake the potatoes for about 40 minutes or until the potatoes turn crispy and the flesh is soft



Pinterest Post - Asparagus

A friend pinned an asparagus recipe she had tried, so I thought I'd try it too since I got this asparagus for 1.49 a bunch!!  Not a pound! Awesome!

Anyway, I really liked this recipe, but John thought is was to vinegar-y, you can decide...

Asparagus with Dijon Vinaigrette

recipe from HERE

1 tsp. Dijon mustard

1 1/2 T. red wine vinegar

1 T. Extra virgin olive oil

1 T. fresh chopped parsley

salt and pepper to taste

1 pound thin asparagus, tough ends chopped off

In a small bowl, whisk mustard, vinegar and 1 tbsp oil. Add parsley and season with salt and pepper

Steam or boil asparagus for 3 - 5 minutes until cooked and tender. Drain and run under cold water to stop the cooking.  Transfer asparagus to a serving dish and drizzle with the vinaigrette. Can be served warm or chilled.

Potato Gratin with Rosemary

I tried another new recipe from this month's Southern Living magazine. I was very unsure how this would turn out, but I thought it was super yummy. Though, next time I'll work on a few things to make it look prettier.

It is a potato gratin with rosemary crust using gruyere cheese - see recipe and pictures HERE.

A few adjustments to the recipe:

1. It says to bake it at 450 degrees - that is just way too high - it burnt my crust. Next time I'll cook it at a lower temperature but for longer.

2. 3 pounds of potatoes did not fit in my 9 inch springform pan. I wasn't able to use one whole sweet potato.

3. I didn't microwave the cream.

4. I think this would be delicious without the crust as well, just mix the rosemary and extra cheese in with the potatoes. Even prettier if baked in a pyrex so you can see the layers to the potatoes.



I was worried there wasn't going to be enough liquid, but I stuck to the recipe and it was great.

It's like a sophisticated au gratin potatoes - love it!