Scalloped Potato Gratin

Our first Christmas dinner was frozen lasagna courtesy of limited cooking in a condo. Our second Christmas dinner was ham this past Tuesday. We normally have broccoli and scalloped corn but Dan wanted to have scalloped potatoes too. I hadn't made them in years and luckily I actually had a recipe in my box (which means we've tried and liked it). These were really easy to make.

Scalloped Potato Gratin
recipe courtesy of Tyler Florence

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 sprig fresh thyme (I used about 1/4 tsp dried thyme)
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Butter (I sprayed the pan with cooking spray)
2 pounds russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/8-inch thick slices (I actually didn't even use this much)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup grated Parmesan, plus more for broiling

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

In a saucepan, heat up the cream with a sprig of thyme, chopped garlic and nutmeg.

While cream is heating up, butter a casserole dish. Place a layer of potato in an overlapping pattern and season with salt and pepper. Remove cream from heat, then pour a little over the potatoes. Top with some grated Parmesan. Make 2 more layers. Bake, uncovered, for 45 minutes. Sprinkle some more Parmesan and broil until cheese browns, about 5 minutes.

So I got busy and the cream sort of bubbled up much more than it was supposed to when heating. And I added an extra layer of potatoes because I think my dish was smaller than the one he used. And I didn't sprinkle extra cheese on top and broil because we were already pretty brown when I pulled them out after 40 minutes.

But it was super tasty. Nothing like a good warm heavy cream dish with nutmeg to make anything taste good.

This is what half of it looks like after we ate

Potato Salad

Warmer weather means one thing...eating food that isn't baked. So of course we made hamburgers this weekend. Not grilled them but on the George Foreman grill and stuffed with velveeta. Our version of a Juicy Lucy. We saw this on an episode of Man vs. Food and continue to try and make it at home. And along with the burgers, Whitney wanted potato salad. She decided during the school year that she liked red potatoes with the skins on. Thank goodness to expand her horizons instead of just russets. Dan has always liked potato salad made with red potatoes so every body was happy.

This was the first time that I did everything for the salad. Normally I'm the egg cooker and then Dan handles the potatoes and sauce. But he was busy putting the new lawn mower together and mowing the yard before it rained so I took over. It turned out perfect. We used to make it with diced onions but a friend didn't like it but loved the salad. Now we've made it so much without the onions I don't ever want to add them back in.

Potato Salad - An Original Recipe

2# red potatoes steamed
4 hard boiled eggs
1 1/4 cups mayonaise
1/3 cup dill relish 2 tsp. vinegar
2 tsp. prepared mustard
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. celery seed
2 tsp. sugar

Make sure your potatoes have cooled before trying to cut them or they will fall apart. (lesson learned on first potato) Mix the sauce ingredients separately and slowly add it in while you are cutting the potatoes. That helps spread the sauce around evenly. Refrigerate for several hours before serving so the flavors can meld together.