Scalloped Potatoes

 

I know that Amy at work, she isn't a big fan of scalloped potatoes

Not everyone is

Especially kids when the hear onions are in this

Kids just get it into their head

They don't like onions

But cut up those onions

Slice and dice

Make them really small so the kids can't see them

Peel and wash your potatoes

I got 7 here, a few were small

Using a mandolin, slice the potatoes

Be careful

Mandolins don't know the difference 

between your fingers or a potatoe

All sliced up, now put them soak in cold water

I like Chianti.

No.  It isn't for the recipe.

It's for the cook.

Fry up the onions in the butter

Add flour and create a rue

Add the milk, about a 1/2 cup at a time

Add the cheese, bacon bits, salt and pepper

Spray your oven safe casserole dish with Pam cooking spray

Layer, potatoes, cheese mix, potatoes, cheese mix

Into a dirty oven

375 F for 75 minutes

Ingredients

6 Potatoes

4 Tablespoons of Butter (Divided)

3 Tablespoons of Flour

1 Teaspoon Salt

¼ Teaspoon of Pepper

2 ½ Cups of Milk

1 Onion

¾ Cup Cheddar Cheese (Shredded)

1/3 cup Bacon Bits

Stuff you will need

Mandolin (Or patience to slice each potatoe to uniform thickness)

1 x sauce Pot

1 x oven safe casserole dish

Directions

Pre-heat the oven to 375 F.

Peel the potatoes.  Using a mandolin, cut the potatoes into slices.  Let soak in cold water.

Melt 3 tablespoons of butter in a pot and fry up the onion at medium heat.

Add the flour and continue to cook the onions till you can’t smell the flour any longer.  (When you are making a rue, there is a smell of fried flour)

Add the milk a ½ cup at a time.  Continue to mix.  Add the cheese, bacon bits salt and pepper.  Continue to stir till the cheese is melted.

In an oven proof casserole dish, spray with Pam Cooking Spray.  Then layer, potatoe, cheese mix, potatoe, cheese mix.

For added flare, I topped it with bread crumbs.

Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Comments and suggestions are ALWAYS welcome

Potatoe Salad

Potatoe Salad

We don't just eat with our mouth, we also eat with our eyes too.

Dress up your Salad with these little egg chicks and watch your friends and family devour your potatoe salad.

Ingredients

6 medium to large Potatoes

12 eggs

1 Cup Mayonnaise (Or Miracle Whip) divided

Pepper corns and a carrot

1 tsp salt, divided

1 tsp baking soda

Sprinkle of Paprika

Stuff you will need

Two pots

Water

Cutting Board

Piping bag

Directions

To the first pot, add 1/2 the salt.  Peel, then 1/4 the potatoes and boil them till they can be penetrated with a fork without resistance.  (Yes, Resistance is futile, I knew I could get a Star Trek saying in here somewhere)

To the second pot, add 1/2 the salt and baking soda.  Adding baking soda to the water makes them easier to peel.  Boil your eggs.  Make sure they are hard boiled.  Rolling boil for at least 5 minutes.

Drain the potatoes and let cool.  This is a good time to peel those eggs.

Put about 6 eggs in with the potatoes and mash them up.  No lumps.  If you have a potatoe ricer, get one, there is no lumps at all.  I got one that my Mum bought me.  Wonderful!  Tonya uses it all the time.

Add about 3/4 cup of mayonnaise and mix it up.  I personally prefer Mayonnaise, but remember, you are making this for your guests.  If they are like Tonya's family, they like Miracle Whip.  I made this once and they all commented, it would have been better if I would have used Miracle Whip.

Put into a serving dish.  Sprinkle the top with Paprika.  This really isn't because you are adding taste, just because you are making it more appealing to the eye.

For the egg chicks, cut one end off the egg, about 3/4 of the way, and push out the egg yolk.  Add the remaining Mayonnaise and mix it up.  Put this into a piping bag and pipe it back into the egg white "bottom".  Put the egg "top" back on.  Insert a cut carrot for the nose and two pepper corns for the eyes.

Scoop out an eggs sized hole in the potatoe salad, eat it, you now have a spot to put your egg chicks.

As always, comments and suggestions are ALWAYS welcome

Poutine Rapee

Poutine Rapee

The ratio of potato used is 2 part finely-grated raw potato to 1 part plain (no butter or milk) cooked, mashed potato. As you would for potato pancakes, you have to squeeze as much water out of the grated potato as you can. You then mix the squeezed grated potato with the mashed, and season with salt and pepper. 

You scoop up a handful of the potato mixture, and fold it around a tablespoonful of diced salt pork which has been soaked overnight in water, then mould it all into a ball so that the pork is enclosed in the centre. You roll the ball in flour, then put it into simmering salted water to cook for anywhere from 2 to 2 1/2 hours. 

I can remember the first time I was "subjected" to poutine.  I was sailing on HMCS Nipigon and we had docked at Sorel Quebec, this is where the ship was built.  Joe Deighton said that we were going to go to McDonalds for Poutine.  Turns out, it wasn't the the Acadian version on Poutine Rapee.

Dad loved the Poutine Rapee.  Me, well, I wasn't quite as fond of them as he was.  I would normally put a lot of sugar on them to add more taste to them.

Ingredients

1 lb fatty salt pork
10 potatoes
4 potatoes (cooked, mashed and seasoned with salt and pepper)

Preparation:

1. Soak the salted pork in cold water overnight to remove the excess salt.
2. Cut into cubes.
3. Grate the uncooked potatoes and extract the water from them by squeezing them in a cloth.
4. Mix the grated potatoes with the mashed, seasoned potatoes, adding more seasoning if necessary.
5. Make a hole in the centre of the potato ball with your thumb and add a tablespoon of the salted pork.
6. Close up the hole and roll the poutine in white flour and gently lower the poutine into a large pot of boiling,salted water.
7. Keep the water boiling and simmer the poutines for 2-3 hours.
8. Serve hot with butter, salt and pepper, or as a dessert with sugar and molasses.

The Best Home Made Cast Iron Hash Browns

The Best Home Made Cast Iron Hash Browns

Good morning fellow cooks and and breakfast enthusiasts.  Every Sunday, Tonya and I will make a "biggie breakfast".  Today, I made home made hash browns, scrambled eggs and fried bologna.

Ingredients

2 potatoes

1 egg

1 onion

Salt and Pepper (to taste)

1 tablespoon of butter

1/4 cup Crisco Oil (lard)

Stuff you will need

Microwave Oven

Mixing bowl

Cast Iron Skillet (I used my Lagostina 14 inch)

Directions

Microwave your potatoes so that they are cooked. So if it has a "Baked Potatoe" setting, use that.

Let the potatoes cool.  You will be handling them soon enough and you don't want to be burning your hands.  

Once the potatoes are cool enough, cut them in half and use a spoon to scoop out the potatoe into a mixing bowl.

Dice up your onions and add that to the potatoes.  Add you egg, butter, salt and pepper and mix it up.

Heat up your Cast Iron Skillet.  Only turn it up to medium.  Once the skillet is smoking, put a couple drops of olive oil in the skillet and using a paper towel, cover the pan with the oil.  The video will show what I mean.  Make sure to do the sides as well.  

Put in the Crisco Oil.  Once the Crisco has melted, add the hash browns.  It will take about 20 minutes.  Turn the hash browns often, otherwise, you will burn them.  Once you have a golden brown texture to the hash browns, plate them up and serve hot.  

Tonya likes to put ketchup on her hash browns.

Here is the video I made this morning.

If you find that the video isn't working, click on the "YouTube" icon in the lower right of the video feed.  I would ask that while you are looking at the video, you click to subscribe to my YouTube Channel.  Also, click the "Thumbs Up" icon to share this video with your friends.

As always, comments and suggestions are ALWAYS welcome