Sunday, April 20, 2014

A Bag of Taters And Craving To Cure



I love, love, love au gratin potatoes and rarely treat myself. I'm the only one in the house that will eat 'em so I don't bother making them. I've got a ham that needs to get eat'n up and what better thing to go with ham than some good cheesy potatoes! I've got myself a craving. And a big ol' bag of red taters. And I got me some cheese.  I'm gonna treat myself.

When I've made au gratin potatoes in the past I've used the dreaded canned soups. I've been trying my dangdest to quit using those but I've gotta admit, they can come in handy on occasion. I just don't make a habit out of it. But this recipe, I'm proud to say, does not use that awful canned stuff.

So....since this recipe used nothing but wholesome yummy ingredients, all of which I had in my cupboard or refrigerator I gave it a go and haven't looked back since. Mmmmm.... Let's get cookin'....



Steak House Au Gratin Potatoes

2 tablespoon butter

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 large red potatoes, sliced on a mandolin 1/4" thick
1 small onion, sliced 1/4" thick or so
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup 2% reduced-fat milk
salt and black pepper to taste
2 cups grated Sharp Cheddar cheese, reserving 1/2 cup to add towards end of cooking

Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F. Grease one 11 x 7 inch baking pan with butter. Layer potatoes and onion evenly in the pan.

In a heavy saucepan, melt butter over medium heat, stir in garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Add flour and whisk together until smooth; continue to whisk and cook for one minute. Reduce heat to low and stir in heavy cream, milk, salt and pepper. Cook over low heat until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Add in the 1-1/2 cups cheese (1/2 cup at a time) and stir until melted. Pour cream mixture over the potatoes. Cover with foil.

Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, then remove the foil. Continue baking until the potatoes are easily pierced with a fork, about 40 minutes. Remove potatoes from the oven and sprinkle remaining cheese on top. Return to oven and bake until the cheese is melted and potatoes start to brown, about 10-15 minutes. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before serving. Potatoes will thicken more while cooling.

These are so delicious! I almost ate the whole pan myself. Then I remembered I'd hate myself, so I quit. I will be thankful at lunch tomorrow :)

I found the original recipe at Allrecipes.com and tweaked slightly to my cooking style and to my tastes.

Friday, April 18, 2014

Popcorn and Pretzel Sweet Snack Mix

I love a sweet salty snack and if it has nuts I'm all over it.  If you're a popcorn lover you're gonna love this! This is so easy and tasty you'll have to make more than one batch.

The crunch of fresh popped popcorn combined with the creaminess of sweet white chocolate with a hint of cinnamon, the crunch of toasted almonds, saltiness of crisp pretzels and the sweetness of dried blueberries and cranberries all combined together make this snack out of this world. I found a bag of dried blueberries at Costco and just had to have them. I love them more than raisins. I thought they would go good with this popcorn and I was right! Lets get poppin'.


Popcorn and Pretzel Sweet Snack Mix

4 cups freshly popped plain popcorn
2 cups mini pretzels
1 cup pan roasted sliced or chopped almonds
1/2 cup dried blueberries

1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 (12 oz.) pkg. premium white baking morsels (look for the brands made with real cocoa butter)
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Line a 15" x 10" x  1" baking pan with a sheet of Reynolds(R) Parchment Paper; set aside.

Pour popcorn, pretzels, almonds and dried blueberries and cranberries into large bowl. Discard un-popped popcorn kernels.

Melt white morsels according to package directions. Stir in cinnamon; pour over popcorn and pretzels. Toss to evenly coat.

Spread evenly on parchment lined tray. Refrigerate to harden, about 1 hour. Break apart large pieces. Store in airtight container.


You may just want to make two batches of this. One for you and one to share. Because, trust me, one bite and you'll be hooked! Enjoy!

My twist on a recipe found on Allrecipes.com

Critter's and Cookies - Rolled Sugar Cookies

I promised on my last Who Let That Kitchen Gremlin In? blog post to share the Reynolds® sponsored recipe involving cookies and critters. Well...I kinda fibbed. There really are not critters to talk about unless you count these cute little cookie chicks. Aren't they the cutest little critters you've ever seen? 

I got the chance to work with Reynolds® parchment paper and boy did it sure help in rolling these cookies out. Putting the dough between flour dusted parchment paper and rolling them with a rolling pin was the cat's meow...or should I say the chick's chirp?

Let's get onto the recipe -


Rolled Sugar Cookies

Reynolds® Parchment Paper
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in large bowl; set aside.

Beat butter and sugar with electric mixer until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in egg yolks and vanilla. Gradually add flour mixture and combine.

Wrap dough in parchment paper and place in zip style bag; refrigerate until chilled, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line cookie sheets with Reynolds(R) Parchment Paper; set aside.

Roll out dough 1/8" thick between 2 lightly floured sheets of parchment paper. Cut dough with 2" cookie cutters. Place dough on parchment-lined cookie sheets.

Bake 6 to 8 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned on edges. Slide parchment paper with cookies onto cooling rack; cool.

Decorate as desired. I used the Royal Icing recipe below.

Royal Icing

3 tablespoons Meringue Powder
4 cups confectioners' sugar approx. 1 lb. box)

6 tablespoons warm water

Beat all ingredients with a hand mixer on high speed until icing forms peaks, approx. 10 minutes.

Tint with your favorite food coloring. 

No live critters were hurt during the making of these cookies. 

The original cookie recipe can be found on Allrecipes.com 

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Who Let That Kitchen Gremlin In?

When I cook or bake sometimes I put my all into it. What I mean by my all is all my dishes, all my utensils and all the pots and pans I own.

I'll look around my kitchen when I'm done & wonder what gremlin made this mess and who let him in. Then I start looking for the kitchen fairy I am certain must have slipped in behind that little gremlin and is waiting in the wings to clean up his mess.

Unfortunately that gremlin and kitchen fairy is me ... all me! Talk about wearing many hats in the family!

For those who know me know that I love to take pictures of my food. All the food on this blog are made and photographed by yours truly. What you don't know about is what kitchen messes I shove aside to find a clean spot in order to photograph that yummy dish after I'm done cooking. It's a sickness I tell ya. But a good sickness.

Many times, to help ease the stress of messy cleanups, I will turn to Reynolds products. 


One of my all time favorites is their parchment paper. I turn to parchment for many uses. Here are some of the ways I've put it to use - 

I've experimented with making a pizza using cauliflower for the crust . The parchment paper worked great allowing me to form my crust right on my baking sheet. Um...this is half of a pizza - the other half is history. Yum!


Just form parchment paper into a cone and it makes a neat fry holder for my zucchini fries.  These are baked and not fried and use almond flour. I DO try to eat healthy occasionally. Notice I put the zucchini and the cauliflower before the fattening...er yummy stuff!


Using parchment paper allowed me to not have to look for my napkins to put under my cookies ;)  This recipe will be featured in a future post. So yummy!


And it made for some interesting entertainment while I watched my hubby craft a nice parchment paper sack for this project. I said "Honey, I need something creative for this popcorn photo I want to take. Can you make me a bag?" His response - "Sure darling, I'm on it!" He did great! Can you even buy a parchment bag?

But a fun idea I had for using parchment paper came when I was working on a project for Zappos and Allrecipes. I needed to prepare, photograph and review a recipe for Jell-O Fruit Tarts. I always try to think of creative ways to photograph my food. Racking my brain for ideas, I remembered how the paper in my cauliflower pizza experiment had browned in the oven. Aha! So......

Jell-O Patriotic Mini Fruit Tarts
I baked some parchment paper in a hot oven until it turned brown. Tore it into pieces and here we have a creative way to use parchment paper! But just so you know, baked parchment paper does not taste good. 

So needless to say I find many uses for parchment paper and 

 Click on their logo to go to ReynoldsKichens.com

 I dearly love Reynolds products. I also use their non-stick foil which is a dream, slow-cooker bags, turkey oven bags, wax paper and baking cups. 

So even when that kitchen gremlin makes his appearance and the kitchen fairy is nowhere to be found, I can always count on Reynolds products to help make clean-up a breeze!


I'll be sure to share a recipe that Reynold's sponsored in a future post. Stay tuned .... it involves the cookies above and critters.

Check out more delicious recipes on the  Reynold's  website or their facebook page Reynold's Kitchen.

I participated in a campaign on behalf of Reynolds Kitchens. I received a sample to facilitate my review as well as a promotional item as a thank-you for participating.


#AllstarsReynolds  #MealMagic