Creamy Garlic Potatoes - Gratin Style

I love gratins.  Simply put, but they are so easy to change and as long as your combinations take into consideration how thick it is, how much fat there is and liquid as well, you can make nearly anything into a gratin of sorts.  I first remember eating gratins when I was a child.  My mom called them scalloped potatoes, but I later learned of them as gratins.  My mom used to make scalloped potatoes with ham chunks in them.  I used to search for the crunchy top and the little chunks of ham.  I loved the while dish, but those two things made eating the scalloped potatoes so much more fun and interesting.  She also served them piping hot.  To this day food and drinks are not hot enough if I am unable to burn my tongue on them.  Of course I let them cool down, but I can stand quite a high temperature and those first few bites aren't always about the taste, but about the heat.

Later I remember making gratin potatoes when I lived in Germany.  I was visiting a friend of a friend and she was making them for dinner.  I helped out and remember the oodles of cheese and cream which were added to the potatoes with a touch of nutmeg.  It was such an interesting place to cook as it was an old farmhouse, heated with fire burning stoves.  The kitchen was huge, but had few work spaces, so the kitchen table became the place to put everything together, which made for a very social area for chatting while helping to cook.

So with those memories in mind, this gratin tends to be quite sweet with all the cream that is used.  The garlic also sweetens up in the roasting, so I would recommend a bit of cheese on top as the salt helps balance everything out.

Creamy Garlic Potatoes - Gratin Style

(based on Cook in a class of your own by Richard Bertinet)

8 medium potatoes

5 cloves garlic

parsley

4 tablespoon olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

2 cups heavy cream

sharp cheddar (shredded for sprinkling on top)

Preheat oven to 400F.  Use a mandoline and thinly cut all the potatoes.  Press or chop the garlic.  Chop the parsley.  Heat olive oil in a sauce pan.  Once hot add the potato slices and make sure all are tossed with olive oil.  Season with salt and pepper.  Once coated in oil, add the garlic and pour in cream to cover the potatoes.  Let thicken over low heat for about 5 minutes.  Stir in the parsley and place into a large baking dish.  (I used my oven roasting pan as I like a thin layer so the potatoes cook quicker, but you can use any size.)  Bake until golden brown.  Remove from oven and sprinkle cheese over the top.  Return to oven for a few minutes to melt the cheese.  Remove from oven and let cook for a few minutes before serving as everything should be very hot.

Spinach Quiche

I was baking so much the past few weeks, so I needed a break from all the sweet stuff and have added some savory recipes to balance out all of the high sugar content recipes.  Recently, I have been craving some nice greens.  Therefore, I went out and bought some spinach with is useful in so many ways.  It is such a versatile green that it is delicious eaten raw, but equally delicious chopped up and cooked.  This recipe is from my family in New Zealand.  It was one of the first things I learned to make when I was there, and I still go back to it when I am craving a piece of spinach quiche.

Spinach Quiche

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Crust:

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

pinch of salt

4 tablespoons cold butter

ice cold water

Mix dry ingredients and then rub in the butter.  Add cold water by the tablespoon until dough comes together.  Roll out dough and place in a pie or quiche plate.

Filling:

4 eggs

salt and pepper to taste

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (less if you want the flavor more subtle)

3/4 cup milk

1/2 large onion

spinach to taste, though at least 1.5 ounces

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

In a food processor with the cutting blade place the eggs, salt and pepper, nutmeg and milk.  Blend in and add the onion and spinach leaves.  Finally, mix in the grated cheese.  Pour the filling into the pie plate.  Place in oven for about 45 minutes or until gently set.  (It should not be liquid in the middle so judge the time based on how wiggly the middle is.)

Makes one pie plate (about 8 servings)

Red Bean, Tomato and Beef Chili

There are as many types of chili out there as you can possibly think of to make.  Actually, I went to a chili cook-off this year and I was quite surprised at some of the combinations people used to make chili.  This basic red chili started from a recipe a friend gave me.  I never made red chili often as my husband loves my white chicken chili.  I was never very thrilled to make this recipe as I thought just throwing stuff in a pot wasn't all that great and the flavors weren't coming through like they should.  Since then I have made this chili and started to change things up to it is more to what I like in chilli.  The flavors have started to come out which has turned this chili from a bland, canned chili to one much more outstanding.  I think I will continue to tinker with this recipe until it has the perfect union of spice, bean and meat.

Red Bean, Tomato and Beef Chili

1 pound ground beef

2-3 cloves minced or finely chopped garlic

3 teaspoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon chipotle pepper powder

1/2 teaspoon spicy Hungarian paprika

1/2 teaspoon ground pepper

1 15 oz. can red kidney beans (drained)

1 15 oz. can pink kidney beans (drained)

1 14 oz can diced tomatoes with celery, onions and green pepper

1 10 oz. can tomatoes with green chiles

12 oz. tomato paste

2 cups water (more if too thick)

Brown hamburger with cumin and minced garlic.  Once browned drained the fat and add to a stock pot.  Add the 5 canned ingredients, 2 cups water and additional spices to the stock pot.  Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat to low.  Let simmer for at least 30 minutes over low heat, though this is better the longer it has to simmer as the flavors will come together better.  Serve with corn bread or corn chips.

Peanut Butter Kisses

As you probably can imagine, this recipe gets it's name from the lovely combination of a peanut butter cookie topped with a Hersey Kiss.  These are also a simple cookie to put together.  I think the longest most laborious part of these cookies are unwrapping the Hershey kisses to place on the top.  Of course you could also just pipe some chocolate on top, but I like the way the chocolate kiss just melts slightly as they are baking.  These beautiful little cookies are just a nice Christmas twist on your typical peanut butter cookie.

Before baking...sugar coated and a Hershey kiss on top.

 Fresh from the oven.

 This recipe makes enough cookies for one bag of Hershey kisses.

Peanut Butter Kisses

1 cup butter

1 cup peanut butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 bag Hershey Kisses, unwrapped

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Cream together butter, peanut butter, brown sugar and white sugar.  Mix until light and fluffy.  Once creamed add in the eggs, one at a time, vanilla and mix until incorporated.  Finally, mix in flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Refrigerate dough for about 30 minutes.  Remove dough from refrigerator and roll into balls and dip into sugar.  Place them on a cold cookie sheet.  Please a Hershey Kiss in the middle of each cookie and bake for about 10 minutes.  Remove from oven and let stand 1-2 minutes to cool before moving to a cookie rack to cool completely.

Salted Nut Rolls

Salted Nut Rolls remind me of my mom.  She was always making these for when one of my cousins came to visit from out of town.  She knew he liked them and as they are so quick and simple, she loved to do this small thing for him.  It also is another of the Christmastime favorites and are a bit like the Salted Nut Bars that Pearson's of St.Paul, MN makes.This is a quick bar to make and it doesn't even require you to turn on an oven, but you do need your stove top.

Salted Nut Rolls

16 oz jar of dry roasted peanuts

3 Tablespoons butter

11 oz. bag peanut butter chips

1 can sweetened condensed milk

10 oz. package of mini marshmallows

Grease the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch cake pan.  Pour 1/2 a jar of the dry roasted peanuts into the bottom of the pan.  In a medium saucepan, melt the butter, peanut butter chips and sweetened condensed milk over low hat.  Be careful not to let the mixture boil.  Once everything is melted, remove from the heat and stir in the mini marshmallows.  Spread this mixture carefully over the dry roasted peanuts in the bottom of the pan.  Pour the remaining peanuts over the top and press them in.  Refrigerate briefly (for about 15-20 minutes) and then cut into squares.  Makes one cake pan.

Seven Layer Bars

There are many variations in 7 layer bars, but this is the one my family has been making for as long as I can remember.  There are seven sweet layers piled on top of each other and then baked into caramel bar goodness.  Again this is a relatively simple bar to assemble and bake.  I think the challenge comes into play when trying to wrench the bars out of the pan since the caramel has successfully secured the bars to the edges.  These bars also freeze well, so you can enjoy them for weeks to come if you already have too many sweets in the house for the Christmas season.  You can also vary the ingredients if desired by changing up the nut to a walnut, peanut, hazelnut or almond.  The chips you can change for a peanut butter, cinnamon, or white chocolate chip.  Really, the possibilities for other combinations are endless.  However, in the spirit of Christmas past, this is how my family has made these bars, and to bring back sweet memories this is how I made them again this year.

Seven Layer Bars

1/4 pound butter

1 1/4 cups honey graham crackers, crushed

1 cup coconut, flaked

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup butterscotch chips

1 cup chopped pecans

1 can sweetened condensed milk

Preheat the oven to 350F.  Melt the butter in a 9x12 inch pan.  Once melted remove and coat the bottom of the pan.  Pour the graham crackers in making sure to cover the bottom of the pan.  Sprinkle the coconut, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips and pecans over the crust.  Finally, drizzle the sweetened condensed milk over the entire mixture.  Bake for 30 minutes or until everything has come together and the sweetened condensed milk is starting to look caramel colored.  Remove from the oven and let cool completely before cutting and removing the bars.

O'Henry Bars

This is one of my favorites to make and to eat.  The combination of oats, peanut butter and chocolate makes me sign.  This is also a bar which freezes nicely.  I used to eat these only frozen, but sometimes the oatmeal crust would separate from the peanut butter chocolate topping which would cause quite the dilemma...do I eat the chocolate only, but then what to do with the equally delicious crust?  Eat that along side or separately?  Not a terrible dilemma to have of course! 

These bars are many of the ones you can whip up pretty fast, so if they get eaten quickly you don't have anything to fear in just making more!  Plus, the chocolate peanut butter top is hard to resist!

O'Henry Bars

4 cups oatmeal

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 white sugar

1 cup of butter, melted

1 cup chocolate chips

3/4 cup peanut butter

Preheat oven to 350F.  Mix melted butter with the 4 cups of oatmeal, brown and white sugar.  Mix until well incorporated and pat into a greased 9x13 inch cake pan.  Bake this layer for 20 minutes.  Remove from oven and cool.  While the oatmeal layer is cooling, make the chocolate peanut butter topping.  Melt in a saucepan the chocolate chips and the peanut butter.  Stir continuously so that chocolate does not burn.  As soon as the chocolate chips are almost melted remove from heat and continue stirring until smooth.  Pour this mixture over the oatmeal layer.  Let cool to room temperature.  Once cooled, place in refrigerator for about 30 minutes to set the chocolate in order to be able to cut into pieces.