Creamy Scalloped Potatoes

In my previous post I described how I became the proud owner of an unexpected fifty pounds of potatoes. After spending an afternoon turning fifteen pounds of those potatoes into Potatoes O'Brien, I still had supper to cook. Desperate to use up more of the potatoes, I decided to make scalloped potatoes.

This recipe is comforting and easy enough for any weeknight meal, but it is also elegant enough to accompany any holiday or special occasion meal. A mandolin makes this job much easier and quicker, but it is not required if you are handy enough with a knife to cut potatoes into thin slices.

Ingredients:
3 T butter
1 onion, peeled and chopped or sliced finely
4 large cloves garlic, minced
1/4 c all purpose flour
3-1/3 c milk
1/3 c cream
1/3 c water
2 t Orrington Farms Chicken Broth Base
      Powder
1 t salt
1/2 t seasoning salt
1/4 t paprika
1/4 t black pepper
1 pinch thyme
4 cups sharp cheddar cheese, divided
4 lbs potatoes, thinly sliced
Parsley flakes

Directions:
Slice potatoes, placing in cold water until ready to use. Chop onions and mince garlic, setting aside. Preheat oven to 400° F.

Gather all needed ingredients and begin melting butter over medium-high heat.

Once butter is melted and hot, add onion and cook until translucent. Add minced garlic and cook and additional 30 seconds to one minute, until garlic is fragrant. Stir in flour. Stir continuously while cooking one to two minutes. Pour in milk, cream, and water that has been mixed together slowly, stirring constantly. Quickly add in all the spices, stopping to stir occasionally to keep the sauce from sticking to and burning on the bottom. Monitor the heat carefully. You don't want it to come to a full boil. Small bubbles around the outside edges is about right. Add half of the cheese. And continue to stir. The mixture will eventually thicken up. I promise!

Once the sauce is nice and thick, drain the potato slices well and add them to the sauce. Carefully stir them into the sauce, coating them well. 

Layer half of the mixture into a buttered 9x13 baking dish. Sprinkle on half of the remaining cheese. Sprinkle on desired amount of parsley flakes.

Repeat with remaining potatoes. Pour any sauce remaining in the pot over the potatoes, and add remaining cheese. Sprinkle on desired amount of parsley. Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes. Remove foil and continue to cook 30 minutes or until potatoes are done. Place foil back over the dish loosely if the top begins to get too dark before the potatoes are done. Remove your beautiful scalloped potatoes from the oven and enjoy!

For a delicious one dish meal, try adding in cubes of ham! What is your favorite way to enjoy scalloped potatoes?

Until we meet again, may you be blessed!

Homemade Potatoes O'Brien

Recently, a friend asked if I could use a few potatoes. Why would I turn away free potatoes? I said yes, and a couple days later I found a fifty pound bag of potatoes on the freezer by my door! My eyes about popped out of my head! After the initial shock of the sight of that huge bag wore off, I was so amused and still laugh about it.

I'm not one to back down to a food challenge, so I started pondering ways to add the spuds to my life before they went bad. That's how Homemade Potatoes O'Brien came to be in my life.

The process to make these potatoes is quick and easy, so I thought I would pass the process along to you- you know...in case a fifty pound bag of potatoes happens to show up at your doorstep. 😄 Just kidding! You don't have to have that many potatoes.

First, set two stockpots of water on the stove. Turn the eyes on to bring the water to a boil.

While the water is heating, prepare the potatoes by weighing out two pounds,  washing them well, and removing any eyes that may be trying to form in them.

Slice the potatoes into slices of desired thickness. Then, chop those slices into relatively similar sized cubes. I love my little chopper for this job! Make sure to add the chopped potatoes to a bowl of cold water to prevent discoloration while you are waiting on the water to boil.

My daughter helped me, and we had two batches to get us started and continually had a batch or two in process until we were done.

Once the water comes to a boil, drain the waiting potatoes and add them to the boiling water. When the water returns to a boil, time them for three minutes.

When the potatoes have boiled for three minutes, drain the potatoes ( I used a strainer over a large bowl so I could reuse my water without wasting water or the energy needed to heat new water.).

Immediately, submerge the hot potatoes into cold water to stop the cooking process. This completes the process known as blanching.

Stir the potatoes around a bit to make sure the middle cools. Once the potatoes have cooled, drain them, and spread them out to dry. I place mine on a clean towel.

You may need to pat them dry with paper towels or the dry edge of the towel, but once the potatoes are dry (not wet with soaking water), add them to a gallon sized freezer zip top bag.

To the bag of two pounds chopped potatoes, add one chopped onion and one cup of chopped bell peppers. Thankfully, I already had bags of one cup servings of chopped bell peppers in my freezer.

The bag should be sealed, removing as much air from the bag as possible, and then the bag should be placed flat in the freezer until needed.

That, my friends, is how I made Potatoes O'Brien. These are wonderful cooked in a little oil in a skillet with some spices or added to sausage, eggs, and cheese for a breakfast casserole.

Until we meet again, may you be blessed!