SOUTHERN LIVING'S POTATO GRATIN WITH ROSEMARY CRUST

Just so you know, my Christmas totally BIT; I was sicky sick sick in bed with a bronchitis-like crap in my lungs and a very high fever. Not only on Christmas Day, but the day after, too. I WAS feeling okay on Christmas morning, and we had a lovely and special breakfast of grapefruit (sent to us from Florida by a friend of my husband's), Ina Garten's easy sticky buns and some scrambled eggs. Had a great time sitting around the fire opening gifts and stockings and such. But then it hit--whoa! Mama needed to take to her bed, bigtime. And, to make matters even worse, I had NO appetite, whatsoever.

Which was really a bummer, because we had planned (and spent a lot of $$ on) a festive Christmas dinner. Big Daddy brought home a gorgeous beef tenderloin and some lovely and fresh organic Brussels sprouts. And I had found a recipe in Southern Living magazine, for a potato gratin that didn't look too intimidating, so I was excited to attempt it. Here's what it was supposed to look like

We really never eat like this, but hey, it's CHRISTMAS, for goodness sakes!

A decision was made (without my input) to postpone our Christmas dinner until later on in the week, when I would hopefully be feeling better. Poor Egan and Abbie dined on a pretty boring pasta instead. BUT, a few Zithromax and lots of rest later, and I'm baaaaaack! So last night, an ordinary Wednesday night, we went ahead and prepared the much anticipated feast, and invited Abbie's friend over to share it with us.

Just so you know, Southern Living is my favorite cooking magazine; their recipes are so "do-able", and I have never, ever cooked anything from their recipes that hasn't turned out just terrific. I know it's strange for a girl who lives about as North as one can live in the United States of America to subscribe to Southern Living, but hey, we like to travel around the south, so we actually use the magazine as a sort of travel planner.

The name "Gratin" sounds so much more intimidating than it really is. Doesn't it sound something like a souffle, where you spend hours preparing it, just to watch it all collapse in the oven? Well, a gratin is really just cheese, potatoes and a crust. Kind of like a potato pie. And man oh man (!) was this ever tasty---everyone really, really enjoyed it as a side dish for the beef. My only change in the recipe would be to add a little more seasoning to the potatoes--just additional salt and pepper is all.  As always, the recipe for this dish will be at the end of this post, but here's pretty much what you need to get started:

Some sweet potatoes, Yukon gold potatoes, Gruyere cheese, heavy cream and a refrigerated pair of pie crusts.

You're also going to need some fresh snipped Rosemary, but if you can't find any this time of year, you could always substitute a couple of teaspoons of dried:

Grate 2 cups of delicious Gruyere cheese, and try not to nibble!:

Lay out one pie crust and sprinkle it with the Rosemary, a little cheese and some pepper, then cover it with the second pie crust, like this:

You"ll want to roll out the two layers of pie crust to about a 13 inch circle:

Then you're going to transfer this into a 9 inch springform (cheesecake) pan. Press into the bottom and sides, like so:

So far, so easy, right? While you're chilling the pan, you can get busy peeling and thinly slicing your potatoes. A good peeler makes ALL the difference in this chore:

Next, all you hafta do is layer the potatoes and cheese in the pan, and pour a nice cup of cream (flavored with fresh garlic!) over the whole shabang. It should all come out looking something like this:

What's not to LOVE?? Mine is a little bit wider and flatter than the magazine's, so maybe next time I'll use a smaller pan. But whatever--everyone oooh'd and aaaah'd over it, and Egan even had some leftovers for breakfast this morning! Great success.

SOUTHERN LIVING'S POTATO GRATIN WITH ROSEMARY CRUST

Serves 10

1 (14.1) oz. package refrigerated piecrusts

1 tblsp. chopped fresh rosemary

1/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper

2 cups (8oz.) shredded Gruyere cheese, divided

1 1/2 lb. Yukon gold potatoes

1 1/2 lb. sweet potatoes

1 tsp. kosher salt (I would seriously double this)

2/3 cup heavy cream

1 garlic clove, minced

Garnish: fresh rosemary sprigs

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Unroll piecrusts on a lightly floured surface. Sprinkle rosemary, pepper and 1/2 cup cheese over 1 piecrust; top with remaining piecrust. Roll into a 13-inch circle. Press on bottom and up sides of a 9 inch springform pan; fold edges under. Chill. Meanwhile, peel and thinly slice Yukon gold and sweet potatoes. Layer one-third ecah of Yukon gold potatoes, sweet potatoes, and salt in prepared crust. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup cheese. Repeat layers twice, pressing layers down slightly to fit. Microwave cream and garlic in a 1 cup microwave-safe measuring cut at HIGH for 45 seconds; pour over potato layers in pan. Sprinkle with remaining 3/4 cup cheese. Cover pan with heavy-duty aluminum foil. Place on a baking sheet. Bake at 450 degrees for 1 hour. Uncover and bake 25 minutes or until potatoes are done and crust is richly browned. Let stand 10 to 15 minutes. Carefully transfer to a serving plate, and remove sides of pan. If desired, carefully slide gratin off bottom of pan using a long knife or narrow spatula. Garnish, if desired.

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REGGIE'S CHICKEN JALAPENO APPETIZER

If you read my newspaper column last week, you no doubt noticed the "teaser" I put in it, about checking out my new blog for a fun new recipe. And as a girl who lives up to her promises, here it is: Inlet NY's Reggie Chambers' Chicken Jalapeno Appetizer! I made this for the very first time today, and as we speak I have two very hungry college girls in my kitchen, wolfing it down by the cracker-full. Sooooo yummy and cheesy and a little bit spicy, too. I'd say this would be the perfect little dish to bring to a New Year's party! As always, I'll give you the whole recipe at the end of this post, but here's what you need to get started:

You know what I especially love about recipes like this one? The fact that it is truly a "dump" bowl recipe; you just chop everything up and dump it all in one single bowl, then mix. Especially great if your brain is as addled as mine these days. Reggie starts by sauteing a boneless skinless chicken breast half in some olive oil, then shredding it, like this:

( I must confess that I cheated a little here; I needed some shredded chicken for a recipe later on in the week, so I just roasted 4 breasts in a little olive oil and salt and pepper, at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes.)

Next you need to finely dice about 1/4 cup of green bell pepper. And it's taken me 47 years of hard living to learn the proper way to cut a bell pepper (I think Ina Garten showed this once on her show): If you slice the bell pepper down the SIDES, you avoid all the seeds, and get the most "meat" out of your vegetable! Sort of like this, but on all four sides:

Next the Jalapeno pepper. If you are very smart you will wear some plastic gloves when you do this. If you don't, and you happen to touch your nose or your eyes or even your lips anytime in the next hour or so, you'll know WHY! Also, the hottest part of the Jalapeno is the seeds, so you can get those out with a quick swipe of your knife:

Next, add your lemon juice, a couple splashes of some hot sauce (I used Tabasco, but any kind will do), an 8oz. block of room temperature cream cheese and maybe some salt. Start mixing!:

Then you can put the whole hot mess into a pretty oven proof baking dish--my favorite neighbor gave me this one, and I use it for serving also:

Bake for 20 minutes at 375 degrees. Voila! You'll get a warm and gooey and yummy hors d'oerve (SO sure I spelled that incorrectly!) to serve with some crackers or maybe a sliced baguette. I also topped mine with some chopped parsley for color:

Enjoy! And thank you, Reggie!

Here's the recipe:

Reggie's Chicken Jalapeno Appetizer

1 chicken breast, cooked in olive oil and shredded

1 8 oz. package of cream cheese at room temperature

1/4 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup milk

1/4 cup green bell pepper

2 tblsp. minced Jalapeno peppers

1 tblsp. lemon juice

3/4 tsp. salt

1 tsp. hot sauce (or, to taste)

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl. Transfer to an oven proof baking dish and bake for 20 minutes at 375 degrees.

Merry Christmas Oh Come All Ye Faithful (Martina McBride)

THE WEATHER OUTSIDE MAY BE FRIGHTFUL...........

 (Not as much snow as Syracuse yet, but MAN is it cold--usually around 10 degrees for our morning walks!)

But inside, it's SO delightful!

Hey lady, can you build a fire, please?

Ahhhh...thank ewe! (little does Jack know all I have to do is flick a switch, and VOILA! Fire!)

We are SO ready for Santa around here!

Wee Willy, checkin' it all out (again, those TEETH!):

And then there's Little Miss Thing, whose nose is constantly stuck in either her Mac Book or her I Phone. So very grateful that she's HOME!:

We hope you're staying warm and cozy, too!

GOOD FRIENDS, GOOD TIMES, AND..........

Some REALLY, REALLY bad photos! Just you wait, my pretty.........

Maybe Mama had a little too much mulled red wine? I dunno, but these pictures totally BITE, and that's okay, because we had so much fun at this year's annual Neighborhood Cookie Party! I worked for
dayzzz and dayzzz on my cookies and cheese platters, and mulled red wine and apple ciders. Check it:

This is the mulled apple cider, with lots of citrus slices and a little cheesecloth bundle of mulling spices. I swear to you I was up at 6 a.m., getting this going!

Here's the mulled red wine---be sure to add at least a cup of white sugar to this--you will know you've added enough when it doesn't taste so bitter anymore! Mmmmm...warms the cockles!

Remember these oatmeal cookies, from an earlier post?

Cheese, cheese, the magical fruit!

A spread fit for a king!

This is my favorite go-to dip--two blocks of cream cheese, processed in your processor or blender with about 1/2 of one jar of sundried tomatoes, packed in oil. Sometimes I add a pinch of salt and a sprinkle of crushed red chili pepper flakes, for a little heat.

                          Now, to the peeps (and this is where the baaaad photos come into play):

Logan Smith, my horrible daughter Abbie, Chelsea and Charlie Hanford 

My wretched daughter Abbie, the darlings Ms. Chelsea Plescia, Sarah Bolton and Jenny Zheng came to play

Fern and BFF Leslie Bailey

Jon Bailey ( he is SOOOO much handsomer than this, I swear!)

BFF's Anna (Mommy) and Jimmy Ortiz, Pet-sitters to the stars!

Bff Leslie and the wickedly fabulous Stuart DeCamp, who shall someday rule the world!

The very wonderful Dona Finkle, who did NOT want her picture taken!

Dona's dotter Sharon Finkle Kleps, who shall also someday rule da whirled!

The adorable and oh-so-shy Mrs. Susan Webster

And THEN there's Big Daddy--me thinks someone needs a good night's sleep!

Thanks to all of you who made Cookie-palooza 2010 so much fun!

TODAY'S THE DAY........

Wee Willie and I are waiting...
 

And waiting.........

And finally, finally, it's time! Little Miss Thing is HOME, for Christmas! Let the festivities begin!

(she's kinda irritated with me here.....just flew the red-eye in, all the way across country. Says she slept a whole HOUR!)

I redid her room for her, as soon as she left for her sophomore year,in August. No more teenage room...now she has a more sophisticated college-girls's room, with fresh white paint, a handmade headboard, a new desk and a cozy chair for reading, right in the dormer.

 

(sorry these are so dark....still need that new camera!)

Was she ever "surprised"!  (NOT!):

What a little faker!

So, not 5 minutes after she brought her bags upstairs, this is where I found her:

Sweet dreams, Little Miss Thing! Do you think the smell of fresh Gingerbread will wake her up?