I’ve probably mentioned that I’m not a big fan of potatoes for a number of reasons including having enough growing up, they generally take too long to cook, the nutrients are mostly in the skin when they usually don’t have much skin, and there’s enough evidence that they’re carcinogenic to make me uncomfortable about them.
On the other hand, they’re my daughter’s favorite food. And it’s not because she grew up eating them in Russia, since she doesn’t think she like beets (I’m still working on that one). So when Tony and I were standing in a line at the farmers market before Christmas and Santa saw a 40-pound bag of potatoes, he got them for her. Then we had to keep her out of the shed for two weeks so she wouldn’t see them. She did get other presents by the way, and the potatoes are the only present she put on Instagram.
Since then, she has tried a few different potato dishes with varying degrees of success, mainly because making a new and different potato dish can be time-consuming and takes patience. She found a recipe on allrecipes.com (by CathyM, but slightly modified below) that was really easy and turned out great.
Potatoes Au Gratin
4-6 large potatoes cut in 1/4 inch slices
1 onion, sliced in rings
Ground pepper
3 T butter
3 T flour
1/2 t salt
2 C milk
1 1/2 C shredded cheddar
Preheat oven to 400. Layer 1/2 of the potatoes into bottom of a sprayed casserole dish. Top with the onion slices, and add the remaining potatoes. Season with ground pepper.
In a medium-size saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Mix in the flour and salt, and stir constantly with a whisk for one minute. Stir in milk. Cook until mixture has thickened. Stir in cheese all at once, and continue stirring until melted, about 1 minute. Pour cheese over the potatoes. Cover the dish with foil. Bake 75 minutes.
