A Potato First

A while back I saw that The Pioneer Woman had a recipe for Potatoes au Gratin. I have never in my life made this dish, and a week or so ago I was craving some potatoes, so I decided to give it a whirl.

Much to my delight, it turned out to be absolutely wonderful! My husband is not a huge fan of potatoes (unless they are sweet potatoes), so he didn't try them. But trust me. If you enjoy potatoes, you will love this.

And I don't know why I even bother doing recipe posts for The Pioneer Woman's recipes. I mean, you can just go to her site and see better pictures and better directions. I know! You people need to start giving me recipes to try so I can stop taking stuff off Ree's site. Ok?

Great. Now that we have that under control, lets move on to the potatoes.



Here are the ingredients you will need. Potatoes, garlic, butter, flour, cheese, salt, pepper, heavy cream and milk.


Ok, so first you want to clean four potatoes. Don't just rinse them. Scrub them. Potatoes are obvious grown underground, so you want to make sure to wash off ALL the dirt/pesticides that decide to leech onto their skin. (By the way... The Pioneer Woman says not to peel the potatoes. So, being a Pioneer Woman follower, I listened.)



Once the potatoes are washed, start slicing them. And be careful not to make the slices too thick. You want to basically cube the potatoes. Put a few in a stack and slice them one way, then the other. That way you end up with four pieces.




After you repeat those steps for all four potatoes, you will end up with a nice heap-o-potato pieces!




Pour 1.5 cups of heavy cream into a mixing bowl.




And then add 1/2 cup of whole milk.




Now add two tablespoons of flour...




One teaspoon of salt...




and two cloves of minced garlic.




Now whisk it all together!




Butter a baking dish with two tablespoons of softened butter...




And then start layering! Put 1/3 of the potatoes in the baking dish.




Then pour 1/3 of your cream/milk mixture over the potatoes.




After you do that two more times, it will look something like this.




Then you want to wrap it in foil and pop it into the oven (which has been preheated to 400 degrees) for 30 minutes.




After half an hour, remove the foil and bake for another 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are bubbly and golden brown.




Here comes the fun part. Add grated cheddar cheese and bake for three to five more minutes.

Can we say yum?

Yeah. We can.

Seriously. This stuff is GOOD. I had never really cooked with heavy cream before, but I am now an addict. I am going to use this stuff in everything. Delish!


Welp. That concludes another segment of "Amy Lynn lives off The Pioneer Woman's recipes" post. :) Hope you enjoy!



Ingredients:

• 4 whole Russet Potatoes, Scrubbed Clean
• 2 Tablespoons Butter, Softened
• 1-½ cup Heavy Cream
• ½ cups Whole Milk
• 2 Tablespoons Flour
• 2 cloves Garlic, Finely Minced
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• Freshly Ground Pepper, to taste
• 1 cup Sharp Cheddar Cheese, Freshly Grated

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Smear softened butter all over the bottom of a baking dish.

Slice potatoes, then cut slices into fourths.

In a separate bowl, whisk together cream, milk, flour, minced garlic, salt, and plenty of freshly ground black pepper.

Place 1/3 of the potatoes in the bottom of the baking dish. Pour 1/3 of the cream mixture over the potatoes.

Repeat this two more times, ending with the cream mixture. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake for 20 minutes, or until potatoes are golden brown and really bubbling. Add grated cheese to the top of the potatoes and bake for 3 to 5 more minutes, until cheese is melted and bubbly.