Creamy Rosemary Potatoes

I'm a total sucker for marketing. If a product is stuffed into a cute package, in miniature form, or has bright colors somewhere on it, it's more than likely going into my buggy. On one trip to Target with Caitlin, I saw a mandoline that was flat, the safety grip clicked on the black, plus it had lime green accents. Mine. In the buggy. That was about two months ago and I just whipped it out the other day to make this yummy potato dish.

With Easter coming up, many of you may be looking to a dish to take to a family dinner. Put this recipe on your list because it is easy to put together, but looks and tastes impressive. That Pioneer Woman knows her stuff.

Creamy Rosemary Potatoes

Pioneer Woman Cooks, page 204

4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter

1 cup half and half

1 cup heavy cream

5 or 6 medium russet potatoes, sliced thin

4 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 medium onion, finely diced

One 8-ounce package cream cheese, at room temperature

1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt, to taste

Freshly ground pepper to taste

2 tablespoons minced rosemary leaves

3 green onions, light green and medium green parts, thinly sliced

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

3 tablespoons minced chives

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Rub the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish with softened butter. Combine the half-and-half and the cream in a large measuring cup.
Using a mandoline or very sharp knife, slice the potatoes very thinly. Place the potatoes in a large bowl. Drizzle with half of the half-and-half/cream mixture and set aside.
In a large skillet over medium-low heat, melt the butter. Add the garlic and onion and cook until translucent, stirring occasionally, about 4 minutes.
Cut the bar of cream cheese in half and add the halves to the skillet, stirring constantly. Continue stirring until the mixture is smooth and combined about 3 minutes.
Pour in the remaining half-and-half/cream mixture and stir to combine. Add salt and pepper and stir. Taste and adjust the seasonings as necessary. Do not undersalt!
Add the rosemary and green onions and stir to combine. Finally, add 1/2 cup of the grated Parmesan and stir to combine.
Pour the cream soaked potatoes into the baking dish. Pour the cream cheese mixture over the top. Scrape out the skillet to get every drop. Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup grated Parmesan generously over the top and bake for at least 1 hour, or until golden brown and bubbly. Remove from the oven and let stand for 10 minutes. Sprinkle with the chives, then cut into squares to serve.

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Baked Orzo with Fontina and Peas

There are a few things that are forbidden from ever gracing a plate in our house. For me, ketchup, mustard, mayo, bananas, and oranges are just a few things that are from the devil's house. For Brian, the list consists of peas, water chestnuts, and sweet potatoes. Which are three that I LOVE. This recipe has been on my "to-make" list for a long time, but it's always been on the back burner since it has peas in it.

If you keep up with my 365 blog, you may remember that I went through some cookbooks for a new project that my dear friend, Pamela, started for herself. I got inspired and decided to take five cookbooks, look through them, and bookmark recipes to make. Low and behold, this recipe was in a cookbook of mine. I decided to make it anyways and if Brian wasn't a fan of peas, he could push them to the side. :)

Baked Orzo with Fontina and Peas
Source: Giada as seen in Giada's Kitchen, page 111

4 cups chicken broth
1 pound orzo pasta
3 tablespoons butter, plus more to grease the baking dish
1 onion, chopped
8 ounces mushrooms, sliced (I used cremini mushrooms, but the cookbook calls for button mushrooms)
1 cup Marsala wine
1/2 cup heavy cream
4 ounces shredded fontina cheese (about 1 cup)
4 ounces diced fresh mozzarella cheese (about 1 cup)
1 cup frozen peas, thawed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
1 teaspoon dried thyme

Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Butter a 9 by 13-inch baking dish.

Bring the chicken broth to a boil over medium-high heat in a medium saucepan. Add the orzo and cook until almost tender, about 7 minutes. Pour the orzo and the broth into a large bowl. Set aside.

Meanwhile, melt the butter over medium heat in a medium skillet. Add the onions and saute until tender, about 3 minutes. Add the mushrooms and continue to saute until the mushrooms are beginning to turn golden around the edges, about 7 minutes. Add the Marsala. Scrape the brown bits off the bottom of the pan and cook until the Marsala has reduced by half, about 5 minutes. Add the mushroom mixture to the orzo in the large bowl. Add the cream, fontina, mozzarella, peas, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking dish.

In a small bowl combine the bread crumbs, Parmesan, and dried thyme. Sprinkle the bread crumb mixture on top of the pasta. Bake until golden, about 25 minutes.

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Even with the peas, Brian ate two servings and loved it. It is very creamy and rich and yummy. Now if I could just get him to eat sweet potatoes... :)

Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms

Thanksgiving is like the Super Bowl for foodies. I especially love it because the Food Network devotes A LOT of time to the holiday.

These mushrooms were on Barefoot Contessa on Saturday. I was not by the tv, so I set my trusty DVR to record the show. After seeing this recipe, I was drooling. I had to have them. We already had plans for Saturday night, so I made them Sunday night.

Oh.

My.

Goodness.

You can't doubt Ina Garten. You just can't. If you love stuffed mushrooms (as I do), make these. The filling can feed an army, so be sure to have a lot of mushrooms on hand. Her original recipe calls for mascarpone cheese, but I have a really hard time finding that in this town, so I substituted with cream cheese.

Sausage-Stuffed Mushrooms
Adapted from Ina Garten

16 extra-large white mushrooms
5 tablespoons good olive oil, divided
2 1/2 tablespoons Marsala wine or medium sherry
3/4 pound sweet Italian sausage, removed from the casings
6 scallions, white and green parts, minced
2 garlic cloves minced
2/3 cup panko crumbs
5 ounces cream cheese
1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan
2 1/2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Remove the stems from the mushrooms and chop them finely. Set aside. Place the mushroom caps in a shallow bowl and toss with 3 tablespoons of the olive oil and Marsala. Set aside.

Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Add the sausage, crumbling it with the back of a wooden spoon. Cook the sausage for 8 to 10 minutes, stirring frequently, until it's completely browned. Add the chopped mushroom stems and cook for 3 more minutes. Stir in the scallions and garlic and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the panko crumbs, stirring to combine evenly with all the other ingredients. Finally, swirl in the cream cheese and continue cooking until the cream cheese has melted and made the sausage mixture creamy. Off the heat, stir in the Parmesan, parsley, and season with salt and pepper, to taste, Cool slightly.

Fill each mushroom generously with the sausage mixture. Arrange the mushrooms in a baking dish large enough to hold all the mushrooms in a snug single layer. Bake until the stuffing for 50 minutes, until the stuffing is browned and crusty.

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Roasted Potatoes and Garlic

One of life's greatest triumphs would have to be roasted garlic. Seriously. It's amazing. I love to roast it and then use it as a topping for french bread. This side dish combines two of my faves - roasted potatoes and the wonderful, roasted garlic. Oh, make that three faves - wine.

This side dish is totally easy and is great for just a few people or a lot of people. Just adjust to however many potatoes and heads of garlic you can eat. My recommendation on serving it would be to place the potatoes in the bowl, squeeze the roasted garlic on top and mix it all together.

Roasted Garlic and New Potatoes

Source: Pioneer Woman

20 small to medium new potatoes
5 to 7 whole heads of garlic
1/3 to 1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 to 1/2 cup dry white wine
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Quarter new potatoes and set on a large rimmed baking sheet. Lop off the very top of each garlic head and arrange throughout the potatoes. Drizzle olive oil over the tops of the garlic and all over potatoes; do the same with the wine. Generously salt and pepper potatoes and garlic. Toss potatoes to coat. Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake at 375 for 45 minutes. Remove foil and continue baking for 20 to 30 minutes until nice and golden.

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Cauliflower Fritters

It may come as no surprise that I'm a picky eater and have never been a cauliflower fan. However, I figured I would give it a try. I've been on a roll with trying new things that I have hated for all of my life. Tomatoes were a success. I even ate Fried Artichoke Hearts at Cheers in Little Rock and I'm still dreaming about them. I was doing so well and so why not be adventurous and go for cauliflower?

Well, at least I can say I tried it...

I'm still not a fan, but if you love cauliflower you will probably love this dish. Next time I'll just use some mashed potatoes instead.

Cauliflower Fritters
Adapted from Everyday with Rachael Ray, October 2009

Ingredients:
1 large head cauliflower (about 2 1/4 pounds), trimmed and chopped
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
1 large egg, beaten
One 10-ounce bag salad greens
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

Directions:
1.Steam the cauliflower until tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer to a large bowl, mash and let cool for 10 minutes. Stir in the flour, bread crumbs and egg, season with salt and pepper and refrigerate for 15 minutes. Roll 1/4 cupfuls into balls, then flatten into patties, to make a total of 12 to 14. In a skillet, heat 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil over medium-high heat. Working in batches, fry the patties until golden-brown, about 4 minutes on each side. Serve with the salad greens tossed in olive oil and the lemon juice.

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Whenever my dad experiments with a new recipe, he always says "We might be ordering pizza later."

This is what we ended up having for dinner after making these...

Happy Friday!

Crash Hot Potatoes

I have a hard time coming up with side dishes. Does anyone else have this issue? I can pick a main dish like none other, but when it comes to side dishes, I'm totally clueless. I really need help in this department.

Anyone have any good side dishes to recommend? I'm all ears.

One that we do love in our house is Pioneer Woman's Crash Hot Potatoes. I've only made them one other time and when they were cooking in the oven, Brian stated that it smelled like Christmas in the house. He had given me one of those Rosemary "Christmas" trees last December and so our living room smelled like rosemary. It was awesome. So when the potatoes were cooking up, our whole kitchen smelled like rosemary, which equates with Christmas in Brian's mind.

The only issue I had with these potatoes this time was that I didn't let them boil long enough so I could not mash them down. I had potatoes flying all over the kitchen.


Crash Hot Potatoes
Source: Pioneer Woman

New potatoes (or any small potato)
Olive oil
Kosher salt
Fresh ground black pepper
Rosemary (or other fresh herb)

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add in as many potatoes as you wish to make and cook them until they are fork-tender.

On a sheet pan, generously drizzle olive oil. Place tender potatoes on the cookie sheet leaving plenty of room between each potato.

With a potato masher, gently press down each potato until it slightly mashes, rotate the potato masher 90 degrees and mash again. Brush the tops of each potato generously with more olive oil.

Sprinkle potatoes with kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper and fresh chopped rosemary.

Bake in 450 degree oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.

Italian Mac and Cheese

We love cheese in our house. Even the dog is a cheese-whore. He'll do anything for a piece of cheese. If he has a receipt in his mouth, there's no way you can get it from him without bribing him with cheese.

Even though I've found the perfect mac and cheese, it can't hurt to try new variations of it. I've had my eye on this recipe from Ezra Pound Cake for a while now and finally decided to make it. Man, oh man, it's yummy. It's nice and light and really great for the summer. The next day I went out of town and kept thinking about having the leftovers. Much to my sadness, Brian had finished off all of the leftovers while I was gone.

Oh well, guess I'll have to make it again. :)

Baked Shells with Fontina and Parmesan Bread Crumbs
From Jack Bishop’s "The Complete Italian Vegetarian Cookbook"

Serves 4 to 6

1 pound small shells
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup heavy cream
8 ounces (about 2 cups) Italian Fontina cheese
Salt
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
1/3 cup plain bread crumbs
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Prepare shells according to package directions, but cook only until they are 1 to 2 minutes shy of al dente. Then drain.

Meanwhile, dice 4 tablespoons of the butter and place in a large bowl. Warm the cream in the microwave, about 1 minute. Cover to keep the cream warm. Shred the Fontina.

Stir the shells into the bowl with the butter. Toss to coat well. Stir in the warm cream and Fontina, and stir until the cheese starts to melt. Season with salt to taste and the nutmeg.

Pour the mixture into a greased 13-by-9 ceramic or glass baking dish. Combine the bread crumbs and Parmigiano-Reggiano, and sprinkle over the pasta. Dice the remaining tablespoon butter, and dot the crumb topping with small pieces of butter.

Bake until the sauce is bubbling and the topping turns golden brown, about 20 minutes. Serve immediately.

Mini Potato Gratins

We don't eat a lot of potatoes in our house. The baked mashed potatoes and now these mini gratins are the most potato dishes I've made in probably 3 years. Pasta is our carb of choice.

But wow. These little beauties will be making it into the regular rotation.

If you watched the past season of The Next Food Network Star, you probably saw these on the finale. Melissa d'Arabian made these on her pilot for her show, 10 Dollar Dinners. I wanted her to win, mainly because I could not stand Jeffrey. He was so snarky and just acted like he knew he was going to win. Anyone else feel the same?

However, these potatoes have me sold on Melissa. They're such a good idea and make you wonder "Why didn't I think of that??" You can vary the cheeses and fillings based on what you love. I happened to have cheddar cheese at home. I also thought about added crumbled bacon to it, which I think I'm going to try next time. Be sure to really coat the muffin tins with nonstick cooking spray. Also, let them sit for a little while after you take them out of the oven so that they'll come out easier and hold their shape.

Mini Potato Gratins
Adapted from Melissa d'Arabian

2 russet potatoes, peeled and sliced very thin
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
3/4 cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Spray 12 muffin tins with vegetable spray. Layer potato slices and cheese into each muffin cup. Season with salt and pepper and top each gratin with 1 or 2 tablespoons of heavy cream. Cover with foil and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, removing the foil halfway through cooking time. Invert gratins onto plate and serve.

Baked Mashed Potatoes

Being a Southern girl, I've had mashed potatoes a lot. We'd have them at least once a week. Whenever we'd drive down to visit my Maw Maw, she'd always have fried chicken and mashed potatoes ready and waiting for us. They were the best, well, those and my mom's mashed potatoes that she would beat with an electric mixer because my brother hated lumpy potatoes.

Their potatoes were never like these. You see, I have a thing for a crunchy topping. Throw in cheese to the ingredient list and I'm sold.

I made these potatoes with the Pork Chops from yesterday's post. Brian absolutely LOVES these potatoes. He's eaten them almost every night since I've made them. (This recipe makes quite a lot.) Also, go with the full cup of milk like the recipe states. Trust me, you'll think you've screwed up and put too much liquid in it, but it will work. I promise.

Baked Mashed Potatoes with Parmesan Cheese and Bread Crumbs
Adapted from Giada

1 tablespoon butter
4 pounds russet potatoes, peeled, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
1 1/2 cups grated mozzarella
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons Italian seasoned bread crumbs

Directions
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Coat a 13 by 9 by 2-inch baking dish with 1 tablespoon of butter and set aside.

Cook the potatoes in a large pot of boiling salted water until they are very tender, about 15 minutes. Drain; return the potatoes to the same pot and mash well. Mix in the milk and melted butter. Mix in the mozzarella and 3/4 cup of the Parmesan. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper. Transfer the potatoes to the prepared baking dish. Stir the bread crumbs and remaining 1/4 cup of Parmesan in a small bowl to blend. Sprinkle the bread crumb mixture over the mashed potatoes. Recipe can be prepared up to this point 6 hours ahead of time; cover and chill.

Bake, uncovered, until the topping is golden brown, about 20 minutes.

Risotto

Ahh risotto. Where have you been all my life? Honestly, I've been too scared to actually make it, plus never figured Brian would actually like it. (Sadly he's not a big fan of rice.) Now is the time to conquer all fears. Well, except my intense fear of snakes. But we're talking about food here, not snakes.

What was I so scared of? Risotto is one of the intimidating food items to make, however, once you make it, you realize it's so simple. All you do is stir! Stirring is easy!

Make sure you have all ingredients chopped and ready beforehand. Risotto, while pretty easy to make, does need babysitting.

Since I had never made it before and had no clue what I was going into, I used a variety of risotto recipes as my guide. I did use this recipe from Giada as a guide on the measurements, however did not use some of the same ingredients. With these measurements, this risotto makes more of a side-dish portion, and not a main dish portion, as I had hoped. Brian did say that this was the best rice he had ever eaten, which is a huge feat to accomplish since he does not do rice. For that reason, it will be a make again in our house, but since my measurements did not produce enough, this recipe will be one that needs some changes.

Risotto
3 1/2 - 4 cups low sodium chicken broth
3 Tbsp olive oil
1 finely chopped shallot (or small onion)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 cup arborio rice
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Bring broth to a simmer over medium-high heat. Once it comes up to a simmer, turn the heat down to low.

Put the olive oil into a heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add the shallot and saute until translucent. Stir in the garlic and saute for 30 seconds. Stir in the rice and cook for about 2 minutes until the rice is toasted. Add the wine and stir until it is absorbed, about 1 minute. Add 1/2 cup of hot broth; simmer over medium-low heat until the liquid is absorbed, stirring often, about 6 minutes. Repeat, adding 1/2 cup of hot broth and stirring until liquid is absorbed. Continue this process until the rice is just tender and the mixture is creamy. (I kept tasting mine to make sure it was done, having never made it before.) Stir in the parsley. Add the 1/2 cup of Parmesan. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper. Spoon into bowls and serve.