Spice Rack Challenge: Mace -- Scalloped Potatoes Au Gratin – the best of both worlds

Traditionally, scalloped potatoes have tons of butter and cream and no cheese at all. It’s Au Gratin potatoes that are cooked in a cheese sauce. I decided to combine the two recipes and I came up with the absolute BEST potato casserole I have ever had!!! Truly, The Best of Both Worlds.  And the bonus part – mine are made with NO butter, NO cream and very little cheese! Believe me, you will not miss them. And the mace? A perfect, perfect spice – warm, unexpected and totally great with the gruyere…. But I am getting ahead of myself…. Follow along…..

Slice 3 pounds of Yukon Gold potatoes ¼ inch and simmer them for about 8 minutes or until they are tender. Whisk ¼ C flour into 3 Cups low-fat milk (2%) over low heat. Weird, I know.

While the potatoes are simmering away, bring the milk to a slow boil, stir a lot and believe it or not, it gets nice and thick….Add lots of black pepper, salt to taste and ¼ t mace (the Spice Rack Challenge of the month). Also add 1 C of grated Gruyere cheese.

Arrange about ½ of the potatoes in a greased 9 X 13 casserole; pour over ½ of the beautiful sauce. Make another layer of potatoes and sauce.

Sprinkle with another ¾ C gruyere. Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes. Broil for a few minutes to get a nice crispy top. Let all that delicious sauce absorb into the potatoes...  SO GOOD! SO GOOD!

I literally ate my way through this entire casserole…. with no guilt because it’s not very high in fat/calories.

(printable recipe)

One Year Ago: Brisket ( I wish I gave this one a better name.... like BEST Brisket)
                        Cannoli Ice Cream Cake (Super easy and super impressive. I make it for company.)

The colors of my world - I love October

Oatmeal Honey Cookies

These cookies might get away with the name Oatmeal Honey Breakfast Cookie – I am eating two as I write this. It’s very early Saturday morning and I am having my first cup of coffee.

It’s my favorite part of the week actually.  Sitting in my favorite chair, the house is quiet, the dog is in his favorite spot right near my feet, the sun is rising outside my window. The sky is honey colored and the trees are golden. There is frost on the lawn and mist is rising from the lake. Autumn at its finest. The day is full of possibilities.

If you like oatmeal, you will like these cookies and if you like honey, you will love them.

Here’s what you need:

1 ½ C sugar (I think you could get away with 1 C)

¾ C butter

2/3 C honey

3 egg whites

4 C oats

2 C all-purpose flour

1 t baking soda

Here’s what you do:

Mix the sugar and butter. Add the honey and egg whites. Add the oatmeal and mix well. Add remaining ingredients.

You can see I made some small cookies and some giant cookies. The small ones were 1 level tablespoonful baked for about 10 minutes at 350 degrees. The giant ones were ¼ cupful, pressed down a bit before baking, baked for about 15-17 minutes at 350 degrees.  They never got completely brown on the bottom and I did not over bake them – just left them a tiny bit soft in the middle. Excellent. Chewy. Sweet. Golden. 

One Year Ago: Eggplant and Wild Rice (one of my favorite ways to eat eggplant)
                        Four Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies
     Pumpkin Butterscotch Chip Bundt Cake (you might already know how much I like my Bundt cakes!!)

Duchess Potatoes

My girlfriend totally impressed me the other day by casually mentioning that she had made Duchess Potatoes for her family for dinner. “What,” I asked, “are those??? And why don’t I know what they are??? And how can you pull that off on a work night???”

Not one to be outdone, I set out to make Duchess Potatoes that very week! Here’s how I did it….all thanks to my 26 year old Betty Crocker Cookbook. (and my competitive spirit….)

Boil some potatoes.

Mash them with 2 egg yolks and just a bit of milk, cream, buttermilk or half and half. Salt and pepper if desired.

Plop them in decorative (or not so decorative) mounds on a greased baking sheet. (Speaking of Betty Crocker, you, of course, could use a pastry bag and a star tip – none of which is owned by me…) Drizzle melted butter over the mounds of potatoes....  Dust with paprika… or not.

Bake at high heat (450 degrees) for about 10 minutes. Broil for a few minutes for a nice fancy finish.

Serve to your admiring family… on a work night… when they are expecting regular old mashed potatoes. 

(Yeah… I made Jello too…. Betty Crocker here….)

Apple Lemon Bread

I get tired of making banana bread…… all those frozen bananas waiting in the freezer…… you know the ones. I am not a huge fan of zucchini bread....click here to see one I tried. Pumpkin bread? .....don't love it…..I also have little bags of leftover frozen pumpkin lurking in the freezer in the obligatory 1 C measures.

So I was very surprised how much I liked this Apple Lemon Bread. Tender. Light. Not too sweet. Lemony.  It was good as is, and even better toasted with butter.

Here’s what you need:

¼ c butter

½ C sugar

2 eggs, beaten

2 C flour

1 t baking powder

1 t baking soda

1 t salt

2 tart apples, peeled and grated (about 2 cups worth)

Zest from 2 lemons

Here’s what you do:

Grease a loaf pan and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream butter and sugar.  Beat in eggs. Add the remaining ingredients, mixing well.

Bake for about 50 minutes. Cool on a wire rack before cutting.

Early the next morning..... where's the coffee?

I pulled this bread out of the oven late in the afternoon and then had to rush off to choir practice before I could get a photo of the finished loaf. My husband volunteered to finish up my shots. I hope you have fun seeing his creative props. Remember that old Sesame Street song... "One of these things is not like the other" ? I think these photos will will give you an glimpse into what my kitchen often looks like when I am preparing my blog photos..... no, I am not talking about the nice Yahtzee game in the background. 

(printable recipe)

One Year Ago: Cheesy Green Enchiladas (from Vegetarian Times Magazine. I really need to dig deeper into       that magazine - they have some great stuff)

                        Giant Brickle Chip Cookies (one of the best cookie recipes I have ever used)

Salmon Fish Cakes - Food Revolution

It was pretty hilarious. The day that I made these for dinner, I had the TV on and I was listening to an old Julia Child program on the DVR. She was making a classic fish chowder…. of course, just for fun she pronounced it ‘cha-dah.’  (like about 100 times) She actually made the fish broth using about 10 different types of fish – the bones, skin, heads, fins…… she recommended leaving the eyeballs in for extra flavor….. ugh.

If you have seen this episode, then you know she chops this fish in two with the BIGGEST knife on Earth! She had such gusto!  (Have you seen the episode when she cuts up a chicken with a sword? Classic.)

The funniest part of the show is when Julia says, “If you have good relations with your fish monger you can have him prepare the fish for you.” Good relations? Am I the only person who thinks that is hilarious? 

These Salmon Fish Cakes are excellent.  See Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution website here for the recipe.  


Here's basically what you do:

Gather potatoes, salmon, parsley, and and egg. I used fresh salmon, with the skin and bones carefully removed. 

Follow Jamie Oliver's advice and steam the salmon in a colander over a pot where you are gently boiling the potatoes. I thought it was very strange, but it worked perfectly. 

See how beautiful the salmon is? Since you will be frying the patties later, it does not need to be overly cooked at this point.

Mash the potatoes. Add the salmon, egg and parsley.

Form the mixture into a round and divide into serving size patties. I doubled the recipe from what was suggested. 

Dust the patties with flour. Fry in a bit of oil until nicely golden and crisp on both sides. 

These were excellent! 

(no printable recipe today, simple click here to see the original recipe on the Food Revolution site)

One Year Ago: Mom's Minestrone (easy and perfect for a quick meal) 

Cinnamon Apple Bundt Cake

I’ve kinda been in a cooking slump lately… you know, ordering pizza, swinging through Jimmy John’s for sandwiches, picking up pre-made food at the grocery store. We’ve actually been eating out lately, but often that does not satisfy. I usually wish we had saved the money and eaten at home. Even omelets at home taste better than some restaurant food, right?

My favorite stand-by dinner is grilled cheese and tomato soup; however, I do make a killer grilled cheese (brioche bread with real butter and three different types of cheeses) and I do serve homemade tomato soup, so I guess I get a break with that menu.

Last weekend I purchased some apples and somehow, that has inspired me to get back in the kitchen. This cake was easy and I made it much healthier by using less sugar, less oil, and half wheat flour. The butter sauce could not be passed up….. it absolutely made the cake.

Here’s what you need:

For the Cake:

2 heaping cups of peeled apples, thinly sliced

3 T white sugar

2 T cinnamon

½ C vegetable oil

½ C applesauce

1 C white sugar

4 eggs

3 t vanilla

¼ C orange juice

1 ½ C white flour

1 ½ C wheat flour

1 T baking powder

1 t salt

For the Glaze:

¼ C butter

1/3 C orange juice

2/3 C sugar

Here’s what you do:

Toss the apple slices in the cinnamon and sugar. Set aside.

Beat the oil, applesauce, sugar, eggs, vanilla and orange juice until well incorporated. Add the flours, baking powder and salt.

Spoon about 1/3 of the batter in a well-greased bundt pan. Arrange the apple slices over the batter. Spoon the remaining batter over the apples.

Bake at 325 degrees for about 60 minutes. Check it after about 50 minutes.

To make the glaze: melt the butter, orange juice and sugar together and spoon over the cake. I started while the cake was still in the pan. (You can see the holes I poked in the cake with a wooden skewer.) Then I turned the cake out of the pan and continued spooning the glaze. I also used a pastry brush to apply the glaze. Be patient – it all fits in there and you want it, trust me.

(printable recipe)

One Year Ago: Spanikopita (love this recipe! If you have never used phyllo dough, click here!)
                         Maple Mustard Chicken ( a standard in my house after a busy day at work- makes great leftovers for salads and sandwiches)

Basic Hummus

Maybe some of you have figured out by now that I am a part-time Middle School geography teacher. (I also teach other classes, but let’s not get into that now. When you work at a small Lutheran school, you have to be flexible and able to teach/do lots of different things – keeps life interesting, I say!) My 7^th grade curriculum this year is the Eastern Hemisphere and we started at the logical beginning – the Middle East. Remember learning about Mesopotamia, the Cradle of Civilization?

I love to cook for my students. I know they learn tons about culture and places through taste. It’s a very powerful experience for them. Sometimes I go all out and make an entire meal: paella when studying Spain or turkey in mole sauce when studying Mexico. This week I kept it simple and made hummus. Admittedly, not all the kids like all the food I make, but it’s good for them to be exposed to it.

So this is my basic, basic hummus recipe. If you have never tasted hummus, you are in for a great treat. You can bump up the flavor by adding cumin or cayenne pepper, more garlic or even scallions. But we like it plain. If you have never used tahini, you will be surprised how unusual it is!

Healthy, low-fat and totally addicting! Dip Away!

Here’s what you need:

2 cans garbanzo beans (chick peas) well rinsed

6 T tahini

1 large clove garlic

6 T lemon juice

½ C water

1 t salt

Here’s what you do:

WHILE THE BLADE IS RUNNING, drop the garlic in a food processor. This is the best trick to get teeny pieces of garlic.  You can see the little specs in the photo.

Add the remaining ingredients and blend well. Adjust water and seasonings. Mine here is a bit thick. Serve with crackers, pita, or sliced veggies. To make a beautiful presentation, you can drizzle olive oil over it and sprinkle a bit of paprika for color.

(printable recipe)

One Year Ago: Texas Caviar
                          Tomato Press (this is a good post for those of you who love kitchen gadgets)

Salmon Festival

One of our favorite dune paths

We live in one of the most beautiful places in the country – on the shores of Lake Michigan. Our beaches and sand dunes are unparalleled. Our water recreation and nature preserves for hiking are among the best.  I can’t even begin to describe how satisfying it is to drive by the lake each and every day to and from work.

The 'Big Lake' - full of salmon!

We often comment that no matter what the weather, the lake is beautiful. Often peaceful and blue skies; sometimes stormy and black skies; once in a while frozen with heavy snow clouds low over the lake. The parking lot at the beach almost always has a handful of people just sitting in their cars, watching the water and weather – every day of the year, but most especially when the weather is dramatic.  I think maybe – just maybe- Michiganders sometimes forget what a blessing it is to have all this fresh water surrounding us.

This guy's boiling potatoes

As a food lover and a food blogger I must say  a big, big bonus from living on the ‘Big Lake’ (as we affectionately call it) is the fresh salmon that is so plentiful this time of year. Last weekend our little town hosted a two-day Salmon Festival, and I attended it all.

Friday night’s Fish Boil is more casual – they serve 500 pounds of salmon! Corn on the cob, boiled potatoes, onions and a roll round out the meal….. oh, and lots of beer and good music!

Grilled salmon served with potato wedge and heirloom tomato - all of it had a  hard cider glaze - really good! 

Saturday is the popular salmon tasting – a competition between area restaurants. You get to sample various types of salmon:  salmon sliders, salmon sushi, salmon mousse, grilled salmon….oh, and lots of Michigan wines and good music! Our favorite was a simple Asian inspired salmon – grilled and served with a sesame oil dressing and then covered with sesame seeds.

Grilling the salmon sliders. Seems a shame to call them that - they were pretty fancy!

My pictures don’t begin to capture the great atmosphere of the event, but hopefully you get a feel for how much we love salmon here in West Michigan.

I recently posted my Brown Sugar Glazed Salmon here….I think you’ll like it.  Enjoy!

One Year Ago: Spiced Rum Cake (this one has a sad ending!)