Individual Potato Gratins ala Spryte ~ BakeSpace Coast to Coast Cooking

The other day on the daily dinner thread over at BakeSpace, Michele (from My Italian Grandmother) said she was making Melissa D'Arabian's dinner from The Next Food Network Star season finale. She also posted a link to the recipes. When I watched that episode, I was thinking I'd like to make the potatoes. Who doesn't like cheesy potatoes? Everyone should like them. But I still had no clue what I was making for dinner. (oh and for the record, I think Jeffrey Saad should have won!!)

Danielle (from Cooking for my Peace of Mind) had some chicken thawing, but also no idea what to do with it.

Then Michele suggested she make the 4 Step Chicken from the same episode and that they should both make it. Danielle loved the idea and suggested they also blog about it on the same day.

Well... I read that and thought, "Hey!!! I wanna play too!!!!" And at about the same time Shane (from Culinary Alchemy) said he wanted to play too!

It's on! We're all cooking food from that episode and blogging about it on the same day!

BakeSpace Coast to Coast Challenge!!

So here's my version of Melissa D'Arabian's 5 Minute Individual Potato Gratins.

First... why are they called '5 Minute'?? The prep time is 15 minutes and the baking time is 40 minutes! Maybe 5 minutes to gobble them up?? I dunno.

Anyway... this is my version. =)

Individual Potato Gratins ala Spryte
2 large russet potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
3/4 C sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
2 TBLS chopped fresh chives
2 TBLS light sour cream
2% milk to make 3/4 C when added to the sour cream
worcestershire sauce, a couple shakes
yellow mustard, a good squirt
salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 400F
Whisk together milk & sour cream.
Whisk in worcestershire sauce, mustard, salt and pepper.
Spray 6 large size muffin tins with cooking spray.
Layer potatoes, shredded cheese and chives into each cup and repeat. This should pretty much fill one tray.
Pour milk mixture evenly into each cup. Cover muffin tray with foil and bake 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake another 20 minutes.
Gently slide a butter knife around the edge of each cup to loosen the potatoes.
Turn gratins out onto a plate.
Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yeah... I peeled an extra potato that I didn't need.


A couple tablespoons of sour cream & enough milk to make 3/4 cup


A couple shakes of Worcestershire & some yellow mustard


And salt & pepper


Layer the potatoes in the greased muffin cups.


Sprinkle in cheese & chives


Repeat


Top off with cheese & chives


Pour milk mixture evenly into each cup


Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes in preheated oven.


Remove foil and bake 20 more minutes.


Now they're golden with yummy crispy edges


You definitely want to run a knife around the edges of these.




Now your little Individual Cheesy Potato side dishes are ready!


So my version was great! We really loved it and I'll definitely be making it again!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

But now you have to go check it out Coast to Coast ~ BakeSpace Style!

Here's Michele's ~ Cookin' it in New Jersey:

Click HERE to read about Michele's version.

And Danielle's ~ Cookin' it in California:

Click HERE to read about Danielle's versions.

And Shane's ~ Cookin' it in California:

Click HERE to read about Shanes' versions.

Don't those all look great??!!!

We have a lot of fun over at BakeSpace. Come cook with us!!!

Bobby's Chicken Chilaquiles

When one of your kids wants to make you breakfast, how can you say no?

You can't!

When Bob first started 'cooking' it was always scrambled eggs. He'd ask everyone, daily, even guests, if they wanted him to make them some scrambled eggs!

On July 5th... after probably a year of no offers of scrambled eggs, Bob asked me if I wanted him to make me some scrambled eggs for breakfast.

Of course I said, "Yes!" Then after thinking about it for a second, I said, "How about if I show you how to make those scrambled eggs into Chilaquiles?" He said ok... even though he wasn't super thrilled with the idea. He prefers his eggs plain.

And really Chilaquiles only has eggs in it if you're eating it in Baja California, Mexico (or with me or my nephew Damien!)

I suggested it because I had plenty of Smoked Beer Can Chicken left from the day before.

So my shirtless little monkey got started, whisking up some eggs with red enchilada sauce.




While he was doing that, I cut up some corn tortillas and popped them into the oven to get crispy.

Eggs into a hot non-stick pan.


When they're cooked a little soft, add the leftover shredded chicken.


And continue cooking... (Bob's action stirring shot)


Add a big handful of toasted tortilla strips...
(more stirring action)


Add enchilada sauce to soften chips.




It's breakfast time!!


Thanks Dude!! Breakfast ROCKED!!

Grilled Citrus Chicken

Mmm.... isn't that beautiful?



A few weeks back I was dying for something 'fresh'.

On the dinner thread over at BakeSpace I was looking for "some kinda citrusy/orangy/not too orangy/fresh/garlicy" marinade for chicken.

Matt74 offered up his Citrusy Marinade for chicken and it looked great!!

I changed it a little...

Matt74's Citrus Marinade
1 tbls each of lemon,lime,and orange zest
1 tbls each of the juice
I added more OJ
2 shallots minced
4 cloves garlic minced
2 tbls good Dijon mustard
I replaced the Dijon with Soy Sauce
1/3 cup olive oil
1 1/2 tbls honey
2 tbls fresh thyme minced fine
salt and pepper to taste

Throw everything in a jar or whisk together put in a ziploc and marinate at least 2 hrs.

I didn't have two hours... so I put in my FoodSaver in the fridge for an hour.

Matt74's dinners always sound amazing!! Check out more of his recipes HERE.

Everything into my 2.25 qt FoodSaver container.


Plus chicken cutlets.


I mix it around really good with my hands to be sure everything gets well covered.


Vacuum seal and into the fridge for an hour.


Fast forward 60 minutes...

Slap those babies on the grill. I only have a charcoal grill and while 60 minutes of marinating time is plenty to get the coals ready, it's extremely rare for me to use the outside grill on a work night.

So cast iron grill it is.



How gorgeous is THAT??




Add some rice and snap peas and it's dinner time!!


This recipe is DEFINITELY a keeper! All of the fresh citrus zest, plus the garlic, gave this chicken just the fresh zippy flavor I was looking for!

Thanks Matt!!

Leftover Stir Fry

Hey! Remember me?? I said I was back, then I pretty much disappeared again!

I think I'm just not quite as interested in cooking during the summer. Daylight Savings Time makes my schedule all wonky... being light later... YUCK!

Anyway!

This is a leftover from the 4th of July! Yeah... a WHOLE month ago! It's a good thing it's only been sitting in the computer, and not in the fridge!

Remember those awesome Smoked Ribs & Beer Can Chicken?

We had a ton of that leftover. I made two slabs of ribs, a whole chicken, plus burgers and dogs. And there were only 5 of us!

What to do with delicious smoky leftovers?

Jon suggested stir fry. He suggests that often. I like to do it with fresh veggies, so it's a lot of chopping for me. Being in summer lazy mode, I quickly dismissed it as too much work... and well... does smoky meat really 'go' with stir fry??

The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea! Well... not the idea of chopping lots of veggies... but the smoky meat in the stir fry.

So on my way home, I stopped at the store and grabbed a couple bags of frozen stir fry veggies.


Then I started pulling the meat off of the left over ribs.


Yum! Had to be sure to get lots of that salty/spicy/smoky bark!


Also some leftover Beer Can Chicken.


There's usually some kinda Asian noodles hiding in my pantry.


Saute up some onions & garlic in a little chile oil.


Throw in the shredded meat.




Add both kinds of Stir Fry Veggies plus some Asian sauces...
(I probably used soy sauce, oyster sauce & fish sauce)


Some cooked Asian noodles...




Top with some sesame seeds and it's dinner time!


Jon usually comes up with some pretty good dinner ideas... I just need to listen more often!