au gratin potatoes. Mmmmmmm.....

When you're on a blogging roll, it's best to just go with it, right?

So, for our Sunday dinner yesterday, Emma and I made Au Gratin Potatoes.... a potato casserole with a crumbly, toasty-cheesy topping. This comes straight out of my old, falling apart Betty Crocker cookbook. Good stuff right here!! Betty is such a good friend!

I'll talk you through it, and then put the whole recipe at the bottom of the post.

Start with 2 pounds of potatoes (about 6 medium size ones)

You can peel them or scrub them & leave the skins on, whichever you prefer.

This time, we peeled. I got help from the 7-year old:

(I know. She's scrubbing in this photo. We had to explain to her that when you peel them, they don't need to be scrubbed first! She only scrubbed one. This kid's not dumb!!)

Then chop up about a 1/2 cup's worth of onion.

(That would be a "medium" onion -- but all mine are super-XL right now -- so I only used part of it.)

Put it in a saucepan with 1/4 cup of butter or margarine, and get it cooking.

This is a good recipe for needing everything ready. Measure it out, prep it, and lay it out.

It would even be a good idea to slice up the potatoes before starting to cook the onion. I didn't do that this time, and it still worked out, but that was with no distractions.

Slice them about 1/8" thick, and try to keep the slices uniform, so they cook evenly. You could slice a little thicker, but plan on a little extra cook time for that.

Spray the casserole dish with cooking spray. This one's a 7 1/2" x 11" Pyrex. Then start laying the slices in it. Gaps are good, because it gives the sauce a place to go. Now go check your onions before they burn!!

Mine look a little too yellow, because I used margarine this time. 

Butter is truly better. Do as I say, not as I did.

So, when the onions are translucent, tender, and starting to brown up on the edges, add flour, salt, and pepper. Cook & stir for a couple of minutes.

Then add milk ... gradually. Stir it in before adding more milk. And then add in the grated cheddar cheese. You could totally substitute other cheeses.

It will be very runny with all kinds of goodness floating around in it. This time, I subbed in garlic salt for regular salt, and you can also see bits of parsley in there. Keep stirring as it comes to a boil, then cook and stir it a minute longer. It will thicken somewhat. You don't want it too thick at this point, because you want the sauce to run in and around all the spuds in the dish.

The cheese will melt in and it will be hot and bubbly. Then pour it over the sliced spuds:

You can shift slices and help the sauce get in there all the way.

Put it in the oven at 375 degrees.

Or, go for the smokey flavor and put it on the pellet grill! The cheese sauce totally takes on the smoke flavor. (ohhh, ok. In the oven works just fine, too.)

Let that baby cook for an hour like that, uncovered. You can piggy back this in the oven with something else. Baked chicken breasts, pork chops, meat loaf, or ribs comes to mind. Because it's not covered, the sauce will thicken as it cooks. And take on smoke flavor!

Then mix more cheese with dry bread crumbs ...

It will be starting to brown when you add the cheese-crumb mixture. Looking good already!

Sprinkle the mix over the top, and also some paprika, and then cook for another 15-20 minutes.

When it's done, it will be all brown and bubbly on the edges, and the crumbs soak up some of the sauce, and the cheese melts in on top. 

WAY good!!!

This will easily serve 6 people, and everybody likes it.

We even got the picky 7-year old to eat it!!

You can totally double it for a bigger batch -- increase cooking time, though.

AU GRATIN POTATOES

2 pounds potatoes (about 6 medium)
1 medium onion, chopped (about 1/2 cup)
1/4 cup BUTTER - or margarine
1 T. flour
1 t. salt (try garlic salt -- Yum!)
1/4 t. pepper  ..... cracked fresh is extra good .... just sayin'.
2 cups milk
2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese (about 8 oz.)
1/4 c. fine dry bread crumbs
Paprika

Peel potatoes, or scrub if leaving skins on. Slice thinly, about 1/8" -- should measure about 4 cups. Place potatoes in greased casserole.

Cook and stir onion in butter in 2-quart saucepan until onion is tender. Stir in flour, salt and pepper. Cook over low heat, stirring, until mixture is bubbly. Remove from heat. Stir in milk, gradually, and 1 1/2 cups of the cheese. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir one minute. Pour cheese sauce over potatoes. Cook uncovered in 325-degree oven 1 hour 20 minutes, or in 375-degree oven 1 hour.

Mix remaining cheese and the bread crumbs; sprinkle over potatoes. Sprinkle with paprika. Cook uncovered until top is brown and bubbly, 15-20 minutes longer.