Sunday dinners...
In our house, Sunday dinner is our "big" family meal of the week. It's usually the type of meal that takes more than an hour or so and sometimes several hours to make. It's usually the meal that by the time it's ready, you are drooling from anticipation after hours of all the wonderful smells. 🤤
This past weekend I made one of my family's favorites... BBQ ribs in the crockpot. And to me, nothing goes better with BBQ than something cheesy. When it comes to ribs, I usually pair it with cheesy scalloped potatoes. A few years ago I found a recipe for these that I really liked on Pinterest. However after making it several times, the link to the recipe stopped working! I knew that was one of the risks of not saving or backing up recipes that you find online and have had it happen before but this was frustrating because I couldn't remember it by heart and struggled to find another one that was quite as good.
Then after a few failed attempts, I finally figured it out! And I should note, that failed attempts is a "loose" use of the phrase since no one was choking down gross potatoes, just not the ones we liked the best. I remembered that I had been tracking my food on an app on my phone and you could build recipes there to get an idea of your calorie intake. Fortunately I had added the original shell of the recipe there. It didn't have all the ingredients, but the main ones and their portions were there (potatoes, milk, butter, etc.). Just not the seasonings. So I started using another recipe that seemed close as a base for the temperature of the oven and the basic ideas but the rest was up to me to figure out the seasoning ratios that worked best for us.
On Sunday, I have to say, with maybe a slight pat on the back, I nailed it! So it seems appropriate that it is my first food post on here - not only to share with you all, but to remember what I did! I hope if you try these, you enjoy them as much as we did!
Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes
2-3 Russet Potatoes (depends on the size of the potatoes - I use medium to large sized russets)
3 Tablespoons of butter
3 Tablespoons of flour
1 1/2 cups of milk
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon of salt
dash of Paprika
2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese (I like to use a sharp cheddar)
salt/pepper to taste
cayenne pepper
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. While oven is heating, cut your potatoes into thin slices (1/8 to 1/4 inches and if you have a mandoline slicer, I would suggest safely using that to get a consistent cut size for more even cooking of the potatoes.) For the cheese sauce, start by melting the butter on medium/high heat and add flour once fully melted. Cook and stir flour/butter mixture for about a minute. Slowly stir in milk and then add the teaspoon of onion powder and teaspoon of salt along with a dash of paprika. Bring to boil, stirring constantly. Once boiling, reduce heat to simmer and continue stirring until mixture begins to thicken. Add in 1 1/2 cups of cheddar cheese to sauce pan and stir until cheese is completely melted (reserve the rest for later).
In a greased baking dish (I use an 8/11" glass dish), layer half of the sliced potatoes and season with salt and pepper. Pour half of the cheese sauce on top and spread evenly over the potatoes. Layer the remaining potatoes on top and salt and pepper again. Top with remaining cheese sauce, spreading over the entire dish to evenly coat. Sprinkle cayenne pepper on top along with the remaining shredded cheddar cheese. Cover and bake for an hour and 15 to an hour and 30 minutes (until potatoes are tender and dish is bubbling).
Uncover and let stand for 5 minutes to let it cool. Enjoy!
