I am a Honey Bee

All about my adventures with cooking, crafts, and travel

pass the sushi

Perfect Potatoes Au Gratin

Perfect Potatoes Au Gratin

This week Amanda and I are taking a break from our Thirsty Thursday’s posts so we each can bring you some different posts. Amanda has a giveaway on her blog and I have a post for the brand new Pass the Cook Book Club. Awesome right? But don’t you worry as we have some fantastic posts planned for March. 🙂

Kita of Pass The Sushi has organized this great group where she picks a few recipes from a cookbook for everyone to make. It’s a fantastic way of dusting off and cracking open all of those cookbooks we all own. I am so bad about buying new books to fill them up with post-it’s and then not doing anything with them. So I was really excited when I heard about the PTCBC because it would encourage us to cook from what we own. Anyway, the first book is The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Food from My Frontier by Ree Dummond. Perfect since, as usual, I had that filled with post-its bookmarking recipes I wanted to try. 

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From three options we had, I decided on making the Perfect Potatoes Au Gratin. I remember my parents making it when I was young so I wanted to try it myself. I’m glad I tried it myself since it was super easy and made a great side for our dinner. It is a great side dish and I like that it has the possibility to take on a lot of different flavors so I can make a lot of varieties.

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When Ree says it will be garlickly she is not joking! 3 cloves of garlic!!! I love garlic so it was perfect for me and went really well with the pork cutlets I made with it. The potatoes are soft and flavorful from the creamy sauce and the cheese on top was so good. This is going to be making a regular appearance on our dinner table.

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I only made a few changes to the dish’s ingredients and cooking process. First I didn’t serve the side with the green onions just because I forgot them in the store. duh! I swapped the black pepper for white pepper because I love white pepper with creamy sauces. I increased the amount of milk because when I put the sauce mixture in the dish it didn’t cover my potatoes. Also, since it is 8 servings I knew we would eat the leftovers over a few days so I didn’t want the dish to dry out either. Lastly, I popped it under the broiler for a minute so the cheese would get browned and crunchy- which I love, so if you don’t want it to browned then just bake it and don’t broil it.

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Be sure to check out what everyone else made!

If you love cooking then you should join Pass the Cook Book Club for some monthly cooking inspiration.

Perfect Potatoes Au Gratin

Makes 8 servings

Ingredients

  • 2 tbs butter, softened
  • 4 large russets, scrubbed clean
  • 1/2 to 1 cup whole milk
  • 1 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 2 tablespoon flour
  • 3 garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • white pepper or freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar
  • 2 scallions, thinly sliced

Process

  1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Prepare a 3 quart baking dish by buttering the bottom and sides. 
  2. Slice the potatoes into sticks, then into a small dice. Place the potatoes in the baking dish.
  3. In a bowl, combine the milk, cream, flour, garlic, salt, and pepper; whisk to combine. Pour over the potatoes.
  4. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil and and bake for another 20-25 minutes. Just before serving, sprinkle with cheese and bake for another 3-5 minutes to make the cheese melted and bubbly.
  5. Serve hot and garnish with green onions, optional.

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Sugar Cookie Bars

I feel that the blog-osphere blew up this spring since just about everywhere I looked I saw sugar cookie bars. Same goes for pinterest… sugar cookie bars all over the place. Well, I figured I would join in on the fun and make some. Once I made them I kept asking myself why I didn’t make them sooner!!

 

 

I made a batch for the general contractors working on the project that is keeping me so busy at work. I’m busy but they are slammed working on the project. They have to take turns working on Saturdays supervising the work that is underway as well as the normal M-F 10hr days. Which is exactly why I brought these babies in to them one Saturday morning. I then heard the following Monday how they were flying off the carrier that I carried them in on. Thankfully everyone really enjoyed them 🙂

 

 

I used the sugar cookie bar recipe from Kita’s blog Pass The Sushi. I made some adjustments because I didn’t have a lemon so I didn’t use the lemon zest that original recipe called for and I think that the bars didn’t hurt from it. Once I had it all laid out I realized that I didn’t have that large of a baking sheet for the cookie bars. I used a 9×13 lined pan and just adjusted the length of baking. The hardest part is knowing then they are done as they are still very soft in the middle. Once I tested the cookies with a small knife and it was clean upon removal I took them out to cool. I suggest that you wait for them to cool for a few hours or over night, which will help them set up in the center and prevent the frosting from melting when put on the bars. I had some melting as I was rushing because I was making them at 6am to delivery around 8.30… learn from my foolish goofs!

Sugar Cookie Bars

-Serves 32-

Ingredients:

For the cookie bars:

  • 5 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 2 sticks of room temperature unsalted butter
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 4 large eggs
  • 2 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the frosting:

  • 2 sticks of room temperature unsalted butter
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 4 cups confectioners’ sugar
  • 3-5 tablespoons milk
  • Food coloring gel
  • Sprinkles

Process:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a large metal pan (9″x13″) with aluminum foil or parchment paper and grease.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.
  3. Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and the eggs one at a time. Mix until fully incorporated, scraping down the sides as needed. Add the flour mixture a little at a time until just combined.
  4. Using your hands or a greased flat bottomed glass, press the cookie mixture into the baking pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until light golden brown and when a knife tip is inserted in the center it is clean upon removal. Gently lift out the cookie bars from the pan and cool completely on a wire rack.
  5. To make the frosting: Cream together the butter until smooth. Add the vanilla extract and salt to the mixture. Slowly add the confectioners’ sugar until the frosting is smooth. Add the gel food coloring until the desired color is reached. Add the milk in 1 tablespoon at a time to create a smooth texture.
  6. Evenly spread the frosting over the cool sugar cookie bars and add sprinkles. Cut into even sized bars.

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