(Julia Child's) Grandmother's Potatos Au Gratin with Ham

Possibly the most thoughtful gift that I received this Christmas was from my dear friend, Alyssa. She gifted me with The Way to Cook by Julia Child, and as soon as I got it home I flipped through every page of it. The book is organized in such an intuitive way, that I almost read it like a text. Core recipes branch out into multiple variations, so once I know how to saute Chicken, I'll have 10 new dishes up my sleeve! Amazing. But, this post is not about sauteed chicken, it's about using Christmas leftovers, which is another topic that Julia frequently references! And now... Having blabbered on like an Amy Adams movie, I'm just going to post the recipe.

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs "boiling" potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/4" thin
• 1 oz butter (1/4 of a stick)
• 1 1/2 T flour
• 2 c hot milk
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• Small punch of nutmeg and thyme
• 1 clove garlic, mashed
• 1 T dijon mustard
• 1 c Italian blend of cheeses, shredded
• 2 c leftover ham slices

 Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375. In a medium sized pan, cover potatoes with cold water, then cover and bring to a boil. Let boil 3-4 minutes, they will be mostly cooked but not quite. Drain, return to pan and cover again (so that the potatoes will firm up), then let sit open until you are ready to assemble the dish.
2. Make a white sauce by melting the butter in a medium pan on medium heat. Add the flour and whisk quickly until the mixture is smooth. Add the garlic and continue whisking 2 minutes, reduce heat if roux begins to darken.
3. Add 1/2 of the hot milk, and continue stirring until sauce thickens, slowly add the other 1/2 and continue whisking. Continue simmering for 2-3 minutes until sauce is creamy. Add dijon, and seasonings.
4. Dice leftover ham into good sized chunks.
5. In a medium sized casserole dish, layer the first 1/2 of each of these ingredients in casserole in this way, then repeat. Potatoes, ham, sauce, cheese.
6. Bake at 375 for 35 minutes, then let stand 15 minutes before serving.

Deep Dish Skillet Pizza - My first post!

This is my first contribution to Goodies and Grub so I guess I should formally introduce myself! I am the previously mentioned friend, Monica. I have varied experience in the kitchen, from learning from my parents growing up, to having my own culinary radio show while attending Miami U, I have worked as a short order kitchen cook and manager and even spent some time in a French kitchen in Cape Cod as a sous chef. I'm a foodie friend who is super proud of my girls and all of their kitchen prowess, you're both a couple of culinary cuties!

Like the girls, I also feed the man in my life. His name is Fred and he loves to eat just about as much as I love to cook. He's a meat and potatoes kinda guy and I like to try things that are a bit more daring, he's only worried until the fork hits his mouth. He doesn't do much cooking himself, but he enjoys baking and has promised to teach me his grandma's cinnamon roll recipe which I look forward to sharing with you all!




And now for the meat of the matter...the delicious pizza I stuffed in my belly for dinner last night :)

I have wanted to try this for so long, pizza in a cast iron skillet! And, pizza is the perfect midweek go to for using up leftovers! For a quick and easy fix, I used a recipe of yeastless dough and leftover breaded chicken parmesan.

Yeastless Dough:

2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
2/3 cup water
Olive oil

Mix dry ingredients in a medium bowl, add water and then knead together for approximately 2 minutes or until well blended and a little sticky to the touch.

Preheat oven to 325. Use olive oil to coat the bottom of a cast iron skillet, I used a #8 pan. Press dough into the bottom of the skillet and slightly up the sides. Coat the dough top with olive oil before spreading down the pizza sauce. This helps seal the dough to keep it from becoming soggy from the sauce. You can use whatever ingredients you have available, I used leftover chicken parmesan, sliced into thin strips. I started it with Schiavone's red sauce, you can find it at Kroger and it is a perfectly sweet and garlicy sauce manufactured by family friends of mine. A layer of marinated mushrooms, freshly grated parmesan, fresh basil and oregano (from my little balcony garden), and crushed red pepper sealed the deal.

Place the pizza in your preheated oven for 25 minutes and then finish off under the broiler for the last 5 minutes, or until crispy and browned to perfection!

Forget Me Not Breakfast

A little reminder not to forget about all of the delicious bits of leftovers in the fridge when it comes time for breakfast.


Ingredients:

• 1 glug oil
• 1-2 T chopped onion
• 1 t chopped garlic
• Veggies: broccoli (use anything fresh!)
• Leftovers: 1/2 c rice, asparagus, shish kabobs
• 2 eggs
• 1 T parmesan cheese
• 2 T sausage
• Salt and Pepper

1. Heat oil in a skillet, saute onions and garlic for 1-2 minutes
2. Add sausage, brown and crumble another 2 minutes
3. Add lesser cooked/raw veggies
4. Add more cooked veggies and any cooked meat
5. Add rice, two dashes of soy sauce if you're a savor-toothed tiger like me. Brown 1-2 minutes.
6. Make a ring in the pan, turn the heat way down and add the scrambled eggs to the middle of the pan. At this point, resist the urge to push the eggs around in the pan because it's going to make a sticky mess of the rice. Just put the lid on and wait patiently for about 5 minutes, then flip the eggs and kind of chop them with your spatula. Give it another 2-3 minutes covered, and voila!
7. For the ultimate cultural confusion, serve on a warm tortilla :)