And to top it off, we had some friends coming over for dinner. I don't get to see them very often so when Monday night was their only free night, I jumped at the chance to get together.
Of course, I have to work and my budget is low, so I had to come up with something low cost and tasty to feed 10 people! It had to be kid friendly and also be enjoyable for the adults. After combing my cupboards and fridge I decided on Scalloped potatoes and Pecan Pie Cheese cake for dessert.
I have to admit to you, I've never made a Cheese cake before! I was more than a little nervous! And if you know me, you know I'm not big on baking. I've gotten a little more adventurous after having my daughter and due to my weekend job (I'm a private chef) but even Iron Chef Michael Symon will admit he doesn't bake much! My standard baking routine has always been quick breads (banana bread, zucchini bread, pumpkin bread...you get the idea) or fruit crisps or cobblers, so making a cheese cake was a bit intimidating.
So, I got up Monday morning, got Olivia off to school, and started my baking! I found the recipe on Pinterest. It's not my own. You can go to http://www.heidis-so-called-life.com/2010/11/pecan-pie-cheesecake.html to find the recipe.
Now, luckily for me, during the week I work for the apartment complex that I live in, so I can come and go as I please. So after assembling the cheese cake and getting it in the oven I set the timer on my phone and went about my business. As you will see when you look at the recipe, you bake it for an hour and then turn the oven off and let it sit in the oven for an hour with the oven off. That's what made this a perfect recipe for a day like today! I didn't have to babysit the oven. I came back and turned the oven off after an hour and then went about my business again for another hour. When I came back, this is what I had!!!
It almost didn't make it to dinner!
So now I had to really get back to work. I worked until 5. The only other "break" I had was to go to the bus stop to get my daughter and fix her an after school snack. (Her favorite is celery with cream cheese and raisins!) Now I had to clean up and get dinner going!
My scalloped potato recipe is quick, easy, and tasty! I do it all on the stove top! (and all in one kettle!) I take half a pound of bacon (while it is still mostly frozen) and cut it in small pieces and I chop a medium to large onion. I fry the bacon in a large kettle and once the bacon starts to render I add the onions. I fry the bacon til crisp and the onions are soft and almost transparent then drain the fat. In the mean time, I peel my potatoes and use the slicing blade on my food processor to cut them into slices. I chop some ham and add it to the bacon and onions. (these amounts vary depending on how many people you are cooking for. Eye ball it!) After you have your potatoes sliced and ham chopped it's time to layer them in your kettle. I put a layer of potatoes, then ham, then potatoes, then ham and end with potatoes. I also sprinkle a package of dry onion soup mix on the potatoes as I'm layering them. After you have everything layered in your kettle pour milk (1%, 2%, whole, skim--doesn't really matter. I use 1% mostly) to about and inch from the top of your potatoes. Cook them on your stove top on med to med low heat for about an hour, stirring them occasionally to keep them from sticking and burning to the bottom. When the potatoes start to cook the starch from them and the milk will thicken and the onion soup mix will flavor the potatoes and make a very flavorful sauce! This is the ONLY way I make scalloped potatoes anymore just because it is so fast and easy. You can also stir some shredded cheddar (I like sharp) into them once they are done for au gratin potatoes is you'd like. You can cook them on higher heat if you want, you would just need to babysit the kettle and stir it more often to keep them from burning (the stirring of them too much will make the potatoes break too so it won't look as pretty) but it can be done and you can have this completed in half and hour or less if needed. I just prefer to cook them on med to med low so the potatoes stay in tact a bit better and I don't have to stir them constantly, which then allowed me time to get cleaned up and ready for company!
I wish I would have gotten a picture of the potatoes! They were so good! And there were not any leftovers!
The only note I have would be on the cheese cake, I would have given it about 15 minutes more of baking time as it seemed to not be quite set in the middle. We ate it anyway! And it was great!!!
We all had a great time and dinner and dessert were delicious! Not bad for a Monday night!
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