Scalloped Potatoes!

For dinner tonight I made another of my Mum's recipes. Scalloped potatoes are something I grew up eating a lot of. Irish family loving potatoes? Isn't that a novelty? Ha! With the potatoes I made some curried lentil loaf that I blogged about before, and some sugar snap peas. We ate it super duper quickly due to time constraints, so it's a good thing the kids liked it all! ;)

I just finished making these oatmeal cookies with raisins instead of chocolate chips so that Tiernan could bring a sweet treat to his Oz rehearsal tomorrow. But also so I could have a couple to curb my sweet craving. ;)

***I don't think this recipe has EVER been measured out. It also depends on how much you want to make. When I was taught by my Mum how to make it, I was taught to eyeball it. So, no measurements in this recipe... ***

Scalloped Potatoes

red potatoes, peeled and sliced thinly

onion, finely diced

margarine

flour

dried parsley

paprika

milk

Grease a round casserole dish (or whatever size dish you want) with margarine. Preheat the oven to 350.

Layer some sliced potatoes on the bottom of the dish until it's completely covered, overlapping them a bit. Sprinkle some chopped onion over the potatoes. Next, drop three small dabs of butter on the potatoes in different spots. Sprinkle a little bit of flour over the top.

Continue making the layers until your dish is filled, finishing with potatoes (no onion, butter or flour). Sprinkle the paprika and parsley over the top.

Now, fill the dish about 1/3 of the way with milk.

Cover and cook for about 45 minutes. Remove the lid, and cook for another 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are cooked through and the top is crisping up a bit.

Lazy and delicious!

What a drab, gloomy, overcast kind of day. One of those days where it hits you that Spring is never coming. Please tell me I'm wrong. Pretty please! With a cherry on top! I don't know how much more winter I can take. It's like this every single year for me. I want the snow in November, I love the snow in December, I want it gone in January, and I loathe it in February (and March.. and possibly even April... please no!).

At any rate, today was the kind of day that I didn't get very motivated at all. I tinkered in the kitchen a bit, I went to the store, I did some laundry and general tidying up, I talked on the phone, and I cuddled on the couch. Luckily for me, I had picked out a simple supper for my menu today so not a whole lot of motivation was needed.

This morning I made some granola for my granola-loving husband. He eats the stuff mixed with yogurt every morning. He also enjoys it on ice cream, and it's now become a little inside joke on his twitter feed. He's known for his granola. What a thing to be known for. Ha!

Granola

4 cups rolled oats

1/2 cup shredded coconut

1/2 cup flax seeds, ground

1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

1/2 cup pumpkin seeds

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

1/2 cup sesame seeds

1 tbsp cinnamon

1/2 -3/4 cup honey (enough to make it clump together a bit)

1/2 cup oil

Heat oven to 300.

Mix all of the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Add the honey and oil and stir to coat completely. Add more honey if needed.

Pour mixture onto two 9x13 inch baking sheets. Cook in the middle of the oven for approximately 20 minutes. Stir halfway through, being careful to watch and make sure it doesn't burn.

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I have a deep love affair with risotto. I find it so comforting, filling and delicious. The best part about it is that it tastes even better as leftovers the next day. There are not many leftovers I will eat, much less look forward to... but risotto is definitely at the top of that chart. My husband on the other hand lives for leftovers. He says he actually enjoys them, and I believe him. He's a strange fellow. ;)

So I guess you can guess that part of dinner was a cheesy risotto, huh? Genius! If you've never made a risotto before, don't worry. It's actually quite simple.. just a bit tedious.

Cheesy Risotto

1 tbsp olive oil

1 small onion, minced

salt and white pepper, to taste

6 cups of veggie broth

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 lb arborio rice

1 tbsp butter

1/4 cup cream

1/3 cup parmesan cheese

1/3 cup Asiago cheese

2 tbsp chives, chopped

Heat a large pot over medium heat and add the olive oil. Saute the onion, salt and white pepper until the onion is soft.

Add the vegetable broth and minced garlic and bring to a boil. Turn to low and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the rice, stir and cook for 20-30 minutes. The key point is to make sure you are constantly stirring the rice. Test the rice after the 20 minute mark, and add time as needed.

Add the butter, cream, cheeses, and chives. Add salt and pepper if needed. Simmer for another few minutes, and serve.

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To go with our rice dish, I made a simple broccoli, cauliflower, carrot dish and some (frozen) veggie meatballs made in my mother's delicious sweet and sour sauce. My kids love their Nana's sweet & sour sauce!

Sweet & Sour Sauce

1 medium onion, chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

1 1/2 lemons worth of juice

2 tbsp white vinegar

1 tbsp vegetarian worcestershire sauce

2 tbsp brown sugar

1/2 cup water

1 cup ketchup

salt & pepper, to taste

Saute the onion in the oil until soft.

Mix the rest of the ingredients together in a small bowl. Add the cooked onion and stir to combine.

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All in all, even though the day has been rather lazy and blah, I'm happy to have an excuse to sit with my family on the couch, under a blanket and cuddle up watching Survivor. We all need days like this one! Hopefully this will be the last snow dump that Mother Nature brings us this winter.