Baked Potatoes au Gratin

Make Cheese Sauce

Cook potatoes.  Firm, waxy potatoes, not mealy baking potatoes, are best for this dish.

Parsley buttered potatoes, left over

To cook potatoes, you have choices: whole or cut up, peeled or not peeled, microwaved or in a pot on the stove.  Or you can use leftover potatoes, as I did here.

Embed cooked potatoes in the sauce.   Pour the mixture into an oven dish sprayed with non-stick spray.  Strew shredded cheese over the top.  Bake, covered, at 350 for 20 minutes, then take off the lid to let the top brown.

Potatoes au Gratin

To see a full set of photographs showing how this dish was made, go to this set on flickr.   (It will open in a new tab or window; to return to this page, just close it.) The small pictures are thumbnails; click on each one to see it full-size, and to read the comments under it.  If you prefer to use the slideshow feature, you won't see the captions unless you click on "show info" (top right).

Mashed Potatoes (Microwave)

Easier than instant, almost as fast, and much, much better.

Peel about 4 cups of baking potatoes, slice them into a large pyrex measuring cup, and add about a cup of water.

Potatoes cooked in a microwave oven, ready to be mashed

Cover and microwave for 10 minutes, then test for doneness.  Potatoes should be very soft.  This batch needed a few more minutes than 10 in a full-size microwave oven.

Mash them up, water and all, with a hand potato masher. Add your choice of cream, milk, butter, salt, and mash some more.

I dressed them up with dried parsley flakes.

Be sure to use mealy baking potatoes.  Firm, waxy potatoes, like red potatoes, are not a good choice for this preparation.

Feeds several, or there will be leftovers!

To see a full set of photographs showing how this dish was made, go to this set on flickr.   (It will open in a new tab or window; to return to this page, just close it.) The small pictures are thumbnails; click on each one to see it full-size, and to read the comments under it.  If you prefer to use the slideshow feature, you won't see the captions unless you click on "show info" (top right).

Pan Browned Potatoes

Pre-cooked potatoes browned in a pan

Potatoes, any sort
Bake, steam, or microwave until done
Peel (or not)
Slice
Heat a frying pan with 2 Tb oil
Saute chopped green onions and peppers (or don't have those)
Spread out the potato slices in the frying pan
Season as wanted with salt, pepper, a spice blend, or nothing
Gently fry on one side to a crunchy delicious brown
Turn and allow to brown on the other side

Serve as a side dish or as a snack.

To see a full set of photographs showing how this dish was made, go to this set on flickr.   (It will open in a new tab or window; to return to this page, just close it.) The small pictures are thumbnails; click on each one to see it full-size, and to read the comments under it.  If you prefer to use the slideshow feature, you won't see the captions unless you click on "show info" (top right).