Peachy Side Up Shortcut Shortcake

The Bat's favorite spice is cardamom. My personal (wink wink) theory is that she just likes the "mom" part of it, but, then again, I'm rather partial to it in some foods, as well. I especially like it with apples and peaches and the like. Therefore, when I run across a simple recipe for peaches which uses some seasonings which I know will overpower the flavor of the fruit, I call out for my 'mom.

I'd been actively searching for a Jacques Pepin concoction involving toasted slices of brioche topped with peaches and cream caramelized (heavy on cognac, of course), and I came across a simpler, comparable dessert in a spiral-bound vanity-press cookbook published by some unnamed Methodist church.

Now, my folks don't to alcohol, for one reason or another, so I don't subject them to it unless it's absolutely impossible to get around it (so far, it hasn't been). Seeing this was an older Methodist cookbook (from back when they served grape juice for communion), there was none of that stuff going into their plans, here. Still, it used a superabundance of nutmeg. Not that there's anything wrong with that. It just didn't seem to allow for pleasure in dining on the peaches themselves. So, I had to pass on that, by my own personal preference.

Either way, the process is simple and the ingredient list is minimal.

Oh, the best part of each of these recipes is, they're not seasonal. They both relied on a big ol' can of cling peaches. So you can fix it any spring morning, if you so desire. You don't have to wait until your orchard is ready for picking.

Peachy Side Up Shortcut Shortcake

A little deranged-looking, but happy, no?

Ingredients:

1 29-oz can of peaches

1 8-oz carton of heavy (whipping) cream

1/2 tsp ground cardamom

1 16.3-oz. pkg Pillsbury Honey Butter Grands biscuits

chopped pistachios, pecans or cashews (optional)

Directions:

Drain syrup from can of peaches, pouring it into a skillet. On high, cook until it becomes caramel (about 8-10 minutes). There is no need to stir, but in the last minute or so, give the pan a few swirls or shakes to keep the edges from burning. Stir in the cardamom, cream, and peaches, bring back to boil stirring constantly. Into a 10-inch covered casserole, spoon peaches and arrange cut-side down.Pour cream caramel over them, cover, and refrigerate for at least an hour.

.

Kinda looks like underdone eggs, doesn't it? Doesn't taste that way.

Meanwhile, Preheat oven according to instructions on biscuit container. Open biscuit canister, follow directions for preparation.* Bake.

After the biscuits have cooled sufficiently to handle, place a split biscuit on plate, set peach on top of each half. Spoon caramel cream over top of each half biscuit.**

This dessert can be served on warm or cooled biscuit "shortcakes".

Serves at least 6

*If you want to go all fancy, you can mix a teaspoon of honey with a teaspoon of water, brush mixture on tops of biscuits before baking (or you can brush with a little milk and sprinkle with some sugar). Personally, we think there's already enough sweetness in this dessert before you get to that point....

**finishing options include topping with chopped pistachios, pecans or cashews, or drizzles of raspberry syrup. Again, fond though I am of nuts and syrup, I kind of like them plain.

Pizza and tossed salad

I heart radishes!

So, the Bat and I made pizza, last evening. Most of the time, she makes the dough for the crust, and I come swooping in and throw stuff on top of it at the last minute, before it gets made into a meal... we cheated, yesterday, and used store-bought crusts -- one of the recognizable brand name, and two of a relatively unknown name. Both were very good, of course, but not as good as had we followed the "secret family recipe" she adapted from her Chicago-Style Pizza cookbook (she likes the Uno's recipe). Fresh crust always wins that contest. But shortcuts are encouraged, if you have a crowd or if you have time constraints

Since we had company, we had three pizzas. Bat likes putting a ton of mushrooms, olives and cheese, and not much else, on hers. Pop likes a lot of meat, so we pile on the Italian sausage, pepperoni and onions. Me, like a non-red-sauced pizza with loads of vegetables, and, if we have any, a little roasted chicken (I prefer dark meat, but this week, the local market had bone-in, skin-on breasts on sale for $o.98 per lb, and the thigh meat was fully thirty cents more. And these were great honkin' breasts, at that. So, chicken hooters it was.

I also had to chop an onion, a couple of sweet bell peppers, and a few other items, so, as I was already doing the work, I opted to make a tossed salad to accompany the 'za. Why waste a perfectly good half-pepper, if it won't fit on the bread? Also, we'd been to Aldi the other day, & found a box of "artisan lettuces"... a couple of butter varieties and some other spiky variants of the mizuna family. It clearly meant must use. There's nothing like a big bowl of cool greens to go with a platter of garlic-laden goodies! Naturally, I dragged out a few other vegetables to go into the bowl: celery, radish, coarse-grated carrot, cauliflower (broken apart into slightly-smaller than bite-sized chunks), bell pepper, finely chopped scallions, and chunks of fresh, vine-ripened tomatoes. I was only sorry I had no avocado in the house!

But then, maybe that would have been too much... it doesn't even need dressing, this way.

As it was, the pizza was filling and kept everybody happy -- my own pizza was a hit with Pop and the guests (not enough left over for breakfast, darn it!).

So, here's what I did for mine:

Pesto Pizza

Ingredients:

one of your choice of 12-inch (or so) crust (I prefer extra thin & crispy, but since we were cheating & using store bought, & the Bat took that one for hers, mine this time was on a "regular" crust)

Extra virgin olive oil to brush crust

8 oz. sliced fresh mushrooms, quick-stir-fried in butter

1/3 cup pesto sauce (your favorite. I usually decide which one to use the moment I'm beginning assembly)

2/3 cup ricotta cheese, crumbled

1 1/2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

1 cup frozen spinach, thawed

1/3 sliced sweet bell pepper

1/3 cup or so sliced sweet onion

1 medium tomato, sliced thinly

1/2 cup chopped chicken, cooked

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425º F.

In a hot frying pan or wok, drop a tablespoon or so of butter, and, when melted (before the butter starts to smoke), stir in mushroom slices. Cook until golden but not crisped. Set aside.

Precook (or open package of) your favorite pizza crust. Brush generously with olive oil, even (especially!) the edges. Spread pesto over the surface. Crumble ricotta cheese (yes, it's soft, so you can spread it with a spatula, but it will mix in with the pesto sauce, then, so be prepared for that, if you do).

In a strainer (or with your bare hands, if you're feeling macho), press as much of the liquid as you can from the thawed spinach. Spread thinly over surface of pizza. Cover with mozzarella cheese. Arrange the rest of the toppings to satisfy your sense of esthetics.

Bake in hot oven 10 minutes, or until cheese bubbles and begins to brown.

Allow to cool only a minute or two before serving.

Blimey! It's limey! Lime Curd

I bought a couple little bags of little limes, last week, at which time the Bat asked me what I intended to do with them. When I say "little limes," I mean approximately the size of cherry tomatoes. These are not your typical bartender's limes, but closer to key limes (see pic above. That's not a giant lemon, just a regular one, slightly smaller than a baseball). They require some work to juice, since they won't fit into the average citrus juice press. Natch, the Bat was not volunteering to sit all afternoon squidging the little things on one of her gadgets.

I knew that ahead of time. I did some warm-up exercises before I started, today.

Now, you already know the big downside to itsy bitsy citsy... er, um, citrusy things. You're going to have a sore arm, stiff fingers, and a very angry wrist. The upside is, you get a lot more zest per tablespoon of juice. All those little guys have a touch more surface area than one or two big guys. This means, when I got going, I had plenty of extra zest to put into a little tub and pop into the freezer for a later occasion. Plus, some of those peels went down the garbage disposal, making the kitchen smell like... well, like lovely, lovely limes.

Meanwhile, I had, from my two pounds of limes, a little over 1.75 cups of juice and about five tablespoons of zest, and I was ready to roll. So I fixed me up a mess o' curd.

Lime Curd

Ingredients:

2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 1/2 cups fresh lime juice

2 Tablespoons lime zest

4 eggs, well-beaten

Directions:

Place double boiler on high heat. Put sugar, butter, lime juice, and zest in upper level, stir until butter melts.

In a separate small bowl, thoroughly beat the eggs (but not so they're frothy), then whisk two tablespoons of the hot lime mixture into the eggs, stirring to blend well.

Reduce heat to medium until water is just simmering. Gradually add the egg into the lime mix, whisking constantly. Cook in top of double boiler until the mixture thickens and coats the back of a wooden spoon (about 20-25 minutes).

Ladle into clean jars, put lids on them, allow to seal*, and refrigerate when cooled to lukewarm. Best if eaten within a few days.

*the bat taught me the basic trick to sealing foods into a jar... make sure the jars are absolutely clean, still warm. Put fresh new lids into simmering water, allow to stand a few minutes to soften the rubberized seal. Using a canner's funnel, fill your jars with what it is you're planning to preserve. Make sure the rim of the jar is clean. Using tongs, take lid from hot water, place carefully over the top of the jar, then clamp it down with a screw-on canning ring. (At this time, you may also wish to put them through a hot water bath, for greatest degree of canning safety, if you're not planning to refrigerate or to eat within a few days). If you've done it all correctly, as it cools you will hear a little "ping" or "pop" from the creation of a vacuum seal. If it doesn't seal, just pig out or pop it in the fridge.

Bunnies, bunnies, bunnies...

Today, I'm breeding bunnies.

The process is very simple -- almost as simple as the mother nature variety (but not nearly so overwhelming, for the uninitiated). In fact, if you go back to my Christmastime post on Mice in the Kitchen, you already have the basics.

You will need a double-boiler and either waxed paper or parchment for this project, as before. But, sorry, no dark chocolate. I also recommend avoiding the use of white chocolate chips, favoring the brick/block style chocolate for this project, because I find that the chips tend to be less inclined to melt smoothly (they're great baked into stuff, but crummy for dipping). And, by my personal preference, I have chosen the white chocolate kisses with cookie crumbs in them, over plain white chocolate or the hugs, with the chocolate stripes. It's mostly esthetic, but then, I also like how the cookie bits cut the excessive sweetness of white chocolate, and these little guys are plenty sweet anyway. I also chose to visit the organic food store for their unsweetened, medium coconut, rather than the other local supermarket brand option, for the same reason (they only carry sugar-added). Sweetened coconut would just be too darned much, for anybody over the age of six.

So, to bunnies.

White Chocolate Marshmallow Bunnies

Ingredients:

1 lb white chocolate (block form)

1 bag regular "campfire style" marshmallows

1 bag mini marshmallows

1 bag (12 oz or so) Hershey's white chocolate kisses, your choice of variety

1/2 cup unsweetened coconut, medium or fine flake

sliced almonds or cashew halves

Directions:

In the upper portion of a double boiler, over low heat*, melt white chocolate. Dip large marshmallows, one at a time, to completely cover them with the white chocolate, set them on parchment or waxed paper to cool a little bit.

While those are cooling, lay out pairs of nuts on another parchment sheet, to form ears (use your own artistic sense to decide whether to point them all in one direction, or to make the "lop ear" arrangement). If you are using almond slices, set them up so the pointier side is left fully exposed, and the round end is the anchor. Dip flat side of kiss into white chocolate (or, dip a tool into it, then spread onto the flat surface), then set that, liquid-side-down, on top of a pair of nuts. Allow to cool a few minutes, to set up. You do not want to try to attach them to the "body" too soon, as they will tend to surrender to gravity if the chocolate is still too soft.

Meanwhile, dip small marshmallow into chocolate. Roll in coconut, let rest on one edge of cooling dipped marshmallow to make the tail.

Add the head (if they've cooled too much for the chocolate to adhere, go ahead and lightly dip again, hold in position for a little while before moving to the next bunny).

Do not allow any two to sit too closely together... bunnies can become a problem, can't they?

1 lb of white chocolate will make approximately 4 dozen bunnies, depending on how thick you layer the chocolate on the marshmallows.

*be careful to keep the temp down, and to stir regularly. White chocolate will quickly turn to lumpy, beige, vanilla-flavored almond bark if allowed to overheat. It tastes okay, but if you wanted pristine white bunnies, you won't get them if you're not on your toes. I speak from experience.

Note: If you don't like the long noses these bunnies have, wait until they're cooled, then heat a knife to melt/cut off a portion, to round the face out a little. I find that the kids who eat these little guys have no complaints about my Cyrano de Bungeracs.

In line for a decoration

I cheated, this week.

You see, there was this boy, and his sixth birthday, and his expressed interest in chocolate cake, and my having a few other things going on (including preparation for hosting a doll club meeting this coming Tuesday evening -- it's open to anybody who has an interest in dolls/doll-related collectibles). But anyway, I took shortcuts.

I made a cake from mixes, used tubs of pre-fab frosting, and otherwise cut corners (literally, as well as figuratively). But I don't know if anybody will complain, considering all...

I had a set of candle holders in the shapes of circus performers, and, well, things sort of went from there.

This required two packages of identical brand-name, pudding-in-it dark chocolate cake mixes, baked in three pans: 1 angel food ring pan, a standard 8" layer cake pan and 1 form for making taco salad bowls (it was the best I could come up with on short notice to make the cone-ish peak of the tent, & I had to trim away the "wings" all around it). It also used one full standard tub of chocolate whipped frosting to hold the layers together and to hold the colored sugar grass on the plate; the exterior required nearly two full double-sized tubs of white whipped frosting, and a surprisingly small amount of Wilton's icing color to get the white frosting to go all yellow, red and orange. In each case, though, I added a small amount of powdered vanilla, because nothing should ever go straight from the box... and, besides, I like the extra little kiss of flavor of vanilla, in many sweets.

The scariest part of this is, because I used the angel food cake pan, there was this nice, big hollow section in the middle, just right for filling with candy. Naturally, there will be a surprise when the monkey-boy cuts into it. The Bat opened a mess of little packets of hard-candy-coated, chocolate-flavored Sixlets and I mixed them with a handful of sour Runts, and poured them into the unfrosted gap before attaching the peak with chocolate frosting. (I reckon the youngsters will enjoy the candies, while the rest of us have a sip of something a little more adult in nature, because candy is dandy, but....anyway.)

The ropes and trim are made from pull-apart candy whips (wild cherry flavor). The (sadly misshapen) front gate to the tent is made from a brand-name store-bought fruit leather supported by toothpicks, since, even at doubled thickness, the stuff is far too flexible to hold its own shape (no foolin', huh?). I think that, if I choose to do this again, I'll make a frame for it out of white chocolate, first.

The lettering (such as it is) was scribbled using one of those pre-fab icing tubes with the cut-your-own-size tip attached to it. In other words, I cheated. A lot. But I had fun. And I think a birthday boy might be happy with it, too.

Apple Cardamom Bread Pudding

What's yer name? Puddin' Tame. Ask me again and I'll tell you the same...

The Bat is not the biggest fan of bread puddings. In fact, I think, she'd use stale bread as the base for those tacky glue-and-bread sculptures some of our friends did when we were much younger, rather than sit down at a table and swallow most bread pudding. Honestly, in her mind, if your bread wasn't good enough to be eaten before it got stale, you're just not trying, and you might as well feed it to the outdoor critters (and attract something the dog can chase up a tree, at the same time).

Still, stale bread got rescued. And it got puddinged. And it didn't end up being all custardy, the way so many bread puddings are (the only custard our family generally likes is the one going into a pumpkin pie). For starters, we don't use no sissy French stuff. We like bread with substance. Good, dense, fill-you-up-and-stick-to-your-ribs sourdough is my bread of choice, and, believe it or not, the best I've found in our limited region comes from the bakery section of our Super WalMart. Don't get the "sandwich sourdough," though, because it's still a little on the fluffy side. Get the real, crusty, tooth-resistant stuff. Barring access to WalMart (or, if you are too snooty to go there), see if you can find some San Francisco Sourdough, or something comparable. It's not just about texture, but also the tangy flavor....

Now, this week, somebody who shall remain nameless broke into the loaf of sourdough and had a couple of sandwiches, so I didn't have quite enough of it to make the recipe I was working from... what to do, what do do? Hmmm..... this heel of so-called pumpernickel (it's really not heavy enough to be actual pump, but is just a reasonably good local dark rye loaf) might be enough to fill in to make a pound of bread... cut into roughly one-inch cubes, the combo ends up being about a dozen cups, so... beautiful. And it even looks unusually pretty, once you add the dried cranberries...

And so, to bake.

Apple Cardamom Bread Pudding

Ingredients:

1 lb dense day-old bread, cut or torn into roughly 1-inch cubes (about 12 cups)

4 eggs

2 medium baking (tart-ish) apples, grated (about 1 cup)

1/2 cup melted butter

1/2 cup apple syrup*

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

2 tsp cardamom

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup heavy (whipping) cream

1 cup milk

1 cup dried cranberries

Directions:

In a large bowl, whisk eggs and grated apple until well-mixed. Add in syrup, brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, salt, cream and milk. Mix well.

In a large baking dish, toss bread crumbs and dried cranberries until evenly distributed.

Pour liquid over bread cubes, stir until all the bread is evenly coated. Cover. Refrigerate 30 minutes or so.

Preheat oven to 350º F. (175º C). Uncover baking dish.

Bake about 45 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Serve warm. **

*The syrup I used is residual sauce from the last time the Bat made Apple Slices. She set aside about 7 pints in jars, & I raided one of them, today. If you don't have a mother who is so courteous as to leave you this tasty treat with which to work, look for a good apple-flavored syrup at the store and add a little extra cinnamon & nutmeg to the recipe here, to ratchet it up a notch.

**Can be topped with more apple syrup, or chopped pecans and praline syrup, if you're a sugar junkie. I've even drizzled a dark fudge sauce on it, but then, I could probably put that particular fudge sauce on pizza and still be happy. I'm just that way about dark chocolate.

Anadama Bread

Legend has it that this bread, in its New England origins, was given its name by a fisherman whose wife refused to bake him bread. He created his own, and named it "Anna, damn her." Dunno how close to fact the tale is, but dammit, the bread is almost sinful.

The Bat makes it a couple of times a year, not generally for any special occasion, but as her whimsy takes her. Any time this comes out of the oven should be declared a national holiday, or, at least, a day of feasting, song and dance.

It makes two standard loaves, but also can make awesome rolls. The Bat gives us the best of both worlds, by using an extra-long loaf pan (16-ish x 4-ish inches) and five smallish rolls in an 8-inch square pan. Pop gets the rolls, and therein lies true love.

Anadama Bread

Ingredients:

5 cups all-purpose flour (approximately)

1/2 cup corn meal

1 pkg (1/4 oz) active dry yeast or 3/5 oz cake fresh yeast

2 1/2 cups water

1 tsp. salt

2 Tbs. butter

1/2 cup molasses

Directions:

In a small bowl, stir 1 cup of cold water into corn meal. In saucepan, bring another cup of water to a rolling boil. Stirring constantly, pour corn meal mixture into water. continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until mixture is very thick (about 10 minutes). Add salt, butter, molasses. Allow to cool to tepid.

In larger mixing bowl, warm remaining water until it is tepid, stir yeast into it. Add the cooled corn meal mixture and gradually stir in about 4 1/2 cups of the flour, kneading to make a stiff dough. Knead well for about 10 minutes until the dough is resilient (if it is still sticky, you may need to add a little more flour. Shape the dough into a ball, put it in a buttered bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place for about one and a half hours, or until doubled in bulk.

Punch down the dough and divide into two pieces. Shape each half into a loaf and put the loaves in buttered standard loaf pans (8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch). Cover with a cloth and leave in a warm place until the dough has again doubled in bulk, about 30 minutes. Bake in preheated oven at 350º F [180º C] for one hour, or until the loaves sound hollow if tapped on bottom.

Best served warm from the oven, with real butter.

Philly Fish Chowder

Fishy Friday strikes again. Not that anybody in my immediate circle is concerned by a certain faith's practice of eschewing meats, but, since it's March, and the weather here is unpredictable, I thought a little tummy-warming was in order. We've already had chili (three varieties, mind you!), a big pot of chicken stew, and the Bat went wild and made her beefy-vegetable-practically-thick-as-gumbo soup last week, so now we're on to paler offerings for our Friday night gathering.

When I want to make soup, I try to make stock well-ahead of time, too, so as to not spend all day on my battered pins. So, yesterday, I made a big pot of vegetable stock. I probably made enough to toss a quart or so into the freezer, but I decided I don't want to dilute the flavor at all, today, so the whole gallon-plus is going into the pot again...

Just a few things:

When using my vegetable broth, the chowder is a slightly golden-hued creamy soup, as opposed to the more traditional bright-white if you build it from fish stock.

With your fish, be sure it's very fresh, or fresh-frozen. Don't bother to thaw the frozen stuff before cooking it, here. The boiling stock will do that for you.

Your choice of potato variety will affect the flavor, too. If you use golden-types, such as Klondike Rose or Yukon Gold, it will lend a slightly buttery finish to the chowder. Using Russets, you may wish to bump up the soup's flavor with some bacon crumbles or chopped ham...

If you have issues with fat & cholesterol, you may choose to use neufchatel (reduced fat cream cheese) instead of cream cheese, but don't use the low-fat "cream cheese" -- it's just insufficient all around.

Philly Fish Chowder

Ingredients:

1 gallon rich vegetable broth or stock

1 lb mild fish (I used flounder, this week)

3 large potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks

1 large onion, coarsely chopped

1 cup frozen corn (or, if you can get it, fresh-cut from cob)

1/2 large red sweet bell pepper, finely chopped

1/2 cup celery, coarsely chopped

1 (8-oz) brick cream cheese, softened in microwave until nearly liquid

Directions:

In a large stock pot, bring stock to boil. Drop in fish, let return to simmer. When fish is cooked until easily flaked, remove from stock, break into large crumbles (if the boiling stock hasn't already finished the job) and set aside in refrigerator.

Return stock to a boil, add vegetables, allow to simmer until potatoes are tender. Add in cooked fish, stir in cream cheese. Serve hot, garnished with shredded cheddar cheese and chopped chives (or, no garnish, if you have a Pop like mine, who just wants the soup).

Afterthought: This is really good with fresh-baked Anadama bread. I'll have to have the Bat post her recipe for that, very soon...

Vegetable Broth

I've learned, through the years, that baking is a science, but cooking is an art form. What this means is, you need exact measurements for a lot of things to work in the oven. From breads to brownies, from soufflés to sugar cookies, if you don't use precision with ingredients, temperature and time, you're likely to be disappointed with the results. On the other hand, stovetops are more forgiving of the experimenter... sometimes.

It all starts with the most basic thing of all: water. Then you start tossing things into it. If you need a primer on the concept, I highly recommend you read the folk tale Stone Soup (the version Captain Kangaroo read to us in the good old days). I have it on good authority, though, that there is such a thing as throwing too many things in a pot. A basic vegetable stock is still rather difficult to destroy (IMHO, one guaranteed method is to include Brussels sprouts, rutabagas , or turnips, but that's just one cook's attitude). Oh, also, try to use real, rich carrots, not those baby-type things, as the finger food ones have too little flavor for anything other than absent-minded noshing.

Vegetable Broth

Ingredients:

1 gallon water (approximately)

1-2 tsp olive oil

1 large sweet onion, chopped (about 1 1/2 cups)

1 large red or yellow bell pepper, chopped

1/2 medium green pepper, chopped

2 cups celery (including leafy greens), chopped

1 cup carrots, sliced no thicker than 1/2 cm. (you can grate them if you prefer)

1/2 cup chopped cabbage

1 cup corn, frozen or fresh from cob (NEVER from a can!)

2 cloves garlic

1/2 tsp fresh grated ginger

3 bay leaves

1/2 tsp lemon zest

1-2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp finely-ground white pepper (you can use black pepper if it's what you have on hand)

1/4 tsp paprika

pinch sage

Directions:

In large stock pot, bring water to simmer. Add all other ingredients, bring heat back up until simmering again, cover, continue to simmer for a few hours, until the liquid has reduced noticeably. Remove from heat. Strain out the veggies (you can save these to toss into a meatloaf, later, if you want... or they still make good compost).

Serve with chopped scallions or chives as garnish, or set aside to use in other recipes.

This can be frozen for quite some time.

Rebound Spuds

This being the time of March Madness, the Bat has read up on how to get picture-in-picture, and has set her remote to jump directly from one game to the next. No we don't have a sports fan in this household, no sirree! Not us, no way nu-uh. Nope. Never. No no no no no no well... a bit.

So, in honor of hoops being the least depressing thing on television and, apparently, the center of the President's life (oops, leave politics out of this), we in the house of K present our Friday dish, a variation on twice-baked potatoes, sans skins, bounced out of the oven and sent back in for the score...

Rebound Spuds

Ingredients:

7 or 8 medium Russet potatoes, buttered and baked until tender, then cooled enough to handle (makes about 7 cups)

2-3 Tbs olive oil

1 tsp (approx.) butter

1 large sweet onion, diced, divided

1/2 tsp celery salt or Old Bay Seasoning

1 cup plain yogurt

1/2 cup milk

1/4 cup heavy cream

1 cup finely grated extra sharp cheddar, divided

1 cup finely grated sharp white cheddar, divided

Gravy

8 oz fresh mushrooms, sliced and coarsely chopped

Ground pepper to taste

2-3 Tbs heavy (whipping) cream

1/4 c. milk

(this stage is optional)

Directions:

Scrub, then dry potatoes. Slice off any discolored spots, pierce several times with fork or sharp knife. Coat with butter, place in hot oven (400-450º F), bake for about an hour, or until spuds are tender. Remove from oven, allow to cool until you can handle them without pain.

While the potatoes are cooling, stir-fry (high temp) the onions in olive oil butter, in a large pan, until they begin to turn golden-brown. Add celery salt. Set aside.

Peel the skins off the potatoes, discard (or, you can save them for...whatever. You won't need them for this recipe, anyway). In a medium bowl, mix the potato innards until well-mashed. Add milk, yogurt, 3/4 cup each of cheeses, and 2 Tbs of the browned onion. Mix very well.

Put in heavily-greased oven-safe dish (1 1/2 or 2-quart casserole works well). Bake at 400º F until completely hot again (about 20 minutes). Remove from oven, sprinkle remainder of cheddar cheeses over the top, return to oven, bake until cheese is lightly browned and bubbly (about 10-15 minutes).

For Gravy:

While waiting for the cheesy topping to brown in the oven, return remaining onions, in saucepan, to high temp on stovetop. Add in the mushrooms and ground pepper, cook until mushrooms begin to brown around the edges. Remove from heat, add heavy cream and milk, stir until smooth. You may also choose to add bits of crisp bacon, finely shredded ham, or other ingredients. Serve in side dish, to ladle onto potatoes as desired.

Note: if you bake the potatoes the night before, you may have to reheat them a little bit in order to work with them. Putting them, covered, in the microwave oven with a little bit of the milk is a good way to get started. On the positive side, if you peel them, then nuke them, you can get them hot enough that most of the mixing will be a piece of cake. If they're colder, potatoes & cheese are reluctant to cooperate with a mixer. You just have to be careful when you handle a hot potato bowl, and when you transfer to the baking dish... we don't encourage people cooking themselves in the process of cooking dinner.