Okay, it's winter, there is snow on the ground, the vegetable garden has long since been put to bed. It's time for comfort food folks and this next post is about the most comforting thing I can imagine. Think potatoes, butter and cheese. The good things in life! Add these all together and combine with sour cream and onions and you are now sitting in high cotton.
My wife and I were married in the spring of 2000 but had dated for a few years before we got hitched. The first time I went to meet her parents, sometime in the spring of 1998, my mother in law made this scrumptious side dish that has been a staple on the dinner table ever since. The recipe is simply called- Cheesy Potatoes. With a name like that you really can't miss.
**** WARNING**** This side dish is no where near healthy. It is laced with a lb of cheese, multiple sticks of butter, carb riddled taters, and cups of sour cream. This recipe will not make you lose weight nor will it make your abs more profound. If you eat this dish more than 3 times a year you may want to consult your cardiologist.
Now, with the disclaimer out of the way, let's move on to the cheesy potatoes. Like I said, I have never added up the calories and fat content of this spud diddly dumptious of a treat, but I am sure that it would rival the likes of the Triple Whopper, the Quad Stack and quite possibly the entire greasy buffet at the local Golden Corral. Starte with 2 sticks of butter. Not margarine, not oleo, not I Can't Believe it's Not Butter! Real honest to goodness butter. The stuff that comes from a cow you know!? That's 2 sticks. Put it in your pan and get it melty. There are the taters. You need 8. Boil em but not too much. You don't want mashed taters here. Think hashbrowns and you have got it down. Boil em and throw them in the firdge to cool off. You can do this overnight and let them sit in the fridge all night if need be. They need to be cold. Then skin those smokewagons!
Once you get them skinned you need ol grandma's knuckleduster. I hate this piece of kitchen equipment. It's dangerous and it's time consuming but it works well. Unless I want to drag out the Cuisinart and get that dirty, I have to use this. Be careful you don't lose your knuckles. Shred your taters like you would hash browns. The taters should be semi hard to shred. Almost 3/4 cooked. If you shred them and they turn to mashed taters, you cooked them too long. They should be shreds like above.
Get an onion. Chop the hell out of it. I love onions!
Throw the onion in the butter and cook till transparent. About 5 minutes or so.
Don't do this to your thumb. Ouch! I love sharp knives, but I hate it when they cut my flesh. Time for a cleanup!
Much better. Most people don't enjoy human blood in their food. Latex gloves are always a great thing to have in the kitchen in case you need to chop jalapenos or if you slice the hell out of your fingers. I always keep a few pair in the pantry.
Sour cream. It's a good friend of mine. I like it on taters, dips, umm well, everything. Don't skimp, buy the full strength stuff. Also, from someone who worked at a dairy, there is no difference between the "off brand" and the cool stuff. We used to make the same stuff but just put a different label on it. Buy sour cream that is off brand and you are buying the name brand stuff but for a dollar less. Trust me on this folks. I'm an expert:)
Here is the mixture so far. 1 lb of butter, 1 lb of sour cream, onions. Here comes the cheese. 1 lb of taco shredded. Ummmmm, yeah, this is pretty good stuff.
Cheese. Wow, I love it. This is what it should look like when you melt it with the butter, onions, and sour cream.
Add your taters. Stir it up and make sure you get all the butter and cheese all over the taters.
Stir it up!
Pour into a casserole and ....
If there wasn't enough butter.... dot with butter. Cover and bake for 45-60 minutes at 350. Make sure it is warmed through. This goes well with any sort of meat dish. Like I said, be careful, you might want to have these every night but know that they are completely full of fat and cholesterol. Enjoy them in moderation.
So I went west coast for this post. I left the great state of Michigan to head to California. So I picked up a 6 pack of
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale the other day and it has been sitting out in the back of my truck getting chilled. I'm glad I remembered about this. You don't get much better of a Pale Ale than this brew. It's totally commercialized, it's available in your local supermarket, it's $9/6 pack, and it is worth every bit of it. SNPA
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