Pot O' Gold Potato Gratin (An Ultimate Recipe Challenge Blog Hop)

I'm so excited to team up with The Kim Six Fix and this group of amazing bloggers to share The Ultimate Recipe Challenge Blog Hop with you today! Each challenge will have a theme ingredient and our first challenge ingredient is potatoes. (Endless possibilities right?!)

We love combining cheddar and Gruyere cheeses in our homemade macaroni and cheese but for this challenge we decided to try mixing Gruyere with a Dubliner for a St. Patrick's Day spin on a potato gratin.  

We used our mandoline slicer to get the potatoes super thin but you could also use the slicing attachment on a food processor. Just get them as thin as you can!

The bubbling cream mixture that froths out of the sides of this dish when it's finished is practically dessert-like and it smells like fondue while it's cooking. Even though we make this for a side dish, it's rich enough that it could easily be the main dish served with a salad. My thoughts are more along the line of 'so rich it's best served with a good steak and an even better wine' but that's just me. 

Our 'Pot O' Gold Gratin' came out so savory and delicious and I can't wait to try the recipes the other bloggers came up with for the challenge!

Ingredients:

3 Pounds Gold Potatoes
1 Cup Finely Shredded Gruyere Cheese
1 Cup Finely Shredded Dubliner
3/4 Cup Whole Milk
1 3/4 Cups Heavy Cream
2 Cloves Fresh Garlic (smashed)
1 Tablespoon chopped fresh dill (plus more for garnish)
Salt and Pepper
Butter for dish


Steps:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. Butter the bottom and the sides of a casserole/baking dish

3. Peel and thinly slice the potatoes using a mandoline slicer or food processor ( about 1/8 inch)

4. Combine milk, cream, chopped dill, and the smashed garlic in a saucepan and bring to a low simmer

5. While cream mixture is warming, grate cheeses 

7. Layer the potatoes and cheese like a lasagna, seasoning as you go with salt and pepper and reserving about 1/4 of the cheese for the topping

8. Pour cream mixture through a fine mesh strainer over the dish to catch the garlic cloves and dill

9. Press hands down on top of the potato mixture forcing the liquid between the layers of the potatoes

10. Sprinkle remaining cheese mixture over the top layer

11. Bake for 90 minutes or until the cheese is bubbling and browning to look like a Pot 'O Gold!

Garnish the finished dish with some sprigs of dill and serve in cheesy stacks. Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart's Potato Gratin


Be sure to check out how all of the other bloggers used their Potatoes in this Ultimate Recipe Challenge! 

An InLinkz Link-up

Chicken 'Dip' Summer Salad

It isn't actually a dip but when was the last time you made a salad so tasty that people thought it was and wanted to dip chips in it?

This is one of my favorite summer salads because it's perfect for a night that's too hot to cook, when you're looking for a light and fresh dinner, or to bring to a party. I make this salad with a store bought rotisserie chicken and bagged shredded lettuce because it's quick and easy.
It's nice to bring this to a party and offer guests the option to eat something healthier than most cookout food. I've seen guests skip fattening dips and sides in favor of this with and without knowing it's healthy and for that reason like to call it chicken 'dip' salad.

You'll Need:
Rotisserie Chicken- shredded and sprinkled lightly with taco seasoning
Shredded Lettuce- You can buy bagged shredded lettuce
Black beans
Canned Corn
Tomatoes (or fresh salsa)
Cilantro (I use most of the bunch)
2 Avocados
Juice of fresh limes
Sour cream

Shred the chicken with forks or you can use a mixer to save time and sprinkle with taco seasoning to taste.

Slice the avocado, chop the tomatoes and cilantro, and drain the beans and corn.
Cover the shredded lettuce with corn, beans, tomatoes, and cilantro.

I like to add the avocado and chicken last so that it's clear there is meat in the dish. Garnish with cilantro and squeeze fresh lime juice over the top. 

If you're bringing this to a party add the sour cream and a bit more lime juice right before serving or just serve with the sour cream on the side. The tomatoes, corn and beans add a lot of moisture to the salad and it will get soggy if the sour cream sits on it for too long before eating.

Next time you're asked to bring something to a party, offer to bring this 'dip' with the chips and margaritas!

The Cake Looked like a Hamburger

Burger Patty Brownie Cake

How to Make a Hamburger Cake Without Trying:

This is not a post about a recipe that resulted in something as beautiful as it was delicious. It's not that I don't appreciate that kind of post. I really do. But on this particular occasion, the product of my delicious idea actually ended up looking like fast food.
I searched online for recipes for a cake that had a brownie layer. I found many but the brownie was either baked in as a batter, crumbled in pieces, or swirled through. I wanted to make a cake that was cake, brownie, cake, in that order. So using box cake mix and boxed brownie mix, that is what I did.
I simply cut out the pan of brownie to fit the cakes and stacked them. As you can see, it wasn't one of those beautiful Pinterest cakes that friends would be impressed with. To me, it looked like a hamburger. The yellow cakes looked like two golden buns and the brownie layer looked like a well cooked hamburger patty.
After frosting, it was a cute cake with an amazing chocolate brownie surprise that I would highly recommend adding to your next plain old cake. I used a homemade chocolate cream cheese frosting to essentially glue the burger/brownie in place as you would cheese, ketchup, or mayo. Someone more talented could really go all out and decorate the cake with burger toppings made of sweets like fondant lettuce and cheese. The bun could easily be frosted in a way that included sesame seed candies. You get the idea.
So, in case you were wondering, this is how to make a hamburger cake for your next kids' party, for the Jughead in your life, or just because it is kind of funny.