Scalloped Potatoes

Is all the hysteria about 'what foods to stockpile for the pandemic' making you as cuckoo crazy as me? I mean c'mon, I'm getting daily emails from different sources offering up their lists of 'food you should hoard in case there's never any canned vegetables ever again'. Or 'things you should have a years supply of in case your neighbor buys it all before you'. Ok, maybe that's not exactly the list titles but that's what it feels like!! So when I went to the grocery store the other day on a hunt to see if I'd be able to buy meat and saw a big pile of spiral-cut hams randomly in the beginning of December I thought - gee, we don't usually eat a big ham for no good reason and it's not even a holiday but ok, I should get one. 

There's a point to all the above rambling. I bought a ham and you know what I think goes great with ham? Scalloped potatoes. See, I brought it around. 

this is before baking, because of course I forgot
to take a photo after they baked for an hour!

I've always made scalloped potatoes the same way, I don't remember but I'm assuming it's how my mom made them (mom, is this what you do?). Layer thin cut potatoes with sliced onions, flour, salt and pepper, bits of butter, then another layer of potatoes, flour, s&p, butter, etc. Cover the entire thing with milk and bake. They are yummy but not creamy and there's no sauce to speak of. This time I googled for different ideas on making them just to change it up and found this inspiration recipe on Food Network. I did change it a bit, but not drastically, I'll give you what I did and you can go to their site if you want to see what I started with. 

Oh, by the way, these turned out great. I liked them so much that I made them for my sister the next day and will have her give her review without telling her my whole backstory and how delicious I think they are! Although I added leftover ham (cuz ham is like turkey, the leftovers are endless!) to hers and I bet they are even more amazing - if that's even possible. We'll see what she says in her review later. If you've read her past reviews you'll know she is bound to ask if these are healthy - let's hope she doesn't or I'll have to lie and tell her yes. Yes they are. LOL. Not. (click here for her review)

Here's what her potatoes with ham look like after baking -
I'm not always forgetful! These aren't as smooth on the top
because I stirred them often. You can always level them
back out if you're serving in the dish and want it prettier. 

• 1/2 stick butter
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1/4 cup finely diced onion (I chopped it super small hoping Dave wouldn't notice hahaha. You can leave bigger pieces if you want, and feel free to add more if you like onion - they were good with 1/4 cup for us and no, he didn't say anything)
• 4 cups half and half (you can mix together cream and milk if you have those on hand)
• 3 pounds potatoes (I used russet and left the peels on. Peel if you want. You can also use Yukon gold potatoes if you have them, peel or don't - up to you. I have 10 pounds of russets because of a story very similar to the beginning of this post. You can imagine why I have 10 pounds of potatoes.) FYI if you don't have a food scale, 3 pounds equaled about 8 cups of sliced potatoes. 
• pinch of nutmeg
• coarse Kosher salt
• pepper
• 2 T. Flour (or Wondra)

1. Scrub the potatoes really good. Slice them very thin, about 1/8". I have a V-Slicer, or use a mandolin, or a sharp knife and slice them by hand trying to keep them consistently thin.

2. Rub butter all over a 13x9" baking dish. 

3. In a large saucepan add the rest of the butter, garlic, and onion; saute for a couple minutes until translucent. 

4. Stir a couple tablespoons of Wondra flour (I'm sure regular flour would work but I used Wondra) into the half and half, and then stir the half and half into the saucepan. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes. Add the potatoes to the saucepan, try to separate the slices so they get nice and coated with the sauce. Let simmer for a couple minutes then turn into the baking dish. 

5. Put in a preheated 350' oven, bake for about an hour until the potatoes are tender. 

note: keep an eye on the potatoes while they are baking so the top doesn't get too brown. Stir them every so often to bring the sauce to the top and keep all the potatoes coated while they are baking. 

You can make a smaller 2-quart dish of these - same directions with these amounts:

2 T. butter

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1/4 cup or less of chopped onion

2 cups half and half

salt and pepper to taste

pinch of nutmeg

2 pounds thinly sliced potatoes (about 6 cups)