Baked Potato Casserole

This is a recipe I got from Kathryn.  It is spicy and delicious.  It also warms up well.  It also makes enough for a small army (I got 8 servings out of it) so you might want to reduce things.

Some notes on the sausage: You want about six brats worth of meat.  I have no idea how much that is, I just eyeballed it.  For the sausage, I used half kielbasa and half hardwood smoked and it was great.  I meant to do all kielbasa, but the hardwood smoked was hiding in the wrong place and I grabbed two.  Also, I used turkey sausage to make it more healthy.

Some notes on the potatoes: to get my eight servings, I actually used 5 pounds of potatoes.  The individual potatoes were really small, so I just grabbed a five pound bag and used them all.  It is a ton of potatoes.

• 6 brats or sausages
• 8 potatoes
• ⅓ cup Olive Oil
• 1½ tsp salt
• 1 TBS fresh Ground Pepper
• 1 TBS Paprika
• 2 TBS Garlic Powder
• 6 TBS Hot Sauce (this is a little more than 1/3 cup, which is what I did instead of measuring it out and I used Franks) 
• 
  
• For the Topping
• 2 cups Shredded Cheddar Cheese (I wished that I had done more cheese) 
• 1 cup crumbled Bacon (it takes an entire package of bacon to get this)
• 1 cup diced Green Onion 

1. Preheat oven 450 degrees
2. In a large bowl mix Olive Oil, Salt, Pepper, Paprika, Garlic Powder & Hot Sauce
3. Cube the potatoes & add to the bowl
4. Coat a 9x13 dish with cooking spray
5. Add potatoes to the bowl and toss in the sauce. Remove the potatoes from the bowl and put them in the pan. Try to leave some of the sauce because you will use it later.
6. Bake the potatoes for 45 minutes, stir every 15 minutes
7. Slice the sausages into bite sized pieces and add it to the bowl that had the potatoes with the left over sauce and stir it around .
8. Mix together cheese, bacon & green onion in a small separate bowl
9. Once potatoes are done, add the uncooked sausage.
10. Cover with the cheese mixture topping.
11. Bake for 15 minutes or until the sausage is cooked.

Restaurant Style Smashed Potatoes

These were great. I think I put in a little too much sour cream though. And instead of the weird onion straw things, I added cheese. Yes I did serve these with that ranch chicken, it was a bacon heavy meal. Also make sure you cook the red potatoes all the way, I think mine were still a little undercooked so it made not quite as good as it could have been.

Super fast to make though. Once the potatoes are cooked it's a matter of smashing (not mashing) the potatoes and adding all the ingredients. And it's ready! So time it so that they are still nice and warm

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/05/restaurant-style-smashed-potatoes/

Ingredients

• 5 whole Large Red Potatoes
• 1 stick Butter, Softened And Cut Into Pieces
• 5 slices Bacon, Cooked And Crumbled
• 2 whole Green Onions, Sliced
• 3/4 cups Sour Cream
•  Salt To Taste (add Plenty!)
•  Freshly Ground Black Pepper To Taste (ditto!)
• 3/4 cups French Fried Onions, More For Topping- I didn't use these
• I did add cheddar cheese

Preparation Instructions

Nuke potatoes or bake in the oven until fork-tender. Add to a large bowl and smash with a potato masher. Immediately add softened butter, green onions, bacon, and sour cream and stir with a rubber spatula. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add french fried onions and fold in.

Serve hot, sprinkling on extra french fried onions and green onions. Yummy with grilled steak or chicken!

Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

So I needed a side dish for this cordon bleu I was making (I will post it next) and I wanted it to be potatoes. However I only have one oven rack in my oven- I know, huge problem, I need to measure my oven and get another one, but that's not important right now- so the potato dish couldn't be in the oven and I wasn't sure if the sauce for the cordon bleu would be good on potatoes. So I found this delicious recipe.

It was really good! I might have been a little garlic happy... I had 5 very small potatoes and put in 4 cloves of garlic. Yeah they tasted awesome. So I used a 1/2 cup of parmesan since I essentially halved the recipe, and then just put in butter and milk until it tasted how I wanted it to.

Roasting garlic is easy as can be, but I think Mel has a super oven. When I roasted it, it took more like 30-35 minutes to get roasted all the way.

It was great!

http://www.melskitchencafe.com/2010/04/roasted-garlic-and-parmesan-mashed-potatoes.html

• 5 pounds Yukon gold potatoes, peeled, rinsed and diced 
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese
• 4 tablespoons butter
• ¾ cup milk
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 4-5 cloves roasted garlic (trim the pointy end off a head of garlic, place sprout-side down on a piece of aluminum foil and drizzle with a tablespoon of olive oil, fold sides of foil up to enclose the garlic completely and cook in a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes, or until the garlic is tender; the cloves squeeze right out of their skins when they are ready)

DIRECTIONS

1. For the mashed potatoes, In a large pot, place the potatoes and cover with water (by at least two inches). Add the salt. Bring to a boil, and cook the potatoes until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain and return to the hot pot.
2. Begin mashing the potatoes. Add the butter and mash in to the potatoes. Add the milk, cheese, roasted garlic and salt and pepper to taste. Mash until the potatoes are smooth. Serve immediately.

Crash Hot Potatoes

Crash Hot Potatoes

I tried these last night and dad and I loved them!!  I used Ukon Gold potatoes so it was a bit sweet, but I could just buy 5 of them and not a whole bag.  I think red potatoes would be yummy too!!  I quit cooking at about 18 min and wish I had kept cooking the whole time so the insides would have been more crunchy.  They were getting pretty dark so maybe I'll try 400 next time.  I also think you could boil the potatoes and keep in fridge and make 2 at a time.   I don't think the time is correct- you have to boil the potatoes and then cook for 25 or so minutes.  They were easy!!

Recipe: Crash Hot Potatoes

Prep Time: 30 Minutes  |  Cook Time: 25 Minutes  |  Difficulty: Easy  |  Servings: 6

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Ingredients

• 12 whole New Potatoes (or Other Small Round Potatoes)
• 3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• Kosher Salt To Taste
• Black Pepper To Taste
• Rosemary (or Other Herbs Of Choice) To Taste

Preparation Instructions

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add in as many potatoes as you wish to make and cook them until they are fork-tender.

On a sheet pan, generously drizzle olive oil. Place tender potatoes on the cookie sheet leaving plenty of room between each potato.

With a potato masher, gently press down each potato until it slightly mashes, rotate the potato masher 90 degrees and mash again. Brush the tops of each crushed potato generously with more olive oil.

Sprinkle potatoes with kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper and fresh chopped rosemary (or chives or thyme or whatever herb you have available.)

Bake in a 450 degree oven for 20-25 minutes until golden brown.