Best Potatoes Au Gratin EVER!!!

Here's another one. We took these potatoes to a pot-luck Christmas dinner last year and it was a huge hit! So good these have been dubbed "perfect potatoes" at our house. Don't try and figure out how many fat calories are in a serving because it's too tasty to matter!

1 lb. bacon- diced
1 Tbs. fennel seeds
1/2 sweet onion- diced
1 Tbs. basil
5 Tbs. butter
5 Tbs. flour
3 1/2 c. whole milk -or- half and half
salt and pepper to taste
1 c. fresh shredded Parmesan (or another cheese) + a little to garnish on top
2 lbs of potatoes-
I like to have them boiled and sliced beforehand (just barely cooked, not mushy)

Saute bacon, fennel seeds, onion and basil until bacon is brown and onions are soft. Use a slotted spoon to remove from pan and set aside. Resist the temptation to snitch it- you'll need it later! In a saucepan melt the butter and whisk in the flour. Slowly add the milk or half and half while whisking to avoid lumps. Bring to a boil while stirring. Set heat to low, add cheese, salt and pepper- stir until smooth and creamy. Remove from heat. Put a little sauce in the bottom of your baking dish and then layer potatoes, sauce, bacon, potatoes, sauce, bacon, until it is used up. Sprinkle some cheese on top and put in the oven at 350 degrees. It will take about 1/2 hour if you've already boiled the potatoes, 1 1/2 hrs if you are using raw ones. Enjoy!

Don't use powdered Parmesan- it just doesn't melt and make the sauce good. If you can't find fresh shredded use some Monterrey jack instead. Sometimes I use the bacon drippings instead of some of the butter in the sauce. If your bacon was really fatty you might not need any butter at all. This makes it really yummy and is my favorite way to make it. I hope you like it!

Cranberry Sauce

I've decided to post a few of my most favorite Thanksgiving recipes for any of you who would like to try them. You will never buy that canned glop once you've made your own cranberry sauce, and best of all it's just about the easiest thing to make from scratch ever! Last year my kids made it.

1 12oz bag of fresh cranberries
1 c. orange juice
1 c. sugar
sprinkle of cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg

Dissolve the sugar in the orange juice in a sauce pan on medium/high heat. Add the cranberries, stir and let softly boil for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and add cinnamon & nutmeg. You can mash it up a bit with a potato masher or the back of a spoon if you don't want too many whole berries, or just leave it the way it is. OK, now you are done. Easy, huh?!

So if you want you can make it even more tasty by adding one or more of these: chopped nuts, a handful of blueberries or huckleberries, some orange zest, raisins, or use another liquid. Some people use other juices, wines, or even just water. Have fun with it. If you want to can it and you don't have a pressure cooker that's easy, too. Put your empty jars without the lids in an 200 degree oven for a few minutes so they get nice and hot while you are cooking your cranberries. When your cranberry sauce is done spoon it boiling hot into a hot jar and put on the lid. If you want to be extra safe you can pop it back in the oven for a few minutes, or you can just leave it out to cool and it will seal up nicely. See, I told you you could do it!!

Yum... Bacon!!

So, we live out in the country and raised a couple of pigs this summer. This past week we finally turned one into meat. I won't post pictures. I'm sure that no one wants to see that, but I will tell you that I made sausage and bacon! Yummy!!! I looked it up online and then kinda did my own version of it with what I had- and it turned out pretty good. Not sure if anyone out there will ever butcher their own pig, but if you do I can show you how to make some pretty tasty sausage and bacon. Surprisingly it was pretty easy. Next I'm going to try and cure a ham. I feel so proud of myself. Also I recently found out how to make my own laundry soap. It works pretty well, but best of all it's really cheap! Like $.04 a load. Really. So now we have a freezer full of meat. Even fuller when you figure in that Josiah's cousin went hunting and brought us a deer. We've given quite a bit of meat away. I'm really not much of a carnivore and I'm afraid it will get freezer burned before we get a chance to eat it all! How Ironic that the girl that can go for weeks without eating meat has a freezer full of the stuff.

So, now I have a year supply of meat and laundry soap... now I just need to get all the other things- sugar, flour, toilet paper- you know, minor stuff like that. Anyway, I guess that's all the news for now.

Noah on the tractor- What a handsome boy!

11-08-09

The Fry Family!!

Ok... I'm finally going to blog. I'm not sure what I'm doing, but here I go!!

Life is great here and our family is growing so much! Our latest news is that Noah was baptized on Saturday. It was such a great day. Lots of family and friends made it down to show Noah how much they love him and are proud of him.

We also had the chance to get our family picture taken!! It's been years! Finally we have a nice picture with all of us. Thanks to Dave Young for some REALLY great shots of the kids. Josiah wants some new ones in a few weeks... after he has a chance to diet and loose a few pounds. My first words when I saw the pics were "Wow, those are GREAT!" Josiah's first words were "Wow, I look fat!" I told him no way, but he really wants to get back down to where he was when we were first married. No matter what, I think he's great looking and a great husband!

I feel so lucky to have such a great family!