Swiss Chard and Bacon Potatoes

As I mentioned on my other blog, I've started doing some freezer cooking to have things stored away for when the baby arrives. Over the next little while, I'll be sharing some of the recipes. I checked the book "Frozen Assets: Cook for a Day, Eat for a Month" out from the library at my midwife clinic and I've been using it from inspiration on some of the recipes to cook.

One of the ideas in there was for 'potato shells' or what I refer to as twice baked potatoes. Twice baked potatoes are a favorite in our home so it was fun to try a different variation.

Swiss Chard and Bacon Potatoes - inspired by Frozen Assets
10-12 large potatoes
Salt
Pepper
1/8 cup butter
1/8 cup milk
1 red onion, chopped
Large bunch of swiss chard, steamed and chopped finely*
6-8 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled
2 cups Colby cheese

*You can also use spinach. Fresh or frozen

Bake potatoes for 1 hour at 400 degrees.

Meanwhile, cook bacon and swiss chard and prepare remaining ingredients.

When potatoes are done, although them to cool for about 20 minutes, then slice them in half lengthwise.

Allow them to cool a bit more until they are just cool enough to touch. Scoop the pulp out into a bowl of mixer. (Because I used fresh potatoes from the garden, I needed to leave more pulp in than usual because the skins were so thin - try to scoop out as much as possible while leaving skins in tact).

Mash potatoes with salt, pepper, butter, and milk.

Add remaining ingredients and mix until well combined.

Scoop mixture back into potato shells.

Bake the refilled potatoes at 400 for 20 minutes

OR for freezer cooking ...

Place potatoes on a cookie sheet and flash freeze for 20-30 minutes.

Arrange potatoes in a single layer in a large freezer bag.

Label and freeze.

To serve, remove the number of potatoes you need and allow to thaw in the fridge. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes at 400 until golden brown.

Makes 12 main servings or 24 side servings.

For me, having two halves with a salad would make an excellent meal. But they would also be paired well as a side dish accompanying steak, chicken or any other type of meat.

Cheddar Scalloped Potatoes

The other night, I had a hankering for a good old fashioned meal. Since we had found a great sale on Smoked Ham, I decided to make ham, scalloped potatoes, peas, carrots and biscuits. Unfortunately, I had an, um, less than pleasant experience with the carrots, so we ended up carrotless. SnoWhite, remember your carrot mishap? The exact same thing happened to me! Anyway, we were just fine with ham, scalloped potatoes, peas and buttermilk biscuits. It was some good old fashioned home cooking, just what I needed!

Cheddar Scalloped Potatoes - from BHG
1 T butter
1 clove garlic
1/2 T minced onion (or one fresh onion, chopped)
2 T flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup cheddar cheese
4-5 potatoes, very thinly sliced (you can peel them if you'd like but I didn't bother)

Slice potatoes as thinly as possible.

Melt butter in a small saucepan with garlic and onion, until garlic smell is strong.

Stir in flour, salt and pepper.

Pour in milk. Stir to combine.

Cook until thick and bubbly.

Remove from heat. Stir in cheese until melted.

Grease 8x8 baking dish. Arrange half of the potatoes in the dish.

Cover with half the sauce.

Layer remaining potatoes on top of the sauce and cover with remaining sauce.

Bake, covered, in a 350 oven for about 1 hour. Remove cover and continue baking for 15-20 minutes, until potatoes are tender and cheese sauce is crispy.

Makes 4 servings.