Martha Monday: Muffin Pan Potato Gratins

Pru from Perfecting Pru chose today's recipe and it was a winner!  These little Muffin Pan Potato Gratins are not only adorable but fantastic to eat as well.  I admit to embellishing the recipe a bit.  I added some garlic and a touch of cheese to liven up the gratins.  I loved how the exterior had a bit of crunch and color while the interior was creamy and tender.  These little potato cakes are definitely staying in my recipe box.  Thanks Pru!

Individual Potato Gratins
Adapted from Martha Stewart Everyday Food


Ingredients:

• Unsalted butter, softened
• 1 clove garlic
• 9 tablespoons heavy cream
• 1 1/2 lbs. golden potatoes (preferably skinny ones or baby ones)
• Salt
• 1/4 cup grated cheese (such as Asiago, Gruyere, or Parmesan)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Generously butter 9 muffin cups.  
2. Using a rasp, grate the garlic clove into the cream.  Stir and let sit.  
3. Meanwhile, slice potatoes as thinly as possible, using a mandolin if you have one.  Place two slices in each buttered muffin cup and season with salt.  Continue until all the muffin cups are full of seasoned potato slices.  Pour one tablespoon of the garlicky cream over each.  Sprinkle a bit of cheese atop each as well.  
4. Bake for 30 minutes, until golden and tender.  Run a thin knife around each gratin.  Place a large baking sheet over muffin pan and invert.  If some of the tops of the cakes stick, gently release them from the muffin tin and replace them atop the gratins.  Serve.  Makes 9 gratins.

Martha Monday: Sausage Stuffed Red Onions

Yours truly got to pick today's Martha Monday project.  I picked onions.  Sausage stuffed onions to be exact.  I've been enamored with onions lately.  It must be because my onion-hating husband is far off in Bahrain.  I've been eating raw onions, caramelized onions, sauteed onions, roasted onions.  YUM!  So, it was a given that I would pick these fabulous looking onions in the November issue of Living.  They looked so gooey and flavorful and bright.

Martha directs you to hollow out the onions which is not a pretty or easy process.  I used a spoon and an ice cream scoop to hollow mine out.  I was crying the whole time!  It's really hard to hollow out an onion with tears obstructing one's vision.  Let me tell you.  But, once that was accomplished I baked them in the oven for an hour.

Meanwhile, I made the stuffing which was pretty simple.  Sausage, fennel, grated apple sauteed.  Then mixed with Gruyere, parsley, sage, and bread crumbs.  Once the onions had baked for an hour, I stuffed them, topped them with cheese and bake them for another 20 minutes.  They came out looking bubbly and browned and yummy.

The verdict?  The stuffing was fabulous!  I'd use it again and in other dishes.  The stuffing was really the best part though.  I wanted the stuffing flavors to permeate the onion but they just didn't.  Once the stuffing was gone, all that was left was a big hunk of onion that didn't really have any alluring caramelization or stinging bite.  I'm wondering if cooking the onions longer would make them more meltingly tender and tasteful or perhaps cooking the stuffing in the onions longer . . . perhaps saving the cheese topping for the last few minutes of cooking.  I haven't given up on these onions yet.  They have so much potential  Any ideas?

Martha Monday: Glittered Pumpkins

Well, I finally got my act together and tackled last Monday's project, these shimmery, sparkly pumpkins.  Just in time for Thanksgiving!  Thanks to Megan over at Megan's Cookin' for picking this fun craft.

In preparation for this activity, I headed over to Michael's to purchase Martha Stewart's very own line of glitter.  She really does offer some beautiful colors, not that multi-colored stuff of kindergarten days.  I purchased two colors, orange sorbet and fire opal.  Then I stopped in at the grocery store to buy some pumpkins as my Halloween ones had all rotted.  Imagine my surprise to discover that pumpkins had disappeared along with the trick-or-treat candy.  I did find a sugar pie pumpkin tucked away and some kind of squash that looked orange and passable so I snatched them up and headed home.

The rest was really easy.  I painted some glue on the squashes and sprinkled the glitter.  I was impressed at the transformation.  They were certainly no longer humble pumpkins.  They were clearly centerpieces!  I felt kind of disappointed that I am not hosting a Thanksgiving feast at my home for these would certainly love to be the center of attention.  But, as you can see, they did get some attention.  From a little boy.  Who keeps getting glitter on his hands . . .

Martha Monday: Chocolate Beet Cake

Last Monday's project was to try the stunning Chocolate Beet Cake featured in the November issue of Living.  If you remember, though, last Monday was Halloween.  So, instead of baking this luscious cake . . . I cleaned my house, carved two pumpkins, took pictures of my seven-year-old at his Halloween parade, 

attended a Halloween party, served leftovers for dinner, dressed my two goblins up for trick-or-treating, ran around after them as they each collected close to THREE POUNDS of candy, and fell asleep as soon they did.

So, later in the week I finally got around to making these cake, er, I mean cupcakes.  I wanted to bring them to a small gathering so I figured rather than making the hostess serve pieces of cake, I'd just make them into single servings myself.  These cakes were really cute and sophisticated at the same time.  The icing and the sugared beet chips are absolute winners.  The cake itself certainly doesn't taste beet-y but seemed more like a muffin to me than a cake.  Probably due to the lack of butter.  But these muffins, or cakes, or whatever you call them were moist and tasty.  The ladies were all impressed with my culinary skills.  And no one felt guilty eating a cupcake, since, after all, they were full of beets.

Daring Bakers Challenge: Povitica

The Daring Baker’s October 2011 challenge was Povitica, hosted by Jenni of The Gingered Whisk. Povitica is a traditional Eastern European Dessert Bread that is as lovely to look at as it is to eat!  (And by the way, it's pronounced poh-vi-tee-tsa.)

I'm finally getting around to posting pictures of my povitica.  This was an easy and impressive bread to make.  The dough was rich, filled with butter and egg yolks.  But it was also strong.  I rolled it out on a floured sheet and, as thin as I got it, it didn't tear a single time.  Spreading the filling on was another story though.  The filling recipe made a really thick paste that didn't want to spread so I did end up tearing the dough as I tried to smear it evenly about.  It didn't seem to matter though.  The bread still looked beautiful and tasted great.  

This is definitely a bread to make for a holiday breakfast or to give away as a present.  People will absolutely always ooh and aah over it!  To get the recipe follow this link to The Daring Kitchen!