We had a little birthday dinner for the family yesterday and I tried
out two new recipes and tweaked an old one. We had a Honeybaked ham,
which was the Birthday Girl's choice, along with a "cheater" Boston
baked beans recipe, broccoli with a lemon sauce, tossed salad, garlic
cheese toasts, potatoes au gratin and pineapple slices sauteed in
butter and brown sugar. Lots of "noisy" flavors, but it seemed to work
well. The two new recipes were the lemon sauce and the cheese toasts
(I've posted that recipe before, but prior to actually making it). The
lemon sauce got raves from half the crowd (I liked it - I've also
misplaced the attribution, so if you recognize it, please lemmeno),
but the cheese toasts really got applause. And my potatoes au gratin I
have now tweaked to combine two different recipes that definitely had
a "wow!" factor:

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Three-Cheese Potato Gratin

vegetables

1 tablespoon Butter
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup gorgonzola cheese; crumbled
1/2 cup fontina cheese; grated
3/4 cup parmigiano Reggiano; grated
1 tablespoon thyme
2 teaspoons Salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup flour
3 pounds russet potatoes; peeled, thinly sliced
4 cups chicken broth
1 cup whipping cream
6 tablespoons dijon mustard

Heat the oven to 325°F. Butter an 8 x 12" square or oval gratin pan.
Cut the garlic in half and rub the cut side all over the interior of
the pan. Set aside.

Combine thyme, salt, pepper and flour. Using only 1/4 C. plus 2 T.
parmigiano Reggiano, combine the cheeses with the flour and seasoning
mixture. Set aside.

Peel the potatoes and place them in cold water. Remove potatoes one
at a time and pat dry. Thinly slice them and overlap the slices in the
gratin dish until one layer is complete. Distribute the one-half the
combined cheeses evenly over the potatoes. Thinly slice the remaining
potatoes and layer them over the cheese. Distribute remaining combined
cheeses evenly over the potatoes.

Whisk chicken broth, whipping cream and mustard together and
distribute evenly over the potatoes. Distribute remaining parmigiano
Reggiano evenly over the cream.

Bake 1 hour, 15 mins. until the cream is bubbly, the top well browned
and the potatoes are tender. Let stand 5 mins. before serving.

[This is a recipe tweaked from 2 other recipes published by the LA
Times and Bon Appetit.]

Contributor: LA Times Food Section/B on Appetit

Yield: 8 servings

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Roasted Garlic Cheese Toasts

appetizers, breads

3 heads garlic; top 3/4 inch cut off
1/4 cup olive oil
3/4 cup parmesan cheese; grated
1/4 cup cream cheese; room temperature
2 tablespoon mayonnaise
1 teaspoon thyme
1 baguette; cut in 1/2 inch slices

Preheat oven to 500°. Place garlic, cut side up, in small glass baking
dish; pour oil over each head and sprinkle with salt. Cover; bake
until garlic is tender, about 1 hour (make sure garlic is completely
covered with oil. Uncover; let cook 15 mins. Squeeze garlic from each
clove into medium bowl and mash. Mix in Parmesan, cream cheese,
mayonnaise and thyme. Season to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be
made one day ahead; cover and refrigerate. Allow to soften slightly at
room temperature before continuing.)

Preheat oven to 400°. Spread garlic mixture on bread slices; arrange
on 2 baking sheets. Bake until toasts are beginning to brown at edges,
about 9 - 10 mins.

Contributor: Bon Appetit

Yield: Makes about 32

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Lemon Sauce For Veggies

sauces, vegetables

1/4 cup strips of lemon peel
1/3 cup lemon juice from lemons.
1 1/2 cups water
5 fat garlic cloves
2 medium onions in large chunks or wedges
1/4 tsp hot red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Put all of the first 7 ingredients, plus 1 tablespoon of the olive
oil, in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and cover and cook for about 20
minutes, at a gentle boil. Then remove the cover and cook rapidly for
about another 20-30 minutes til the onion pieces are barely covered in
liquid. Puree the sauce: I used a hand blender. With the blender
running, pour the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil into the sauce,
so that it incorporates. Add more salt if necessary. Serve warm, on
vegetables, such as aparagus, broccoli, zucchini.

I added a bit more olive oil, to cut the tartness a bit. It can be
stored in the fridge.

Terry "Squeaks" Pulliam Burd
--
"If the soup had been as hot as the claret, if the claret had been as
old as the bird, and if the bird's breasts had been as full as the
waitress's, it would have been a very good dinner."

-- Duncan Hines

To reply, replace "meatloaf" with "cox"