New England Scalloped Blue Potatoes

I considered calling this 'home-style' blue scalloped potatoes, but really they're just MY HOME style, i.e. the way my mom makes 'em. Possibly New England is too broad perhaps "East Sandwich style Blue Scalloped potatoes" Regardless of the name, I love 'em.

4-5 medium potatoes - get the BLUE ones (N.B. Blue ones are usually a bit smaller so more like 6)
1 yellow onion
2 tbs butter
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup shredded cheese

1. preheat oven to 350
2. wash the potatoes well (I leave skins on) and slice them into 1/3in slices.
3. cut the onion up into rings
4. butter a 9x9 pan
5. layer potatoes, onion, potatoes, cheese until the pan is full or ingrediants are used up. I split the onion up into individual rings.
6. top with a little extra cheese and pour the milk over the top
7. bake at 350 until the potatoes are cooked and top is cheesy. (you can cover with tin foil to keep it from getting too brown.

P.S. the potatoes get less purple as you bake them, and they taste just like the white ones, but they look cool!

Irish soda bread

Happy St. Patty's day! whip up a quick batch of this:

IRISH SODA BREAD

4 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3 Tbs sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup currants or raisins
4 Tbs butter
1 egg
1 3/4 cup buttermilk

0. preheat oven to 400
1. combine dry ingredients
2. cut in the butter with a knife or fingers as for pies. Mix in raisins or currants if desired
3. blend egg and buttermilk and add to the dry ingredients.
4. mix well and knead about 10 times to form a ball.
5. place in a greased cast iron pot and bake 35 min.

serve with an Irish coffee or Guinness.

quick and easy Salsa

I've fallen in love with this salsa recipie. It was on the library's DVD of the America's Test Kitchen season 3. What I find so impressive is it a fresh-tasting salsa yet comes from a can.

1 15oz can diced tomatoes
1 lime
handful cilantro
1 tsp salt
1/2 red onion
1 clove garlic
1 jalepano - or to taste

0. Strain the tomatoes - wait as long as possible to get all the juice out by pressing them into a strainer and leting them sit a few minutes.
1. put the onion, cilantro, salt, chopped garlic and chopped jalepano and juice of a line in the food processor and pulse into small peices
2. add the tomatoes and pulse into bits.
3. if you have time you can drain the salsa again to get more water out.

Mocha filling

This is mocha filling for cake. Another version. I haven't actually tasted cake filled with it yet, but I need to write it down before I forget. Initially based on http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Chocolate-Filling-1

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
4 tsp instant coffee powder
1 cup half & half
5 egg yolks
1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup chocolate chips
Makes: About 1 1/2 cups of filling.


instructions
Mix the flour, salt, instant coffee and sugar in a saucepan and blend in a little of the cream. Place on medium heat and stir constantly. Add the rest of the cream and and continue stirring until the mixture reaches the consistency of medium cream sauce. Stir a little of the sauce into the egg yolks, then pour egg yolks into the sauce in pan. Cook for a few minutes on low heat until thickened. Remove from heat, add unsweetened chocolate to the mixture along with the vanilla and cool quickly. To prevent a skin from forming, brush with melted butter. Stir a little before using