Potatoes Au Gratin from Cream of Chicken Soup

What do you do when you have a bag of potatoes and a can of cream of chicken soup in the pantry?  Why, make potatoes au gratin of course!

Ingredients:

5 potatoes

1 small onion

1 stick of butter

1/2 cup of flour

1 large can of cream of chicken soup

1/2 can of water

2 cups of shredded cheese

Frozen vegetables

3 strips of bacon

Salt, pepper and rosemary to taste

Preheat the oven to 350. Alive the potatoes in thin, round slices. 

Start with a roux. Melt the butter in a large sauce pot, add the flour. Remember, the soup already has salt, so be gentle with adding more. When you have a nice, thick liquidy substance, add salt and pepper. Slowly mix in the can of soup. If you use Campbell's, the soup will be very thick. Add half a can of water. Then add the shredded cheese. 

Dice the onion, add to the roux mixture. Dice the bacon. Add some to the mixture, save some to spread over the potatoes. Add the rosemary to taste. 

Take a large pan, and spread the potatoes in a layer on the bottom. Do not use all the potatoes. Place the vegetables and bacon in a layer on top. Spread some of the cheese mixture over the potatoes, covering the potatoes, but not using all the mixture. Spread the rest of the potatoes in a layer on top. Spread the rest of the cheese mixture over the potatoes. Sprinkle shredded cheese over it as a garnish. 

Bake for 45 minutes. 

Creme Brûlée.

I like to call this my "award winning" creme brûlée. Back in 2013, when my daughter and I made this with candied peaches, we won second place in the Camden-Wyoming Peach Festival dessert contest. 

Ingredients:

1 quart of heavy cream

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

6 yolks from large eggs

1/2 cup sugar

You'll need porcelain cups called ramekins. Plus a deep baking pan. 

Preheat the oven to 325. 

Start by putting the cream in a medium sauce pan. Add the vanilla. Slowly bring to a boil. Put aside, off the heat. 

Take the egg yolks, whisk and slowly add the sugar. The color of the mixture should be a pale yellow. 

Slowly mix the egg yolks with the cream, stirring continuously. Once fully combined, pour the mixture into 6 ramekins. Place the ramekins in the deep 

Baking pan. And hot water to the pan surrounding the ramekins. The water should come halfway up the ramekins. Do not let even a drop of water get into the creme mixture!  This will prevent it from thickening. 

Place in the oven for 45 minutes. It should be thick by now.  Let cool. Sprinkle sugar on top and use a small blow torch to carmelize the sugar. 

For the peach festival, we put slices of peaches on top before sprinkling the sugar, and carmelized the sugar over the peaches. 

It is a most decadent dessert.