Happy...

2010!

We rang in a very frigid new year with our good friends, the Kippsters. There was lots good, semi-clean fun...along with, of course, the annual watching of Christmas Vacation. And the kicker is that CiBaby was actually awake to ring in the new year! Yikes but yay!

After that fun night of too much to eat and drink and too little sleep, I creaked my way out of bed and into the kitchen. Our morning entailed celebrating a good friend's birthday with a New Year's Day brunch...and I had signed up to bring the cheesy potatoes. One, never have I made cheesy potatoes and two...well, there's CiBaby...who loves her cheese but her cheese doesn't love her (at least the inexpensive stuff). So I set out on a mission to make a great tasting lactose-free cheesy potatoes...sounds like an oxymoron, right? But holy crykies they were GOOD!*


CzaMama's CheeZ Potatoes for CiBaby


Thick white sauce with mushroom (recipe follows)

1 cup goat's milk yogurt

2 tsp corn starch

2 lbs frozen diced hash brown potatoes, thawed
1/2 cup goat's milk butter, melted
1 1/2 cups shredded aged cheddar cheese, divided
1 1/2 Tbsp dried onion flakes
salt and pepper, to taste
4 oz chevre, cut/broken into small chunks

In a large bowl, mix yogurt and corn starch. Slowly add warm thick white sauce, stirring constantly until incorporated. Add in thawed potatoes, melted butter, 1 cup aged cheddar cheese and onion flakes. Mix; add salt and pepper, to taste.

Put potato mixture into a 9x13 baking dish and dot with chevre. Top with remaining shredded cheddar cheese.


Bake in a 350F degrees, preheated oven for 1 hour.

Thick white sauce (bechamel) with mushrooms:
2 dried mushrooms (I used shitaki), rehydrated (reserving soaking water), squeezed of extra moisture and finely chopped
3 Tbsp goat milk butter, divided
4 1/2 Tbsp all-purpose flour (or Bob's Red Mill all-purpose gluten-free flour)
1 1/2 cups hot lactose-free milk (I use 2%)
3/4 tsp salt
1/8-1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper

Melt butter in heavy saucepan. Add flour; cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes, or until mixture (known as a roux) is smooth and begins to bubble.

Remove saucepan from heat. Add milk all at once. Return saucepan to heat; stir vigorously with a whisk or wooden spoon. Sauce will be thickened and smooth in about 1 minute.

Add salt and pepper; cook over low heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

As if we hadn't cheered enough, the clan came over to our abode to continue our annual New Year's Day fire and hot dog roast...with a twist. This year it was so incredibly cold none of us wanted to be outside, so instead everyone roasted their dog and marshmallows by our cozy living room fireplace!

Cheers!

*I make no claim that they are healthy or low in fat/calories...just without lactose.