Snow Day Potatoes With Rosemary

"Food shouldn't be some sort of artistic torture.  

It's gotta be something uplifting, fulfilling and delicious."

 --Ben Shewry

Removed to serving dish!

When planning a meal or dish, I don’t envision ingredients piled in a grocery store; instead, I’m balancing on the dangerously cushiony seat of the kitchen stool shifting one of the cinnamon jars to find the sprinkles in my grandmother’s walk in pantry or volunteering to venture down the steep stairs into the earthy musk of the root cellar to grab a squash I like, avoiding the alien warty blue Hubbards piled in the back corner.  In the harsh fluorescence of the grocery store, in the present, I rely on my husband who stocked shelves in a large grocery chain as a college student and instinctively knows in which aisle I will find whatever I need.  Back home, planning again, I imagine myself behind my grandmother’s wood stove, right next to the oblong pipe, out of her way, yet right on top of her going on.  Older relatives in blue frock coats, skimmable beige Jersey cow cream sloshing at the top of the milk jar, weed-strewn, dew-wet gardens, peapods, steaming black canning kettles, wood smoke, flaky, floury pie crust, crimson fillings, warmth, gone now but part and parcel of my emotional core.  For those reasons I cook, and, in food photos, I dim the lights or apply a warm filter, conveying the mental terroir in which the offerings are conceived and created.

Today was a snow day.  For years, I would have waited for the plow to pass my house then drive to school to correct, plan and prep.  As I’ve taken on more responsibilities at school, there’s a paradoxical demand for days like this to provide a complete unplugging, away from most technology, lost in a recipe that will take over my head, hands and heart, forming itself within distant memories, from instinct and raw materials.  

Cold days like today call for root veggies, but I didn’t have many to hand, nor was I planning to abandon my pajamas unless necessary.  Squashes were the focus on Christmas and carrots made New Years festive; that left potatoes.  My husband, bless him, hates potatoes.  I live in the hope that someday he will be tempted to try one.  Youngest child, double bless him, would eat sawdust if presented with potatoes on top, so I was aiming for something simple, warm, and replicable for your culinary escape, too.

Snow Day Potatoes with Rosemary

What makes these potatoes exceptional are the herb-crusted bacon and the crisp edges permeated with rosemary oil.

Prep Notes: Set oven to 350.  Choose 9x9 pan for the baking, but half fill a bowl with cold water and put the potato slices in there as you work.  30 minutes prep, 90 minutes to bake.  

Youngest Child dug in before I was done photographing!

Ingredients:

6 strips of bacon +2 so that you can snack
8 Yukon Gold potatoes, medium sized
1 cup of heavy cream
1/3 cup white cheddar cheese
1/2 cup parmesan cheese 
1 1/8 tsp. marjoram
1 1/8 tsp. garlic, minced
1 1/8 tsp. thyme
Sprigs of rosemary 
salt to taste
pepper to taste

Herbed Bacon

Directions: 

Brown the bacon in a skillet over low heat.It will not be fully cooked. Don't worry; that happens in the oven! 

Once the bacon has begun to release its juices, dust with 1/8 tsp. marjoram, 1/8 tsp.garlic, 1/8 tsp.and thyme, and good pepper. 

Peel the potatoes, remembering to drop them into cold water once peeled. 

Time to bake!

Mix heavy cream, cheeses (except for one Tbsp of the parmesan and one Tbsp of the cheddar), the rest of herbs salt and pepper in separate bowl. 

Slice potatoes with mandolin and coat potatoes with cream mixture and then slide into buttered 9x9. Pour any remaining liquid over top and top with the reserved cheese.

Tuck bacon and rosemary around and between the rows of potato.

Bake for 70 minutes at 350 on middle rack.  Check about halfway through and put aluminum foil over top if bacon is getting too brown.  

Just before broiling! 

At 70 minutes, remove pan from oven and turn oven to broil.  Carefully remove the bacon to a paper towel.  

Optional: remove the browned cheese.  Dole out the browned cheese to the family :)  and break the bacon into tiny pieces. I do this because I want the bacon to be brown not broiled, and I want to savor the edges of the potatoes.  The rosemary oil will have soaked them so that they turn beautifully brown and crispy.

Return potatoes to oven for 5-10 minutes, or until the edges are browned to your satisfaction.  Sprinkle with bacon crumbs.

Serve and enjoy! 

Notes:  

• I cut the ends off the potatoes so that I can line up the slices more squarely in the pan, and I use them on the ends of the columns so that the slices stand straighter and bake equally.  

• Because of the bacon grease, I usually remove the potatoes to a serving dish.