Bacon cheddar beer scalloped potatoes

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon ground chile de arbol (can substitute cayenne pepper, to taste)
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup beer, Belgian style wheat beer (Blue Moon)
1/2 cup reduced sodium chicken broth*
8 ounces mild cheddar cheese, shredded
3/4 cup half & half
1 cup whole milk
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
24 ounces bacon, cooked, drained and chopped
3 pounds red potatoes, sliced thin


Move rack to center of oven and preheat oven to 350°F.
In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, melt butter. Add flour and whisk; allow flour to cook for 2-3 minutes to cook out the ‘floury’ taste. Add garlic, chile, paprika, salt, and pepper. Whisk to combine.
Slowly add beer, chicken half and half. Whisk until there are no lumps. Add cheese and whisk constantly until you have a smooth mixture. Add milk and Worcestershire. Reduce heat to low.
Butter a 3 quart casserole dish. Layer potatoes in casserole dish, topping each layer with about ½ cup of cheese sauce. Halfway through add half of chopped bacon on top of cheese layer. Continue layering cheese sauce and potatoes. Reserve the remaining bacon.
Bake for 70-90 minutes, until potatoes are tender. Top with remaining bacon for the last 10 minutes of cook time. Allow potatoes to rest for 20 minutes before serving to thicken up. Serve and enjoy!

*If you do not have chicken broth, you can heat ½ cup water and ½ teaspoon chicken bouillon to substitute.

Krub (Klub) for Mona

I thought it was interesting to note that the meat was optional in all of the recipes I looked at.  I remember that Grandma and Mom put sausage in theirs, mixed in with the grated potato.  I seem to remember that the potatoes they used were partially boiled.  Mona, do you remember that?  I would sure take care of the problem of too much moisture, but I was just a kid so I could be remembering wrong.  If that's the case though, I'll bet you could use the frozen hash browns, thawed, instead of peeling and shredding your own.  (I'm always looking for shortcuts.)

• 6 slices bacon
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 cups potatoes, peeled and finely shredded (or ground).  Important:  Squeeze as much moisture out of the potatoes as you can.
• 1 egg (helps hold the mixture together
• 2 teaspoons salt
• ¼ tsp pepper
• 2 tbs. grated onion
• (Optional:  8 oz. pork sausage, ham cubes, or salt pork.  Sausage can be mixed throughout, other meat is to be used in center of dumpling. 

1.Place bacon in a large skillet over medium-high heat and fry to render out the fat. Remove bacon from the pan and crumble.  Reserve the grease.

2.In a medium bowl, stir together the flour and baking powder. Stir in potatoes, optional sausage (raw), ½ tsp of salt, pepper, egg, and onions to make a sticky dough. Knead for 10-15 minutes till the dough is no longer sticky. Use more flour if needed.

3.Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and add 1 ½  teaspoons of salt. (Alternately you can cook these in pork stock or a mixture of equal parts beef and chicken stock with a little bit of bacon to kick up the “porky” flavor.  If you do this, omit the salt in the boiling liquid.) Squeeze the potato mixture into 6 or 7 dumplings, or your desired size, no bigger than a baseball. Some pictures showed them as sort of flattened balls, some showed them round. If you are usng meat other than sausage, push it into the center of the dumpling and seal it shut.  Drop carefully into the boiling water, stirring often to make sure they do not stick to the bottom or sides of the pan.  Simmer for 45 to 60 minutes depending on the size of your krub. (I remember this always seemed to take forever when we were kids.)  Remove to a platter with a slotted spoon.

4.Serve with bacon grease brushed over the top, and crumbled bacon. These may also be sliced and fried the next day which is more visually appealing since then they're browned and crisyp, Mom always served them fried piping hot with chunks of cold butter.  They freeze well.  

Tip: If your dumplings are too “wet” from boiling, put them on a baking sheet in the oven for about an hour covered in the bacon/sausage drippings, it will get rid of the excess water, then serve with butter and salt and pepper to taste. Also, these are good served with cream gravy made from any kind of meat drippings.

Quick Potato Lefse

2 cups water

2 cups instant potatoes (shake to settle)

3 tbs. shortening

3 tbs. butter

2 tsp. salt

1 tbs. sugar

Bring water to a boil.  Remove from heat and stir in instant potatoes, shortening, butter, salt, and sugar.  Cool.  For each cup of this mixture, add ½ cup of flour and divide into 4 portions.  (Keep remainder of potato mixture refrigerated until ready to use.)  Roll each portion into dinner-plate size, as thin as possible, using additional flour if needed.  (to aid in rolling it thin, use a grooved rolling pin with a sock and a pastry board covered with a pastry cloth.  Use a lefse stick to turn.

When lefse is as thin as possible, flip one end of the lefse over the lefse stick and up to center.  Place lefse on hot lefse griddle and unroll.  When bubbles appear, turn and bake on other side. If needed, turn over once more and bake till brown spots appear.  Do not overbake or lefse will be dry.  Lefse is traditionally served spread with butter and sprinkled with sugar, then rolled up to eat.