Hastle-back Potatoes

Over the weekend I decided to try my hand at Hasselback potatoes.  I'm calling them HASTLEback potatoes because they were not quite as simple as I'd expected.  Regardless, they did turn out tasty and so I wanted to share the recipe and my commentary.

First thing, I rinsed and peeled my potatoes.  I used my mandolin slicer which makes it really fast and easy.  Next I used my knife to cut slices in the potatoes, but not all the way through.  I left about a half inch base holding the potato together at the bottom.  (Also to note: I cut a flat edge on the bottom of the potato so that it would stay upright)

The recipe I followed said to "fan out" the slices after cutting, but they just would not cooperate, so my hope was they would do so as they began to bake.  I preheated my oven to 450 and was instructed to butter (I melted the butter and did my best to coat, but it really just dripped right off) and season (I used salt and Italian seasoning) the potatoes, and then bake for 30 minutes.  At 30 minutes they hadn't really cooked or fanned out at all. 

So, I turned the oven up to 500 and baked for another 30 minutes, and then used a fork to "fan" out the slices (they had not budged at all during baking). 

I topped with cheese and put back in for another 10 minutes.

They turned out, but they could have used a little more time baking, and at that point everything else was ready and everyone was hungry.   And oh boy, a 500 degree oven will heat up a condo real quick ya hear!   

Also on the menu:

Mesquite Pork Loin

Corn casserole

Caesar Salad

Garlic Knots

& Publix Chocolate Ganache Supreme cake for dessert!

And that, my friends, is what you call a 5 star dinner.