Jan D'Atri

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Twice Baked Potato Casserole

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Potato salad is always a summertime favorite. But how about if we kick it up a couple of notches and build a tasty Twice Baked Potato Casserole fully loaded with all of your favorite fixings? This hearty recipe was sent in from Sun City resident Linda Smith, and it’s a rock star side dish that she’s been making for years. Linda includes it in all of her special gatherings.


“I had a humongous four-day bash where friends and family from Omaha, Kansas City, Tucson and the Valley partied hearty on the fourth of July. My Twice Baked Casserole is always a hit because it’s so much easier to make than traditional stuffed baked potatoes. And it feeds a crowd. I always serve it with some type of beef.”


The minute you start building this sassy side, you can see why it gets devoured. It starts with the sweetness of cubed red potatoes and then layered with chopped crisp bacon, sour cream, cheese and green chiles with a burst of colorful scallions. Linda says she doesn’t often have leftovers to enjoy the next day, but it’s just as tasty if you’re lucky enough to save a little! This recipe can be made ahead and frozen (baked or unbaked) and re-heated when ready to use. Thanks Linda, for a great dish! I made a giant casserole of your Twice Baked Potatoes for a gathering recently and you’re right. Leftovers are hard to come by.

Sheepherder’s Breakfast for Dinner

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Sometimes there’s nothing like breakfast for dinner. Once in a while, it just hits the spot. When I came across a recipe for Sheepherder’s Breakfast in the cookbook Taste of Home’s Contest Winning Annual Recipes for 2006, it brought back my “breakfast for dinner” memories of powering through college homework late into the night at the University of Nevada, Reno. Sometimes before the all-night cramming sessions, a group of us would head to Gardnerville–about an hour south of Reno–to fortify ourselves at a Basque restaurant on a meal of baked eggs, chorizo and potatoes. It was very similar to the Taste of Home award winning recipe except that the Basque dish was baked in the oven in a cast iron skillet and Basque chorizo (or sometimes cured ham) replaced the bacon. It was soulful and comforting and satisfying and filling. Could you ask for anything more if you’re hungering for hearty meal? Sheepherder’s Breakfast, with all of its variations, is a popular dish here in the Southwest, too. Of course, fresh roasted or canned chiles are often added to a skillet dish like this one. Now with so many popular varieties of bacon on the market like peppered bacon, apple wood smoked bacon and the thicker sliced slab type, this variation on the Sheepherder’s Breakfast for Dinner will be tastier than ever morning or night. Plus it just might be the perfectly delicious kickstart to Dad’s day next week for Father’s Day!

Cinco Salsas

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We’re just five days away from our Southwestern fiesta with friends, Cinco de Mayo! Searching for some salsas? This Roasted Eggplant Salsa was rescued out of my own recipe box—the one I’ve had for years stuffed with recipe clippings, potluck favorites and scribbles on scratch paper. It’s perfect for a Cinco celebration if you’re looking to add something a little different to your salsa spread this year. I’ve also included one of my favorite recipes for stand-out Salsa Fresca. It uses ingredients found in many diced tomato-based salsas, but you can heat it up or tone it down anyway you like. Then grab a chip and dive right in!

Julia Child’s Sliced Filet with Sautéed Mushrooms Over Crostini

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In Julie Child’s Menu Cookbook from 1978, she speaks about how French bread “begs to be cooked this way.” Sliced thin, brushed with butter and baked to golden brown, the “croutes” became a hard toasted bread perfect for appetizers. The modern day version is crostini, toasted sliced baguettes used for popular plates like Bruschetta and mascarpone, prosciutto and fig on crostini Hors d’oeuvres.
For this recipe I’m taking a cue from Julia:


“Suppose the boss is coming for dinner—a formidable personage whom you want to impress and whose taste in food runs to the conservative. What to serve? For someone like that I immediately think of beef.”


This recipe for Filet with Sautéed Mushrooms combines the use of beautifully baked toasts sprinkled with grated cheese and then topped with thin slices of flavorful filet topped with a small mound of sautéed mushrooms and onions. If you invite your boss to your next party and serve up these, you just might get a raise!
(This is a great summertime light meal and all steps can be made ahead and assembled when ready to serve. Serve mushroom mixture warmed.)

Main Meal Salad with Cilantro Lime Dressing

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I’ve always thought that we have certain flexibility with our choices for lunch and dinner. But breakfast? That’s a whole different story. If you’re a bacon person, you’re never going to order sausage. If you love your eggs over easy, then scrambled just won’t do. I think it’s safe to say that breakfast our way is non-negotiable. The same thing may be true with salad and salad dressing. If Italian vinaigrette is your choice, then a green goddess dressing is just not going to satisfy. The other issue with salad is, well, it’s generally thought of as the obligatory side to your entrée. That all changes here, with this mega main meal bonanza of goodness, flavor and crunch with a surprisingly bright, and full-bodied Cilantro Lime dressing! Wow, do I love this salad! I love everything about it; the fixings and the fact that it’s the main event! You can start with any lettuce you like. My choice is a combination of healthful greens like a Spring Mix and a crunchy chopped bag salad that is so readily available these days. This recipe has grilled chicken, but it’s fantastic with strips of steak of you’re a beef eater. I’m hoping this salad and the delicious dressing has everything you love and then some. If not, add your favorite fixings and make it a main meal to remember! After a week of Valentine’s cookies and chocolates and candy, I could use an entrée like this! How about you?

Watch my How To Video for Main Meal Salad with Cilantro Lime Dressing here!