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.

4th of July Apple Pie with a Twist

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Homemade fresh-out-of-the-oven apple pie ala mode for the 4th of July! Pretty hard to beat. When I got a letter from Sun City resident Eva Meeks, it included a recipe for an award-winning apple pie that she had clipped from a magazine a few years ago. Here’s part of Eva’s letter:


“During the 4th of July holiday I hosted a pot luck for my family and decided to bake my favorite apple pie. I’ve been making it for several years now, and it’s always a big hit. Apparently this pie won some blue ribbons at state and county fairs. All I know is it wins hearts every time I make it for friends and family. It has a surprise filling that really adds a nice flavor. I thought you’d like to try it.”


Well, Eva, you thought right! I wasted no time peeling the Granny Smith apples and mixing up the “surprise” filling. I’m so happy Eva “blind bakes” (also known as pre-baking) her bottom crust. I’ve always done that as well because the bottom shell stays somewhat crispy after filling and baking. I’m also a fan of cooking my apples just to soften before filling the pie shell. Eva softens her apples in the microwave and then adds the rest of the ingredients. If you’re an apple pie lover, dish this one up with a nice scoop of vanilla ice cream and you’ll be in for a big surprise!

Over the Rainbow Cubed Ahi Tuna Salad

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There is the classic Salade Nicoise with its lovely composition of tuna, tomatoes, sliced eggs, olives, potatoes, haricots verts and anchovies–or variations thereof. The tuna is generally canned, and there is very little in the way of lettuce leaves. Then, there is the more updated trend, the Ahi Tuna Salad, with its delicate strips of seared fresh ahi tuna, arranged in overlapping slices and serve on a bed of lettuce often with a wasabi-soy- mustard drizzle or a honey ginger vinaigrette. Combine the best of both salads, add a rainbow of color and crunch, and you have a hearty, healthful main meal dish with the unusual twist of fresh tuna served, not in slices, but rather in cubes to get the sear on all sides. If your New Year’s resolution is to eat healthy and somewhat preservative-free, the Over The Rainbow Cubed Ahi Tuna Salad is your creative and crunchy kick starter in a salad bowl!

Panzanella Salad with Roasted Vegetables (Italian Bread Salad)

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Everyone deserves a second chance and an opportunity to reinvent themselves. I think a recipe should have the same shot and this week’s dish is the perfect example. Panzanella is a Tuscan salad that was once considered a poor man’s dish, made of stale bread soaked in liquid (usually water) and tossed with tomatoes and vegetables. I remember the first time I tasted Panzanella. I was visiting friends in Orvieto, Tuscany, and my hosts prepared the salad by soaking the stale bread in milk. It was then wrung out in a clean dish towel and the bread was tossed into the rest of the ingredients. It was unforgettable and heavenly. These days, Panzanella has gone from a poor man’s dish to a very trendy feature on restaurant menus. Everyone has their own version of this bountiful bowl of goodness and here is yet another one. This Panzanella is made with large chunks of fresh bread (grilled, not soaked) and tossed with peppers, onions, shallots and a chile pepper. The traditional tomatoes were removed altogether. I love this version because it can be made ahead and enjoyed for days. It just gets better as the flavors meld. Panzanella, the poor man’s dish that got reinvented into a trendy plate, rich in flavor and nutrients!

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!