Bacon and Garlic Green Beans with a Balsamic Glaze.

Thanksgiving doesn't need to be complicated.  Here is a super simple veggie side.

Ingredients.
2 tbsp of butter.
2 cloves of garlic
3 strips of bacon cut into small pieces
1 lb of fresh green beans with the ends trimmed off.
1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar

Add your trimmed green beans to a pan with a little bit of water and cook them just until they turn bright green.  Then put your green beans into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process.  Let them chill for a minute then drain and dry off on paper towels.  Set aside for the moment.

Add 1/2 a cup of balsamic vinegar to a saucepan and put it over medium high heat.  Whisking very frequently, bring to a gentle bubble.  You want to cook it until it reduces by about 1/2.  It will still look watery in the pan until it cools off a bit.  Warning this is a smelly vinegary process.. you might want to do this the day before if you have a house full of guests.  It will stay beautifully on the counter covered for a day or so.  Definitely open a window.

Brown your bacon in a pan until its nice and crispy.  Drain and set aside.

Add the butter to the empty pan you cooked your green beans in and sautee the 2 cloves of garlic on medium heat until fragrant. Watch your garlic, because burnt garlic can ruin a dish.  Once the garlic is cooked, add your cooked beans and bacon back to the pan and toss together until warmed through.

Put in a serving dish and drizzle with your balsamic glaze and you are good to go!

- Jess xoxo

Cheesy scalloped potatoes.

My dad used to cook a  lot when I was growing up, if he didn't know how to make something he would make up the recipe in his head with his own ingredients and make it his own, this is his version of scalloped potatoes.

I once took it to a family Easter dinner last year it was such a hit that they beg me to bring it every single time, Christmas, thanksgiving, birthdays etc.. it's my signature side. The Secret? Cotija cheese!  now this is not the time to get picky or scared about trying new things, cotija is delicious. When you open it it's kinda stinky not a lot though and not gross stinky just different, however don't judge it just yet.. the flavor is actually that of a salty Parmesan or a feta, you could replace with either of those if your store does not carry cotija but trust me, you will miss out.

Ingredients

10 potatoes
sour cream
1/2 cotija cheese (you can use the other half for my upcoming lasagna post)
shredded jack cheese
salt
pepper


Boil about 10 medium potatoes, you want to boil the potatoes with skin and everything, if you don't it'll be very difficult to slice them, also you want to poke them ever so often with a fork  to make sure they are soft enough to poke yet still a bit hard.

slice them into circles once they cool. The skin will come off and if it doesn't completely then leave it in! the skin actually works with the dish.

butter a pan, it could be a glass pan, a loaf pan, my favorite to use is a cake pan, especially a spring form cake pan because you can take the sides off and it looks like a beautiful potato pie, commence your assembly, do one layer of potatoes...

add sour cream, salt and pepper to taste, the shredded jack cheese as well as shredded cotija cheese.

keep layering, potato slices, sour cream, salt and pepper, jack cheese and cotija cheese, and again.. I did 3 layers I could have fit another layer but I ran out of potatoes. :)
bake in oven at 375 degrees for 30 minutes then move to broiler for 2-3 minutes (watch your broiler so it wont burn) you just want the top cheese to brown a bit creating a bit of a crunchy top layer.

 you can make this ahead before you warm rolls in the oven etc.. it needs to cool a bit so the slices wont fall apart.

enjoy! <3
post by Tanya E.