Homemade Scalloped Potatoes and Salmon in Phyllo

This past weekend I made a ton of new things. Making new recipes is always a nerve wracking experience for me because I never know if my husband is going to like them or not. I never have a problem-I love food too much to be picky. :)

Saturday night I decided to make homemade scalloped potatoes and salmon and spinach in phyllo. Steven and I both love potatoes, especially scalloped potatoes. But I didn't want to make the ones that come in a box (even though those are absolutely delicious). So I pulled out one of my many cookbooks and looked up a recipe that looked easy enough and that didn't require a ton of ingredients that I'd have to go out and buy.

I think that's the hardest part about trying new things out. The grocery shopping. I knew our trip was going to be expensive, so the less I had to buy the better. :)

I made the potatoes first since they would require the longest amount of time to cook.

Here's a picture of some of the prep work I did:



I'll go ahead and post the recipe:

3 tablespoons butter, divided
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1-1/2 cups milk
4 cups thinly sliced peeled potatoes
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 small green pepper, finely chopped
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
3/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1) In a small saucepan, melt 2 tablespoons butter: stir in flour, salt and pepper. Gradually stir in milk. Bring to a boil over medium heat; cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened.

2) In a greased 1-1/2 qt. baking dish, arrange half of the potatoes, onion and green pepper in layers; cover with half of the sauce. Repeat layers. Cover and bake at 350 for 35 minutes.

3) Melt remaining butter; combine with bread crumbs and sprinkle over potatoes. Bake, uncovered, 40 minutes longer or until potatoes are tender (I was on the safe side and let it cook the entire 40 minutes before testing it to see how soft the potatoes were). Sprinkle with cheddar cheese. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Here are the other pictures:

This is a picture with half the potatoes, onions and pepper




With the cheese on top!


I'll give my final review of the recipe after the rest of the post.

The other recipe I tried was out of my Pampered Chef "Cooking for two & more" cookbook.

Salmon & Spinach in Phyllo

1 teaspoon basil or olive oil
4 cups fresh baby spinach leaves coarsely chopped
salt and coarsely ground black pepper
8 sheets thawed, frozen phyllo dough
nonstick cooking spray
2 skinless salmon fillets
2 tablespoons garlic and herb cream cheese spread

1)Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Heat oil in a saute pan. Add spinach; season with salt and black pepper. Cook and stir until spinach is wilted, about 1 minute. Remove spinach to paper towel-lined plate. Squeeze out excess moisture, set aside.

2)Lay one sheet of phyllo on a large work surface and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Place second sheet of phyllo over first, pressing sheets together to seal. Continue laying down and spraying phyllo sheets to create a stack of four sheets of phyllo. Repeat with remaining phyllo and additional cooking spray to create another phyllo stack.

3) Season salmon fillets with salt and black pepper. Spread each salmon with half of the cream cheese spread and top with half of the spinach. For each phyllo bundle, place salmon spinach side down, on a phyllo stack 2 inches from the bottom edge of short side. Fold long sides of phyllo in towards center. Gently roll up phyllo from bottom to top. Place both bundles on a bar pan (cookie sheet-I used a stoneware from Pampered Chef) seam side down. Using a bread knife, make three diagonal slits across top of each bundle. Spray bundles with nonstick cooking spray. Bake 11-13 minutes or until salmon is fully cooked and phyllo is golden brown. Remove from oven. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Here are the pictures from the salmon. I only happened to take a picture when they were wrapped-so I didn't get a good shot of the salmon and spinach before I wrapped them in a bundle.

This is a shot of the phyllo







As for dessert, I made a delicious roasted peach in phyllo.

The recipe I used called for plums but I couldn't find any at Walmart-so I just grabbed something I thought would be a good substitute.

You need:
4 plums (or 2 peaches)
1/3 cup sugar

For phyllo shells:
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
12 sheets of phyllo
nonstick cooking spray
1-1/2 cups vanilla frozen yogurt

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Remove pits from plums and cut into 8 wedges and then cut those wedges in half. In a small bowl combine the plums (or peaches) in sugar, toss to gently coat. Arrange the plums on a cooking sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Gently stir halfway through cooking. Remove from oven to cool.

Here's the only picture I got of the prep work-I didn't get a final shot.


For phyllo shells, reduce temp to 350 degrees. Combine sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl or shaker. Place one sheet of phyllo on a cutting board. Lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray; sprinkle lightly with sugar mixture. Repeat with second sheet of phyllo. Cut dough lengthwise into 6 strips. Gather dough strips together forming one strip. Form strip into a 4 inch ring (center will be open). Place onto a baking sheet (I used Pampered Chef's stoneware again for this). Repeat with remaining phyllo and sugar mixture for a total of 6 shells (I only made 2 shells). Bake 16-20 minutes or until golden brown and crisp. Remove from oven; cool completely.

To assemble, arrange plums (or peaches) around inside edge of shells. Top with a scoop of yogurt (or in our instance-ice cream since that's all we had). Drizzle with syrup and serve immediately.

This recipe was delicious! I think I actually preferred the peaches to plums, so I think the peaches were a good substitute.

Since I didn't get a picture of the final product for the dessert, I'll at least satisfy your interest with a shot from the final product of our dinner:


Steve loved the scalloped potatoes and I'm pretty sure we'll never buy another box of the easy potatoes again. It wasn't a hard recipe to make and besides it taking a while to cook, it was worth the wait.

As far as the salmon in phyllo. Steve didn't much care for the flaky dough. I didn't mind it. It gave a little bit of something to crunch on, which is sometimes satisfying for me. I liked it. I do have to say that I didn't use fresh baby spinach, I used a pre-frozen package. I'd like to try this again with the fresh spinach and maybe less phyllo to see if maybe Steve would like that better. Also, I made the cream cheese spread myself. I bought regular cream cheese and then added a clove of garlic and probably a teaspoon of parsley. I think it was really good.

So that was our dinner Saturday night. I hope you liked the pictures and I hope you try the recipes! If you do, let me know what you thought about it and whether or not your tried something different!