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MY DVR Guilty Pleasure

I think one’s DVR queue can tell a lot about a person. You can get a broad stroke view of their interests and tastes, just through a few scrolls of a remote button. There is just not enough time in the day to watch the TV that I have recorded, so I have had to make some tough decisions on what to delete. We are reaching the danger zone of the room left on it—something’s got to go and for some reason, we apparently NEED to keep 16 three hour long football games. But I counter the testosterone by keeping every Jane Austen adaptation I can find. Ha!

So that leaves us about 20 percent left on our “active”queue. These are for the weekly record it, watch it, delete it shows. And yes, I admit to taping several cooking shows. (And, no, don’t correct me. I still use the word “tape” to describe recording. I’m from the VCR generation.)

Thank goodness I work during the day or I would soon be addicted to the Food Network and the new, (designed just for me, I think) Cooking Channel. I love the latter because they show old Julia Child shows. I watched one last night where she was making a Tarte Tatin (basically an apple tart). When she went to flip it, it slid all over the plate and was an absolute soggy mess. This was in the days of public television where apparently there were no re-do’s. No “take two’s.” But Julia, being Julia, just rallied and said, here’s how you fix it when it doesn’t turn out. Whatta gal, she was.

The Cooking Channel also has a couple of shows on Indian cooking and French cooking which are top notch. Thank heavens for our DVR, because I’m constantly pausing to take notes or jot down an entire recipe. (It also helps that you can get most of their recipes online.) I hit on a good one the other night. Laura Calder, who has a show called French Food at Home, made a potato dish that absolutely had me wanting to call Air France to book a seat. (Or two, actually, ‘cause you can’t be in Paris without your sweetie.)

But, alors, I’m stuck here. So, I just made the potatoes instead. They were tres bien. (My apologies to Monsieur. This website does not allow me to do the accents!)

What, if any, foodie shows are your favorites?

Pommes de Terre a la Boulangere: Potatoes a la Bakery

Laura Calder, French Food at Home on the Cooking Channel

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

4 onions, sliced

2 pounds potatoes, thinly sliced

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Fresh thyme sprigs, leaves picked

2 cups beef or chicken stock

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

1. Melt the butter with the olive oil in a sauté pan, and gently fry the onions until soft and lightly golden, about 15 minutes. Spread half the onions in the bottom of a casserole.

2. Lay a layer of sliced potatoes on top, season with salt and pepper, and scatter with thyme leaves.

3. Build another layer of onions, then a final one of potatoes, and finally pour over the stock.

4. Cover the pan with foil, and bake until all the liquid has been absorbed, 2 to 3 hours, removing the foil for the last hour if you like a crisp top.

Note: I made a half batch of this recipe. And because I didn’t want to wait THREE HOURS for dinner, I rinsed the potatoes first to get rid of as much starch as possible (so they didn’t stick together) and then microwaved them with a good splash of chicken stock for ten minutes. Then I assembled as directed above and baked them uncovered for only an hour. They turned out great.

I’ll try the slow method over a weekend sometime this fall. Or today. :)

Lisa Parsley is a Janesville native writes about food and cooking for Gazettextra.com. Lisa is a community blogger and is not a part of Janesville Gazette staff. Her opinion is not necessarily that of the Janesville Gazette staff or management.