A gratin doesn't have to be just potatoes and cream, it can also be filled with delicious turnip slices too. Some friends of ours recently gave us some itty-bitty turnips, that were the size of radishes. At first, because they were so small, I thought I might showcase them by roasting them. But, then I decided that they could hold their own in a lovely gratin of potatoes, cheddar, onions, thyme and bacon. Amazingly, the turnip helped to make the velvety dish even more creamy. Pure deliciousness.

Have you ever surprised yourself in the kitchen? Have you ever chopped, roasted, sauteed and then plated a dish - thinking you knew how it was going to taste - only to be completely bowled over by that first fork-full when it passed your lips? I had that happen last week.

I don't just rehearse meals for Christmas, I practice them for New Year's too. Especially this year. I found out recently that Jedd's brother and sister-in-law are coming that weekend. It's pretty exciting because they live 13 hours away and we've only celebrated the new year together a couple of times. So, obviously I want to make something that's pretty festive. So, my thought process went something like this:

“What's really festive? Festive... festive... Festivous? No, that's the opposite of festive. Festive... festive... oh! Truman Capote's Black and White Ball. That's super festive. And he used to serve chicken hash for his guests at midnight. Midnight is officially New Years Day. Cool. Chicken hash it is.”

When we received purple potatoes in our CSA share I was thrilled. But, I'm always over the moon when I see purple potatoes. In the rainbow of colors that come in our basket, these bright little tubers always feel like a big present.

We also received kale and I thought it might be a fun to make “healthy” scalloped potatoes with the purple potatoes and greens. Because, as everyone knows, if you throw something with Vitamin C in a dish leaden with milk, cheese and flour it automatically becomes good for you.

I love crispy hash browns. Not “home fries” that are (usually) greasy and never completely cooked, but golden hash browns.

About 12 years ago, Jedd and I went to visit our friend, Steve, in Arizona and then we drove to California. As we drove away from Tempe across the desert toward Laguna Beach, we stopped for breakfast at a diner.

The diner was a little out of the norm. First of all, they had a huge sign that said “No guns allowed.” The second thing was that they had 25 kinds of hash browns on the menu. It was like I had died - without being shot by a patron - and gone to “Chili covered hash browns with deep fried jalapenos” heaven.