Pain a l'Ancienne (Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge)

Or Pain A'I'nmyass, if you'd care to know its biblical name as I have christened it, but we'll touch on that a bit more later on in the post.

This week's Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge has us making what is perhaps Peter Reinhart's most innovative and unique bread recipe, Pain a l'Ancienne. What makes this recipe different from any other recipe we've tackled to date? We used ice water in this recipe. Ice water! I would have thought that the yeast would have been too busy looking for sweaters to do their job! And in a roundabout and very Mag-way of thinking, that is what happens. Mr. Reinhart, who coincidentally has a professional background in the science of bread baking instead of one in amateur blogging like myself, explains this in a much more technical manner in his book. By using ice cold water, we substantially delay the fermentation, enabling the sugar to break out of the starch before the yeast have their chance to feast. The resulting bread has a much more developed flavor than when standard fermentation practices are used.

This recipe started out easily enough. There are only four ingredients: bread flour, yeast, salt and ice water. All are mixed and kneaded, then placed in the refrigerator overnight. (That's when the yeast are too concerned about finding a sweater to bother with feeding themselves.) I removed my dough from the fridge at 8:00 this morning, thinking that with the two-three hour fermentation predicted, I'd have bread by lunch. Evidently my yeast were teenagers, and there must have been a lot of partying and sweater tossing going on in my fridge last night, because I could not get them to wake up this morning. Here's my dough at 11:00, three hours into fermentation.

WAKE UP!!! Time to rise and ... well.. RISE!

Finally at 1:00 I thought it looked like the dough had doubled, so I started the baguette making process. Oh my. Just.. oh... my. Sticky, wet, sticky, wet..wet..wet! I had flour and dough stuck on everything! There was no way this dough was going to allow me to shape it into anything resembling a baguette. As I was sweating and swearing it out and wondering what to do next, I remembered that this dough can also be used as pizza dough, so midstream I changed horses and decided we would be having pizza for lunch (late lunch, even.) I struggled to even get the dough off the counter and onto the pan. It was misshapen and sad looking when I finally got it in the oven. While I waited for my failure to bake, I sat down to do a little writing.

(HEE!)

This story actually does have a happy ending folks. The pizza crust was some of the best I've ever tasted. Crispy where it needed to be crispy, and chewy where it needed to be chewy. And oh so full of flavor! A total unexpected success after what I thought was going to be such a complete disappointment.

I really think I was just too afraid to use as much flour as I needed to when I was trying to shape the dough. Had I used as much flour in trying to form the baguettes as I ended up using to make it into a pizza, I would have been successful with the baguettes too, I'm sure.

This recipe is definitely on my list to try again, now that I know what to expect and how to remedy it. I can see this becoming a new pizza crust family favorite!

To Mr. Reinhart: If your ears were burning this afternoon, I apologize for all the filthy, foul names I called you. I didn't mean any of them, swears.

To Nicole at Pinch My Salt: Thank you again for including us all in your challenge. I'm still having a blast!

Pumpkin Roll Ebelskivers

It's that time of year when our taste buds are ready to say goodbye to bratwurst and burgers and we're anxious to cover up the grill and turn the oven back on. Apples turn into pies and pumpkins into pumpkin rolls. Or maybe pumpkin roll ebelskivers. Does that sound crazy enough that it just might work?

I've actually been thinking on this recipe for quite some time. I've always loved the flavor and texture of a cream cheese filled pumpkin roll, but I've never made one because it always looks like so much work. Or rather, something I'd screw up.

Once I got to thinking about the pumpkin roll's ingredients, it hit me that they're basically the same as a cake or muffin, and not too far different from those found in pancakes.

So this morning I pulled out my handy-dandy ebelskiver pan and got to work. Ebelskivers are just filled pancakes and since I already knew that the filling was going to be some sort of cream cheese concoction, I only needed to figure out how to make the batter. I'd already had some prior experience with ebelskiver batter so I wasn't going into this like a complete airhead. My past ebelskivers were more the savory variety however, and I knew I'd need to sweeten up the mix for these little pumpkin roll cuties.

Pumpkin Roll Ebelskivers

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 cup buttermilk
2 whole eggs plus 2 egg whites
3 TBSP butter, melted, plus more to brush into the wells of the pan
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 tsp vanilla

In a large bowl combine flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice. In another bowl whisk the eggs, whites, and buttermilk. Stir in the melted butter, pumpkin and vanilla.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, stirring just until all is incorporated. Do not over mix.

For the filling;

Beat four ounces softened cream cheese with three tablespoons of softened butter. Add a half a cup of sifted powdered sugar and beat until smooth. Add 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla.

Heat ebelskiver pan over medium heat. It is important to not let the pan get too hot or the ebelskivers will burn before the batter is fully cooked. Brush each well with a little melted butter. Spoon about a tablespoon of batter into each well. Put about a teaspoon-size dollop of the cream cheese mixture in the center of each.

Top with another spoonful of batter, just enough to cover cream cheese. Do not overfill wells.

Cook for 2-3 minutes or until ebelskivers start to pull away from the sides of the well and have browned on the bottom. Using wooden skewers or picks, gently flip each ebelskiver and finish cooking on the other side, another 2 minutes or so.

Remove ebelskivers from pan and sprinkle with powdered sugar if desired. Repeat the above steps with the remainder of the batter. This was enough batter for about 28 ebelskivers.

These are of course best served warm. But I found the leftovers were actually quite tasty later on in the morning. This would be something you could have out on a buffet without worry that they would be stale or soggy.

Breaded Veal With Pepperjack, Avocado And Lime Mayonnaise

Please don't hate me because I succumbed to the evils of deep frying over the weekend. I don't do it often, swears. But sometimes a certain food comes into my head and then my head in turn doesn't want to deal with the guilt, so it passes the idea along down the food pipe to my stomach. My stomach has no conscience to speak of, so in the end, it almost always wins when my head wimps out. (Whew! How's that for passing the buck?)

The Dairy Queen in the town I grew up in had an extensive sandwich menu. One of my favorites was the breaded veal. Back in the day, we'd order it topped with Titan lettuce (the Titan being our high school mascot.) The recipe to the Titan lettuce was guarded much like McDonald's guards their Big Mac sauce recipe, but I happened to be dating a young man (now my hubby) who worked there at the time. The secret recipe? Shred lettuce; add sweet & sour salad dressing. Wow, like I'd ever undertake a recipe that complicated? I think not.

As I've matured (well, at least physically) my taste buds have matured as well, so this version of the breaded veal was taken to a new adult level with the addition of avocado slices, pepperjack cheese, and tangy lime mayonnaise.

Breaded Veal with Pepperjack, Avocado, and Lime Mayonnaise

4 very thin veal cutlets
salt and pepper
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
dash of hot sauce
1 1/2 cups Panko bread crumbs
Canola oil

4 slices Pepperjack cheese
1 avocado, seeded, peeled, and thinly sliced
lettuce leaves
Lime mayonnaise (recipe follows)

To prepare the veal cutlets, place them between sheets of wax paper and pound them lightly with a meat mallet. Season lightly with salt and pepper.

Create a work station with three shallow bowls or plates. In the first bowl combine the flour and garlic powder and season with salt and pepper.

In the second bowl whisk together the egg, milk and hot sauce.

In the third bowl place the Panko crumbs and season with salt and pepper.

Taking each cutlet, dredge first in the flour, then dip in the egg mixture, then coat completely with the Panko crumbs. Set prepared cutlets on a plate and refrigerate while heating your oil.

In a deep pot heat 2 1/2-3 inches of oil to 350-375 degrees. If you don't have a thermometer (like me) you can test the readiness of the oil by dropping in a small cube of white bread. When it browns in 60 seconds, the oil is ready.

Individually fry each cutlet for 1 1/2-2 minutes, then flip and fry on the other side for another minute or two. Remove from oil and drain on paper towels. Transfer to warm oven to keep warm while frying the other cutlets.

Assemble the sandwiches with lettuce, cheese, avocado slices and lime mayonnaise.

Lime Mayonnaise

1/2 cup mayonnaise
juice of half a lime
Tabasco sauce, to taste

Football (Weekend Whine)

With family and friends scattered far and wide, we're often away from home on the weekends. But on the rare occasion when I can be found sitting here with nothing to do on a Saturday night, my mind tends to wander (and wonder.) This often leads to the writing down of thoughts, feelings, reflections, and yes, rants. I may even start a regular feature here on The Other Side of Fifty titled "Weekend Whine." We'll see how this develops.

This particular whine revolves around football as it relates to my life, family and marriage. In my hubby's defense, it's not like I didn't realize he was a football junkie when I married him. I saw the telltale signs of his addiction throughout our courtship but failed to acknowledge and address those track marks peppering the arm of our relationship. Even on our wedding day nearly 31 years ago, when I found him sitting at the bar watching the Ohio State game, I failed to admit to the depth of the addiction. The Buckeyes played Illinois that day and won big, 45-7, and I'm pretty sure they'd have pulled off this win without my husband playing barstool quarterback, but for some reason his addiction kept him from totally giving himself to me that day.

Fast forward to January 17, 1988. If you're a Cleveland Browns fan, I don't even have to elaborate on the misery suffered that day and I apologize in advance for reopening the wound and pouring a bucket of salt into it. That game will forever be referred to as "The Fumble," and as Ernie Byner fell from grace at the Broncos' 3-yard line with 65 seconds remaining , my hubby climbed into the attic, disconnected the cable TV, and stomped off to bed. This of course might be acceptable behavior when you're watching the game with just your wife and children, but when you leave two Bronco fans (whom you'd invited over to watch the game) sitting there on the couch wondering about the game's outcome, it can be a little embarrassing to the wife who's left behind to do the explaining and apologizing.

I've gotten used to being a football widow for the most part. I've found my own interests and hobbies that occupy my time during the fall weekends. Time mellows us all, and I'm a firm believer in picking only the battles that truly matter at this stage of my life. But hubby's latest antics have forced me to suit up in rusted armor once again and take a stand. A few weeks back he texted every Buckeye fan in his cell phone address book and asked if anyone wanted to get in on tickets to next weekend's Ohio State/Indiana game in Bloomington. As the replies came back, the tally grew quickly and hubby then ordered $800 worth of tickets to the game. I was upset about this because he hadn't told me of this plan before he did this, but what came next made me want to drop kick him into next week. It turns out that he'd offered our home as Tailgate Central before the game, promising food and drink to all. I'm almost still OK with that, really I am. But the gauntlet was tossed when he told me that he'd also offered sleeping arrangements to this entire group. That's when I experienced a meltdown the likes of which haven't been seen since November 22, 1986,' when in the season's final game against Michigan, Ohio State kicker Matt Frantz missed the game-winning field goal with a minute left to play. In an attempt to comfort my very upset hubby after the devastating loss, I reached around to hug him and that's when he shrugged away from me and said, "Get the f#*! away from me."

What am I doing next weekend, you ask? I'm going to get the f#*! away from him. I'm packing my bags and heading north to visit a friend. Hubby can play host with the most and figure out what he's cooking and where he's going to sleep twenty people.

(And we'll see if I'm brave enough to leave this post up on my blog for him to see when he gets to work on Monday...LOL)

Broccoli Sunflower Seed Soup (FPF)

When most people think of broccoli soup, that creamy cheddar cheesy version comes to mind. We've all eaten it and we know what to expect when we sit down to a bowl of it. The reason I'm mentioning this is because to truly appreciate the flavor of this broccoli sunflower seed soup, you have to put that other soup out of your mind. This soup has a completely different flavor. The sunflower seeds and the lemon pepper seasoning give it an earthy nutty taste that I found delightfully unique and delicious.

This soup comes together in a hurry and if you toss that bag of frozen broccoli in the fridge before you leave for work in the morning, you can have this on the table in under 30 minutes from the time you walk back in the door that evening.

Let's make soup! And let's use the food processor.

Broccoli Sunflower Seed Soup

1 pound frozen broccoli, thawed
1 1/2 TBSP olive oil
1 onion, quartered
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup sunflower kernels (plus extra for garnish)
pinch of crushed red pepper flakes
1 tsp lemon pepper seasoning
salt
2 TBSP flour
3 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup fat free half & half
1/4 cup fat free sour cream

Fit food processor with the metal blade. Place onion, garlic and sunflower kernels in processor bowl and pulse until finely and uniformly minced.

Heat olive oil in a soup pot. Add minced onion, garlic and sunflower kernels. Season with salt, crushed red pepper flakes and lemon pepper seasoning. Saute for 3-5 minutes, stirring occasionally so garlic doesn't burn. Sprinkle flour over the mixture and stir to combine. Let cook for several minutes so flour loses its rawness.

Add the chicken broth, increase heat and bring to a boil, reduce heat and continue stirring until smooth.

Place broccoli in food processor and pulse until broccoli is coarsely chopped.

Add broccoli to the soup. Cook for 15 minutes or until broccoli is tender. Remove from heat and stir in half & half and sour cream. Garnish bowls of soup with sunflower kernels if desired.

Millionaire's Shortbread (Treats For Co-Irkers)

This week's Treats For Co-Irkers recipe came from another website (food blog) which shall remain nameless. I had intended to give that site full credit for the recipe, of course, but since I wasn't thrilled with the results, I didn't feel right recommending a recipe that I wasn't happy with. Don't get me wrong, these little millionaire shortbread bars are delicious enough, I just didn't think that the layers were proportionate and when I make these again, I'll post the recipe with my modifications. It'll work out perfectly with more shortbread, WAY less caramel, and a little more chocolate.

I hope you co-irkers have a cow handy, because these are going to make you want to kill for a glass of milk. Rich, rich, rich! Enjoy!

Multigrain Bread Extraordinaire (BBA Challenge)

Why I insist on being honest with you, I have no clue. I mean, it's not like you'd ever find out that my first attempt at this week's Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge failed if I didn't tell you. I could have let you believe that I deftly tossed my ingredients together for this Multigrain Bread Extraordinaire with nary a care and produced this lovely loaf without so much as breaking a sweat.

In fact, I could have even gone to the bakery and bought a loaf of bread, brought it home and photographed it, then bragged about how wonderful it tasted, and you wouldn't have known the difference, would you?

Ah, but that's not how we do things around here. Eight years of Catholic schooling has left its mark on me and you all need to know that I got an A+ in Catholic Guilt 101.

Here's what happened. I decided to make the first batch of bread on a day when my kitchen was like 150 degrees and the dough fermented (triple fermented, even) in less than an hour. Here it is at about 50 minutes.

I should have kept a better eye on it, but since the stated fermenting time was 90 minutes, I got busy with other things and came back to an almost-overflowing bucket of dough. I punched it down and shaped it into rolls which I then left to proof. This proofing time was also supposed to be 90 minutes but here you can see that after only 40 minutes my rolls had over-proofed. I baked them anyway, and though short on looks, they tasted delicious.

Along with my more than adequately developed sense of guilt, I also happen to lean a little bit toward the perfectionist. Surprised? Didn't think so. I mixed up another batch of the soaker and promised myself I'd do a better job the next day.

The kitchen was cooler the next day and I kept a better eye on the situation. I also decided to make this batch into a loaf instead of rolls. Here's my loaf proofing under my custom made proofing box. If you'd like to purchase one of these from me, they're only $25.00, and as soon as I finish up the baby spinach that is in the one I have in my refrigerator, I'd be more than happy to send it to you. (Ain't this an ingenious way to reuse/recycle plastic folks?)

The resulting loaf of bread was better than I could ever have hoped for. I had heard from some others who'd baked this bread that it was over-the-top on flavor and texture. And I agree. It is fabulous. Chewy and flavorful, it's also great toasted. It actually reminded me of more of an English muffin than the English muffins I made for the Challenge a few months back. Delicious, simply delicious.

Thanks again to our fearless leader Nicole for taking on this challenge and inviting the rest of us to bake along with her.

Grilled Peach And Goat Cheese Salad

Remember last week month when I vowed to start posting fruit recipes weekly? (And how's that been going for ya Mags? Weakly.. yeah, that's what I thought.)

I can explain my inability to keep my promise, really I can! You see, it took me until this past week or so to finally nail what my problem is with fruit. It's too sweet. And I like savory. So, when I started searching for "savory fruit recipes" instead of just "fruit recipes," I opened up a whole new can of fruit, so to speak.

Many fruits pair well with cheese, and peaches are a perfect example of such. For this salad, I halved and pitted a nice, ripe peach. I then grilled it cut side down on a grill pan over medium heat for about eight minutes before flipping it over and adding some crumbled goat cheese on top. I nestled each peach half in a bed of lettuce, then drizzled some balsamic vinaigrette over the top and garnished with a little cooked crumbled bacon.

It was the perfect blend of savory, sweet, tangy, salty, smoky, creamy and crunchy. Did I leave any taste bud or part of your palate untouched?

Ok, now that we've got that food business taken care of, I can move on to the announcements part of today's program.

Noooo!! It's not me, swears! My son and his wife have finally given me the go ahead to announce that they're expecting my first grandchild. Guess that would make this their first child too, if you're into such details. They found out yesterday that they're having a boy and I'm so thrilled. I'm going to quickly have to learn to knit and crochet... and make homemade baby food.... and relearn how to change a diaper! It's been so long!

Pizza Pillows (Homemade Pizza Rolls)

During football season I'm always trying to come up with different finger foods to eat while watching the games and I'll admit it's a challenge to keep them even semi-healthy. One of our all-time favorite junk foods is Totino's pizza rolls and for last Saturday's Buckeye's game I decided to take on the task of making something comparable from scratch, and hopefully healthier.

I've worked with wonton wrappers before when making other appetizers, and I could imagine those working as the "dough" part of the pizza roll. And then I just took our favorite pizza toppings and processed them in the food processor to get them to a manageable size. I stirred in some homemade pizza sauce and some shredded mozzarella cheese. Then I spread a little bit on a wonton wrapper, wet the edges with water, folded it in half and sealed it. This is child's play, I thought to myself.

It was easy, but oh so time consuming! After wrapping about eighteen hundred thousand of these little pizza pillows I had an epiphany of sorts. All pillows are not created equal! There are king-size appetites out there, why not make some king-size pillows! So instead of using one wrapper and folding it over, I used two. From that point on I started picking up speed and managed to get the whole job done in a little over an hour.

As I made the rolls, I placed them on baking sheets covered with wax paper, then froze them on the baking sheets for about an hour. From that point they can be removed from the baking sheet and stored in ziploc freezer bags until needed. You can remove as many as you want and return the rest to the freezer.

Place pizza pillows on a lightly greased baking sheet, spray tops lightly with cooking spray, then bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for 10-12 minutes, or until heated through and lightly browned. Serve warm with a cold one... or two. (So much for the healthy part, eh?)

Pizza Pillows (Homemade Pizza Rolls)

1 48-count package of wonton wrappers
6 ounces turkey pepperoni
4 green onions, green part only
1 banana pepper, seeded
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded
1 cup pizza sauce
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese

Process pepperoni, onion and peppers in food processor. Combine with pizza sauce and cheese. Place one teaspoon of filling on a wonton wrapper. Wet edges with water and seal.

Bake at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes.

Steak Marinade (A Product Review)

A few weeks ago I was contacted by the folks at Amazing Taste Foods asking if I would like to try out their line of seasonings. First of all, heck yeah! I never turn down freebies. And secondly, I have never before been contacted by any company asking me to try and review their products. I was flattered, for sure! I know that many of the larger and more popular food blogs out there must get asked time after time to test products, but for me, this very first time was kind of a milestone and I feel like my little blog has finally been noticed.

To be honest, I don't normally use spice packets. This isn't because I don't like them, but rather because since I have such a large variety of spices on hand, it only makes sense for me to use what I already have. I think packets are great though for people who don't keep a lot of spices and for them to have to go out and purchase seven or eight different spices just to try one marinade, doesn't make a lot of dollar sense. These Amazing Taste packets are only $.99 each and for that reason alone, I endorse the usage of them.

I used a marinade recipe that they included in my package. It's a very simple marinade using the packet for beef, a quarter cup of olive oil, a quarter cup of water, beer, or wine, two tablespoons of soy sauce, one tablespoon of Worchestershire sauce, and two teaspoons of coarse black pepper. Marinate for at least fifteen minutes and then grill.

The flavor was wonderful. Just the right combination of spices. For this very first product review on The Other Side of Fifty, I'm giving this product an 8 out of 10.

How Can We Change This?

This post is not in line with what I typically blog about. Nothing edible here today folks, unless you're looking for food for thought. And I apologize in advance to anyone who's paying a visit to my blog today and expecting to find me in my usual lighthearted and air headed state.

Let me just say up front that I believe in and support charitable organizations and most certainly sympathize with all who are in need. And I do my best to share my good fortune with those who might not have such good fortune. But currently I am pissed off at all of those charitable organizations that send me "gifts" in an attempt to procure funds from me. In the past two weeks I have received no less than ten standard (USPS) mailings, all asking for donations. No problem, as such. You can beg until the cows come home and I'll either give or not give, depending on the status of both my hormones and my pocket book. What really cheezes my chit though, is when I get "free" address labels, and sticky note pads, and calendars, and greeting cards, and book marks, and then when I'm forced to think about how much of my donation is actually getting to the needed party, I have to accept and realize that so much of that money and effort is basically being wasted on teasers to earn more donations. That's crazy. It's insane, even!

Yesterday I received a plea from an organization that stickied a dime to its request. Can you imagine how many dimes were sent out in an attempt to draw more dimes? Can you even imagine how many people threw out those dimes? Junk mail means different strokes to different folks and I can totally see a fair number of people tossing that mail into the trash without even opening it to squirrel away that dime. You know what that means? YOU ARE THROWING AWAY MONEY... March of Dimes, St. Jude, Heart Association, Diabetes Foundation, Alzheimer's Association, Easter Seals... etc, etc, etc.

Here's my vow... and don't even try to call me on this, because I've decided it's so.

If you want my money... STOP sending me stuff. I will NOT support your cause if you continue to waste my money, yours, and most importantly THEIRS by sending me note pads and address labels and sticky dimes. Just stop it already.

I really don't have the solution to this problem, and I apologize to all of you who devote your time and efforts to charity, but can't we find another way to make sure that our money is spent in the best possible way? For starters, how about you wait to send me my address labels, calendars, sticky notes and such until AFTER I send you a donation.

Reuben Potatoes (Food Processor Fridays)

I'm not usually on such a Reuben kick, but when I made Reuben dip last week, I had leftover corned beef that needed to get used. Why not just make Reuben sandwiches, you might ask? Well, if I did that I wouldn't have had anything to post on Food Processor Friday, now would I? I mean, it's not like you need a food processor to make a Reuben sandwich. Nor even a recipe really.

Actually, the main reason I wanted to try this recipe is to see if I could pull this off using fresh potatoes instead of the frozen hash browns I would typically use for a recipe of this sort. I'm all about challenges, and today we're going Ore-Ida free!

The key to keeping freshly shredded potatoes from turning all shades of ugly is in getting them in water as soon as possible after shredding. The water will keep oxidation at bay and stop your lovely creamy potatoes from turning color. Have a big bowl of ice water ready beside your food processor and transfer them as quickly as you shred them. Soak them in the water for 15-20 minutes while you're prepping and sauteing the rest of the ingredients. I even changed the water once because with this amount of potatoes, you can really see the starchy residue leaching into the water.

Reuben Potatoes

2- 2 1/2 lbs. potatoes, scrubbed, skins on
8 ounces thinly sliced corned beef
1 onion, cut into 2" pieces
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
3 TBSP olive oil
4 TBSP butter, divided
1/4 cup fresh parsley leaves
15 oz. can of sauerkraut, well drained
6 oz. shredded swish cheese
4 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese
4 oz. shredded cheddar cheese
1 1/2 cups fat free sour cream
1 TBSP caraway seeds
1 cup toasted rye bread crumbs

Fit food processor with shredding blade. Halve or quarter potatoes and shred. Quickly remove shredded potatoes from processor and into a large bowl of ice water.

Rinse processor bowl and lid and fit with metal blade. Place onion and garlic into processor and pulse until both are finely chopped. In a large skillet, melt 3 TBSP of the butter and olive oil. Place onions and garlic in melted oil, season with salt, pepper and caraway seeds and saute for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally so garlic doesn't burn. Remove from stove.

Place corned beef into processor and pulse 7-8 times, or until you have small uniform pieces. Empty contents into large mixing bowl.

Return processor bowl to stand and add parsley leaves. Pulse until finely chopped. Add to mixing bowl with corned beef.

Add cheeses, sauerkraut, sour cream and onion mixture to mixing bowl. Stir to combine.

Drain potatoes and dry well on a clean kitchen towel.

Add potatoes to mixing bowl. Season well with salt and pepper and stir everything to combine. (See?... this is why we needed such a huge bowl!)

Transfer all to a greased casserole dish. Top with bread crumbs and dot with remaining tablespoon of butter.

Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour, or until potatoes are tender and browned.

I had initially planned to add thousand island dressing to the mix but decided against it because I was unsure if it would make this dish too sweet. As we ate the leftovers, however, I drizzled a little bit on my serving and I thought it really blended in nicely with the overall taste of the potatoes and sauerkraut. When I make this again, I think I'll add in about a half cup of the dressing when I mix them up before baking.