Leftover Party Cheese Potato Gratin

My sister and I are pretty famous for our parties (not to brag or anything …). Our spreads are various, colorful, and tasty – we’ve thrown parties for groups as small as 20 and as large as 100. My sister always buys the cheese. She is vegetarian, but is an avid cheese-eater. She gets an assortment and lays them out with various crackers and breads.

Usually, we have leftover cheese. They end up in my fridge and I snack on them for several days. Now, I love cheese, even strong ones (e.g. blue), but a girl can only eat so much leftover cheese. Not wanting to waste (of course), I finally came up with a way to use up all that leftover cheese: introducing Leftover Party Cheese Potato Gratin! I have a friend who does not like blue cheese, but she tried it and said that although she can tell there’s blue cheese in the mix, it’s mellow and overall delicious. Adding zucchini from the backyard makes it just a tad healthier, and the onions become sweet and delicious. I’m happy to report that the dish turned out great! Here’s the run-down:

Ingredients:

• 4 potatoes, sliced 1/4-inch thick
• zucchini, sliced 1/4-inch thick
• 1/2 large yellow onion, sliced 1/4-inch thick
• 1 cup milk (I used skim, but for a richer dish, you can use whole milk or cream)
• about 1 cup total leftover cheeses (the idea is to use whatever leftover cheeses you have – for this recipe, I had blue cheese, Saint Andre, and an herbed goat cheese)
• salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 325. Put the milk and leftover cheeses in a medium-sized saucepan over medium heat. Heat until lightly simmering.

While the milk is warming and the cheese is melting, prepare the vegetables. Lightly brush olive oil on the bottom and sides of an oven-proof baking dish. Use a mandolin to slice your vegetables. First, put down one layer of potato slices. Lightly salt and pepper.

Next, put down one layer of zucchini slices. LIghtly salt and pepper.

Sprinkle one layer of onion slices. Finish with a final layer of overlapping potato slices.

Pour the heated milk and cheese mixture over the vegetables.

Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes at 325. Then, turn up the heat to 400 for another 10 minutes or so to brown the top. Enjoy!