Lowndes Street Potatoes au Gratin

I am writing this post from home using my mother's much more loved and worn Charleston Receipts. (she has the 1976 printing). I love being able to look at her cookbook and note which pages have tabs and are dog earred. I learned that my mother prefers the Very Thin Benne Seed wafers (there are a lot of varities in the cookbook). Also, her version seems to have a slightly different layout since I believe they have added a few new forwards since 1976. But one thing that remains the same, the cover. My biggest complaint about the cookbook has to be about the plastic binding and cover. My mother's cookbook has not had a cover as long as I can remember. My cover is already starting to come out of the plastic binding. I wish it was a hard bound copy without that plastic binding. Oh well. On to the receipt itself!

   I made the Lowndes Street Potatoes au Gratin (by Mrs. C. Stuart Dawson, May Hutson) actually several weeks ago. I must admit I did not give the receipt the attention it deserves. I made it the same night I made the dreadful terrapin soup and I was a bit tired of cooking by the time I got to this dish. After laboring on fake turtles, all food became unappetizing.  It is a pretty standard gratin dish. I think the pototes were a bit too mushy for my liking. I almost just wanted to make them into mashed potatoes instead of slicing them. I think I was too tired to slice the potatoes thin enough. I usually cannot get enough of potatoes au gratin. (especially a recipe that calls for 2 cups of milk, 2 tablespoons of butter, and a 1/2 pound of cheese!) I hope to make it again on another night when I am not so tired. I might not let the pototaoes boil for quite so long.  I am going to try to make some desserts from Charleston Receipts to take down to Charleston for my sister's wonderful Christmas Eve party. I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas holiday!
xoxo
Christine

Before the 1/2 pound of required cheese was added