Mustard Roasted Potatoes

I am thoroughly enjoying my holiday break from work - everyone at my work gets from December 22 until January 2 off, but I decided to take some vacation days early in 2013 so I can be off the first week of January, too.  My goal is to take a nap every day that I am off, and so far, that has been working out great!  Sure, I've got some other things planned - I need to sew 3 costumes for the Dexter High School musical, and     I really need to get our family room cleaned up, but I am not going to let those things get in the way of my naps.   A girl needs to have priorities...

Yesterday, after my nap, we were supposed to bowling as a family, but my son was feeling a little under the weather, so my hubby and I decided to treat ourselves to happy hour instead.   One of our favorite holiday traditions is to sneak out for a holiday cocktail together.    I can remember when we first moved to Ann Arbor, we sat together in the famous hippy bar Del Rio (long closed) and enjoyed our Christmas cocktail while the snow fell in the twilight.   We had to run into Dexter to pick up a last minute gift, and the town was pretty much empty, so we stopped at the pub for our cocktail this year.   It should be my New Year's Resolution to take advantage of my programmable oven often - it has a feature where you can set the start time, the cooking time and the temperature, and the food will cook later on, as directed.  It's a great way to cook frozen dishes like casseroles on a work day - just pop it frozen in the oven, program it, and it will be ready when you arrive home.  

I used the feature yesterday to try out this recipe I saw on the Barefoot Contessa.   A couple weekends ago, I was on a ladies weekend with my friend Ann, and she doesn't have a TV in her house.  So whenever we are at a hotel together, we watch the Food Network.  During the day, they actually show cooking shows instead of the stupid faux reality cooking competitions they have at night.    I've always liked Ina Garten's recipes - in fact, her original cookbook...

is one of my favorites - every recipe I have ever made from that book is stellar.   So we watched Ina whip up a meal for her husband Jeffery - it seems that Ina leads a charmed life, where all she does is cook up a fabulous meal for her husband that she only sees on weekends, when he pops in for a visit.   Otherwise, her days are spent shopping and cooking for any guests from the Hamptons that might drop in.  Ina said that she used to make these potatoes by the truckload to sell in her food shop....

  

I love the idea of mustard mixed with potatoes - I had just bought a big jar of Polish style mustard for Christmas.   The bonus of this potato recipe is that the mustard coats the raw potatoes and prevents them from discoloring.   So, they can sit in the oven for a while, waiting to be cooked.   I decided to try it out and it worked great - while we ran our errands and enjoyed our cocktails, the potatoes waited in the oven until it was time for them to cook.   Delicious!

Mustard Roasted Potatoes


2 1/2 pounds small potatoes
2 yellow onions
3 tablespoons good olive oil
2 tablespoons whole-grain mustard
Kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley


Preheat the oven to 425 degrees (or, set your oven for 425 to cook later)

Cut the potatoes in halves or quarters, depending on their size, and place them on a sheet pan. Remove the ends of the onions, peel them, and cut them in half. Slice them crosswise in 1/4-inch-thick slices to make half-rounds. Toss the onions and potatoes together on the sheet pan. Add the olive oil, mustard, 2 teaspoons salt, and the pepper and toss them together. Bake for  1 hour, until the potatoes are lightly browned on the outside and tender on the inside. Toss the potatoes from time to time with a metal spatula so they brown evenly, if there's someone home to do it.

Serve hot sprinkled with chopped parsley and a little extra salt.