With nothing in the house to eat and various evening plans impeding my FreshDirect order this week, I decided to go rustic tonight and make scalloped potatoes, using a recipe from Ruth Reichl’s book.

n8 was thrilled, since he loves anything that’s baked and creamy. I served it with a leftover hunk of raisin bread and some crispy bacon. Here’s how to make really good scalloped potatoes that will please your man:

Preheat the oven to 325ºF. Rub a 9×13” baking dish, such as Pyrex, with a cut garlic clove, then coat it thickly with about a tablespoon of unsalted butter. Heat one cup of milk and 1.5 cups of heavy cream to just short of a boil, add salt and pepper, and remove from heat. Cut up about two pounds of potatoes, such as Russet or Yukon Gold, into 1/4” slices, such as you see in the picture, and layer them in the pan. Pour the cream mixture over the potatoes (it should come close to the top of them), and bake for about one and a half hours, or until the potatoes are very soft and browned on top.

Perhaps my mom or grandma has other ideas about scalloped potatoes, and I’d love to hear them, but I can’t imagine them being much better than these!