Sliced Baked Potatoes & Herb Garden Update

I have had this recipe for a while, & just got around to making it a few days ago. I got it in a mailer with recipes on pretty cards, & they want you to buy the complete set to either put in their special recipe box or special binder. I never purchase these things, but I like to go through the recipes that they send you for free.

This Sliced Baked Potatoes recipe really caught my eye. It's pretty & tasty too.

Sliced Baked Potatoes

4 medium even potatoes (I used 6)

1 t. salt

olive oil

2-3 T. melter butter

2-3 T. chopped fresh herbs such as parsley, chives, thyme, or sage.

OR...2-3 t. dried herbs of your choice

4 T. grated Cheddar cheese

1 1/2 T. Parmesan cheese

1. Peel potatoes if the skin is tough, otherwise just scrub & rinse them.

2. Cut potatoes into thin slices but not all the way through. Use a handle of a spoon (I used a wooden spoon) to prevent the knife from cutting all the way through.

3. Put potatoes in a baking dish. Fan them slightly.

4. Rub each potato with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt & the herb you desire. Drizzle with melted butter.

5. Bake at 425 for about 50 minutes.

6. Remove from oven & sprinkle with the cheeses.

7. Bake potatoes for another 10-15 minutes until lightly browned, cheese are melted and potatoes are soft inside (check for doneness with fork).

We all really liked these potatoes. I had 2 left over & we ate them cold for lunch the next day. Really good!

When I re-discovered this recipe card while cleaning out a kitchen cabinet, I was thrilled to see it & happy to have another chance to use the herbs in my new herb garden. I used everything the recipe called for. It called for herbs such as parsley, chives, thyme or sage. I missed the OR in there, & I used them ALL. LOL

I do have parsley, chives, thyme, & sage in my garden, so I used them. LOL

I love going out to the herb garden & snipping a handfull of different herbs to use in my cooking, and it smells WONDERFUL. Actually, it smells pretty good when I'm sitting in it weeding it. I have really enjoyed having an herb garden & I will put one out every year, God willing. I have been making an herb bread that we all like that I need to post sometime soon. I need to figure out exactly how & when to harvest & start drying them. I've been picking the camomile flowers daily & setting them on a saucer to dry. When they get pretty dried, I put them into a small 1/2 pint jar that I am keeping the lid off for continued drying. I popped one dried flower into my hot tea this morning & it really flavored it nicely! Also, the dill & cilantro are past drying, I think, because they have flowered & are starting to produce their seeds. I'd like to harvest the dill seed & the corriander seeds, so I'll need to figure out how to do that.

The sage plant is huge, & the basil & parsley have really grown thick too. I got some small brown paper bags, & I'm planning on tying some sprigs together & hanging in these bags to dry. I think that's how you're supposed to do it anyway. LOL

I have a spice rack that I have within reach on the wall for when I'm cooking, but I think I'll store my garden herbs in pint or half pint jars.

Here's a current picture of the herb garden. The most current one I had was over a month old, so I ran out & snapped this picture. It's the only shot I got because the batteries went dead. You can see the dill has a few sprigs that are almost as tall as the corn. And the cilantro (corriander) is so full & heavy that it is falling over. Also, the lemon balm was not doing well at all in the hanging basket, so my dh planted it in the ground up by the house, & we hung a planter of impatients in it's place. You can't really see the thyme, but it's doing very well too.

I'd like to add garlic, & in this area I believe I'm to start plants in the fall, about 6 weeks before the first frost so we can harvest in the spring.

I have been so pleased with this new herb garden! It was really easy, & MOST of it was planted from seeds.