Mustard Roasted Red Potatoes

I haven't blogged in so long that I am on the verge of being kicked off my own blog by my feisty younger sister. Earlier this week, Cara proposed that since Braude's Bites uses the family name we should co-author this blog. Since Cara has just moved out of my parents' house into her own grown up apartment, she has been cooking up a storm for her boyfriend, Jon, who rates her meals on a 10 pt scale every night. I am still debating the merits of having her invade my blog.
On the pro side, she is very creative and funny. On the con side, THIS IS MY BLOG & I am not in Montreal to test her creations. Thoughts??

I have entertained twice this week, so my lack of blogging is not due to my lack of cooking and baking. Last Saturday, we had guests over for a steakhouse themed dinner. We had tuna tartare avocado to start, medium rare spicy filets with a cool yogurt mint sauce, mustard roasted potatoes and roasted asparagus for the main course and a key lime pie, fruit salad and raspberry lime tart from Citarella for dessert. The red wine was flowing, the company was great and Gioia brought her heavenly and buttery biscotti that have called my name EVERY SINGLE NIGHT since last week.

I learned when I first started entertaining that you DO NOT try a recipe for the first time when you entertain. There is nothing like the fear of the unknown and the stress that accompanies it when your guests arrive. With that being said, I gave the mustard roasted potatoes in Ina's new cookbook, "Barefoot Contessa at Home", a try a few nights before and they passed the test! This was the first recipe I tried from her new cookbook and as usual, her recipes are consistently outstanding.

Tonight, we hosted an impromptu and casual traditional Friday night dinner. We started with a mesclun salad with candied almonds, avocado and apple dressed in Nai's easiest and best dressing (1/3 balsamic, 1/3 dijon mustard, 1/3 olive oil and some minced garlic). We moved on to Moroccan chicken, fattoush and Sara Moulton's lemon roasted red potatoes. For dessert, we almost finished last week's biscotti and Nai brought a luscious chocolate cake from Balducci's.

Mustard Roasted Potatoes
Barefoot Contessa @ Home
Serves 6

2 1/2 lbs small red potatoes
2 yellow onions
3 Tbsp good olive oil
2 Tbsp whole grain mustard
kosher salt and a teaspoon of ground black pepper
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf (or Italian) parsley
(I added garlic too)

Cut the potatoes in halfs or quarters depending on their size and place on a sheet pan. Slice the onions into half rounds and mix with the potatoes. Add oil, mustard and s&p. Bake for 50 minutes to an hour until potatoes are soft inside and crispy outside. Toss the potatoes while they are in the oven a few times. When they come out, toss with parsley and a sprinkle of more kosher salt. Note: If you double the recipe, it will take a lot longer....close to an hour and a half.

To serve, warm in the oven for 10 minutes and you won't be able to tell they were made ahead of time. They remind me of a classy hash brown.

After of all of this entertaining, I wonder why I am not tired...it's 2 am and I'm awake....Food TV? Perhaps Bobby Flay is having a throwdown?