With the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025, I hope and pray that everyone has their best year yet. I’m always hopeful for the new year that it will be better than the year before. I’m not a big one on setting New Year’s resolutions, but try to set some new intentions for the coming year. One of those intentions is to post consistently on the blog. Also, if you aren’t following us on Instagram, go check us out @cutting_board_confessions

We had a very quiet New Year’s Eve which was just what we wanted. Brian has spent his entire career, until now, in the hospitality industry where he always had to work past midnight on New Year’s Eve and then early on New Year’s Day. A bit of a confession, we were asleep before midnight. We did watch the ball drop in New York at 10pm our time.

So, I’m gonna brag a bit and say that my New Year’s Eve meal was wonderful. We started with scallops and then for the main course, we had steak, asparagus and Anna’s potatoes. This meal started with my request for Anna’s potatoes and then Brian built the rest of the meal around that.

If you have never had Anna’s potatoes, you are totally missing out. If you are not a fan of starchy, creamy potatoes with lots and lots of butter, well then, just move along. So, we just refer to them as Anna’s potatoes, but after a quick Google research, the technical term for the dish is pommes Anna and the dish is named after Anna Deslions, a courtesan who entertained the wealthy and famous at the Cafe Anglais, but some say that the dish was named after Anna Judic instead. Either way, they are amazing.

The dish is made by layering thinly sliced potatoes in circles and placing them in a pan, cooking them in butter, and then finishing them in the oven. The result is a crispy exterior and a creamy interior.

Traditionally, the dish was prepared in a special copper pan called a cocette Anna, but we just use a well-seasoned cast iron skillet. If you don’t have a cast iron skillet, you can probably do it in a non-stick pan as well.

Ingredients are sliced potatoes, butter, salt and pepper. If you want to take it up a notch, use white pepper instead of regular black pepper. That’s it!

Give them a try. You won’t regret it.