4 potatoes ahead time Recipes

potatoes (or however many you usually use), lemon juice (or white vinegar)

red potatoes (key ingredient for this, as they are much moister than russets), each wrapped in foil and baked until done (400 degrees for about 1 hour, just until soft when gently squeezed). when done, remove from foil and let them set out to cool down enough to handle, or make them ahead of time and keep in refrigerator (once cooled) until ready to use., smoked ham, cubed into bite size pieces (ask the deli to slice a 3/4 slice of smoked ham if you don tsp have any ham leftovers to use - be sure to use smoked, not honey, ham), tb butter, tb flour, teapsoon garlic powder (don tsp use garlic salt since there s plenty of salt in the ham and butter - you can mince a couple fresh garlic cloves, if you prefer), crazy mixed-up salt (about 1 tsp), pepper (about 1/2 tsp), half-and-half (gives you a richer sauce than milk), grated gruyere cheese, grated velvetta cheese, some thin butter slivers for topping

olive oil, vegetable broth (i like to use health valley fat-free vegetable broth, purchased at whole foods market), onions or 1/2 large onion, garlic, crushed, carrots, chopped, red pepper, chopped, stalks celery, chopped, tomatoes, chopped, cooked garbanzo beans or 1 can drained garbanzo beans, baking potato , diced carefully (boiled ahead of time until just soft, but not boiled mushy!!!), nice sized zucchini , chopped nicely, ground cumin, ground coriander, cinnamon, nutmeg , tiny, turmeric, cayenne pepper, curry powder, basmati rice (cooked according to package directions), cauliflower, green beans