I make scalloped potatoes for our big family dinners. The recipe I use is from my now 40 year-old Betty Crocker's Cookbook...you know, the solid red one in a 3-ring binder? It is similar to yours PJ in that it uses a white sauce. Two things caught my eye about yours. The first is onion powder in the sauce...brilliant! The second is partially cooking the potato slices in water before laying them in the baking pan. Why do you recommend this? At this moment I'm craving those crusty brown potato edges from the top layer. Think I'll call the kids over for dinner tomorrow night! Thanks for the inspiration. joan Joan, I found that cooking the potatoes a bit first both cut down on the baking time, and seemed to make the final dish less prone to be watery. My theory (unproven) is that, just as apples release some of their juice when you cook them, so would potatoes – juice that would otherwise be released into the pan and make the final dish potentially watery. And I totally remember that book - in fact, I have it somewhere on my shelves of cookbooks... That and the Better Homes & Gardens binder cookbook from the '60s. Retro is in! :) PJH

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