Recipe Make-over: short cut au gratin potatoes

I absolutely love au gratin potatoes, but I rarely make them.  Besides not being the lowest in fat and calories, the biggest drawback for me is the time it takes to bake them. Most of the recipes I have tried take 1- 1 1/2 hours to bake which is entirely too much time for weekday side dish, well at least for my family's schedule it is. Sure, there are the boxed potatoes, but I personally don't think they taste as good as homemade, not to mention additives, preservatives and the other fun stuff from convenience foods.
Well I have discovered a way to cut the baking time down to 25- 30 minutes! Simply scrub the potatoes and before peeling them, microwave them. (Don't forget to pierce potatoes with a fork before microwaving so the steam can escape.) Then once they have cooled enough to handle, or using a fork to hold them, peel and slice then continue with you favorite recipe.
Another tip I discovered is before baking cover the potatoes with greased foil- just spray with non-stick spray. Then, remove the foil for the last five minutes of bake time so that the edges brown up a bit.
My family raved about these short cut au gratins. They even liked them better than the long baked original.