Could you reduce the cook time by half-boiling or steaming the potatoes, then cooling before slicing? I find potatoes are less trouble for me that way. Certainly, it's the way I have to do them to peel them these days.

Also, I make Alfredo sauce with cream cheese and skim milk blended together with shredded garlic (Hamid or Gray do that for me these days). Could you just use that sauce instead of heavy cream and garlic? The sauce makes about 6 cups and is really quite rich and creamy and garlicky. Plus, a block of cream cheese and a part of a 2qt container of skim milk is cheaper than heavy cream. Not to mention, the remaining skim milk is just the household supply. Leftover heavy cream won't have any other uses.