Casserole Recipes

[Arethusa]

I'm posting this thread also as a "catch-all" category for a collection of your favorite casserole recipes.

This one heralds from a style of cooking that I've called "church social" cooking for the better part of my life.

To mean the kind of mouth-watering food you experience at such events that make you want to go back for more.

Lots more. LOL

Although I've made baked corn for years, I threw out my old recipe in exchange for this one supplied by the writer, Dean Koontz, as a "Parade Magazine" offering in the Philadelphia Inquirer of December 19, 2010, because it tasted so much better.

I'm giving Koontz and "Parade" credit here in lieu of a link that's most likely no longer available.

This recipe serves 4. If you're having 8 for dinner, just double the amount of the ingredients, or triple them if necessary if it's a family holiday feast that's in store.


Baked Corn

Ingredients:

1 cup of milk

2 Tablespoons of butter

1 Tablespoon of sugar

2 Tablespoons of flour

1 15 ounce can of whole corn (drained)

2 Well beaten eggs


Directions:

Boil 3/4 cup of the milk combined with the butter and sugar.

Dissolve the flour into the remaining 1/4 cup of milk

Pour the flour and milk mixture into the milk/butter/sugar mixture to make a thin white sauce

Add the sauce to the drained corn in a 1 to 1.5 quart loaf pan.

Mix in the beaten eggs.

Bake at 400 degrees for 1 hour.

And enjoy!

Arethusa

[tripleo]

Sorry, Arethus, but I won't touch canned corn with a 10 foot pole. Just spoiled, I guess, and I'm sure frozen or fresh could be substitued.

I don't know how things are in your part of the world, but out here right now the world is being overrun with zucchini. Happens every year when some novice gardener puts in about 10 million zucchini plants and is surprised when they produce the things by the truckload.

Anyway, this is really a good recipe and can be easily modified by adding browned ground beef, chicken, etc. I always use Hungarian paprika paste - the sweet variety - in these types of recipes. There's nothing cast in stone in this recipe, so experiment a bit. As it is, it offers a complete protein mix with plenty of the other things a body needs.

allrecipes.com/recipe/spicy-mexican-style-zucchini-casserole/detail.aspx

By the way, have you ever sauteed corn in bacon drippings and served hot over egg noodles with a touch of dill weed? Give it a try.

[Arethusa]

Aug 30, 2011 9:01:21 GMT -8 tripleo said:

Sorry, Arethus, but I won't touch canned corn with a 10 foot pole. Just spoiled, I guess, and I'm sure frozen or fresh could be substitued.

I don't know how things are in your part of the world, but out here right now the world is being overrun with zucchini. Happens every year when some novice gardener puts in about 10 million zucchini plants and is surprised when they produce the things by the truckload.

Anyway, this is really a good recipe and can be easily modified by adding browned ground beef, chicken, etc. I always use Hungarian paprika paste - the sweet variety - in these types of recipes. There's nothing cast in stone in this recipe, so experiment a bit. As it is, it offers a complete protein mix with plenty of the other things a body needs.

allrecipes.com/recipe/spicy-mexican-style-zucchini-casserole/detail.aspx

By the way, have you ever sauteed corn in bacon drippings and served hot over egg noodles with a touch of dill weed? Give it a try.

*****

TripleO - I've been following your reports of the paradise in which you live and can grow wonderful fresh vegetables for canning and enjoying throughout the year.

In fact, I'd die for some of your homemade fruit preserves right now.

If you looked outside my windows and doors, however, you would see about 98% asphalt and concrete.

With front and back yards the size of postage stamps and two well maintained trees courtesy of my local municipality out front.

There are terrific fresh produce places in the area and the local stores are well stocked besides, but for those of us without cars living in urban settings and mimimal storage space and the time to cook our fresh produce before it "expires", have pity please.

Speaking of that, when I lived in rural central Pennsylvania, some friends planted zucchini and lost track of how much. They ended up bringing bushel baskets of it over for an impromptu zucchini bread making party and all who participated ended up with a boatload of the stuff to freeze - for years, actually. ;D

One of those friends has the nickname "Sue Zucchini Bread" until this very day because she enjoyed that party so much.

At any rate, your zucchini casserole recipe sounds wonderful as does the corn and bacon fry too.

I'll remember they're here if I get to the produce market soon and unload some of their overflowing shelves of zucchini and pick up some fresh ears of corn as well.

Thanks for the excellent cooking tips and enjoy your day - am salivating as I bid you farewell,

Arethusa

[peterd]

That sounds good. I will try it.

[Arethusa]

Aug 30, 2011 9:58:22 GMT -8 peterd said:

That sounds good. I will try it.

*****

If you're talking about the baked corn, I guarantee that you'll be spooning what's left into your mouth instead of storing it in the refrigerator!

Arethusa

[peterd]

Yes, I am.

[Arethusa]

Aug 30, 2011 14:31:02 GMT -8 peterd said:

Yes, I am.

****

Thanks and I'm sure you're going to love it as much as the Outpost Float!

Really looking forward to trying out your Black Forest Cake recipe. Looking at it again today, it's going to be Thanksgiving's dessert.

It looks too good for waiting until Christmas.

I do my major cooking only for the holidays.

I caught your advice to TripleO and take it very seriously myself.

I adore great food, but can't eat it regularly or I wouldn't be able to get through the door of this house.

Enjoy your evening and the baked corn!

Arethusa

[Arethusa]

This recipe was e-mailed by a friend last week who said he'd had it at a company picnic this Summer and loved it so much, he and his wife tried the recipe the very next night for dinner and ate the whole thing in one sitting because it tasted so good.

Of course he's 6'5" and his wife only a little shorter, so the effects on them wouldn't be as dire as on 5'2" me. ;D

He told me also that the original recipe called for a layer of Tater Tots on the bottom too - but that, if you want to try it that way, they'll be pretty soggy when the dish is cooked.

And, that the time for the recipe is based on frozen Tater Tots, so if they're thawed by the time you put them on the top of the casserole, be sure to adjust the cooking time to about ten fewer minutes.


Cheeseburger Tater Tots Casserole

Ingredients:

1 can cream of celery soup

1/2 can of milk

3 Tablespoons of bacon fat, divided

1 & 1/2 # hamburger, 85%

1 onion, diced

3 stalks celery, diced

1 garlic clove, minced

½# sharp cheddar cheese, grated, divided

1# Frozen Tater Tots

½ t. salt

¼ t. pepper



Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine soup and milk in medium saucepan over low heat until smooth. Remove from heat and set aside.

In skillet, melt 1 Tablespoon of the bacon fat. Add hamburger and brown over medium high heat, stirring often. Put into casserole dish when done.

In the same pan, add the remaining 2 Tablespoons of bacon fat. Add onions and celery and saute over medium high heat until slightly carmelized. Stir in garlic and remove from the heat.

Mix vegetables with the hamburger in the casserole dish. Top with the cheese, reserving ½ c.

Pour soup mix over burger mixture. Top with Tater Tots. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Bake for 40 minutes. After this time, put under the broiler for a few minutes until the Tater Tots are brown. Watch carefully to avoid burning.

Remove from oven, sprinkle with reserved cheese. Wait 5 minutes before serving.


****

And enjoy!

Arethusa