So cheap, so easy... the miracle of the casserole

Casseroles... the bane of many families to use up leftovers. There was once a joke I heard about the layer casserole, where all the leftover meals for the week ended up in the casserole as layers... then one day it happened, the leftover casserole from last week was at the bottom layer of the dish.

There is a little more to making casseroles than just tossing in your leftovers for the week and calling it good... because it probably won't be. The casserole is more of a formula of balanced and complementary component flavors based on a theme than a recipe. In other words, experiment and see what happens, once you get the formula down and stick to a theme there is very little that can go wrong. I love casseroles.

There are the basic building blocks of the casserole.
Meat - leftovers or canned are good but fresh is fine as well ~ only a small amount is needed ~ a cup or so,  a single leftover grilled chicken breast is enough for a tasty casserole. This can be fish, hamburger, roast beef, pork, sausages, chicken.

Starch 'filler' - one of my favorites to use is the tri-color spirals, but any pasta shape or noodle is also good as well as rice. This component is the bulk of the casserole. It is best to leave this a bit under cooked so it can finish cooking during baking time, if it is overcooked you will end up with a limp starchy mess.

The sauce - This is what brings it all together, you can easily use any cream soup like cream of mushroom or cream of celery or even cream of potato, but if you would like to cut down on expense and salt a thin white gravy (bechamel sauce) is also wonderful, and it is a neutral background for the other flavors. Other choices include alfredo sauce, spaghetti sauce, tomato sauce... it all depends on the theme and what you have available.

The seasonings ~ think of your theme ~ onions, salt and pepper, powder soup mixes like onion or vegetable, garlic, soy sauce, celery, other herbs and spices to enhance the theme.

The vegetable ~ this does not need to be in the casserole itself but it is a good way to use up the small amounts of vegetables left over from previous dinners. even if there is only a small portion of canned vegetable left over at each meal collect them in a small dish and add to it during the week when there are leftovers, you can also choose to open a can or even use fresh or frozen vegetables (my favorite). Of course in some "themes" you may just want to serve a side salad instead.

Cheese ~ optional but baked ziti would not be the same without it.

Topping ~ Now I hardly ever use a topping, some older recipes use corn flakes, bread crumbs and even smashed crackers but I don't find they are really necessary at all, they are more for appearance than flavor.

Your casserole dish ~ a 3 quart or larger round or oval deep baking dish with a lid, this prevents dry corners and over cooking as well as room for leftovers.

Baking ~ about an hour at 350 degrees. easy!

Some of my favorite combinations...

Tuna noodle casserole ~
2 cans tuna, drained
1 can cream soup - mushroom or celery with 1 can water added
egg noodles
peas
seasonings include onion, salt, pepper, celery seed

Baked Ziti~
hot italian sausage, browned
ziti or similar pasta
spaghetti sauce or marinara
ricotta and mozzarella cheeses
This is layered like a lasagna in the casserole dish - cheaper than making a lasagna and reheats even better!
serve with side salad and garlic toast.

Mock Lobster casserole~
Imitation crab chunks
bechamel sauce
broccoli -cooked
shredded cheddar cheese
season sauce using lemon juice or zest, salt and pepper.
This one is layered, broccoli, then cheese, then crab meat, seasoned bechamel sauce, top with bread crumbs, this one does not have a starch filler but feel free to experiment.

Chow mien casserole~
brown 1 pound hamburger in fry pan
add 2 bunches celery, chopped, saute until just bright.
then add to meat and celery about 1/2 cup soy sauce and can cream of mushroom soup and 1 can water.
rinse 1 cup uncooked rice and drain, add to bottom of casserole then pour meat and celery mixture on top of rice, do not stir. top with chow mien noodles.

Wild rice and chicken~ crock pot
1 cup wild rice, rinsed, place in bottom of crock pot
pour over can of cream of mushroom or cream of chicken soup mixed with 1 can water
place raw chicken pieces over rice, sprinkle with powder onion soup mix over top.
cook for about 8 hours on high add small amounts of water if needed.
this is not exactly a casserole but close, an easy way to fix wild rice. The chicken fat drains into the rice while it cooks making it very tasty. Wild rice has a bite and chew even when well cooked, that is just the way it is.

Chicken and garlic pasta~
canned chunk or leftover chicken, cubed
noodles (spirals)
chopped garlic
alfredo sauce
top with mozzarella and Parmesan cheese near the end of cooking time.

My dad's hot dish~
hamburger, browned
macaroni
canned mushrooms
tomato sauce
salt and pepper
onion
a few squirts of ketchup

I hope this gives some inspiration to your casserole night, feel free to experiment.

Amazing Caramel Sauce

Recipe yields 1 1/2 cups 

1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
4 tablespoons butter
Pinch of sea salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Melt butter in pot, mix in brown sugar, cream and salt.
Cook over medium-low heat and whisk gently
for about 7 minutes or longer if you doubled.
I remove the pot from the heat, add vanilla and return to
cook for another minute or so to thicken a bit more.
Take it off the stove and pour into a jar then pop it into the
fridge.

Best Ever Back-country Cornbread. ~not the dry southern style they seem to serve round these parts.

There is more to cornbread than just using the recipe on the back of the box of jiffy mix. This cornbread is a sweet and tasty moist cornbread from scratch. I am so very disappointed in the 'southern' style of cornbread served in restaurants and bbq joints... it is dry and crumbly and just plain terrible. Avoid those cornbread 'mixes' they sell alongside the flour and cornmeal, get just plain ol yellow cornmeal for this recipe.

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup YELLOW plain and strait up corn meal .. the white stuff just is not the same.
1/2 cup sugar - adjust to taste if you want
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons dry buttermilk (find it next to powder milk in the store)

combine all dry ingredients in large bowl

create a bit of a 'bowl' in the dry ingredients then add in the center
1/4 cup oil - vegetable, corn or canola.. whatever you prefer
1 cup cold water
1 egg

take a fork and mix the egg around the wet ingredients till mixed, then gently stir into dry ingredients untill just mixed, excessive mixing will cause gluten to form and will result in a hard dry cornbread. do not use an electric mixer.

use a 10 inch cast iron skillet, cold greased liberally with shortening or lard, pour in prepared batter and bake at 400 degrees for about 20 to 25 minutes, until wood pick inserted into center comes out clean.
Or... fry up like a pancake on cast iron griddle for a fried cornbread.

Serve hot.

Note: if you don't own cast iron I suggest getting some as soon as possible, but use a round pan to avoid dry overcooked corners.

You can use fresh buttermilk in this recipe instead of the mix + 1 cup water but I never keep fresh buttermilk around, I just don't use it enough.

After years of nothing... I feel the need to blog again. Not sure why. Today's topic is food. Growing up in a catholic family frugality was always on the menu.. in fact I could never understand how my parents liked steaks so much when I was served a dry hunk of chuck steak meat with no fat or flavor whatsoever... no there was flavor, a ton of pepper. That is just the way my dad cooked. I grew up thinking I did not like steak. When I would ask what was for dinner and my mom would say "steak" I would just groan, yuk. You see my parents insisted I 'clean my plate' when I was growing up and having to choke down a dry overdone steak that burned my throat with pepper was next to torture, I learned to hate steak. One day, in my mid 30's no less there was a rib eye steaks in the markdown bin, now being on a budget and not really caring for steaks anyway I got the meat expecting to make a meal for my 5 kids. Needless to say I grilled the steaks on a little electric indoor grill and they actually tasted very good. It occurred to me that my parents were buying the better cuts of steaks for themselves and giving me the cheap meat to save money, thanks Mom and Dad.

So this brings on my reason for blogging again. my recipes, some I taught my kids, some just never had the chance for me to teach them... so here it is. I have always been on a grocery budget so this is a very skinny gourmand way of cooking great nutritious food on the cheap, I hope you can get some use out if it. I will try to add pictures when I get a chance.