Awesome Broccoli-Cheese Casserole

 

 

Awesome Broccoli-Cheese Casserole

Good stuff especially if you have a lot of broccoli you need to use up (which I do).
Recipe by Stacy M Polcyn

Prep Time: 15 mins  Cook Time: 45 mins
Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients

• 1 (10.5 ounce) can condensed cream of mushroom soup
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• 1 egg, beaten
• ¼ cup chopped onion
• 3 (10 ounce) packages frozen chopped broccoli
• 8 ounces shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 dash paprika

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter a 9x13-inch baking dish.
2. Whisk condensed soup, mayonnaise, egg, and onions together in a medium mixing bowl until combined.
3. Place frozen broccoli into a very large mixing bowl and break it up if necessary; add soup mixture and mix well to coat. Sprinkle with cheese and mix well; spread mixture into the prepared baking dish. Season with salt, pepper, and paprika.
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

 

Honeymama's Candied Dill Pickles

If you like sweet pickles at all, you'll love these.  My grandmother (we called her Honeymama) used to make these and whenever she had a jar in the fridge, I was there to mooch 'em.  Nothing better in the world than a longhorn cheese sandwich on whole wheat bread with Kraft Mayo, a slice of fresh tomato still warm from the garden and several candied dill chips.  She taught me how to make them, in self-defense I think, hoping I'd ease up on her supply. 

Oh, and you needed a tall cold Dr. Pepper in the return-for-deposit bottle to go with it. The beauty of candied dills is you almost have to make them yourselves. For some reason pickle makers have never mass produced candied dills for very long, if at all.

Here's what you need to make candied dills:

• 1 giant jar of cheap hamburger dill pickle chips
• 1 cup of sugar for each quart of the jar's capacity
• 1 tablespoon of mixed pickling spice per quart
• Vinegar (apple cider vinegar works nicely and gives it a unique flavor)
• Cheesecloth
• Twine

Here's what you do:

1. Pour out the pickles into a collander and drain off the vinegar. 
2. Rinse the pickles with fresh vinegar.
3. Rinse out the pickle jar.
4. Put the pickles back in the jar
5. Pour part of the sugar into the jar. 
6. Pour vinegar over it to dissolve the sugar.
7. Alternate sugar and vinegar till the jar is about 3/4 full of vinegar.
8. Measure 1 tablespoon of pickling spice onto a six inch square of cheesecloth.
9. Wrap the cheesecloth around the spice and tie the open end securely with string.
10. Tuck the spice ball down in the pickles
11. Finish filling the jar with vinegar and the entire amount of sugar
12. Put the lid back on and shove it to the back of the refrigerator
13. Put a sign on the jar threatening to chop off the fingers of anyone who gets into the jar without permission.
14. Shake up the jar every day or two to promote complete dissolving of the sugar on the bottom of the jar.  Open the lid and sniff. It doesn't help any, but it's good for your morale during the curing process. 
15. Wait at least two weeks for the sugar and spice to permeate the pickles.
16. About  a week into the process, make another jar or two. You will need them because if the first jar lasts a week I'd be surprised.

17. Enjoy!

I make my own labels for these.  I wondered why no commercial pickler made candied dills for a long time. Then, I found candied dills made by a small local boutique pickler named "Annies". She sold them through a special display at Brookshire's and charged $7 a pint for them.  I used to buy them when I couldn't wait for a new batch to cure. They are that danged good!

Annie even sells one variety of candied pickles that have jalapenos in them. Those are really good too. I may try a batch of Honeymom's candied dills with a few jalapenos tossed in to give it a little kick. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Tom

Mammaw's Cream Corn

You'll notice I prepared this in a Wok. It's not because you
need a Wok to make it. It's just that I've worn all the non-stick
surfaces off the other skillets and I was using the cast iron
skillet for other things at the time. I prefer the cast iron skillet.

This is a nice vegetable dish for potluck. It's easy to make, tasty and easy to multiply. All you have to do is to multiply the ingredients. I'm a creamed corn fan. I wasn't when all I'd ever eaten was the canned stuff.

This is Sheila's recipe. She got it from her Mammaw. Mammaw was a tiny little elderly woman when I first met her. She wore her hair in a three foot long Indian style braid which she kept coiled on top of her head like a little tidy bird nest. She was a lovely woman and welcomed me to the family with open arms. She had a way with food. Like me, she tended to use every dish and pot in the kitchen when cooking, unlike Sheila who can make a 5 course meal and put it on the table without leaving any sign she'd ever been cooking. Like Mammaw, when I get done making a bowl of soup from a can it looks like the aftermath of firefight conducted by a division of US Marines.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

• Can of whole kernel corn and a can of creamed corn or 8-10 ears of corn
• 4 oz cream cheese
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp butter or margarine
• 2-3 tbsp flour
• 1/4 cup evaporated milk

Directions:

1. In skillet melt margarine
2. Add cream cheese
3. Sprinkle flour into the margarine until it begins thickening
4. Slowly add evaporated milk and salt. Allow to thicken and cream cheese to melt.
5. Pour in can of whole corn and a can of creamed corn. If you want it just like Mammaw's, use corn on the cob. You should scrape the whole corn kernels right off the cob with a good paring knife. Then you don't have to add any canned corn at all. 
6. Allow to thicken. 

Serving suggestions:

If you make it up on Friday for a Sabbath potluck, simply put it in Tupperware® and heat it up in a skillet or microwave just before lunch. The whole kernel corn gives creamed corn some body. It's an easy side dish to go with the usual assortment of lasagna, enchilada casseroles, salads and main dishes.  Enjoy.

© 2017 by Tom King

Broccoli, Cauliflower, Corn Casserole

This recipe is a variant of an original recipe by Paula Deen. You may not know it, but Paula was raised and trained in the art of cookery by her Adventist grandmother. You can tell Paula studied under an Adventist cook, given her liberal use of cream of mushroom soup in her casseroles. This variant of her classic broccoli casserole adds a couple of vegetables I needed to use up so I could get the rest of the groceries from our monthly shopping trip into the fridge. Came out pretty good if I do say so myself.

Ingredients:

• 10 oz. chopped broccoli and cauliflower cooked and drained
• 1 tsp McKay's Chicken Seasoning
• 1 cup mayonnaise
• Small package frozen corn cooked and drained
• 1 cup grated sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 can of cream of mushroom soup
• 2 eggs lightly beaten
• 2 cups crushed crackers
• 2 tablespoons butter

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Spray a 13 by 9 inch baking dish with vegetable oil cooking spray
3. Combine broccoli, cauliflower and corn and mayo in a large mixing bowl.
4. Add cheese, soup and beaten eggs. Mix well with large metal spoon.
5. Place the mixture in the baking dish and top with crushed crackers.
6. Pour melted butter over the top of the crackers
7. Baked for 35 minutes or until set and browned.

Serving Directions:

Let the casserole brown good on top if you are serving it now.  Otherwise lightly brown if you are making it the day before to be reheated for potluck. This will allow it to brown fully just before serving.

Asparagus Allemande

Only had 1 can, so it's more sauce than asparagus, but you get the idea.

 

Asparagus Allemande

Got a couple of cans of asparagus you don’t know what to do with? Or maybe you picked up some fresh asparagus in the produce aisle. Here’s how to make a nice asparagus dish for potluck. This is pretty much cooked asparagus in something called an Allemande sauce. I toned it down a bit from the French version of an Allemande and made one spice substitution, but it’s close enough to call it an Allemande sauce.

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp flour
• 2 tbsp George Washington chicken style broth powder
• salt (to taste)
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp paprika
• 2 cans asparagus
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• ¼ cup evaporated milk
• ½ cup water

Directions:

• Melt butter in large skillet
• Stir in flower until it thickens
• Add evaporated milk and all spices
• Add water and lemon juice till sauce is the right consistency
• Drain asparagus and add to sauce. If using fresh asparagus, boil if first till tender then add to Allemende sauce.
• Heat till bubbling slightly.

Serving Suggestion:

Pour the mixture into a serving dish. Garnish with sprigs of parsley. Can be reheated on Sabbath before potluck. It’s a different take on asparagus but if you can get a couple of cans on sale, it’s a nice and unexpected addition to your potluck repertoire and won't break your budget.

 © 2017 by Tom King