Baked Squash Casserole, food from my garden

Come, join us for dinner.

Squash casserole is one of my favorite comfort food dishes.
When I was a teenager, my Mother and I would go to a restaurant called “The Black-eyed Pea” and order veggie plates. Plates full of broccoli rice casserole, fried okra, cheese-y broccoli soup and the most amazing squash casserole.
It was one of our favorite dinner spots, and one of my favorite teenaged memory clusters.
Once I was all-growed up (yes, I said growed up) I began trying to replicate the squash casserole.
Years and years ago I found a copy-kat recipe that I have altered until I was happy with it.

Baked Squash Casserole

• 5 -6 medium size Yellow Squash
• 1 cup Bread Crumbs plus additional 1-2 tablespoons for topping
• 1 stick Butter or margarine (melted) *I use light butter, and I usually use less than a whole stick*
• 1/4 cup of Brown Sugar
• 1/4 cup of Onion (chopped)
• 2 eggs (beaten)
• 1 teaspoon of Black Pepper
• 1 teaspoon of Salt
• 1 teaspoon of tarragon

Cut the ends off squash and cut each squash into 4 or more pieces.

Place the squash into a pot of boiling water, use enough water to cover the squash. Reduce heat and cook until tender. I cooked my squash fir about 12 minutes. Drain and mash.

While the squash is cooking, mix the beaten eggs, 1-cup breadcrumbs, melted butter, sugar, salt, onion, tarragon and pepper together in a bowl.

Combine the mashed squash with the crumb mixture.

Place the mixture into a casserole dish that has been lightly sprayed with a non-stick baking spray.

Sprinkle the top with the 2 tablespoons of breadcrumbs.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes or until lightly browned.
I used the broiler at 500 deg. For the last 5 minutes to give the top a nice crust.

I have Phun with iPhone Photos!

How to succeed at pie making without really trying

Take one semi-lazy baker.

One text conversation about desserts.

And 1 hour.

What do you get?

Mixed Fruit Pie.

This recipe will make 2 pies.

• 5 cups of random frozen fruit from said baker’s freezer
• 1 cup all-purpose flour (or preferred flour)
• 1-1/2 to 2 cups sugar (depending on how sweet you like your pie)
• 3 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 tablespoon butter or margarine or cooking oil

Mix all of the above together in a bowl.  Make sure to mix it well.

2 pre-made pie crusts or homemade crust  (see links below)

Vegan Pie Crust

Pie Crust

Gluten Free, Soy Free, Dairy Free Pie Crust *the recipe is half way down the post…scroll down*

1 crumble topping

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup oats
• 1/2 cup butter, margarine or cooking oil , melted

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Pour the filling into the pie crusts.

Sprinkle any left over flour-sugar-spice mixture over the frozen fruit.  Place the crumble topping over the fruit.

Pat down gently to make a nice crust.

Bake for about 45 minutes or until done.  Once a knife can be inserted into the center of the pie with little to no resistance your pie is done.

Allow pie to fully cool before cutting for best results.

Enjoy.

Breakfast Casserole

Care for a slice?

This French toast like breakfast casserole is a favorite in my home. I make a large batch so it can be munched on for a few days.

I used whole wheat bread, but you could use French bread or any other type of bread.

• 9 pieces of whole wheat bread
• 1/2 cup of brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons of cinnamon
• 1 cup of dried cranberries (or other dried berry of your choice)
• 8 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 & 1/2 cups of milk
• 1 tablespoon of vanilla

1. Spray a baking dish with non-stick spray. Arrange the bread in layers, sprinkle cranberries over each layer.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon
3. Pour the liquid mixture over the bread.  Make sure that all the bread is covered in the egg mixture.  *I use my hands to mash the bread slices up.*

It looks like this....pre baking

4. Cover the baking dish with foil and refrigerate overnight.

5. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.  Bake covered for 40 minutes.  Remove the foil and bake for 5-10 minutes more.

6.  Let the casserole stand for 5 minutes before serving.

ready to serve

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Pictures from my week

A few pictures from Wednesday evening and Thursday.

Yes, my 14 year old is that much taller than me. *sigh*

Pictures from the Olive Garden....Birthday Boy's choice.

My husband, daughter and Father-in-Law

Birthday Cake

A soup, that turned out too salty.

A birthday breakfast casserole, this one is worthy of a recipe post. Perhaps next week.

I hope you have had a great week.  I will see you again on Monday.

Cra-mazing dipped pretzels

Cra-mazing: (adj.) something both crazy and amazing.

also known as Freak-tacular

I bought these super duper long pretzels. As soon as I saw them, I knew that I

1. had to buy them
2. intended to dip them in melting chocolate

A few days later, while picking up some yarn from Michael’s, I found candy cane flavored melting chocolates.

Score.

I warmed the chocolate. I dipped the pretzels in dark chocolate. Allowed them to dry.

Then I drizzled them with the candy cane chocolate. And then a few of them, I just dipped into the candy cane chocolate.

Hello lovely.

Salty, buttery, sweet and chocolate-y. What else would you call it but cra-mazing?

What cra-mazing things have you come across lately?

No peanut brittle recipe today, I’m short one ingredient. Raw peanuts.
Maybe Monday!

The Holidays, through my pinterest board.

Have you been on pinterest?

I’m fairly addicted to pinterest.  Lots of lovely ideas and blog posts to look through.

Michelle, of So, I married a Mennonite is hosting a Pinterest Party!

Specifically, this month, Holiday related pins.

For me, Holiday means Christmas.

Here is a link to all my Christmas pins.

Here are a few of my favorites….

Source: lhj.com via Jamie on Pinterest

Source: theinspiredroom.net via Jamie on Pinterest

Source: tasteofhome.com via Jamie on Pinterest

Source: diaryofaquilter.com via Jamie on Pinterest

 

 

Do you pin? I’d love to hear about your holiday related pins.

Cake in a Jar

The idea & post for cake in a jar is courtesy of a question on my Facebook page.

Making teacher or co-worker gifts that will impress (not to mention survive the trip to school/work) isn’t always easy.

Cake~ baked in a canning jar fits the bill perfectly.

Here’s what to do…..

• Cake mix…make your own or use a boxed mix.
• canning jars, half-pint or pint-sized

• Set your oven to the correct temp for your recipe.
• grease the canning jars

This is very important…..

• fill the jars ONLY half way full *if you fill them past the half way point, you’ll have a cake-eruption.*
• place the jars on a cookie sheet
• bake for about 20-25 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean
• remove the jars from the oven.

I recommend that you….

• Ice the top of the cakes

• place the lids on.
• allow the cakes to cool.
• Store them in the fridge until you are ready to send them off to school or take them to work
• re-ice the cakes before you send them off, the first icing will melt into the cake a bit.

• The jars should be stored in the refrigerator and eaten within 2 weeks.

Monday is another Slow-Cooker link-up! Let’s Get Cookin!

Frugally yours, for the Holidays.

I read a great post on Things I Can’t Say yesterday. I love reading what Shell writes, I like to think that we’d be coffee or wine friends if we lived in the same state. I think that about more than a few people, but I’m way friendly and super social in my imagination. Anyhooo…. I loved the concept.

It’s okay.

I want to say something similar, but holiday related.

It’s okay……

If more than half of my Christmas gifts are homemade this year.

I am going to spend the next few weeks posting about homemade or handmade things you can gift to friends, teachers, neighbors, and of course family.

I’d like to hear from you…..

What sort of homemade goodies should we explore? I’ve had a request for jarred cake, I’m working on that.

Any other requests?

Ideas?

Please leave a comment.

I want to hear your thoughts.

Bitchin’ Shepherd’s Pie

I was once again inspired by Bitchin’ Kitchen.

We had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday, filled with lots of family, lots of together time and (for me) lots of cooking.

We had dinner out on Wednesday night, I was thrilled and fortunate to meet a new friend. My husband’s childhood friend. We had dinner with Melissa and her parents on Wednesday. Then, Thursday was filled with driving, family, food, driving, cooking, family, more food and A/C drama.

I did NOT participate in the Black Friday sales craziness.

We had left-over turkey on Friday and Saturday. On Sunday, I was (honestly) ready for something different.

You can only eat so much left over turkey….am I right, or am I right?!?!

Bitchin’ Kitchen to the rescue.

This tasty twist on Shepherd’s pie looks, in a word….Awesome.

I fiddled with it. For taste reasons, for what I had on hand reasons. I also used mostly frozen veggies. I’m wild like that.

Hey, what can I say…I’m trying to clean out my freezer.

The things you find in your chest style deep freeze. Tons of frozen veggies, cheese, muffins (how long have they been there eh?) frozen stock, frozen fruit and a chicken that was clearly trying to hide itself as a veggie because it was totally surrounded by veggies. Good try chicken. Good try.

Here is my edited “what I had on-hand” version……

What you need:

• 2 lbs lean ground beef
• 1 onion chopped
• 2 cans of cream corn or frozen cream corn or freshly made cream corn *I used frozen*
• 1 cup of fresh, frozen or canned corn *I used frozen Mexi-corn with onions and green & red peppers in it*
• 1 1/2 – 2 lbs potatoes (3 big ones) or 1 package frozen mashed potatoes *I used frozen-it’s microwaveable*
• 4-5 tablespoons butter
• heavy cream, a few (4-ish) Tablespoons
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• a couple of grinds of pepper
• 1 teaspoon of tarragon
• 2 teaspoon of parsley
• enough bread crumbs to sprinkle the top of the potatoes

What to do:

• Peel and quarter potatoes, boil in salted water until tender (about 20 minutes). Or Microwave the frozen, ready to mash potatoes.
• While the potatoes are cooking, add ground beef to a hot pan and sauté until no longer pink. Drain fat. Add salt and pepper. Add onion. Cook, uncovered, over medium-low heat for 10 minutes.
• Place beef and onions in baking dish.

• Add cream corn, corn, parsley, tarragon and a Tablespoon or two of heavy cream to the pan the meat was in, cook until warm and bubbly.

• Pour cream corn mixture over the beef and onions.

• Mash potatoes in bowl with butter and a Tablespoon or two of heavy cream, season to taste.
• Distribute mashed potatoes on top. Sprinkle with bread crumbs and place a few slices of butter into the potatoes (I used 3 small slivers on top)

• Cook in 400 degree oven until bubbling and brown (about 30 minutes). Use the Broil setting for last 5 minutes to brown.

I think that you could exchange the meat for beans quite successfully and make this a vegetarian dish. I have not tried making this particular dish a vegetarian dish. Not yet.

This recipe makes a lot of Shepherd’s pie. We have enough left for another meal, or left-overs.

How was your weekend? How was your Thanksgiving Holiday (if you are in the U.S.)?

Banana Pumpkin Muffins

My continuing saga to use up my pie pumpkins…….

I made pumpkin banana muffins on Saturday night. We had some lovely friends over for dinner and I always like to send them home with some baked goodie for breakfast the next morning.

Since I had just baked pumpkin number 3 of 6, I figured pumpkin muffins was the best thing to make.

I planned to make pumpkin muffins. My sweet friend asked if I was adding anything to it. Bananas? Yes, why not.

Bet ya can't eat just one.....

Introducing:

Jamie and Lashelle’s Pumpkin and Banana Muffins

This recipe makes a LOT of muffins/quick bread.

• 2 cups of pumpkin (canned or freshly baked)
• 4 ripe bananas
• 4 eggs
• 2/3 cups of cooking oil
• 2/3 cups of water
• 2 1/3 cups of sugar
• 3 1/3 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
• 2 teaspoons of baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of sea salt
• 2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla

Mix the sugar and the liquid ingredients together. Sift together the dry ingredients. Mix the pumpkin mixture with the dry ingredients.

If you want to add nuts or raisins or cranberries do so at this point.

1/3 cup nuts

or

1/3 cup soaked raisins (soak the raisins in boiling water for 1 minute to plump them up)

or

1/3 cup of soaked (dried) cranberries or fresh cranberries

Bake at 350 degrees F for

mini muffins – about 20 minutes

muffins – about 30 minutes

mini bread loaf – about 30-45 minutes

Loaf sized quick bread – about an hour

Enjoy!

It's bite sized, if you have a big mouth like I do.