Hashbrown Cheesy Casserole

This casserole is amazing! It's creamy and cheesy and delicious and a perfect addition to a regular meal, a special meal, a potluck, or a holiday meal. I love potatoes in pretty much every way possible, and this recipe does not disappoint. This is supposed to be a copy of Cracker Barrel's hashbrown casserole, and I found two recipes that were just slightly different, so I made my own decision on how to prepare this.

26 oz bag frozen hash browns
1/2 cup margarine or 1/2 cup butter, melted
1 (10 1/4 oz) can cream of chicken soup
1 pint (16 oz) sour cream
1/2 cup onion, peeled and chopped
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1 cup shredded Colby cheese
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl combine melted butter, cream of chicken, onion, and sour cream. Stir until well blended.

Stir in potatoes, cheese, salt and pepper.

Grease a 9x13 baking dish. Pour hashbrown mixture into baking dish.

Bake for about 45 minutes until top is golden brown. Enjoy!

Chicken al-a-good

A long, long time ago in a land far, far... oops! This isn't a fairy tale; this is the real deal. My mom got this recipe from her cousin (who is sort of like an aunt to me) quite a few years ago, and it just hits the spot! It's not difficult to make... at least my adaptation isn't. The original recipe was a bit time consuming, but I've adjusted. Also, the original recipe (see right) makes a 9x13 casserole. Having a fairly small family, that is just too much food, so what I'm going to give you are the ingredients necessary for an 8x8 casserole. This comfortably feeds two with leftovers.

2 lbs boneless chicken
1 can cream of chicken soup
4 oz (1/2 cup) sour cream
1 pack of saltine crackers
1 stick butter

Begin by boiling the chicken until cooked through. Remove from stove and allow to cool until you can comfortably handle it. Dice the chicken into bite size pieces.

In a bowl, mix the sour cream and cream of chicken until combined and smooth.

Layer this mixture over the diced chicken.

In another bowl, melt the butter. I use a metal bowl and melt it on the stove as I'm working on the other parts. You could melt it in the microwave in a microwave safe bowl if you prefer. Before opening the bag of crackers, shift them all to one end, lay the first few flat and begin to crush the crackers working all the way through the bag. Once all the crackers are crushed, add them to the butter, and using a fork, mix the crackers until each one is coated and all the butter is absorbed.

Layer the cracker mixture on top of the casserole.

Bake at 350 degrees about 35-45 minutes, or until crackers are golden brown and the soup mixture is bubbling at the edges.

Cucumber Salad

Growing up many of my years in Germany, this was something I was exposed to quite frequently... but I wouldn't eat it. I didn't like cucumbers back then. So when I finally expanded my taste buds and added cucumbers, I started growing them in my garden - and then had to find new recipes to use them all! So I found this one German Cucumber Salad. It's very easy to make and is quite tasty. I added some parsley to my version as well.

2 large cucumbers

1 tsp salt

2 Tbsp sugar

1 Tbsp white vinegar

1/2 cup sour cream

1 tsp dill

1 tsp paprika

1-2 tsp parsley

Peel cucumbers and slice very thin. Place cucumbers in colander and sprinkle with salt. Let stand for 15-30 minutes. Squeeze liquid out of cucumbers. Whisk remaining ingredients and pour over cucumbers. Set in fridge and marinate for at least an hour.

Jeweled Grape Salad

Every once in a while, I'm able to talk my kiddo into joining me in the kitchen and helping with some recipes. There are a few items she's getting to the point of taking over - prepping our manicotti/stuffed shells, orange salad, and now we can add Jeweled Grape Salad. I actually didn't FIND this recipe to try on Pinterest. My mom made this several years ago and has made it a few times since, and my daughter LOVES it. But I couldn't find the recipe in my recipes, so I searched on Pinterest and found this one for Grape Salad. My daughter helped me with this last weekend for my mom's birthday party. I love when the kid joins me. It's so easy to make, and makes a nice addition to a dinner party.

2 lbs red grapes

2 lbs green grapes

8 oz cream cheese

8 oz sour cream

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup pecans or walnuts

First thing you have to do is separate the grapes. We used a colander to hold them. Wash them thoroughly.

We let them drip dry while she mixed up the creamy mixture. Initially, we just put all the main ingredients - cream cheese, sour cream, sugar and vanilla - together. Lesson learned... for a creamier mixture, use an electric mixer and cream the cream cheese. Then add the sour cream, vanilla and sugar, mix completely.

Once the mixture is prepared, take some paper towels and carefully dry the grapes and put in a bowl large enough to hold the grapes and allows room to stir them.

Add the cream mixture to the grapes and stir them gently, but completely, making sure all grapes are covered.

Finally, mix the topping together - brown sugar and the nuts. We transferred in layers the grape mixture with a thin layer of the topping to a bowl that we could seal, finishing with a slightly thicker layer on the top. Chill for an hour or two and serve!

Banana Bread Bars

While I don't like bananas (it's a texture thing), I do in fact love banana bread! So, when my friend Carrie shared this recipe with me on Facebook, I knew I was going to have to give it a try. It took a few weeks, but I finally tried this last weekend. Here's the original post: Banana Bread Bars with Brown Butter Frosting. These bars turned out quite delicious! They were very moist and quite flavorful. However, they were basically unedible after two or three days. The icing sort of melted into the bars and the leftovers turned into a hot mess.

1-1/2 cups sugar
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1-3/4 (3 or 4) ripe bananas, mashed
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Heat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and flour 15x10-inch jelly roll pan (I used a 12X17). For the bars, in a large bowl, beat together sugar, sour cream, butter, and eggs until creamy. Blend in bananas and vanilla extract. 

Add flour, baking soda, salt, and blend for 1 minute. 

Stir in walnuts.

Spread batter evenly into pan. Bake 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Brown Butter Frosting
1/2 cup butter
4 cups powdered sugar
1-1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3 Tbsp milk

Meanwhile, for frosting, heat butter in a large saucepan over medium heat until boiling. Let the butter turn a delicate brown and remove from heat immediately.

Add powdered sugar, vanilla extract and milk. Whisk together until smooth (it should be thicker than a glaze but thinner than frosting). Using a spatula, spread the brown butter frosting over the warm bars (the frosting will be easier to spread while the bars are still warm).