Swiss Sausage Casserole

 

Who doesn't love a good breakfast casserole? This one was super easy to put together. Refrigerate overnight, pull it out the next morning and let it sit about 45 minutes or so. Then bake it. Now I'm sure my kiddos would have liked it better with a different cheese and my husband would have added some hashbrowns to the mix. Made exactly how the recipe states though...I thought it was good.

Here's my interpretation of the recipe:

Swiss Sausage Casserole

Serves: 8

From the Kitchen of: Pat Brayton

6 slices of bread - white

2 lbs of mild bulk sausage - I use less sausage

1 teaspoon prepared mustard

1 (6oz) swiss slice cheese

3 eggs

1¼ cups milk

¾ cup half & half - I use Coffee Rich

¼ teaspoon salt

dash of pepper

dash of nutmeg

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Arrange bread in a lightly greased 13x9" pan. Saute sausage. Drain thoroughly. Combine sausage, mustard; sprinkle over bread.

Place cheese sliced over sausage. Combine remaining ingredients. Beat well. 

Pour mixture over sausage. Refrigerate overnight. 

Allow to come to room temperature and bake at 350º for 30-40  minutes.

*I used all 2 lbs of sausage

*I used 9 slices of cheese

*I could not find Coffee Rich brand so I substituted a different brand.

*I baked it for 35 minutes

Here's the link to see the actual video on YT :)

I hope you enjoy and give this recipe a second chance in your kitchen too.

Chili Hash Brown Casserole

 

So it's May in Texas which means it's already starting to get hot. Who on earth would want to eat chili when it's not cold outside? Me. I would. Which means my family eats it. Haha! This recipe got a thumbs up from everyone. Even my youngest, who doesn't care for beans and who only like potatoes in french fry form (no tater tots!) and mashed, ate the hash brown topping and some of the beans. I'll definitely make this again once Fall gets here.

Here's my interpretation of the recipe:

Chili Hash Brown Casserole

1# ground meat

1 small onion diced

5 cloves garlic - minced

2 tsp cumin

2 tsp chili powder

¼ tsp red chili flakes

2 tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

4 Tbs tomato paste

1 - 14oz can diced tomatoes

Diced green pepper

1 can red kidney beans drained

16oz frozen hash browns shredded

8oz cheddar cheese grated

1 Tbs olive oil

Heat olive oil - add onions and garlic. Cook

Add beef - cook 5-8". Add pepper and seasonings

Add tomato paste, tomato and beans.

Cook 15-20" til thick

Pour chili in greased casserole dish.

Spread frozen hash browns over top and sprinkle with cheese.

Bake at 400º for 40"

Let sit for 10"

*I used 90/10 ground beef

*I used regular diced tomatoes. Next time I'll use the petite ones.

*The beans were drained and rinsed. Although next time I might not rinse them to help keep it moist for leftovers. Just drain them a bit.

** The " means "minutes" and the u with a line on top means "with". I guess that was a type of shorthand back in the day?

I hope you enjoy and give this recipe a second chance in your kitchen too.

Untitled “Nacho Casserole”

This was a quick and easy supper to make! I think cooking the ground beef took the longest. While that was cooking I was shredding cheese (freshly shredded is always better than bagged!), crushing tortilla chips and assembling the bottom sauce layer. We debated on what to call this since it didn't have a name. We decided on Nacho Casserole. It got a thumbs up from the husband and both kiddos. I think it might even make it onto our monthly menu planning! 

Now normally I like to follow the recipe exactly how it's written. I did have to make one big adjustment for me personally. I HAD to season the meat when cooking. Ever since having my two wonderful kiddos, I cannot stand the smell of meat cooking. I have to season it right at the beginning or it grosses me out. So I added some of our favorite seasoning (it's also a secret ingredient in my famous hot sauce! If you want to know what it is, I MIGHT let you in on it :)) along with my standard taco seasonings: garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper.

 My interpretation of the recipe:

Untitled "Nacho Casserole"

1 lb. ground beef

1½ cups thick chunky salsa

1 10oz can corn (drained)

¾ cup miracle whip

1 teaspoon chili powder

2 cups crushed tortilla chips

2 cups colby cheese (shredded) 

1. Set oven for 350 degrees

2. Brown meat and drain. Remove from heat.

3. Mix salsa, corn, mayonnaise and chili powder in 2 quart casserole dish.

4. Cover with layer of one-half meat, tortilla chips and shredded cheese, ending with cheese on top.

5. Repeat step 4.

6. Bake uncovered for 20 minutes or until thoroughly heated.

7. Let stand for 5 minutes.

* I seasoned the meat while it cooked

* I grated my own cheese instead of using a bag of shredded cheese.

* If you use more than 1 pound of meat, you'll need to use a bigger baking dish. All the ingredients fit perfectly (although I doubted it) in a 2 qt. dish.

I hope you enjoy and give this recipe a second chance in your kitchen too.

Baked Corn

This Baked Corn makes for a good side dish that's quick and easy. I made it in a 8x8 square baking dish and it came out thin, but not bad. I'll include what I would change after the recipe below.

My interpretation of the recipe:

Baked Corn

1 Tablespoon shortening

1 Tablespoon flour

½ cup milk

1 teaspoon sugar

½ teaspoon salt

dash of pepper

1 cup corn

1 egg

Melt shortening & add flour. Stir in milk gradually. Continue to stir until thickens. Add corn, sugar, salt & pepper. Beat egg & add. Pour into greased cassarole. Bake 20-25 min. 375°.

* I used canned corn.

* I used a 8x8 square baking dish. 

* Either omit the salt if using regular canned corn or use unsalted corn and add the salt as listed.

* I would double the recipe to make it thicker.

I hope you enjoy and give this recipe a second chance in your kitchen too.

King Ranch Casserola

 

 

Yes, yes, I know that it's supposed to say Casserole but part of my love of looking through these recipes is to see all the different handwriting and different ways people spelled (or misspelled) words. It's fascinating to me, which is why I came up with this entire Second Chance Kitchen in the first place.

Just like many of you, I've made this casserole many times before. BUT, I've never seen it call for a hen. I've never cooked an entire chicken. Good thing my mom was here! She shook her head when I told her I was going to toss the whole thing in a pot and cook it then cut it up. She quickly grabbed my big knife, cutting board and went to town cutting up that raw chicken. While she was doing that, I asked her if we were sure it was a hen and not a rooster. The recipe specifically calls for a hen. How do you know which one you're getting? Probably a dumb question, so please enlighten me if you know the answer. 

Here's my interpretation of the recipe:

King Ranch Casserola

1 Hen cooked and deboned

2 cups grated American cheese

1 doz. tortillas cut fine

1 onion cut fine

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 cup chicken broth

1 can rotel

Combine last 4 ingredients for sauce. Place layer of ½ chicken, ½ of sauce, ½ of tortillas, ½ of onion and cheese in casserola (casserole) and repeat for secold (second) layer with cheese on top. Bake 1 hour at 350°

* I used all the meat from the chicken for this recipe

* I used the broth the chicken was cooked in for the 1 cup of chicken broth

* I used corn tortillas (just incase someone was wondering)

* I used the mild rotel to make sure my kiddos would eat it

* I used mild cheddar cheese

* Lastly, I used a deep 9x13 glass casserole dish to make this in.

I hope you enjoy and give this recipe a second chance in your kitchen too.

Pork Chop Caserole

Pork Chop Caserole

First of all, yes I realize "caserole" is misspelled. That's how the recipe is written though, and personally, I LOVE that :) It's why finding handwritten recipes is so wonderful and one of the main reasons why I started this blog 7 years ago :)

My normal cooking usually involves chicken or ground beef/turkey. Since having kids, I can’t stand the smell of ground beef cooking. I usually have to season the pan, add the beef then add more seasoning to it. So, if I had my choice we’d eat ground turkey more often than not. Anyway, I’ll be completely honest and say that I have no idea how to pick meat in other forms. It’s not that I don’t love other types of meat, I just don’t buy it enough. My husband doesn’t care for meat on the bone which means I don’t buy it often. My poor kids have no idea how to really get in there and clean off a rib bone or piece of chicken on the bone. Poor things, I’ve done them a disservice!

Anyway, I’m trying to venture out more so when I found this little gem of a quick and easily put together “caserole” I had to try it. Now, I had to think back to when these recipes might have originated. My guess was that they didn’t use brown rice and they probably didn’t have center cut boneless pork chops back then. I could be wrong. So I used good old fashioned white rice and regular cut bone-in pork chops. It really was super easy to throw together. I will say that I accidentally rinsed the rice. It’s a habit and I didn’t realize the recipe didn’t call for a pre rinse. Oops. It was also really hard to not season the meat. I can’t stand gamey tasting meat, so against my better judgement, I just laid it in the broth. I only used 4 pork chops since that’s what fit nicely into my baking dish. I also wanted to add another 1/2c of rice but I didn’t. Just a mental note for future reference.

Ready for the oven

Out of the oven

My interpretation of the recipe:

Pork Chop Caserole

From: Eva

4½ cups water
½ cup rice
1 pkg. dry onion soup mix
4 or 5 pork chops

Pour water in baking dish, sprinkle rice in water, sprinkle soup mix over rice, place pork chops on top

Bake in 350 oven for 1 hour or until done.

* I used a 9x13 deep glass baking dish
* Do not overbake! I kept adding time because there was so much liquid. I would have added at least another ½ cup of rice to help.
* I did not season the pork chops. If I make this again, I will definitely do so.
* Using bone-in chops made the rice have a gelatinous consistency.
* Will use boneless chops if made again.

I hope you enjoy and give this recipe a second chance in your kitchen too.

Breakfast Treat

Our 5 year old started back to school today. Her first day of kindergarten! Seriously, didn't I JUST have her?? Anyway, there was a BooHoo/Yahoo Breakfast after the kids went to class. I figured, what a better way to try out a new recipe? So, I started looking through my collection for some kind of a breakfast casserole. I must have looked through thousands of recipes and found nothing! Really? There are a TON of Jell-O based recipes and different versions of meatloaf. I couldn't find a single breakfast casserole. Now, I didn't look through my entire collection but I was tired of looking. I was about to turn to Pinterest when I decided to check one last box. What do you know? I found one. Go figure!

So here is the Breakfast Treat that I made. I have to say, it was pretty easy, and from the one bite I got to try, I thought it was pretty good. It definitely smelled good! I will absolutely make it again, but with some adjustments.

There are notes she adds about adding 1/2c - 3/4c of both onion and bell pepper. I used 3/4c of both. I also used 8 eggs instead of the originally listed 4. I used regular mustard instead of dry.  I couldn't find just seasoned croutons, so I used garlic & cheese flavored ones. About a 5oz bag. I did add a few more from a second bag just to make sure the bottom of my 9x13 pan was covered. I tried to butter my pan, but since I used a tin foil one, it was taking forever to get it in all the grooves, so I gave up and just sprayed it with butter flavored non-stick spray. The only other major thing was, it says to cover and bake at 300 degrees for 30-40 minutes. After 40 minutes, the egg on top was still clear and jiggly. So I uncovered it and bumped up the temperature to 350 and left it in for another 15 minutes. Well, it was still a little clear so I again bumped up the temperature to 370 ( I meant to put it on 375 but missed a push while trying to get the girl ready for school) and left it in for about another 15 minutes. I honestly didn't think it was going to be ready when we had to leave. I literally took it out of the oven, covered it back up, placed it on a towel and off we went.

After all that, there wasn't any left. I wanted to get a picture of the dish as a whole, but was lucky enough to get a little piece. I hope everyone enjoyed it!

Here's my interpretation of the recipe:

Breakfast Treat

(Joy Shilling and Ginger Galloway)

1 1/2 lb bulk sausage (with sage seasoning)

2 1/2 cups herb seasoned croutons (1 small box)

2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

4 eggs (Ginger uses 6 eggs, Joy uses 7 or 8 eggs)

2 1/4 cups milk

3/4 ts dry mustard

1/2 - 3/4 cup chopped green pepper

1/2 - 3/4 cup chopped onion

Crumble sausage and fry it; drain grease (Ginger saves grease and makes  cream gravy)

Grease 13"x9"x2" baking dish with butter or cooking oil.

Spread croutons on bottom of dish.

Sprinkle grated cheese on croutons.

Spread crumbled sausage over cheese.

Beat eggs with milk and mustard added.

Add green pepper and onions.

Pour over meat mixture.

Peppers and onions will float on top.

Set at room temperature for 30-40 minutes. (can be refrigerated at this time until ready to cook)

Ginger covers with foil while baking.

Bake at 300 degrees for 30-40 minutes.

Loosen foil for few minutes before slicing.

Ginger gets about 10-12 servings from this.

*Oh, I also added a little salt & pepper to the egg mixture before pouring it over the sausage.

I hope you enjoy and give this recipe a second chance in your kitchen too.

Soybean Casserole

Let me just say that I was so excited when I found this recipe. I LOVE soybeans! I can eat them frozen right out of the bag. The shelled ones, of course. This was put into the "I definitely have to make" pile!

I wasn't sure what she meant by soaking and cooking the soybeans for 2 hours. I just used some frozen shelled beans and boiled them for about 15 minutes. I figured that was good enough.

I have to admit that I was a little disappointed in the finished product. It was too mushy for me. I think I would have preferred the soybeans to be left whole, but I'm not quite sure how it would have turned out with having eggs as a binder. Hmmm. It wasn't that bad though. Not sure I'll make this one again according to the recipe.

Here's my interpretation of the recipe:

Soy Bean Casserole

2 ½ cup soybeans soaked - cook 2 hours

Grind & add

3 Tbs oil

½ cup celery

1 egg

2 Tbs honey

½ cup tomato sauce

½ cup onion

bread crumbs

½ tsp sage

¼ tsp cayenne

Bake 1 hour at 375°

* I used frozen shelled soybeans and boiled them for about 15 minutes. Then I put them in my processor to grind them up, adding the oil to help thin them out a little bit.

* I combined everything and then sprinkled the bread crumbs on top to cover it all.

I hope you enjoy and give this recipe a second chance in your kitchen too.