Cheesy Squash Casserole (Southern Living 1979)

Chery picked this recipe for my family to try.  With a few tweaks, we liked it.

Cheesy Squash Casserole
2 medium-size yellow squash
2 medium-size zucchini
2 slices veggie bacon
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
1/2 T Worcestershire sauce

Steam squash and zucchini until tender; drain well and mash.
Cook bacon until crisp.  Crumble bacon.
Combine all ingredients, stirring well.
Spoon into a lightly sprayed 8x8-inch glass cooking dish.
Bake at 350F for 25 minutes.

Broccoli-Rice Casserole (Southern Living 1981)

This recipe came from Lindy's suggestion. She's really trying very hard to help my family branch out in our veggie eating ability. Thanks sis!

Buying the "jar process cheese spread" was fun. The boys were like...what's cheese wiz?? I assured them they'd like it. I think the would...plain, or minus the veggies.

I swapped cream of mushroom soup for cream of something else. I have a mushroom aversion. I think I used cream of broccoli. I also opted for a carrot/califlower/broccoli mix instead of straight broccoli. This was for two main reasons: 1. I couldn't find the 10oz chopped broccoli, and 2. Too much broccoli for mama equals a gassier baby. Y'all. It is how it is. I learned that about Baby Girl in week 2.

An almost action shot. Making the brown rice.

After the rice cooked, I mixed in the rest. On my cookbook. Counter space is at a premium in this kitchen.

Mixture ready for the baking pan.

There is nothing about this that looks appetizing. I cannot blame it all on my lack of photography skills.

This was a terrible. I kept asking The Hubs...what can I do? How can I save it? This is the pits. It was a bit better when I added extra rice. But...Junior said he liked it.

He.

Said.

He.

Liked.

It.

I think he was lying. I think it might have had something to do with the mini-lecture The Hubs had delivered during the Hot Chicken Supreme Fiasco. Something about, "your-mom-works-hard-to-make-dinner-for-you-and-there-are-kids-starving-all-over-the-world."

We'll never know, though, because I won't be making this again. Both The Hubs and I agreed it would have been much much better if the veggies had been alone. Sans cheese wiz and condensed soup.

  ~Audry

Sauteed Asparagus (Southern Living 1979)

As Chery said in an earlier post, we challenged one another with an asparagus dish.  I have never prepared asparagus and cannot remember ever having it before.  This is very strange to me, because I tend to like vegetables, which is why I was a little excited about this challenge.  However, I wasn't too sure how my family would react to asparagus. 

K-man agreed to give asparagus a try with Sherried Baked Chicken Breasts (instead of Lemon Fried Chicken), so I looked up what it meant to "snap off tough ends of asparagus" and "remove scales with knife" and I was good to go. I used closer to 1.5 to 2 T butter and that was plenty for us, and other than that I stuck to the recipe.  K-man liked it (he surprised himself with that one as evidenced by the three lonely asparagus spears on his first helping), as did Roo and I.  Little Man and Little Miss were not sold on it, but I didn't get any fusses about it.  I think Little Man liked it better than he thought he would, and I think that Daddy liking it so much did help some.

An easy recipe + little to no complaints = winner.

Lindy  

Asparagus Supreme (Southern Living, 1980)

Lin and I realized when we were picking our April meals, both of our years have quite a few Asparagus recipes to choose from... and neither one of us had ever had asparagus.  We are both over 30 years old.  How is it possible that we have not had asparagus?  Mom?  Dad?  You reading this?  Any answers?  I'm sure it dates back to not eating anything green and complaining about everything that went into a dish... but, really, I should have tried it as an adult before now.  It was wonderful!

Asparagus Supreme

1 lb fresh asparagus spears

1 tbls butter

1 tbls cornstarch

1 cup milk 

1 tsp lemon juice

dash of salt

dash of nutmeg

2 tbls mozzarella cheese

Boil asparagus.  

Melt butter, add cornstarch.  Slowly add milk, stir until thick and remove from heat.  Add salt, nutmeg and cheese; stir until cheese melts.  Pour sauce over asparagus.  

Just to make sure everyone who knows me knows that I'm still me - I couldn't do the ham.  Even with my expanding vegetable horizon, I still don't think I'll be able to ever do the whole 4-legged animal thing (much to my husband's dismay).  Other than the ham, and cutting it in half, I left the rest pretty much the same.  We had quite a bit of sauce left over.  And... my "dash" of nutmeg came out REALLY fast, so it was a lttle nutmeg-y.  Still really good.  

Until next time,

Chery

French-Fried Cauliflower Au Gratin (Southern Living, 1980)

For those of you who don't know me, bear with me for just a minute.  For those of you who DO know me, hold on to your hats.  What I'm about to say may shock you.  I made cauliflower... and I LIKED IT!

I know, I know.  You're thinking who is this girl?  Keep wondering.... I not only made cauliflower, I also made asparagus and I LIKED IT, TOO!!  (see my next post for the details!) What can I say, I'm branching out.  You need to do some shocking things every now and again.  Like make vegetables with cheese sauce.  

Cauliflower Au Gratin

1 small head cauliflower

1 tbls butter

1 tbls cornstarch

1 cup milk

dash of slat

dash of pepper

1/2 cup cheddar cheese

Boil cauliflower flowerets.  Melt butter, add cornstarch.  Slowly add milk, stir until thick and remove from heat.  Add salt, pepper and cheese; stir until cheese melts.  Pour sauce over cauliflower.  Bake for about 10 - 15 minutes on 350.

So... I eliminated the whole "french-fried" part.  Not sure if you can really say that I made the recipe, since I took out half of the title - but, I did make the sauce (with a little less cheese).  I'm counting it.  Deal with it.  The real winner here was that I truly liked the cauliflower.  Winner, winner.

Until next time,

Chery