Croque Madame Casserole

Keeping it simple today... Just a recipe! I made this last night and it was super simple and super delicious! Apparently, it's a french thing... but I got it from Paula Deen... so we'll call it French Southern cuisine :)

Croque Madame Casserole

Ingredients:

6 T butter

1/4 cup all purpose flour

2 cups milk

2 T Dijon mustard

3/4 t. salt

1/2 t. pepper

1/2 t. nutmeg

12 slices of white bread

3/4 lb. deli ham

2 cups grated Gruyere cheese

6 eggs

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400. Grease a 13x9 inch casserole dish. Melt 6 tablespoons of butter in a skillet over low heat until bubbling. Whisk in flour and cook for 1 minute. Slowly whisk in the milk and cook until thick and bubbling. Whisk in the mustard, salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Pour a thin layer of the sauce into the prepared casserole dish and cover it with 6 slices of the bread, then slices of the ham and an even layer of cheese. Repeat the layers once more, ending with a third layer of sauce to cover all. Bake the casserole for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside.

Working in two batches, fry six eggs in a skillet (3 at a time)- cooking until the whites are set on both sides. Top each portion of the casserole with a fried egg. Top with remaining gruyere and return to the oven until the cheese melts.

*****swiss cheese is the cheese that is most closely related to gruyere... if you can't find gruyere or it is more expensive than you want it to be! :)*****

Before the eggs...

With the eggs...

It's a pretty rich dish, so I served it with a salad :)

Happy Wednesday!

Just 3 days until Razorback football starts! :)

Poppy Seed Chicken

So, the other day, Evan and I were eating lunch and I said, "What do you want to have for dinner tonight?" He didn't know so he said he would think about it. A few hours later, Evan called me and said, "Can we have something with water chestnuts in it?" hahahahahahaha What?? Water chestnuts?? SO random... even more random if you know how picky he was when we first started dating... if it wasn't a hot dog, a chicken strip or a cheeseburger, he wasn't interested!! Anyway, after I stopped making fun of him (and being proud of how far he has come), I decided to make Poppy Seed Chicken... because my recipe calls for (you guessed it) water chestnuts!! :)

I realize that everyone has a Poppy Seed Chicken recipe... but since they are all different, I thought I would share mine anyway!

Poppy Seed Chicken

Ingredients:

4-5 Chicken Breasts, cooked and diced

2 1/4 oz. pkg. sliced almonds

1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms

3 T. poppy seeds

1 (8 oz.) can sliced water chestnuts, drained

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 (8 oz) carton sour cream

1 sleeve of crushed Ritz crackers

1/2 stick of margarine, melted

Directions:

Spread chicken in a lightly greased 9x13 dish. Scatter mushrooms, almonds and water chestnuts over chicken. Mix soups and sour cream together. Pour mixture over ingredients in casserole dish. Spread cracker crumbs over soup. Pour melted margarine over crumbs. Sprinkle 3 T. poppy seeds over crackers. Bake uncovered at 350 for 30-40 minutes or until hot and bubbly.

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I served it over white rice and with steamed broccoli... here's one more picture that really showcases the water chestnuts ;)

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And finally, because the majority of this post has been spent picking on my fabulous husband, I will brag on him for just a minute! :) My birthday was on Tuesday and one of the gifts he gave me was this AMAZING sign for my kitchen. He found the quote and had the sign made just for me... He designed it himself! I. Love. It.

Did I mention that I LOVE it?? In fact, I love it more than Evan loves water chestnuts! :)

Classic Chicken Tetrazzini

As you probably know by now, I am an avid Southern Living Magazine reader. I love everything about this magazine... really, everything. I finally read my way through the September issue last night and I was so inspired! It made me so proud to be southern but it also made me hungry and even made me laugh! Here is the recipe (from SLM of course) that I cooked and LOVED last night:

Classic Chicken Tetrazzini

Ingredients:

1 1/2 (8 oz) packages vermicelli

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

4 cups milk

1/2 cup dry white wine

2 T. chicken bouillon granules

1 t. seasoned pepper

2 cups freshly grated parmesan cheese, divided

4 cups diced cooked chicken

1 (6 oz) jar sliced mushrooms, drained (I used fresh)

3/4 cup slivered almonds

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare pasta according to package directions. Meanwhile, melt butter in a Dutch oven over low heat; whisk in flour until smooth. Cook 1 minute, whisking constantly. Gradually whisk in milk and wine; cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, 8 to 10 minutes or until mixture is thickened and bubbly. Whisk in bouillon granules, seasoned pepper, and 1 cup Parmesan cheese. Remove from heat; stir in diced cooked chicken, sliced mushrooms, and hot cooked pasta. Spoon mixture into a lightly greased 13x9 inch baking dish; sprinkle with slivered almonds and remaining 1 cup Parmesan cheese. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes or until bubbly.

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And now, in honor of both my beloved magazine and premiere week (one of the greatest weeks of the year for a tv lover such as myself), I give you the page in Southern Living September 2010 that made me laugh:

Dear Hollywood: An open letter to our friends in showbiz, bless their hearts

by Amy Bickers

Southern Living, September 2010

Attention, Tinsel Town. As the fall TV season begins, we hope you aren’t tempted once again to dust off those Southern stereotypes that make us cringe. An example: the crime show that featured a cold case in Nashville and depicted the city’s police chief as a man who asked people to call him Big Daddy. Seriously? In a city with right around 600,000 people? We think it’s high time we let you in on a little secret. Contrary to what you might think, it’s really not all moonlight and magnolias down here. It’s not all cats on hot tin roofs, either.

For starters, Southern women do not go around saying things like “Why, I nev-aaaahhh!” or “I do declare!” (Okay, sometimes we do say that stuff, but we’re kidding. The same is true when we yell “Free Bird!” at, say, a Celtic Woman concert. We are in on the joke.) More than 70 years have passed since Scarlett stood on that hill and bellyached about Tara, yet you can visit your local cineplex or turn on the tube any day of the week and hear actresses doing that accent. And frankly, my dears, we do give a, er, care about how very wrong that is, especially when they’re playing truck drivers or steelworkers. But, in your defense, it’s easier to channel Scarlett than to nail the difference between a New Orleans accent, which sounds like Brooklyn on gumbo, and a West Texas accent, which is as dead level as the prairie it came from. Kudos to the HBO drama Tremefor getting it right. Then again, it’s filmed in the city and casts actual New Orleanians, so the real props go to our fellow Southerners for keeping it real. (As for the accents of those Louisiana vampires in True Blood? No. Just no.)

Using actual Southerners doesn’t always help, though. Southern-born celebs are sometimes the worst offenders. We won’t name names, but we’re looking at you, Julia R. Even Reese Witherspoon, who did our beloved June Carter proud in Walk the Line and was just a pistol in her Man in the Moon debut, veered offtrack in a film we won’t name, playing a New York City fashion designer who hides her Southern past because she grew up in a trailer with a Civil War-re-enacting daddy and a mama who makes bologna cake. Who among us has ever heard of bologna cake? Does that take buttercream frosting?

Stereotypes are tempting—we get that. And if you need to telegraph “Southern,” the easy route is to trot out Bubba or Big Daddy and have him drawl like Foghorn Leghorn while driving a pickup and spitting into a dip cup. But the thing is, we love the South. We live in it, and not, for the most part, in rusted-out camper trailers or Greek Revival mansions. You’d be shocked if we told you how few of us have verandas. Are you sitting down? Some of us live in condos.

And one last thing: We have air conditioning. You know, that thing that makes it feel cooler inside than it is outside? We do have it. And that is why we do not sweat indoors. We do not glisten and fan ourselves while sitting in courthouses or hospitals or grocery stores. In fact, because of the South’s obsession with AC, our public buildings are often so cold in the summer that we have to keep a sweater handy in July. Stop showing us sweating, please. Unless it’s Texas native Matthew McConaughey and he’s “lost” his shirt yet again. We’ll give you a pass on that one.

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There's nothing like comfort food and a good laugh to brighten your day!! Thanks to Southern Living for delivering, once again! ;)

Wild Rice Casserole

So, I told you last night that we had Wild Rice Casserole as a side dish for my Dad's birthday dinner but I decided not to add that recipe in last night's post because it was getting too long!! So here it is today... I hope you love it as much as I do!! This is an old favorite of mine!!

Ingredients:

2 boxes Uncle Ben's Original Wild Rice

1/2 cup chopped celery

1 lb. fresh mushrooms

1/4 cup butter

1 cup sour cream

1 can cream of mushroom soup

Directions:

Cook wild rice as directed on package. When rice has completely absorbed all liquid, add all other ingredients- folding in. Spoon into casserole dish and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.

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Super easy and super delicious... the best kind of recipe!! :)

The Tragic Fate of my Banana Pudding

First of all, we arrived in Maine late last night and we are SO excited to finally be here!! We are getting ready to leave our hotel and go explore but we already know this place is GORGEOUS. Here is what we can see out of our hotel room window:

More on Maine later... when I have more to show and tell.

On Monday night, I made sure to cook dinner (in between packing) so that I could give you at least one weeknight meal while I am gone. I made Sausage Casserole and served it with green beans and then Banana Pudding for dessert. Both of these recipes are delicious and very easy and they have both been in my life for as long as I can remember! The sausage casserole comes from my mom and the banana pudding comes from my grandma! I'll give you the recipes first and then I'll tell you the sad story that gave me the title for this post...

Sausage Casserole

Ingredients:

1 lb. pork sausage

1 cup rice

1 t. curry powder

1 cup celery

salt to taste

1 cup diced onion

1 can cream of chicken soup

1/2 cup milk

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

Cook rice first, while browning sausage. Pour off fat. Add rice and onion- brown. Add the remaining ingredients and cook in a covered casserole dish for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Here's a picture (Even though neither of these dishes is very photogenic! haha):

Homemade Banana Pudding

Ingredients:

1 cup sugar

2 cups milk

3 (heaping) T. flour

1 t. vanilla

2 eggs

1 pkg. vanilla wafers

6 bananas

whipped cream or cool whip

Directions:

Stir together the first five ingredients in a saucepan. Place the pan on a burner and cook mixture until it is thick and pudding like. Layer vanilla wafers, pudding and bananas, then repeat. Top with whipped cream or cool whip. **To make fresh whipped cream, simply beat heavy whipping cream with a mixer until soft peaks are formed, then add your desired amount of powdered sugar and beat until stiff peaks are formed.

Here's a picture of the (also non-photogenic) Homemade Banana Pudding:

Now here's the sad, sad story...

We flew out of Memphis, TN, because it was cheaper. So even though we had an afternoon flight, we had to leave home really early because we had to drop Jack off at my parents' house and then drive 3 hours to the Memphis airport. Anyway, the night before we left, I was cooking and talking on the phone to my mom. At the time, my parents' were on their way back from an anniversary trip to New Orleans (their anniversary is one day after ours). Anyway, my mom was talking about how good banana pudding sounded so I told her that I would bring her the leftovers in the morning when we brought Jack over.

The next morning, we were stupid tired because we had stayed up entirely too late packing. But we did remember to take the banana pudding (there was almost a full pan left) and we also decided to take the rest of the sausage casserole because it wouldn't be any good by the time we got back from our trip. We put both dishes in our trunk so Jack wouldn't get into them on the ride over to my parents' house.

Somewhere around halfway to Memphis (entirely too far to turn around) I realized that the food was STILL in the trunk. Awesome. After much grieving, we ended up pulling over at a gas station and scraping every single bit of both the banana pudding and the sausage casserole into a trash can... as all the other gas pumpers looked at us like we were crazy. So depressing.

So, if you stop for gas in Forrest City, Arkansas, and you see whipped cream on the trash can...

you'll know why.

Grilled Pineapple and Onion Salad and Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole

We decided to make this salad because A.) We have a new grill that we really wanted to use and B.) We had a pineapple that was about to go bad. I found the recipe on The Food Network website. It is from the show, "Down Home With the Neely's." It was really different and we really liked it... very summery!

Grilled Pineapple and Onion Salad

Ingredients:
1 large pineapple, peeled
1 red onion, cut in 1/2-inch thick slices
Glaze, recipe follows
1 bag baby spinach
Vinaigrette, recipe follows

Directions:
Preheat grill to medium heat.
Evenly cut the pineapple into 1/2-inch thick slices. Using a small 1-inch biscuit cutter, pierce a hole into middle of pineapple slices. Brush the pineapple and onion slices with glaze, place on the grill and brush again with glaze. Grill for 2 minutes and flip, grilling other side.
Place a bed of spinach leaves on a serving platter and top with the pineapple and onion slices. Drizzle with Vinaigrette and serve.

Glaze:
1 (8-ounce) jar pineapple ice cream topping
1 teaspoon Chinese five-spice
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon salt
Place all ingredients into a medium bowl and whisk together.

Vinaigrette:
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup olive oil
Pour ingredients into a small bowl and whisk together.

This is also a great recipe! I've made chicken and wild rice casserole before, but never this version. It was very colorful and delicious too. This is a Paula Deen recipe but I changed a few ingredients (not because I think I am better than Paula- because we all know that's not true! But because I didn't have some of the ingredients and I didn't want to go to the store!). It turned out really well so I am going to give you my version of the recipe. Enjoy!

Chicken and Wild Rice Casserole:

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter or vegetable oil
1 medium onion, peeled and diced
3 cups diced, cooked chicken
2 (14 1/2-ounce) cans green beans, drained and rinsed
1 (8-ounce) can water chestnuts, drained and sliced
1 (4-ounce) jar pimentos
1 (10 3/4-ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 cup sour cream
1 (6-ounce) box long-grain wild rice, cooked according to package directions
1 cup grated sharp Cheddar
Pinch salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Heat butter or oil in a small skillet over medium heat. Add onion and saute until translucent, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and transfer to a large bowl.
Add all remaining ingredients to bowl and mix together until thoroughly combined.
Pour into a greased 3-quart casserole dish. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until bubbly. Let stand for a few minutes before serving.