Cackleberry Casserole

 Cackleberry Casserole

    This oddly named recipe comes to us from the April 1981 edition of the Laurel (Iowa) Centennial Cookbook 1881-1981. It was submitted by Donna Hughes. I liked this dish, but I would either not add salt and I would use low-sodium pork sausage if I could find it. I adapted the recipe a bit, but will attach a picture of the original recipe, so you can see that. If I made this again, I might also consider using less of the sausage; maybe 1/2 pound to 3/4 of a pound. The original recipe calls for 1 pound. The original recipe also calls for shredded cheddar. I used a finely shredded Cheddar-Jack mix and I used a spicy mustard seasoning rather than plain dry mustard. I used wheat bread instead of the white that the original recipe calls for and, I also used the two butt ends of the loaf in addition to the two slices called for. I really liked the texture of the bread and the nice, crusty top of the casserole. 

Ingredients:

1 pound pork sausage browned

6 eggs, beaten

2 to 3 slices of white or wheat bread, cubed

1 tsp salt

1 tsp dry mustard

1 cup shredded cheese (cheddar or use cheddar/jack mix like I did)

Directions:

    Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Spray the bottom and sides of your casserole dish with cooking spray or grease with butter. Cut your bread slices into cubes. Brown your sausage in a skillet, drain and place in the bottom of your casserole dish. Spread the bread cubes over the sausage. Crack your eggs into a large, mixing bowl. Add your salt and dry mustard and beat well. Stir your cup of shredded cheese into your eggs and pour this mixture over your bread cubes.  Make sure you get egg mixture on all of the bread.  Place in your oven and bake for 45 minutes. The original recipe says 45 minutes to an hour, but 45 minutes was perfect for my oven.  Serve this with a side of fruit salad. Makes 4 to 5 adult sized servings, 

    The verdict? It was good, but like I said, I would cut how much salt I used and would probably not add salt separately. I liked this also, because it has only six ingredients and was really easy to make. Like I also said, I liked the texture of the bread and the crustiness of the top. Let me know if you try it. 

**I think you could totally make this as a vegetarian or vegan dish. I know you can get faux sausage crumbles and someone who is knowledgeable, could likely find vegan egg and cheese substitutes. I'm neither vegetarian or vegan, but I know there are cheese substitutes; I'm not sure if there are vegan egg substitutes. 

Cackleberry Casserole

Crumbled Sausage

Bread Cubes Covering Sausage

Casserole Topped Off With Egg and Cheese Mixture

Done! Side View To Show You This Casserole Dish. 

Top View of Casserole

Donna Hughes' Original Cackleberry Casserole Recipe

    

Farmer Jones' Special

 Farmer Jones' Special

    Farmer Jones' Special is a recipe I found in my copy of the 1959 Farm Journal's Country Cookbook. It's towards the back in a section called "Exciting Rice Dishes". This is pretty much a casserole. The recipe calls for putting the mixture into a 12" ovenware pie plate and I ended up using a 9"x13" baking dish. One, all of my pie dishes are not that big and there was so much, that I knew it would do just fine in a 9"x13" dish. 

    So, the first thing you do is pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. Then you chop up your celery and onion.  The recipe calls for 1 cup chopped celery and I used a little more. I'd cut up 4 stalks and didn't want to waste it. You cook the celery and onion in butter/margarine until golden brown, cover and cook until tender. The recipe says to add the tomato juice, tomato paste and ground beef, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.  The recipe did not say to brown the ground beef first, but I did.  It just wasn't going to be cooked thoroughly unless you cooked it before adding to the vegetables. I cooked my rice in the microwave while I was doing all this. Once everything was done, I mixed it all together and spooned it into my baking dish, which I had sprayed with a bit of cooking spray. The recipe calls for 1/3 cup Parmesan cheese.  One, I used the powdered in a jar kind and two, I used way more than 1/3 cup. It is cheese and cheese is awesome, so do to your taste. I used the powdered kind, because I forgot to buy fresh Parmesan. The powdered kind was just fine.  Switch it up and use an entirely different kind of cheese, like shredded mozzarella or monterey jack if you wish. I like to salt and pepper on my plate sometimes, rather than adding during cooking, but feel free to add your 1 teaspoon of salt during cooking (you add that when you add the meat to the vegetables. 

    This recipe was good as is and I would definitely make it again. You can get at least 8 servings out of this recipe. The ingredients cost less than $10 and the most expensive ingredient was the ground beef, which was $5.79.  The rice I got for $1 and the tomato paste was under $1. The tomato juice I got (a pack of mini V-8 juice cans) was about $2.50. I only used two cans, but I am happy to have the extras in my pantry. And something I like, is that you can easily make this spicy by using spicy tomato juice, adding chili powder or maybe even finely diced jalapeno. I love garlic, but wanted to make it without this time.  I will sprinkle some garlic powder on what I have for lunch today and see how I like it. You could also add diced tomatoes if you like. If you don't like hamburger, use ground turkey. *If you are vegetarian, I think this could be made with diced tofu or paneer cheese. Just cook it before adding to the vegetables.*

      A nice garden salad and rolls or cornbread would round out this meal nicely. As always, if you make this, let me know how you like it. 

    The last picture below is a before/after photo of the filled baking dish.  :)

Spanish Limas

 Spanish Limas

    So, I ran a poll to find out what I should make this weekend? The choices were vegetable dish, meat dish or another dessert.  I pre-selected recipes for each category (Spanish Limas, Salisbury Steak and Goody Pie) and the winner of the poll was "vegetable dish". I was kind of excited to try this. I've not had lima beans that often and definitely cannot remember ever buying them.  At the store yesterday, I almost couldn't find lima beans and when I did, I had to ask another customer to reach them for me.  I had chosen to use canned (couldn't find dry anyhow) and the cans were double stacked on the top shelf and I am 4'8", so that wasn't happening. Sometimes I climb on shelves to get things, but I knew it wouldn't end well this time if I had tried to get the beans.  Anyhow, lets get back to it. 

    The first step was to wash my veggies, tomato and green pepper (1 medium) and seed the pepper.  Next up was the onion (1 medium-ish) which I peeled and chopped.  I put the green pepper and onion into my large cast iron skillet, in which I had melted 2 tablespoons of butter. Instructions are to brown the onion and green pepper and then add the diced tomato. While the onion and green pepper were doing their thing, I seeded and diced the tomato.  Two and a half Roma tomatoes equaled the 1 cup of tomato called for in the recipe. You could use a little more or less if you like. I set the diced tomato aside and drained my& rinsed my lima beans. 

    Once the onion and green pepper mixture was ready, I added the diced tomato and cooked it on Low for 10 minutes, stirring often. I also prepared my other ingredients aka the seasonings: chili powder (in lieu of straight up chili power, I used my Arial's Spices "Spice & Chili Mix" which I found at the Dallas Farmer's Market), salt  and pepper. After 10 minutes, I added the seasonings and Worcester sauce and made sure to combine thoroughly. Finally, it was time to add the lima beans.  Once I'd stirred everything together, I simmered the mixture for 20 minutes on Low, stirring often. While this was working, I measured out 1 1/2 cups of shredded cheese. I used Monterrey-Jack, pre-heated my oven to 350 degrees and buttered a casserole dish (I used one of my favorite retro Anchor-Hocking FireKing dishes) on the bottom and sides.  

    After 20 minutes, I layered the lima bean/onion/tomato mixture with my shredded cheese in the casserole dish. I ended with a layer of cheese and because I love cheese, I ended up using about 3/4 to a 1/2 cup of extra cheese on top. The casserole went in the oven for 30 minutes.  It looked pretty good when I took it out at the end of the cooking time.  I let the dish cool for about 10 minutes and served myself a portion and added a side salad of mixed baby greens. 

    The verdict? I liked this dish. Seasonings are easily adjustable to taste.  I'd maybe add a little more chili powder next time. You could easily add in diced chicken, ham, bacon or even cubed and cooked tofu.  If you don't like lima beans, you could substitute butter beans and it would work.  Would I make this again? Yes. Would I try it with chicken or bacon? Yes. And finally, I've been recognizing the ladies who submitted recipes to the community cookbook which inspired me to start this blog, so "Thank You" to Ethelyn Downing.