Mexican Casserole

Sometimes inspiration can come from unusual places. I was walking to the back of the local pharmacy when I saw a frozen box of Amys Mexican Casserole. After cooking it up I decided to cook up a Mexican Casserole of my own. Depending on ingredients you can make it vegetarian, vegan, and gluten free. This version is vegitarian gluten free and delicious! Check the enchilada sauce ingredients as some brands use wheat as a thicker and are not gluten free. I also used organic canned beans and corn, your choice. Mexican Casserole 4 cups unsalted nacho chips One can refried beans One can corn niblets One can enchilada sauce One can black beans 1/2 lbd Monterey Jack Cheese Open cans and drain beans and corn In a 2 quart casserole layer in this order: Nacho chips ( keep a handful of crumbs for topping ) Refried beans, put 3/4 of the cheese, corn, Half the enchilada sauce One can black beans , the balance of the enchilada sauce, corn chip crumbs and the remaining cheese. Bake at 350 covered for 1 hour then 1/2 an hour uncovered. That’s it enjoy feeds 3 with enough for 2 meals!

Tater Tot Chicken Casserole

This Casserole is a favorite of Aunti Lorindas she texted us the recipie ! Her message: Chicken Tot Pie. So simple. I cut up boneless skinless chicken breasts (I did 5) into bite size pieces. Fry them up in olive oil with a diced medium onion, can of mushrooms and seasonings of choice (I used dill, lemon pepper and garlic powder). Add a can of cream of chicken soup mixed wihh half a cup of milk and warm it all nicely. Pour mixture into casserole dish. Place thawed tator tots on the top, scatter.some shredded cheese and bake until tots are cooked through. 35 to 40 mins. Yum! Puffed pastry is another yummy topping instead of tots. We followed it pretty close substituting organic tots and shiitake mushrooms. Yummy!

Chicken Casserole

This is a classic from the Ate Ender cook book from the Brandon Curling Club! Like so many Canadian home recipes this one uses canned soup as a base...unlike most this uses 2 cans and a packet of onion soup. i followed this one exactly with a few exceptions. We used half a pack of the onion soup thinking it would be too salty, it turned out perfect. Enjoy this classic!

Carrot Casserole

CARROT CASSEROLE!

While looking online for Manitoba Casseroles I came across a gem...The Ate Ender Cook Book from the Brandon Curling Club! From what I could see, they were solid recipes and the were certainly Prairie. Bidding was fierce but I managed to come out on top and it was shipped quickly from the seller in Arizona? The recipe I have tried first is a Carrot Casserole, this is a solid side dish authored by Champion Curler Mable Mitchell. Only note I would add to this is do the carrots first, I tend to cook in a very linear fashion so the carrots were last. Do them first or at least start them to boil before you get started on the sauce part. It was ample and delicious and would be a big hit at a potluck after a bonspiel! Enjoy and I did see Nanaimo Bars in the back of this book !

Pandeelodie (Corn Bread )

This one is always delicious. My Moms first cousin Joy lived in LA in the 60s and always sent us recipes and care packages of exotic ingredients in the mail. Things like Pandeolodie ( corn bread ) that needed canned chilies that Safeway or Stans IGA never stocked. The recipe is pretty accurate I have made it exactly as listed on Moms card in the past. This version used gluten free baking mix and I put a sprinkle of shredded mozzarella on top for flavor and to give it a nice brown top! Enjoy !

It was delicious !

Chicken Cacciatore

This was one of my Moms favorite dishes to make. After making it I can see why, its delicious and easy to make. It uses simple availible ingredients she could have grabbed from the freezer or cupboard and put together in a jiffy. I did not have an original recipie card so I found one on the web that was easy and pretty close to what I remember with the addition of marsicapone cheese. The original was taken from Olive Magazine and I did follow it pretty close, except I removed most of the skin. I still had lots of flavor and oil.

Bean Casserole

This is one from the vault...a collection of Manitoba Community cook books I have gathered from yardsales or used book stores. This is litteraly the stuff of dreams...you smell this cooking and you are transported to someones Moms kitchen in Gladstone or Kemnay! A few notes on this one, the recipie is accurate at LARGE like 6 quarts large! My spatial senses were tingling like " this is not going to fit in this plane " or in this case 3 quart casserole. So I split it in two after I combined everything and before I baked it. This is one for the Dutch oven when Im out camping like it 73' next summer Here is the recipie at taken from the vault! Thank You Evelyn Welsh

The Tuna Casserole

 This was a main stay on Nicol Ave and 22nd St. We ate this regularly and it was easy to make ahead and put in the oven when people got home from school, the Y or just a shift at Safeway! 

Don’t let the colour fool you the colour may be beige but the taste is great. The basic recipe is good and accurate as written by Mom.

 Enjoy!

BG

7 Layer Dinner

 The Missing Layer ! 

This was always a go to meal before there was even a thought of a slow cooker and decades before insta pan. While contacting "The Keeper of the Book” aka my sister to get the recipe card it was discovered that we were one layer short of 7! I seemed to remember carrots and added that…seems to work and it was delicious. This requires some lead time but it was worth it. We cooked in a fairly large cast iron Dutch Oven style pan and went for the full  hour and a half. Pre brown your ground meat!

I also seasoned the meat with a tablespoon of each of these:

Garlic powder

Onion powder

Worcester sauce 

And soy sauce 

Sweet and Sour Pineapple Meatballs

 

These were always a favorite of mine growing up in Winnipeg. As usual it contains lots of dry and canned foods. We used ground pork but you can use meat of your choice. Turkey works well and on the prairies we would have used what ever ground meat was available. The meat balls consist of 2 pounds of ground pork, 1/2 a cup of crushed saltine crackers. I used the unsalted kind. One egg, one medium onion cut very fine, Worcester sauce one table spoon, one tea spoon of garlic powder and a healthy measure of fresh ground pepper. Mix all this together in a big bowl. Use a table spoon sized scoops of meat and form into balls. Place them on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper cook in the oven at 375f till brown and cooked through. Our oven took 30 to 35 min. Set these aside. Do not use lean pork as you need the fat. 

The sauce is as follows.

1/2 a cup brown sugar.

1/4 Cup Vinegar

1 Cup water

2/3 Cup ketchup 

DOUBLE THIS 

Add one 20oz can of drained pineapple chunks drained. Keep the juice for a healthy drink :-)

Bring sauce to a boil.

Mix a table spoon of corn starch to a 1/4 cup of warm water, mix this and add to sauce.

Once sauce has boiled and thickened add meat balls and bring to a boil. 

Serve over long grain rice with a side of boiled green beans and your transported to Nicol Ave 1974 !