Birthday Feast #2: Baked Potato Casserole

The only picture I have of the baked potato casserole…right before I popped it into the oven.

I discovered baked potato casserole at an airport in Texas (either Dallas or Austin) earlier this year. I was hungry and knew I wouldn’t get to eat for another 2-3 hours. I didn’t want fast food and had had my fill of BBQ’d meats. I really just needed a snack and saw “baked potato casserole” listed as a side at one of the BBQ places…intriguing! I got an ice cream scoop-sized serving and the hunger monster was sated for a few hours.

I knew Joel would love this. As I mentioned, in the last post, we don’t eat a lot of potatoes at home. If I didn’t make it for his birthday, we’d have to wait until Thanksgiving before this would have another opportunity to make it on the table. Its decadent, a little over the top, and stick to your ribs delicious.

Cornbread Sausage Stuffing

Oh hello, there! It’s been a while, but I’ve still been cooking. Lots to catch up on…including a silky cauliflower soup and cioppino. Apparently I go crazy for crab around the holidays. But first things first, I made this cornbread sausage stuffing for Friendsgiving the weekend we got back from Argentina.

On Perito Moreno Glacier in Patagonia, Argentina

The original recipe wants you to whirl the baked cornbread in a food processor but I cut mine into bite sized chunks more reminiscent of a crusty bread-based stuffing. I used spicy Italian sausage for this version but in the future I would prefer an andouille sausage or chorizo to kick the flavor up a notch. The Italian sausage didn’t have the flavor I was hoping for (the original inspiration for this stuffing was the cajun turducken stuffing). However, this is a good base recipe to use in the future.

Thai Curry Sausage Stuffing

I have been craving stuffing (many kinds: cornbread, oyster and my mom’s sticky rice), but we’re going to be in Argentina for Thanksgiving and will all the food. On Sunday, I decided to make stuffing to go along with our roast chicken and cauliflower. I picked up some Thai chicken curry sausage from the butcher and a loaf of Acme sourdough and found Ina Garten’s sausage stuffing recipe as a launchpad.

Because I started with Thai sausage, I added some Thai curry paste for some extra flavor (genius!). As is, the recipe is great! I used leftovers last night for a sort of bread salad (arugula, chicken and leftover stuffing with honey mustard vinaigrette).

Next time, maybe I’ll add a dash of coconut milk, some slivers of kaffir lime or a handful of crushed peanuts. For less of a bread salad type stuffing and more of a bound stuffing, I would add at 2 beaten eggs to bind it all together (which I’ve added to the recipe below).

Andrew Zimmern’s Countertop Dill Pickles

My second attempt at dill pickles yielded MUCH better results, thanks to Andrew Zimmern, who tweeted this recipe for his countertop pickles. My first batch was not crisp enough and too vinegary, but this one is perfect–crisp with just the right balance of salt, vinegar and spices. I won’t be buying Clausen pickles anymore!

Summer Farro Salad

Though we generally eat fairly healthy, we can always stand to eat healthier. We had started a backslide into white rice, white pasta and cookies so it is time to right the ship again (though you will see a few recipes for cookies and white pasta in the coming days as I work through the backlog).

I’ve never cooked farro but have had some delicious farro salads at restaurants, most recently a Marinated Farro Salad with romano beans, pickled cucumbers, radish & ricotta salata from Ragazza.The farro cooks up amazingly fast (15 minutes!) so this can easily be a weeknight meal…especially if you cook the farro the night before (to accommodate for cooling time). We’ll be making more farro around here because I like the nutty, chewy farro and all the fresh vegetables you can easily include. I’m looking forward to making Farro Salad with Roasted Mushrooms and Parmesan next time.

Though this salad is vegetarian, it was hearty enough for dinner (even the Midwestern boy concurs!) and the leftovers made a great lunch! If you want meat, you can easily add that too. I think I’ll be bringing something similar to my brother’s upcoming BBQ.