Well, it was time for Project Casserole to continue, so I decided to try out a Quesadilla Casserole I found on Chef Jeff's website. This turned out really well. Our meal finished with an exclamation of, "Wow! We have to make this like, every week!" Oh, the appreciation adds such motivation to my culinary experiments.

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
1/2 red onion, chopped
2 t. chili powder
1 t. cumin
1 t. garlic, minced
1/2 t. oregano
1 1/2 c. tomato sauce
3 spicy green peppers, chopped
2 c. black beans
1 c. corn
1/2 t. red pepper
cheese (about 2 cups is what the original recipe called for; I used about 14 cheese singles b/c that's all we've got)
6- 8" tortillas

Brown the beef and onion, then add the next 8 ingredients. Bring to a boil, then reduce and simmer for about 5 minutes.

I added a layer of the saucy-meat mixture on the bottom of my 13 x 9ish pan, then added a layer of 3 tortillas. (I made the tortillas, & you can see the recipe under the bread category on the right side.) Then I added half of the remaining meat mixture, a layer of cheese, another layer of tortillas, the rest of the sauce, and the rest of the cheese.

At this point, everything was cooked, but I covered it with tinfoil, popped it into the oven for about 20 minutes and baked it at 350 degrees. Then I removed the foil and allowed the cheese to brown a little.

This was a big hit on the home-front as well as with some Chinese friends we served it to tonight as leftovers!

Project Casserole continues.

First, I got some pumpkin cubes boiling. (We don't really have canned veggies of any sort over here, but a can of pumpkin puree would be a grand alternative.)

The pumpkin took about 10-12 minutes to boil and soften so I could easily mash it. Meanwhile, I prepared a 9 x 13 pan of bread cubes.

I based this off of a recipe from a vegan website. Vegan I am not, and neither was this recipe by the time I finished with it. But I loved the recipe. It was fun, easy, freedom-giving, and delicious!

Ingredients:
bread (I used a loaf of unsliced bread, broken into large cubes. Stale bread would probably be best, but mine was fresh, so I just toasted it a bit first to dry it out.)
1 c. mashed pumpkin/ pumpkin puree (could also use applesauce, banana, etc.)
1 c. milk
2 T. cornstarch
2 t. cinnamon
1 t. nutmeg
1/4 t. ginger
3 T. brown sugar

Glaze:
2  egg whites
a little honey

So I mixed all of the wet ingredients together and then poured them over the bread. The pan looked a bit dry after I stirred it, so I splashed in a little more milk.

I stirred the mixture and let it sit for about 10 minutes while I preheated the oven to 350 degrees. Then I stirred again and let it sit for another 10 minutes.

I put it in the oven for about 15 minutes and then took it out to brush it with the egg-white and honey glaze. (To this point, there was not egg in the recipe, so I could have cooked it as long or as short as I wanted, longer for a less moist casserole.) After brushing the top, I put it back in the oven and baked it for about 10 more minutes. The glaze gave it a bit of hard/ crunchy sweetness on the outside of the top, which we really liked; it tasted a bit like monkey bread. The honey in the glaze also gave it a nice touch of sweetness so we didn't need to douse it in syrup. This tasted fantastic, and we'll definitely be making it again.

Another casserole in the line-up. I like this one because it's versatile; I can throw in whatever veggies I have on hand. I also liked it because it ended up being kind of creamy without calling for a heavy soup, heavy cream, or another ingredient I didn't have on hand.

Ingredients:
20 mushrooms, sliced
1 t. oil
water
6 T. flour
4 t. chicken bouillon granules
1 c. milk
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. pepper
3 c. (when dry) spiral noodles, cooked
2 c. shredded & cooked chicken
1 c. green peas
1/4 c. Parmesan cheese
breadcrumbs to top

First, I sauteed about 20 sliced mushrooms in a teaspoon of oil. Then I added 1/4 cup water and 6 T. flour, adding the flour gradually until the mixture was smooth and bubbly. I added another 1 2/3 cup of water, chicken bouillon granules, milk, salt, pepper, and cooked it until it was thickened, about 15-20 minutes.

Then I added the spiral noodles, shredded chicken, peas, and Parmesan cheese and stirred it together.

I put this mixture into a 9 x 13 baking pan, topped with breadcrumbs, and baked until bubbly & browned on top, about 20 minutes.

Project for the next few weeks: casseroles. Casseroles. That word sounds so old woman-ly, but I like it; it also sounds so American. I think there's a little piece of old woman in me, and a whole lot of American, so the project is set. (Side note: In fact, I'm quite excited to be an old woman some day... making casseroles, drinking tea with my friends, reading mysteries, knitting, and watching Hallmark channel movies doesn't sound so bad.)

Dreams of aging aside, my first project in the casserole series was eggplant parmesan.

Ingredients:
1 T. sugar
1 T. basil
1 T. oregano
about 24 small-medium tomatoes (though 4-8oz. cans of tomato sauce, a can of whole tomatoes (chopped), and a bit of tomato paste would have done the job)
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 lb. of eggplant
1/4 c. water
3 egg whites
1 1/4 c. breadcrumbs
2 T. Italian seasoning
1/3 c. Parmesan cheese
2 c. mozzarella cheese, ideally; I used the only option we've got: a package of low-fat cheese singles

First I chopped up 4 large eggplants; 3 would have been more than plenty; 2 might have sufficed. I chopped them to be about 1/4 inch wide. I placed them in a bowl, added water, and soaked them for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, I combined the first 5 ingredients above to make a sauce. I brought it to a boil, then reduced the heat and simmered for about 30 more minutes.

In 2 small bowls, I used the water and egg whites to make a mixture, then I used the parmesan, breadcrumbs, and Italian seasoning to make another mixture. After the eggplant slices had soaked, I dipped them in the first bowl, dredged them in the mixture in the second, and placed them on a tinfoil-lined baking sheet. Then I broiled them for about 5 minutes per tray (I ended up with 3 small trays of slices, which was way too many... I guess I wasn't sure how much eggplant was "2 pounds" as the original recipe suggested.)

Then came the easy part; I just layered the sauce into a 13x9 pan, then a layer of eggplant, followed by a layer of cheese, repeated the layering steps once, covered it with tinfoil, and finally baked it at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. In my opinion, it could have used to be baked about 10-15 minutes longer for more tender eggplant, but what do I know?

I served it with some asparagus and whole wheat pasta.