Maker Monday: Ode to the 1950s - Cheesy Surprise Hash Brown Casserole

 

Cheesy Surprise Hash Brown Casserole

Half a Bag of Ore-Ida Hash Browns, thawed (approximately 15 oz)

1 can cream of chicken soup (cream of mushroom works good too)

1 can cheese soup

1 can SPAM luncheon meat (the Bacon flavored one works the best)

1 small onion diced

½ cup sour cream

½ cup frozen peas

1 cup shredded cheese of your choice

2 cups crushed sour cream and onion chips

Spices to taste (salt, black pepper, paprika, garlic powder, Cheyenne pepper)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly butter or spray a 9x11 casserole dish and set aside.

In a mixing bowl combine thawed hash browns, cream of chicken soup, cheese soup, sour cream, shredded cheese, and frozen peas together folding gently until fully combined. Add spices now as well keeping in mind you may not want to add much salt at all because of the SPAM and canned ingredients sodium content. If you stir, it has a tendency to break up the hash browns too much, and then they become mushy.

Open and cut up the loaf of SPAM into small cubes. Dice the onion. Very lightly coat your skillet with olive oil (or if you prefer a bit more spicy chili oil works great.) Fry the onions and SPAM on medium heat, flipping two to three times until meat is crispy and onions are just starting to caramelize.

Drain excess grease and then mix in the SPAM and onions with the rest of your ingredients. Move mixture into your prepared casserole dish and spread out evenly. Cover the top with your crushed potato chips.

Maker Monday: Jalapeno Corn in Cream Sauce

 Everyone here at some point in time has been served the horrible, gloopy awfulness that is creamed corn out of a can. That is not what this recipe is. It will look, taste, and feel nothing like what you can get from your neighborhood grocery store shelf.  Please don't run screaming before giving it a look and hopefully a try.

My wife and I recently went to a cooking class hosted by Cooks of Crocus Hill in Stillwater, MN (campuses also located in Eagan and St. Paul, MN). We went to their Dinner Club Series: Texas Steak interactive class/dinner. It was a lot of fun. If you are local and ever have a chance to attend one of their participation cooking seminars, please do! Thanks again to our friend Jenn for giving us a Crocus Hill gift certificate as a wedding present. Otherwise we would have never known anything about them. We followed that up with Grilled Spice-Rubbed Skirt Steak topped with Tomatillo and Serrano Chile Sauce, Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes, and Jalapeno Corn in Cream Sauce. As a finishing dessert course, we had Roasted Apple Bread Pudding topped with a Bourbon Caramel Sauce.

The whole meal was fantastic! We liked it so much we used all of the tomatillos we picked from our garden to make our own chile sauce to can, and we have also made the corn dish as well with a few tweaks to bump it up a notch for our spice level. I will include the corn recipe here, and I will be linking the other recipes to this post within the next day or so. Please check back if you are interested in those.

 

Jalapeno Corn in Cream Sauce

4 ears fresh sweet corn

2 tablespoons salted butter

1 teaspoon sugar

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely minced

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon ground cheyenne pepper

1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika

Apply course ground salt and black pepper to taste

1 to 2 tablespoons unsalted butter (optional)

Cut corn kernels off the ears and place kernels in mixing bowl (should yield about 2 cups of corn). Set aside.

In a large saucepan, melt two tablespoons salted butter over medium heat. Add the sugar and minced jalapeno and saute to soften. 

Add the reserved corn and cover with the heavy cream. Add in cheyenne pepper and paprika and stir thoroughly. Cook until corn is tender, but not soft (think al dente pasta). Cream will reduce slightly and the mixture will thicken. Finish with salt and black pepper. Depending on how much butter taste you enjoy with your corn, you may want to add 1 to 2 more tablespoons of unsalted butter at this point.