Egg N Bacon Casserole

Mmmmm...breakfast. Good at any time of the day (because not everyone wakes up early in the mornin).

I am rather curious about this recipe and its call for bread at the bottom of the pan. Wouldn't that just turn into a soggy mess by the time you got around to bakin it the next day? Or maybe it turns into a delicious crust on emergin from the oven? Hmm. "Enquirin minds want to know!" (Yeah, I know that's spelled wrong, but I just had the tag line from the 80's commercials for the National Enquirer run through my head. Sidenote: Isn't it weird how they advertise tabloids on national television? Like we wouldn't see them in the checkout line at the grocery store anyway, and get sucked in by their tantalizin headlines? I mean, doesn't everyone - except celebrities and shut-ins - buy their own groceries? Okay, back to the recipe.)

Ingredients:
4 slightly beaten eggs
1/2 lb. bacon, fried and crumbled
1 c. milk
3 slices bread, cut in 4 pieces (in bottom of pan) (I assume that white sandwich bread is what is bein called for here, but if you wanted to stray from tradition, you could always sub some roasted garlic artisan bread, french loaf, or slices of baguette. Just sayin...)
1/3 c. Velveeta cheese, diced
Salt & pepper
Olives, opt. (what? olives? that's like the casserolic embodiment of the Sesame Street song "Which One Doesn't Belong?"!)

Oven temp: 350 degrees

Pan size: 9x9 bakin dish

How to:
Refrigerate overnight or several hours. Bake in 9x9 pan for 40-50 minutes. Serves 6. (Again with the vague directions! Do I combine the milk, eggs, and bacon? Does the cheese go on top? Am I supposed to just dump everythin in the pan all willy-nilly and only make sure that the bread slices make it to the bottom? Sigh. Perhaps I ask too many questions.)

Banana Bread

If there is one thing that Midwest cooks know how to do well across the board, it's bakin. Bars, cookies, cakes, pies, breads - all baked goods are central to the idea of Midwest Cookin.

So today, when I had a couple of bananas goin ripe on me, I decided to whip up some classic Banana Bread. I turned to Helen Walensky's recipe in the First Lutheran Church 1974 cookbook to guide me and the results were perfect. Yummy!



Ingredients:
1/2 c. butter or margarine (I used butter)
1 c. ripe bananas (2 mashed)
1 c. sugar
1 tbsp. brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. bakin soda
1 1/2 tsp. bakin powder
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1/4 c. milk
2 c. flour, sifted
1 c. walnuts, chopped (I skipped the nuts)

Oven temp: 350 degrees

Pan size: Loaf pan

How to:
Cream shortenin (uh...you mean butter or margarine, right?) and sugars. Beat in eggs, add mashed bananas. Combine dry ingredients, add alternately with milk and lemon juice. Add chopped nuts. Bake in greased and floured loaf pan. Bake 1 hour at 350 degrees or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Mr. Tairy Greene's Casserole

Oh, Mrs. Tairy Greene, you devil, you. Where oh where do you come up with these fantastic culinary confections?

This particular dish, I'm told, is a BIG favorite of Mrs. Tairy Greene's Mister. The real name is "Poor Man's Casserole" but I simply can't imagine why. I could totally see this bein served in the finest restaurants in Elk Run Heights.

Ingredients:
1 7.25 ounce box Kraft Macaroni and Cheese
1 c. milk
1/4 c. butter or margarine
***********************************
1 15 ounce can Van de Kamp Pork and Beans (make sure they're Van de Kamp - generic Pork and Beans simply will not do!)
1 3/4 c. cottage cheese
6 wieners, sliced into "coins"

How to:
Cook Kraft Macaroni and Cheese accordin to package directions. Pour contents into a medium-sized servin bowl. Open the pork 'n' beans and layer the room-temperature beans onto the mac 'n' cheese. Next, microwave the wieners for approximately 45 seconds. While the wieners are warmin, layer the cottage cheese onto the layer of beans. (oh, delightful) Finally, sprinkle the wiener coins onto the cottage cheese layer and serve to your hungry family. (Oh my god - you don't bake it? It's just all these lukewarm ingredients? Wowwww. That is some harsh shit. I pity the kids that eat this casserole.)

Note from Mrs. Greene: "Mr. Tairy Greene says the combination of flavors, temperatures and textures are what make this casserole out of this world! And moms, it's so easy! If only your family knew! ;)"