It’s in the Sauce

Posted by: Mother Hen on Wednesday, October 8th, 2008

Last week I started a five week Create -a-Casserole series to show how I feed my family of 8 without goin' broke.

Here are the casserole categories again.

  1. Framework
  2. Sauce
  3. Meat
  4. Add-Ons
  5. Toppings

Last week I focused on Framework.  Did y'all enjoy the Braunes Abendessen?  This week I'm all about sauce.

Sauce

Some casserole sauce is just a jar of spaghetti sauce, or a can of Cream of Whatever Soup.  These are easy and fairly obvious.  But did you ever stop and think about what goes into making those sauces?  It's not hard, it's just a question of whether or not you want to buy a can of convenience or take a few minutes and make it from scratch.  I'm not against buying the canned sauce, but there are times when it isn't what you wanna do, and you can be equipped to make it yourself.

All that said, one of my favorite sauces to pour over meatballs on rice is just a bottle of cheap bbq sauce enhanced with a half a jar of grape jelly.  Stop making that face, you should try this.  It's surprisingly yummy and doesn't taste like bbq sauce OR grape jelly.  Go figure.

Today's recipe is a delicious potato dish perfect for Autumn.

Smokey Potatoes O'Brian

8-10 potatoes

8 smoked sausages, Bar S Smoked sausage is the least expensive brand at my grocery

Cream of Whatever Soup (large can), or white sauce (recipe to follow)

½ cup milk (if you used the canned product)

1 cup  cheddar cheese

Salt, pepper, Mrs. Dash

This recipe is embarrassingly easy.  You don't need to layer it or anything.  Just throw it all in a dutch oven and give it a stir.  Put the lid on and pop it in the oven at 400° for an hour.  Check the potatoes when you take it out.  If it needs more time put it back in the oven for a bit.

Serve it next to a green salad.  So easy.

White Sauce

6 Tablespoons Butter

6 Tablespoons Flour

2 teaspoons Salt

3 cups Milk

Melt the butter in a sauce pan over low-med. heat.  Add flour and salt, stirring well - add the milk all at once and increase the heat to med.-high.  Keep stirring until the sauce thickens and starts to bubble.  Remove from heat.  At this point you may add any flavorings you like.  Sauteed mushrooms pops to mind.  Or maybe sauteed onions.  Garlic salt?  Taco seasoning?

Mine went together a little differently.  I used more potatoes because I wanted to use up the end of the bag.  Consequently I needed more liquid than my sauce provided, no worries, I just added more milk before I stirred the whole pot up (before baking).

I also added some chopped pimento 'cuz I love 'em.

And just to show you that it is not rocket science to make a white sauce, I let my 14 year old Pirate, Calico Zak, make the white sauce all by himself.  And here's photographic evidence!

I would give you a picture of it after it cooked but it just doesn't look that much different in a picture.  It smells wonderful though.  I hope my hubby gets home soon, 'cuz it's ready right now!

That Pirate looks like he needs a haircut, huh?  Think I'll go do that while we wait for the Mr. to get home.

Y'all come over to Ship Full O' Pirates and get to know us better.  I always have a giveaway going on, click here to enter this week's giveaway!

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Topics: Recipes, misc.

3 Responses to “It’s in the Sauce”

KimC Says:
October 8th, 2008 at 1:16 pm

We don’t do potatoes much, but this is worth buying a bag – sounds like our new favorite!

On the topic of sauces, what else do you suggest? We’re all about the cream-of-something soup, and occasionally do the spaghetti sauce. That’s where I run out of ideas.

Mother Hen Says:
October 8th, 2008 at 2:19 pm

Well, I like to keep it simple, as in easy and quick. If it comes in a jar or can at the grocery you can usually use your imagination and come up with a tasty way to make it into a sauce for a casserole, like my bbq sauce and grape jam example. Try apricot jam and Catalina dressing with some chicken and rice. Any pureed fruit (or baby food fruit) goes well with hot flavors like a salsa or enchilada sauce. But the basic white sauce is a good foundation for a zillion flavors.

 

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