A Key Ingredient Lesson

Potato Casserole Supreme (Betty Crocker Cookbook)

My mother never made hash brown casserole. That’s not a fault. I learned late in life about it’s tasty cheesy, creamy, totally-easy-to-make-ness. That’s ok.

I still managed to mess it up. You’ll never guess how.

1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup 1 can condensed cream of chicken soup 1 container sour cream 1/2 cup milk 1/4 tsp pepper 1 package frozen shredded hash brown potatoes 8 medium green onions, sliced 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese

1. Heat oven to 350F. Grease rectangular baking dish, 13x9x2 inches.

2. Mix soups, sour cream, milk and pepper in a very large bowl. Stir in potatoes and onions. Spoon into baking dish.

You can’ tell from this picture, but I had to substitute extra sour cream for the cream of chicken soup. Why? Because when I went to the grocery store after a long day of work, I grabbed a can of chicken broth instead of cream of chicken soup. Thank goodness I noticed before I poured.

3. Bake uncovered 30 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake uncovered 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown on top and bubbly around the edges.

In the end, this tasted kind of like cheating. I wasn’t really cooking so much as assembling and warming a series of ingredients already prepared for me. Call me a purist, but I don’t feel like this is cooking unless I cube the potato myself. So the overwhelming flavour here is the flavour of shirked responsibility. Bland shirked responsibility, since I couldn’t even be responsible for one of the most flavourful ingredients.