Comfort food

Fall's here...

Don't you love how it smells?

I start breaking out the cassarole recipes in the fall: confort food goes real good with crisp fall air, presidential debates, and fleece hoodies. Here are a couple great cassaroles for the fall...enjoy!

King Ranch Cassarole

(Named for the famed King Ranch in south Texas)

1 package boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cooked, and cut into one-inch pieces
1 vidalia onion, diced
12 corn tortillas, sliced into one-inch strips (cut the long strips in half)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2-1 cup chicken broth
1 can Ro'Tel tomatoes (as spicy as you can stand!)
2 cups Mexican blen shredded cheese (more or less to taste)

Pre-heat oven to 325. Mix the soups, tomatoes and broth together, set aside. In a cassarole dish, layer the tortillas, chicken, onions, cheese, and liquid mixture in that order at least twice, or until all used up. Finish with liquid mixture, and bake for one hour. So yummy!

Cheesy Potatoes

(For some reason, everyone in Michigan loves this stuff...)

1 pkg. (30 oz.) Ore-Ida frozen hashbrowns
1 can cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup mayonaisse
1/2 cup sour cream
1 pound diced Velveeta

Mix all this stuff in a 9x13 pan, bake at 350 for 45 minutes, add 1 cup bread crumbs or Durkees Onions and bake an additional 15-20 minutes.

Broccoli Ham AuGratin

(I made this up...it's "homemade"-made in my kitchen...lol)

2 boxes Betty Crocker AuGratin potatoes
1 pre-cooked ham slice (those big ones at the grocery), diced
1 pkg. frozen broccoli florets

Mix all ingredients, and bake according to directions for potatos (be sure to follow instructions for preparing two boxes of the potatoes). These boxed potato things lend themselves to all sorts of yummy additions. Make up your own!