The Left Over Throw Together Tastes Good Side Dish!

So, I work.  I may not have kids but I work a full time job, take care of 2 ginormous German shepherds, maintain the house and work on having a good relationship with Ayman.  Seriously, I don't have a ton of time after I get home at 6:30 to prepare the quintessential meal.  In most cases it's a mad dash to the fridge to see what I can throw together that will satisfy the hungry Egyptian and wont take hours.  This is one of those concoctions.
This is a ridiculously easy, throw together side dish that you can basically add anything to. It is a collector of left overs.  Do you have some left over ham in the fridge, some tomatoes that are about to go south or in my case, a few strips of bacon that need to be eaten? Throw 'em in!  As always I like to top our with something a little zesty, in this case it is jalapeno sauce.  I hope you enjoy it!




French Fry Casserole
By: Vanessa Madigan

 

Ingredients:

1/2 lb. bacon, chopped

3 lg eggs

3 cups milk

4 cups sharp cheddar cheese

2 serrano chilies, chopped

1 small yellow onion, chopped

2 lb bag of french fries thawed and broken up a bit.

Salt and Pepper 

2 tsp butter

 

 

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Grease a large baking dish with the butter
• Fry your bacon until it is crispy, set aside on a paper towel to drain.
• In a large mixing bowl whisk your milk and eggs together, add the french fries, serrano chilies, onion and cheese.  Season with salt and pepper and mix together well.
• Empty contents of bowl into your prepared baking dish and bake for about one hour.   The top should be golden brown and the cheese and egg mixture should rise a bit and set up.
• Remove from oven when done and serve.  We top ours with jalapeno sauce (a recipe from the previous blog on Sonoran Hot Dogs), but,  top with any salsa or ketchup that stikes your fancy!

The French Fry Casserole hot out of the oven!

 

 

 

 

The finished product, with jalepeno sauce, of course! 

Asparagus For Allofus!

 

So, I'm going to continue with the appetizer/side dish theme from the last post. We can always use more side dish options or at least I can.  I think that we can all agree, bacon is a crowd pleaser and not only that just about everything is made better with the addition of bacon. Seriously, a person very dear to my heart once told me that he was always able to keep kosher until the day he had a bacon cheeseburger, from that day on he was a non-kosher Jew. He was a bacon lover from that moment on.  I love that story. This is a super simple recipe that you can whip up easily before company comes over or just to satisfy a hungry family.  The addition of the slightly spicy, tangy vinaigrette cuts the salty (and delicious!) fattiness of the bacon. Seriously, its amazing! I am totally in love with my newest creation xoxo.

 



Bacon Asparagus Bundles with Serrano Chili Vinaigrette

Written, developed and tested by: Vanessa Madigan

 

 

 
Ingredients:
1 16oz. package thin sliced bacon
1 bundle of asparagus, relatively thin
olive oil for drizzling
2 Tbs Paprika
2 Tbs Black Pepper

For the vinaigrette:
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 Tbs Dijon mustard
1Tbs sugar
2 Serrano chilies, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

• Preheat your oven to 400 degrees
• Trim the asparagus, it will end up about 4 or 5 inches.  This is important to get rid of the woody base, yuck.
• Drizzle the asparagus with your olive oil.
• Take about 4 pieces of your trimmed asparagus and starting at the bottom wrap your bundle tightly all the way up until just the leafy tops are peeking out. Place each one on a cooking sheet with the lose end down so that it wont curl up when cooking.
• Dust your bacon wrapped asparagus with the paprika and black pepper.
• Place your baking sheet in the oven and let the bacon and asparagus cook for about 12 to 15 minutes.  The bacon will brown, cook and shrink up.

• While your bacon and asparagus are cooking you can make your vinaigrette 
• In the bowl of a food processor or in a blender, add all of your ingredients; the chilies, olive oil, vinegar, sugar, mustard, salt and pepper. Blend until the mixture becomes emulsified and does not separate.
• When your bundles are cooked remove from oven and they are ready to serve! Drizzle them with the Serrano vinaigrette and enjoy!