Hobo Dinner

A family favorite from my childhood. Much cherished by my family. Another of those meals that my guys just PURPLE PUFFY HEART LOVE. Well, maybe not purple puffy heart, since they are guys. But ya know where I'm going with this.

Have Celiac or follow a gluten-free diet for some other reason? Go to Gluten-Free Southern Cooking to see how my mom converted this recipe to GF. She has Celiac, and this was one of the first recipes she converted to GF so she could still eat it. That's how loved this recipe is.

I have no idea how well this freezes, since I've never tried. Also, as always, with my crew, I have to make a double recipe just for dinner. A double recipe of this usually leaves us with one or two servings for someone for lunch the next day, if we're lucky. However, feeding my guys (sometimes up to 4 of them, plus me) usually equals cooking for 12 people or more. And then some nights we're lucky if there's leftovers for someone to eat for lunch the next day.

I do know that this recipe makes excellent next-day leftovers. We never throw these leftovers out. They don't stay around long enough. Also, I've tried this using Lil' Smokies sausages instead of the smoked sausages. My guys hated it. I got told to never, ever cook this using Lil Smokies again. (Did I mention they normally love Lil Smokies?) Also, this does not do well in the crock pot. I've tried, more than once. It left lots and lots to be desired. I always cook this fresh.

Hobo Dinner
Should serve, like, 6-8 normal people

Ingredients
1 pound smoked dinner sausage (then kind that's like kielbasa)
4-5 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 2-3" chunks
1 pound carrots, peeled and cut into 2-3" pieces (or 1 small bag baby carrots)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of celery soup
1/2 a soup can of water
1 small onion, sliced and rings separated

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 350°F.

2. Place potatoes and carrots in a 9x13 baking dish.

3. Slice sausage into 1/2" thick pieces and spread evenly over vegetables.

4. Spread onion evenly over sausage pieces.

5. Mix soups and half a soup can of water in a bowl. Pour evenly over onions.

6. Cover tightly with foil.

7. Place in oven and bake for approximately one hour, or until the potatoes and carrots are tender.

My helpful hint for this recipe is to place a cookie sheet under the baking dish. This usually ends up getting in the bottom of my oven and burning there. Save yourself the trouble. Use a baking sheet or cookie sheet. Even if you have one of those oven liner thingys in the bottom of your oven like I do. It'll come right off the liner thingy, but it stinks when it drips down there and burns.