Another absolute favorite. This does not make those little round things concocted out of sausage and bread and such and served as finger foods at parties. No sir. This makes little pieces of toast, topped with sausage and melted cheese. Pure heaven any time of day. Delicious later in the day after they've become room temperature. Just as good tomorrow after reheating.
I grew up eating this for breakfast at my Granny's. She always served it, and we always ate it, with a big bowl of Argo brand canned peaches. We dunk our sausage balls in the peach juice before we eat them. My brother-in-law loves these, but he thinks I'm crazy for eating them with peaches. I think he's crazy for not trying it with peaches. Sadly, it is very difficult to find Argo peaches today. I know of one or two grocery stores in my town that carry them, when you can find them. Other brands of canned peach slices just don't taste right with this. They're OK, just not right.
Sausage Bread (AKA Sausage Balls)
Ingredients
1 lb breakfast sausage
1/2 to 1 loaf Velveeta cheese
1/2 loaf sliced white bread
Directions
1. Crumble sausage into skillet and brown over medium heat until no longer pink. Drain excess grease from the pan. (Grease interferes with the melting of the Velveeta.)
2. While sausage is cooking, cut cheese into small pieces, to aid in melting.
3. Add cheese to browned sausage in skillet and heat until cheese is melted, stirring to mix.
4. Preheat oven to 350°F.
5. Cut bread slices into quarters. Pile sausage and cheese onto each piece.
6. Place bread on rimmed baking sheets. Bake 3 to 7 minutes, until bread is toasted.
7. Serve with a can of peaches in light syrup on the side. Of course, the syrup is for dipping, and the peaches are for eating with the sausage balls.
The only hints I can think of for this recipe are to make sure you don't burn the sausage or cheese, and don't toast the bread too much. I've never, ever made these and frozen them. They do, however, make excellent leftovers.
Apr 30, 2009
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.
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.
Tater Tot Casserole
This is a family favorite! Basically, all it is, is chili-cheese tater tots! Who doesn't love that?!?! Whenever I'm asked by my guys "What's for dinner?" and I answer "Tater Tot Casserole", there's nearly a stampede right then and there. This also freezes well. Details on that under the helpful tips section of this post.
Tater Tot Casserole
Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
1 (2 pound) bag tater tots
2 (10 oz.) cans hot dog chili sauce
2 cups shredded cheese (any)
Directions:
1. Pour tater tots into a 9x13 rectangular Pyrex dish or other such baking dish. Cook per package directions until tater tots are crispy and cooked completely.
2. While tots are baking, cook meat. Set aside. (I like to boil my meat in a big pot of water and then drain the water out. Less fat, cooks quicker, doesn't burn and get all crunchy like browning meat on the stovetop in a frying pan can. See the tutorial on the tutorial on Southern Plate that Christy Jordan wrote for more information on this.)
3. Mix chili sauce into the cooked, drained meat. Heat through.
4. Pour chili sauce over crispy tater tots. Top with shredded cheese. Bake at whatever temperature your oven is already set on for about 5 minutes, until the cheese is melted.
Some helpful tips for cooking this dish:
1. If freezing, assemble without cooking the tater tots or heating the chili sauce. Let the ground beef cool before assembling, but go ahead and mix the meat in the chili sauce before pouring over the tots. If you do heat the chili sauce, let it cool before you pour it over the tots. Trust me, if you cook the tots before assembly, or pour hot chili over the tots before freezing, you will have yucky, soggy tots. Not cool! After assembly, wrap well and label. Don't forget to label with cooking directions, too! This way, if you need your husband or teenager to start dinner, you can thaw this in the fridge the night before, then call when you need it popped in the oven and just tell them to follow the instructions on the label you made!
2. If you freeze this, it can be cooked two ways. The first is to thaw in the fridge overnight, then bake at 350°F about 20 minutes, or until heated through and the cheese is melted. The other is to unwrap and throw it in the oven frozen. Then you would bake it at 350°F until heated through. I would guess 30-45 minutes, but I've never done it this way, so I'm not sure.
3. If you're worried about your cheese burning due to the increased cooking time after freezing and thawing, but don't want to cover it with foil while baking (so the cheese won't stick to foil, of course), then try this. Assemble the casserole, everything but the shredded cheese. When you bake this, bake for all but about 5 or 10 minutes of the time called for. Take it out, add the cheese, then bake another 5-10 minutes, or until the cheese is melted.
4. Short on time? No need to cook the tots if you need to throw this together really fast. It will just make for soggier tots if you don't cook them until they're crispy first. Plus, it takes about as long to cook the ground beef as it does the tots, unless you have ground beef already cooked in your freezer, like I do.
Have any more suggestions? Share them in the comments.
Tater Tot Casserole
Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
1 (2 pound) bag tater tots
2 (10 oz.) cans hot dog chili sauce
2 cups shredded cheese (any)
Directions:
1. Pour tater tots into a 9x13 rectangular Pyrex dish or other such baking dish. Cook per package directions until tater tots are crispy and cooked completely.
2. While tots are baking, cook meat. Set aside. (I like to boil my meat in a big pot of water and then drain the water out. Less fat, cooks quicker, doesn't burn and get all crunchy like browning meat on the stovetop in a frying pan can. See the tutorial on the tutorial on Southern Plate that Christy Jordan wrote for more information on this.)
3. Mix chili sauce into the cooked, drained meat. Heat through.
4. Pour chili sauce over crispy tater tots. Top with shredded cheese. Bake at whatever temperature your oven is already set on for about 5 minutes, until the cheese is melted.
Some helpful tips for cooking this dish:
1. If freezing, assemble without cooking the tater tots or heating the chili sauce. Let the ground beef cool before assembling, but go ahead and mix the meat in the chili sauce before pouring over the tots. If you do heat the chili sauce, let it cool before you pour it over the tots. Trust me, if you cook the tots before assembly, or pour hot chili over the tots before freezing, you will have yucky, soggy tots. Not cool! After assembly, wrap well and label. Don't forget to label with cooking directions, too! This way, if you need your husband or teenager to start dinner, you can thaw this in the fridge the night before, then call when you need it popped in the oven and just tell them to follow the instructions on the label you made!
2. If you freeze this, it can be cooked two ways. The first is to thaw in the fridge overnight, then bake at 350°F about 20 minutes, or until heated through and the cheese is melted. The other is to unwrap and throw it in the oven frozen. Then you would bake it at 350°F until heated through. I would guess 30-45 minutes, but I've never done it this way, so I'm not sure.
3. If you're worried about your cheese burning due to the increased cooking time after freezing and thawing, but don't want to cover it with foil while baking (so the cheese won't stick to foil, of course), then try this. Assemble the casserole, everything but the shredded cheese. When you bake this, bake for all but about 5 or 10 minutes of the time called for. Take it out, add the cheese, then bake another 5-10 minutes, or until the cheese is melted.
4. Short on time? No need to cook the tots if you need to throw this together really fast. It will just make for soggier tots if you don't cook them until they're crispy first. Plus, it takes about as long to cook the ground beef as it does the tots, unless you have ground beef already cooked in your freezer, like I do.
Have any more suggestions? Share them in the comments.
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