Friday Friend Recipe #111 -- Potato Casserole

My Friday Friend Cookbook Countdown #111!

(#willreallyfinishthissomeday)

Barb's Potato Casserole

and you know all the whys and wherefores of this countdown, right? Homemade cookbook, friends contributed, Handyman said I couldn't/wouldn't do it, I'll show him, yadda yadda yadda....

...and the rest is cookbook history!

In my Friday Friend Cookbook Countdown history, I am betting that the region of the Midwest and era of 1980's cooking trumps all other regions and eras.  It 's just a little guess I have, when I reflect on all the times I've written "creamy goodness" and "cheesy yum" in my recipe description.

There are lots of casseroles in the FF Cookbook.  Made with cream soups and lots of mayonnaise.

You take this:

Plus this:

Plus this:

=

Creamy Goodness!  and Cheesy Yum!

Casseroles are the easiest dump and go kind of dish you can make.

But this is all beside the point, as I know you are wondering why there are a few pecans scattered on top of this wonderful, cheesy, creamy goodness of a potato casserole?

Well, because, when you bake a Christmas Brunch and everything has to go into the oven at the same time (Ham, potato casserole, egg bake AND pull-apart cinnamon monkey bread) do not put the cinnamon, pull apart monkey bread on the top rack and everything else on the bottom, because the cinnamon, Pull-apart Monkey bread just might run over and drop a bit into the dishes below.

It's alright tho, nothing is ruined---you just pick them out and toss them into your mouth. Wah-LA!

Potato Casserole

Barbara Brown

Buckeye, AZ

2 lbs. frozen hash browns

1 pt. sour cream

1 stick butter, melted

1 can cream of chicken soup

1/2 cup chopped onion

2 cups grated cheddar

1/2 cup milk

2 cups cornflake crumbs

salt and pepper to taste

Mix all (except for cereal).  Place in a 9x13 casserole dish. Top with cornflakes mixed with 1/3 cup melted butter.

Bake at 350 for 40 minutes.

Barb originally  typed out all 398 recipes that my friends, from near and far, contributed to this project. 

Because she was in charge, she contributed quite a few recipes (she called it editor's privilege) --this is her 28th appearance here --more than any other friend ( my mom runs a close 2nd), and it's getting harder to think of stories about her, so I said to the Handyman, "tell me a story you remember about Barb."

He remembered something about her that made me remember something about her and so on. Sometimes it's good to have someone to bounce things off of.

In Barb's last FF Cookbook appearance (2 recipes ago) I said that we celebrated minor holidays with them when we both lived in California.  The Red-White-Blue holidays!  I had forgotten that we also have spent a couple of Thanksgivings with them too.   One of them was  5 years ago.  We met our oldest son Luke and his family, the Handyman's 2 sisters and one brother-in-law and Barb and  Doug in Las Vegas.  We had a great time.  We did some sight seeing, had some good meals, went to show or two, and did a small bit of gambling.

On Thanksgiving Day,  we ended up eating our meal at Hooters.

Yes.
Hooters for Thanksgiving. 
They had the best buffet deal and the food is really good.

So.

Hooters.

Earlier, when I asked the Handyman to tell me a story about Barb,  he said, "I have one.  It's embarrassing.  One time when we were going to a meeting, I was driving and had to stop suddenly. Barb was my passenger and I shot out my arm to stop her from going forward (as our mom's used to do--it's reactionary)  and... I grabbed her boob."

"on accident"  he assured me.
Uh huh.

I'm not sure how I can connect our eating at Hooters on Thanksgiving with my husband grabbing one of my best friend's boob. BUT I'm sure there is a connection there somewhere.

There has to be.
Right?
That's my Barb Story and I'm sticking to it!

I cannot find one good photo of Barb from our Thanksgiving in Las Vegas!
There she is at the end of the table with the Handyman and me.

And here she sits in our motel room --it must have been cocktail hour.
The Handyman's sister Cherrie LouWho in the window seat, and her husband, the greatest guy ever Mikey.

 I just put this photo in cuz, she's the cutest thing!  Our granddaughter, Cassandra.  (5 years ago)

Let's imagine, for a moment that there was something connectional about eating at Hooters, and the Handyman grabbing Barb's boob (for protection  services only). If those two things fit together to make this blog post have a theme of some-kind..... does this photo of my son Luke (sigh) and Cotton Candy fit in?

We were just walking down the Vegas strip, minding our own business when Cotton Candy jumped at us flaunting her/him self!

And well, you can see what happened.

I'm not proud. 

Happy Potato Casserole eating!