This is one of those Thanksgiving side dishes that isso good that every time I have it, I want it to be a Main Dish. No reason for this scrumptious side to ride shotgun tothe big bird. This easy casserole is a meal in itself. I took my mom's recipe for her Creamed Corn Casseroleto main dish status by adding a little Andouille sausage and Creole seasoning and baked them in individual ramekins. I like the idea of getting my own cheesy, baked corn casserole. Because lets be honest, the best part of a casseroleis the browned, crusty, cheesy top. Right? Serve these along side some fresh fruit to make a delicious and easy breakfast. Or serve with a big mixed green salad to make a delicious lunch or lite dinner. Hosting brunch over the holidays? No problem. Make a bunch of these in cupcakes liners for a delicious bite-sized corn cake. So versatile, so easy and so GOOD!
Creamed Corn Casserole
Serves 8
1-14oz. can of cream style corn 1/2 cup corn meal 1/4 cup butter, melted 2 eggs, beaten 1 cup sour cream 1-5oz. can diced green chilies 1 cup sharp cheddar, cubed 1 t. creole seasoning (or 1/2 t. salt and 1/4 t. pepper) (Optional) 1/2 cup Andouille Sausage, small dice
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Combine all ingredients. (choose one below)
Creamed Corn Casserole: (Serves8) spray medium casserole dish with cooking spray and bake at 350 for one hour.
Individual Creamed Corn Casseroles with Sausage: (Makes 6) Spray ramekins with cooking spray and bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes.
Cupcake-size Creamed Corn Cakes: (Makes 24) Line cupcake pan with cupcake liners and spray bottom of liners with cooking spray. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.
This year I decided to focus my decorating in the heart of my home, the dining room.Each holiday season, I see beautifully set tables in magazines and all over Pinterest with expensive dishes and glassware and I dream of being able to set tables that gorgeous. But sadly, buying new dishes and glasses for each season is too much of an investment for this stay-at-home mom.Solution...Find a way to do it on a budget. And that I did. I spent all summer, scouring thrift shops and dollar stores to try and find the best pieces for my Halloween and Thanksgiving tables. I found inexpensive dishes and glassware that set the basics for my table and then added some of my old Fall decorations to really make these tables pop. Hope you enjoy them and find some inspiration.
Halloween Decorating
HALLOWEEN TABLE
This tablescape was almost entirely from the 99cents Only Store (Myfriend, Gina calls it "The 99"), Dollar Tree and AMVETS Thrift Stores for only about $65. This is proof that you can design an elegant and festive table for very little money!
Here's the breakdown of my Halloween Table. The six silver chargers, six dinner plates, and six green wine glasses cost me $18 from The 99. The small cream colored salad plates I got on clearance at Target for $1.30 each. The table cover is a canvas drop cloth from Home Depot, left over from another project(Free). The green satin remnant runner covering the drop clothis from the Thrift Store and cost me about $1.50. The most expensive item was the silverware (I just had to have them!) from Cost Plus World Market. I bought them with a coupon. They cost me about $25 for 4 sets. If you look carefully, I had to take strategic pictures and crop my pics because there were only 4 sets of silverware at a table set for six. I moved a fork here and a knife there when I had to squeeze in the look of another silverware setting.
The center of the table was made up of pumpkins and candles I had from years of collecting. The larger ceramic pumpkins were from Tuesday Morning and Big Lots. The spiderweb runner was also from The 99. The center Urn was also a find from the thrift store last year. It's heavy and silver plated and I love the cemetery feel to it. I added creepy cloth and some glittery stems and a 3 sets of black glitter leaf garland for $8 (50% off sale and with a total purchase coupon) from Michael's as an easy, eerie and elegant centerpiece.The 4 green glass votive candle holders were from the Dollar Tree for $4. Gorgeous! Total Cost of Halloween Table: Less than $65.
Halloween Wreath I try to make a new wreath each year and this year I found inspiration from a pin from Pinterest. This is my version of this creepy and elegant Halloween wreath made with feather boas, creepy cloth and light up skulls from The 99 and The Dollar Tree.
Fall Decorating
I wanted muted colors of brown, green and white for my Thanksgiving table this year.The flower arrangement below was made up of grab bag flowers from Michael's that cost $2. Basically, I bought a bag of silk flowers,sight unseen, for two bucks and it was a jackpot of perfect fall flowers! Itcontained a green sunflower, a dahlia, and a hydrangea. Along with5 huge sunflowers which I used in the door hanging photos at the end of this blog. I filled in around these with the Eucalytus stems from Tuesday Morning, The light green lantern flowers from The 99, and the brown berry clusters from The Dollar Tree. I think it turned out really pretty! Don't you?
THANKSGIVING TABLE
This table starts with my old cream tablecloth and an amazing Pottery Barn Jutetable runner that I picked up from the Thrift Store along with these 4 embroidered leaf napkins for $5 total. All 5 items for $5. A total steal! Again, I had to be creative with my shots and edits to use the 4 napkins at a table set for 6. Mostly I just shot it two different ways (see below) Most of the place setting pieces were from "The 99". The dark brown chargers, tan dinner plates, small acorn and pumpkin appetizer plates, the bubble glass stemless wine glasses and the green votive candle holders were all from The 99 for $26. The wine glasses being 2 for a $1. The taller wine glasses and the silverware are my everyday stuff. I got the small leaf table scatter from The Dollar Tree. Total Cost of Thanksgiving Table: less than $40.
In this picture below, the two leaf serving dishes to the left were also from The 99. I bought each of them a few years ago. I used to use the large leaf plate at a soap dish in my bathroom for fall. :)
Instead of making a wreathfor my front door, this year, I decided to hang a bucket of fall flowers and foliage. The sunflowers were from my Michael's grab bag and the rest of theflowers were re-purposed from prior years. I used bright oranges, yellows and browns on the outside to go with my porch full of pumpkins. :)
October went by way too fast this year. It went by so fast that I never finished decorating my house for Halloween. :( We held a big Halloween Carnival at my boy's school so my time, attention and decorations were focused on that event. I was responsible for the Zombie Maze. We transformed the school cafeteria into a Haunted Maze, got volunteers to dress in character and scare kids. It was great and the kids and adults loved it! My photos didn't turn out so great but I'll blog about the maze in the near future after I try to belatedly finish a Halloween decorating blog this weekend. :)
Anyway, fall is finally here (as in cooler weather) and I'm neck deep in yummy comforting fall recipes. Crockpot White Bean, Sausage and Kale Soup is one of those easy, delicious recipes that cooks itself. Throw it all in and forget about it. Perfect for those long workdays or cool weekends watching football. Enjoy!
White Bean, Sausage and Kale Soup
Serves 4-6 2 cups dried white beans, soaked overnight 1 Kielbasa sausage, sliced and pan-fried 1 small red pepper, diced (~1/2 c) 1 medium carrot, diced(~1/2 c) 1 small yellow onion, diced (1/2 c) 4 cloves of garlic, minced 2 cups kale, roughly chopped 2 bay leaf 1 t. smoked paprika 1/2 t. thyme, dried 1/2 t. Italian seasoning, dried 1 t.kosher salt pepper (to taste) 6 cups chicken broth
Soak 2 cups of dried white beans overnight. Drain water and place beans into slow cooker. Pan fry kielbasa sausage until browned and drain about half of the rendered fat. Add sausage to slow cooker.
Add remaining ingredients. Stir and set slow cooker to low and cook for 6-7 hours. Enjoy!
I woke up coldandreached for a blanketthat wasn't there.The summer heatcontinued well into fall so I had't pulled the blankets out of the closet. Unable to warm up, I got out of bed, looked at the clock, and I was instantly happy. Not just about finally getting cooler weather but because I realized I'd slept through the night for the first time in months! It was after 6 A.M. Hooray! My usual night time routinewas to wake up at 3-4 A.M. no matter the time I went to bed...and I STAY awake. I'm completely unable to fall back to sleep. It sucks!
But today, I felt renewed and rested. Also, I was excited because I was home from school today. No PTA. No volunteering. No meetings. No problems. No people.Just time for me! Time in my kitchen. Time in my home. Time to tend to the things that I enjoy...Time to cook!And cooking is what I did. I made these ridiculouslydelicious Creole Beef Grillades. I experimented with this ideaa few weeks ago with a cheap cut of beef and it turned out amazing.
I see a lot of affordable cuts of beef at the grocery store but I'm always unsure as how to cook them and have them taste good. Of course braising is the only way that came to mind for cheap cuts but I wanted something with a flavorful punch that's not spicy hot. I tend to make food spicy for flavor, but I didn't want this meal to be spicy...I wanted my kids to eat it. Creole flavors came to mind. So with a full shaker ofCreole seasoning in my cupboard and some beef chuck steaks, this is what I came up with. The ultimate cold weather comfort food. Happy Fall!
Creole Beef Grillades
Serves 6 6-8 beef chuck steaks 1 c. flour with a generous amount of Creole seasoning (for dredging) 3 T olive oil, divided 1/2 c. medium onion, diced 1/2 c. red bell pepper, diced 1/2 c. celery, diced 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 c.red wine 3 T tomato paste 2 c. beef broth 2-3 bay leaves 2 T Creole Seasoning pepper (to taste)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Dredgesteaks in flour/Creole seasoning mixture and set aside.
In a large skillet, add 1 tablespoon of olive oil,onion, celery, red bell pepper and garlic and saute until onions are translucent, about 5 minutes. Remove vegetables from pan and set aside. Add remaining 2 T olive oil to the skillet and over high heat, brown the steaks about 5 minutes on each side. Remove steaks from skillet and place in a roasting pan.
Prepare Braising Gravy De-glaze the skillet with red wine, scraping any bits from the bottom of the pan. Add the tomato paste, beef broth, bay leaves, Creole Seasoning and sauteed vegetables and heat to a simmer. About 8-10 minutes. Pour the gravy mixture over browned steaks in the roasting pan. Cover with aluminum foil and bake in a 350 degree oven for 1.5-2 hours or until meat is tender. (Time will vary depending on the thickness of the steaks.)
Remove from oven. Let rest for 10 minutes and serve overmashed potatoes or Grits for authentic Creole fare. Generously ladle gravy over the top and enjoy! Other recipes to try: Braised Short RibsHoney Butter ChickenGreek Meatballs
