Spinach and Sausage Casserole.

From Elise. I apparently just didn't take pictures for a while.

King Ranch Casserole.

This might be the first source from Bree. A simple chicken tortilla casserole with tomatoes and cheese. Broth and flour sub the creme of chicken soup something like this would normally require.

Tamale Pie.

Comfort food sourced from Elise. It's basically a thick chili under a cornbread crust. I made the cornbread from scratch though I didn't make enough to get good coverage and still rise well. All in all, pretty good, though it's really nothing like a real tamale.

Talerine Casserole.

Crazy casserole from Elise. Based on ground beef and tomato, mixed with egg noodles, cheese, mushrooms, and olives. The comments said the olives provide a necessary flavor, but I didn't really like the way they baked. It might have been different if I had taken the time to slice the olives so they incorporated into the sauce, but meh. It also gave me a lot of gas.

Macaroni and Cheese and Ham and Broccoli.

Homemade macaroni and cheese sourced from Alton B. Ham and cheese. Cheese and broccoli. Cheese sauce for macaroni was not too difficult, roux into bechamel sauce. Using leftover ham and frozen broccoli that's been sitting in the freezer for too long.

Hashbrown Casserole.

Creme of mushroom, beef, cheese, hashbrowns. I used half a can of milk. It turned out ok. For a casserole. Not great. Not as good as the cafeteria. I think because I didn't add salt. Too much mushroom taste. There is some work to be done.

Polenta Bake.

This is it's good side. Mine ended up too soggy or something. It didn't have the structural integrity to support its own weight. It's essentially a cheese lasagna using polenta instead of pasta. I thought ricotta in the inner layers (instead of fontina) would help flesh it out, but it just took up space and I forgot all the vegetables, which, in retrospect, might not have gone over well anyway. Homey, casserole-style food, which will take some tweaking. I forgot the salt again for the polenta. Also, I'm embarrassed that my cornmeal is white and not yellow. Sourced from Elise, of course.

Pumpkin Dinner.

Ok. So this is just a huge novelty really. Pumpkin actually doesn't taste like anything and has a weird texture. But the innards were good. I made it with a mixture of ground beef, brown rice, lentils, onion, and a can of creme of mushroom soup.The insides were actually quite good though nondescript. It was one of those things you can just eat on its own with anything on top or with anything. I think I had some with cheese, some with Frank's, some with yogurt dill sauce. Whatevs.

I ended up using some of the pumpkin for pumpkin pancakes which I made from scratch and not ready-mix stuff. It turned out ok. Some baking soda didn't mix well in a couple cakes but the pumpkin generally lent a fluffy texture.

I also had a bunch of leftover lentil so I make an Indian style lentil soup which was pretty good but needs some work.

Mexican Casserole.

This is the true essence of casserole: leftovers. Refried beans, seasoned ground beef, enchilada sauce, black beans, and corn, all of it at least a week and up to two weeks old. I used corn tortillas to separate the layers and added some partially cooked instant rice.

Addendum: So I was rethinking my philosophy of casserole. Now, there's two paths a casserole can take. Both consume leftovers. One path culminates in something more than the sum of its parts. The other makes its parts palatable. This was the latter.

Also, there's a new Sun Chips flavor: Roasted Sweet Chili. It's bears a striking resemblance to Doritos's Spicy Sweet Chili flavor. Between the two, I think I prefer the Sun Chips. While the Doritos pack more punch, sometimes it's just too overpowering and you just keep eating them for the sake of salt. The Sun Chips, on the other hand, have that naturally sweet multi-grain taste with a much milder but longer taste residue. I like them.

Tuna Casserole.

The semester is winding down so I'm trying to consume my consumables. I had way more cans of tuna than I needed so I'd been looking for some way to use them more quickly than mixing a can in a plate of spaghetti every now and then.

• 3 cans of tuna in water
• 1 can creme of chicken
• 1 cup milk
• Half a package of egg noodles, cooked
• A few handfuls of shredded cheese
• Topped with crushed crackers

I had been wanting to make something like that Tuna Helper tetrazzini so I ended up with this. Freezes well too.

Italian Sausage Lasagna.

This ended up being a disastrous monster. It was supposed to be a hearty lasagna with veggies and Italian sausage but I ran out of space way too fast.

I started with two jars of GV spaghetti sauce (Green Pepper & Mushroom and Onion & Garlic) and a box of oven-ready lasagna. Layer sauce on bottom; add layer of lasagna; add sauce, add ricotta, add sauce, add layer, add sauce. At this point, I was already almost overflowing. There was no way I was going to fit everything in, so I nixed the squash. I put the not-very-well-crumbled Italian sausage and sliced baby Bella mushrooms on top and covered with mozzarella. Now it definitely was overflowing. And proceeded to happily boil over in the oven. It turned out reasonably well in the end though with the sausage lending a lot more flavor than ground beef would have.

The picture is actually from a microwave reheating the next day. The mozz didn't seem to want to re-melt and was a little dry; also, you can see I added a bit too much water to the mix. Seriously. It took longer to reheat it than it did to eat it.

Shepherd's Pie. Cottage Pie, actually.

Real shepherd's pie is made with lamb, and cottage pie is made with beef, right? In any case, this is a bit involved as far as casseroles go, but makes a hearty meal. Followed diagram from Cooking for Engineers. Boil chopped potatoes for crust. While that's going, cook some chopped onion and carrot in a pan (didn't see a small bunch of celery at the grocery so I didn't bother) until the onion starts to clear up. I tossed in a pound of ground beef for this and broke it up as it cooked. While that's cooking, finish up the potatoes (mash and season). By then you should be ready to drain the fat off the pan; add some flour (a tbsp or two) to help thicken the gravy later. Then add a can of beef broth. CfE calls for only a cup to their tbsp of flour so adjust accordingly. Let that all simmer down and thicken. I actually went and worked out during this time. When you're ready, pour the pan mixture into a casserole dish. An 8x8 worked perfectly for me. Layer on the mashed potatoes and either fluff or smooth and then use a fork or something to make some cool designs. The peaks will brown and crust in the oven. I also forgot to put in the pats of butter CfE asks for. I think it's fine without and I used butter making the mashed potatoes anyway. Bake at 400 for 30 minutes.

It turned out just fine, I thought. Used salt and pepper to taste afterwards, but I'd rather season afterwards than season too much during cooking. I also laid on the potatoes pretty thick so the potatoes not on top but not right on top of the gravy got a weird consistency. Tasted just fine and will get me to eat carrots.