Cooking and baking binge

I have said before that I love to cook and bake. My awesome boyfriend eats (so far) whatever I put in front of him so I try to attempt new things every now and again. Although I'm my worst critic, it's nice to have another opinion to say that "yes, this was terrible" or "no, you're just being silly."

Today, I went on a cooking and baking binge. And it was fun! I made something new: red potato and green bean salad. I kinda like it. It's different from the "typical" potato salad that I grew up eating (mayo or dressing base). This one has an oil and vinegar base. Different but good. I told Jon he has to try it tomorrow to see how it really tastes.

Here's a look at the finished product...yummy!

I also made a tater tot casserole: ground beef, green beans and tater tots (I like potatoes and green beans...can ya tell?). It turned out even better than the first time I made it, I do believe (this being the second). The liquid that the casserole bakes in is supposed to be a combination of cream of mushroom soup and milk (per the recipe I found) but I don't like cream of mushroom soup. At all. I hate mushrooms. So, I found a recipe online for homemade cream of mushroom soup and I make that...just without the mushrooms. Now THAT turned out better than my first attempt at it. (Maybe that's why the casserole did so much better?) It was a yummy dinner.

A look at the tater tot casserole, fresh out of the oven.

I made a chess pie this afternoon as well. (I do enjoy my sweets and this is the one pie that I have found that Jon will eat.) I got the recipe for this from my grandmother, who helped teach me to bake, but I don't know where she got it from. Regardless, it is DELICIOUS! I, unfortunately, will sit there and eat lots of it if I'm not careful.

Makes my mouth water just looking at it.

The final piece of my cooking and baking binge today is prepping tomorrow's lunch: breakfast casserole. My home church put together a cook book about 5 years ago now that is a collection of recipes submitted by members of the church. I found this one in here and have put my own twist on it. Bread, eggs, sausage (or bacon), cheese and (my addition) hash browns (see...the potatoes again). I haven't made it in almost a year. I think the last time I made it was around Christmas last year. I'm going to attempt to bake it tomorrow and make a delicious casserole dish for lunch for Jon and I. We'll see how much of it he eats (usually directly proportional to how good it is).