By By Lisa Tindell
Holidays can sometimes be a busy, stressful time when making every minute count is important.
Although Thanksgiving is still more than a month away, it’s not too soon to begin planning your family meal.
With so many people finding the need to travel for the holiday, preparing a dish to share at the family gathering is sometimes difficult. I’ve considered that this week and have found a few recipes that might just be the ticket for solving some of those problems.
Most casseroles can be made ahead and frozen. These frozen dishes are a blessing to cooks who have 27 other dishes to prepare for the big holiday feast. Freezing casseroles is also a great way to have a dish that can travel well. If you plan on taking a frozen dish, you may want to check with the hostess to make sure it can be baked or warmed when you arrive at your destination.
A couple of things to remember if you plan to freeze casseroles: if it has acracker topping, wait until the dish is thawed and ready to bake beforeadding the crumbs and butter; drain vegetables very well; and bring the dish to room temperature before baking.
This first recipe is great for a Thanksgiving dinner. Baking it fresh isbest, but it can be prepared ahead of time and frozen.
Corn Casserole
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
1/2 cup shredded mild Cheddar cheese
1 (11 ounce) can white corn, drained
1 (14.5 ounce) can French cut green beans, drained
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of celery soup
1 (8 ounce) container sour cream
1/4 (16 ounce) package buttery round crackers, crushed
1/2 cup butter, melted
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine onion, celery, greenpepper, cheese, corn, green beans, soup and sour cream. Spoon into a 2-quartcasserole dish. Combine crushed crackers with melted butter and sprinkle ontop of vegetables. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes.
Freezing casseroles may be new to some people, but I have a friend who takesa couple of days every summer and prepares enough food to feed an army. Shefreezes these meals and on busy days pops them into the oven (or she getsher teenaged daughter to do the popping). This idea is great anytime of the year.
Until next week, happy cooking!
Lisa Tindell is staff reporter for The Atmore Advance. She can be reached at 867-4876 or by email at lisa.tindell@brewtonstandard.com.