Happy Thanksgiving! (Green Bean Casserole Recipe)

Due to my recent entry into the real world (read: employment! woohoo!) I've neglected updating this site for a couple of weeks. Between not having 18 hours of downtime each day and my addiction to video games when I get home from work, I've really slacked off on updating. Shenanigans! While I make no promises to the frequency of my updates coming up, I will do my best to add to this site whenever I can, either in recipe form (and now that I'm working, I cook a lot less too... sadly) or restaurant reviews (must have more willing dining partners willing to explore the city with me so I can create a crater sized dent in my bank account from eating good foodstuffs...). 

Anyways! Now that I'm done semi-apologizing for my extended leave, as we all know thanksgiving was last week and as per tradition I ate myself silly and then felt like I weighed about 50 stone¹. Last year was actually the first time I tackled thanksgiving cooking, and though turkey duty was not on my list this year, I did still get to make plenty of sides to bring to a friend’s family’s thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving spread! Clockwise, from foreground: Pumpkin bread, creamed spinach, cornbread stuffing, green bean casserole, creamed corn, apple pie, pecan pie, bread rolls, and, of course, turkey

Though I didn’t capture any of the cooking process during our thanksgiving cooking session, I did overbuy many ingredients, which led me to conclude that the best way to use them all up would be to make even more thanksgiving sides even though the holiday had ended. So it’ll be endless stuffing and green bean casserole for me for the next few weeks! Also, this gives me the opportunity to actually capture in photos the making of said sides.

Well, you can’t have a thanksgiving meal without green bean casserole in my opinion², so here’s my recipe, slightly modified from Paula Deen’s Food Network one:

Ingredients: (Makes 6-8 servings)

½ stick butter

¾ cup diced onion

1 cup sliced crimini mushrooms

3 cups sliced green beans

4 cups chicken broth

1 (10 ¾ oz.) can cream of mushroom soup

4 oz. French-friend onions

Salt, Pepper, Garlic and Herb seasoning, to taste

1 ¼ cup grated cheddar

Directions:

1.    Preheat the oven to 350 F.

2.    Start boiling the chicken broth.

3.    While the broth is heating up, Melt the butter in a skillet. Saute mushroom and onions in melted butter.

Your kitchen will reek of butter while this happens.  This is a good thing.

4.    When broth has been brought to a boil, cook green beans in the broth for 10 minutes, and drain.

5.    In a greased casserole dish, combine green beans, mushroom and onion mixture, fried onions, and cream of mushroom soup. Add salt, pepper, and garlic and herb seasoning, to taste.

6.    Bake in the oven at 350 F for 20 minutes

The cream of mushroom becomes that gooey "glue" substance that makes everything stick together. Yum!

7.    After 20 minutes, remove casserole from oven and top with cheddar cheese. Finish in oven for 10 more minutes.

8.    Nom time!

Cheese explosion!

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^{1. Getting British all up in this place!↩}

^{2. An opinion formulated from having eaten all of three “traditional” thanksgiving dinners in my life. My freshman year in college I had Burger King since everything else in Evanston was closed, which, in some sense, qualifies as an American tradition of its own.↩}