My kitchen remodel is finally done! It looks great- now instead of all the white which always had me looking around to wipe up food stains and splatters and spills, I can relax with the darker tone. I also love the Cambria quartz countertop, so much more useful than the countertops we got with the house in that they are so easy to clean and keep clean and can be used as a great workspace since it is a harder surface. Unlike granite it is also more durable, while still looking like beautiful natural stone (it actually is a combination of natural quartz and man made extras) and without worrying about sealing it. And, the best part of which was part of the costs of the countertops was gifted by Floform Countertops!
Yes, that’s right! I had entered their national contest hoping to win their grand prize, which included both a kitchen remodel and a catered party, but I was so excited to have won a secondary price which was a generous credit towards countertops. Even when we were purchasing the house, a kitchen update has been on my wishlist. One thing led to another as we were looking at our many countertop options, and we went from just replacing our wine stained white countertops to wanting better looking cabinets to go with the beautiful quartz.
And then we decided on redoing our floors so we had more flexibility in our cabinet layout (particularly the “island” which was meant to have breakfast stools was never used that way, and we wanted more depth for in-cabinet garbage cans) and which would be more comfortable to stand on and clean than old Italian terra cotta tiles, some of which were cracked from the previous owners. And, we repainted the kitchen walls a “Butter Up” yellow.
Amazing what those countertops inspired us to do because they were so elegant. Here are before and after pictures of the previous green walled, white kitchen to the new look. I particularly love how we have so much more room for all our beverage glasses…
During the kitchen remodel though, I was out of a kitchen for 5 months, from late spring to early autumn! Oh well. At least now I love coming into my beautiful new kitchen! During the kitchen outage though, there were some ingredients that just sat around since the stove and oven were unavailable, and when I unpacked everything back into my new cabinets I started to realize I needed to start using some of these pantry items up soon before they expired.
Some of these ingredients included some dehydrated dried hash browns from Costco, panko bread crumbs from Trader Joes’s, a can of condensed Campbells cream of chicken soup, leftover Mexican shredded cheese from a taco dinner, and some corn kernals in the freezer. What immediately came to mind was this recipe, which I have seen passed around on several websites, a copycat recipe for Cracker Barrel’s Hashbrown Casserole. I’ve only been to Cracker Barrel’s once, and I didn’t even have the Hash Brown Casserole when I was there, but I’ve seen the signs and saw rave reviews for it, so was curious to try it anyway.
Ingredients:
- 2 pounds frozen hash browns, thawed (my package had 24 oz, and was dried and I had to use water, but I used it anyway)
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 cups corn kernals. The original recipe uses 1/2 cup chopped onion, but I didn’t have any on hand but I did have corn, and I upped the amount since I was using 24 oz of hash browns.
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 can (10.75 ounces) condensed cream of chicken soup + 1 can of water (the recipe just calls for 1 can of regular cream of chicken, but I only had condensed. This is going to make my version more mushy)
- 8 ounces sour cream, though you can also use tofu sour cream or yogurt as a substitute
- 1 cup grated colby cheese, although I used reduced fat shredded Mexican Cheese instead
- 1/4 cup panko bread crumbs – or you can also use crumbled potato chips or crunchy onion
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray 11 x 14 inch casserole or baking dish with cooking spray.
- Fry the hash browns until they are crispy in a pan with the olive oil (I put in half the olive oil to cook the first side, and then the second half for browning the second side of the hash browns). Remove and put into an even layer in the casserole dish.
- Meanwhile, I used the same hot pan right after removing the hash browns to pan fry the corn until a little burnt with the 1 tablespoon of butter.
- Combine all the ingredients (except the hash browns and panko) and stir together. Pour the mixture on top of the hash browns in the casserole dish. Top with the panko.
- Bake for 45 minutes until top is golden brown. Let cool for 15 minutes so when you cut the casserole it will stay more together as wedges.
Other twists you can add into this casserole is adding meat (Italian sausage particularly comes to mind), or some spiciness or other veggies (especially that which could add some crunch- such as adding chopped celery) and chopped nuts, it is very versatile and I can see it as a good base for many side dish variations. Who says hash browns are only for breakfast?
When I had my piece, I sprinkled a little bit of crushed red pepper on it and ate it in front of the tv, cuddled under a blanket with my kitty while F was out of town for work. Other pieces were fine during the rest of the week warmed up for lunch. Serves as a side dish 6 people.
You can also halve this recipe, and do it without the corn, as in below for just the 2 or 4 of you!
