Sometimes it’s fun to just wing it when it comes time to cook. Not everything has to go by a recipe, you know. Sometimes you can just use what’cha got.
A couple nights ago we were having barbeque chicken, and by the way, I never make my Carolina barbeque sauce the same way twice. Some batches are better than others, but they’re always good.
I decided I wanted some potatoes, maybe a casserole of some sort. Since I was going to be out and about most of the day, I pulled out the crockpot.
We had exactly three russet potatoes in the bin, and I used those. I also had most of a large, sweet onion, so that went on the counter. In the cabinet I found a can of cream of celery soup, and in the fridge I had about a third of a cup of leftover heavy whipping cream and a tub of soft cream cheese.
It all looked good. Why not?
I peeled and diced the potatoes, opened the soup, chopped the onion, and added the cream and cream cheese to the mixture, then transferred the entire batch to the crockpot, which I had lined with a special crockpot liner. If you aren’t using crockpot liners, you are missing out on some easy cleanups. The liners take all the pain out of scrubbing the bottom of the pot. They are fitted plastic and you’d think they’d melt and stick to the sides, but they don’t.
After lots of salt and pepper on top, I turned the concoction on low and returned in several hours. Only then did I mix all the ingredients well. The cream cheese had melted and dispersed easily. I suppose I cooked the potatoes 6 or 8 hours total and the dish turned out to be delicious.
Thinking back, I could have added some chopped bacon, butter, sour cream, mushrooms, other cheeses, maybe a pepper or two or who knows what else.
But this batch of What’cha Got Potato Casserole was very good. I’ll do it again sometime, but probably not the same way.
What’cha Got Potato Casserole
(More or less)
3 large russet potatoes peeled and diced
Most of a large sweet onion, sliced
3 cup or so of heavy whipping cream
1 tub soft cream cheese
1 can cream of celery soup (undiluted)
Lots of Kosher salt and coarse ground pepper
(And whatever else you got)
Cook all day in a lined crockpot