Three Quick & Easy Casseroles: Bean & Sausage, Macaroni & Beef, and Corn & Hamburger

Well, hello, and welcome to “At Home” today. We’re so glad you could be with us. It’s a great day. It’s a wonderful day. And every day is good when God gives us every day to live. Today, we’re gonna be doing some casseroles. These are three different casseroles that you can make with one pound of meat each. And they’re wonderful, and they’re tasty. Put a salad with them, a crunchy bread, you have dinner. And I’m gonna show you how to do all of them. And the crew’s already picking which one they think they’re gonna like the best, okay? I have a couple of letters I’d like to share with you. These are a little heavier than normal, but they speak of the truth. It says, “Dear Mrs. Williams, greetings and salutations in the name of our blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. My name is Ed and I am presently incarcerated at the state correctional facility in Somerset, Pennsylvania. I enjoy watching your show every Sunday, especially when you showcase all those great recipes. Would it be possible for you to send a copy of your newsletter? And I would really like to have the recipes that you highlighted on the program. Thank you very much. Keep up the good work. You do a wonderful job, and you are an outstanding hostess. Thank you, hope to hear from you soon. Take care.” Of course we sent those. The second one says, “Dear Arlene, I watch your show a lot. I am an inmate at a prison in Tennessee. I am guilty of a crime that I did and am serving my sentence. I would like a copy of your newsletter with the recipes if possible. I don’t have any money to send at this time, but I’m trying to find out how I can send a donation to Cornerstone Television or to the show that everyone watches it, and I am supposed to.” And then he talks a little bit about some things and about, he says, “I’m a Christian and look forward to when I get out so that I can get back to my hometown church ’cause I miss it very much. I like your show very much. Keep up the good work in God’s name, and God bless you. Yours truly.” This is from Tennessee. You know, when we hear stories of someone that’s incarcerated in prison, you say, oh man, that’s such a shame, boy, I feel so bad. You know, these men are behind bars, and that’s a kind of a prison. But you may be sitting out there today, and you may be in a kind of a prison. There’s all kinds of prisons, prisons that we ourselves inflict upon ourselves. Prisons that others inflict on us. But whatever kind of a prison you’re in today, you don’t have to be in that prison, not one that you’ve inflicted on yourself. The Lord would love to help you be set free from that. These men, when they’re Christians, they are set free in a physical prison. God has brought that freedom to them. But if you’re sitting out there today and you need someone to pray with you, someone to talk to about that prison that you’re in, there’s a number on the bottom of the screen. Go and call them. They’re there 24 hours a day. Those are our precious phone prayer partners, and they want to pray with you. Well, we’ll be back in just a minute to do our casseroles here on “At Home.” Here’s today’s At Home Hint. Let roasted meat and poultry stand 10 to 15 minutes before carving. Standing allows time for the juices to settle. The slices will hold more juices rather than the juices pooling on the cutting board. If you’ve got a helpful hint that you wanna share with us, we’d like to hear from you. Send your hint to At Home Hints, Cornerstone Television, Wall, Pennsylvania 15148-1499. Well, today we’re doing casseroles. And each of these casserole takes only one pound of meat to make, and they are delicious, they’re hearty, and they’re good for a church covered dish, a potluck. If you’ve got a bunch of people coming over, can make a couple of these. This is great, okay, great for entertaining. All right, the first one is called bean and sausage bake. We’ve taken a pound of sausage. This is hot sausage. You can use hot dogs, kielbasi, smoked sausage, whatever. And you take two tablespoons of butter, cut it in these little chunks about an inch or so, and put it into a skillet and brown it off. To save time, that’s what we’ve done. Then we’ve drained it so that there’s not grease on there. Now, you take a can of your favorite beans, any kind of bean you like, baked beans, kidney beans, lima bean, whatever. And we’re just pouring those beans right over top of the sausage. Easy so far, isn’t it? We don’t do hard here. You know that. And we’re just gonna spread those beans over top of that sausage to cover, just like that, all right? Easy so far, right? Now, we’re taking our Jiffy, this is a box of Jiffy corn muffin mix in the four-to-six muffin size. If you wanna make your own homemade or some with Bisquick, you could do that, too. Convenience, you’re in a hurry, this is the way you wanna go. And according to the directions that’s on the box, we’re gonna add one egg. Okay, and 1/3 of a cup of milk. Now I tell you, when you see how easy this is to go together, what? We have three separate items. We have our sausage, we have our beans, and now we have the cornbread. And you say, “Where in the world you putting the cornbread?” Ha, ha, right on top of the beans, because that’s gonna make for a really wonderful topping. And everything is right in there together. I mean, how much better and easier could you want it to be? Okay, so now, you know, with this cornbread, you don’t have to have it real smooth. You want it a little bit on the lumpy side. Okay, now we’ll just pour that right over top. This is gonna go into a preheated 350-degree oven. Just like that. All over. How about that. And it oozes down all over those beans and all over the sausage. This is one that was sent to me, and I’ll tell you, I was glad the lady sent it to me because I thought, wow, you know, I would never thought of doing that. But it sounded good soon as I read it. I said, “Boy, this is something that I know.” The crew is usually the judge here of whether something’s gonna fly or not. And if I run it by them and they’re going, whoa, does that sound, this is a winner, ’cause they all like to eat. And this goes into that 350-degree oven. And it’s just gonna cook for about 45 minutes. You don’t wanna cover it. Just like this. So there it goes, right in there like that. When that cornbread starts cooking, you’re gonna smell it all over this place. And it’s a delicious smell. Now, the second one, this one is called macaroni tomato beef casserole. And this was submitted by a girl named Jody Gulish, G-U-L-I-S-H. She said that, “My dad came up with this recipe, and it’s been my daughter’s favorite ever since she was a baby.” This is really simple, I’m telling you. All I have here is about a pound of ground meat that I have browned with some onion. And I’ve drained it so that you won’t have the grease that accumulates, you know, when you brown or whatever, you don’t want that in there. So you wanna take it, and you just do it until the pink is gone. Doesn’t have to be brown crisp or anything like that. In fact, you don’t want it to be brown crisp. It’s better not to. All right, so we have a pound of ground meat and our onion. Now, after you’ve drained the fat, we’re gonna add three cans of just plain old tomato soup, but she says you always have to use Campbell’s, because Campbell’s she says has a better flavor. And I tend to agree, I kind of, you know, you get used to what you used when you were at home, when you were a kid, what your mother used, and Mama always used Campbell’s, so I can agree with her. You wanna clean out the can. And this is great, these are the zip-top cans now, which makes it very easy to open. So there’s one. Here’s the second one. This to me, when I was reading it, I thought this sounds a lot like what they used to call goulash when I was a kid, where you’d have the ground meat and the onions and some peppers maybe, and then you brown it and then you’d put elbow macaronis in it and you’d bake it in the oven. Sounded a lot like that, but this seems like it might be toned down just a bit from what we were used to doing, okay? Now, get that all out. Good. Clean the cans. Somebody’s taste is in there, you know. All right, now, I’m gonna mix this around. And you’re only gonna cook this at this point for about five minutes. I’m gonna turn that down a little bit, because now I wanna add some water. Two cans, not three cans of water, just two cans. So there’s one. This will thin out the sauce a little bit. And there’s two. Okay. Now, mix this around. And you wanna bring this up to a nice boil and cook it only about five minutes. That’s all. Five minutes. In the meantime, you wanna have a nice casserole dish ready because we’re going to be baking this in a 350-degree oven. I like the idea that all these casseroles are at the same temperature, because that way you can put two or three in at one time and bake them all at the same time. And you don’t have to worry about, oh, that should be 375 or that should be this. They all go 350, and half hour on this one, 45 minutes on that one, but a half hour on the next one we’re going to make, too. Okay, now I’m going to let that cook just a little bit. And let me tell you that what I have here is about a pound of elbow macaronis. You know, the little, and I like the Creamettes. The Creamettes just make a creamier, better tasting macaroni and cheese or anything that you’re making with them. It really tastes good. And so we’re gonna put this macaroni into our baking dish. Like so. One pound, spread it out evenly. Okay, now, I’m going to pour this over it. Need to let it come to a boil. We’re gonna take a break, and when we come back, I’ll show you the next step with this. Stay with us. We’ll be right back. If you’re just joining us, we’re doing casseroles today. The one I have in the oven is a bean and sausage casserole with cornbread all over the top. And this one we’re doing is called macaroni tomato beef casserole, and I’m just getting ready to season a little bit with some salt. Okay, and some black pepper. You know, this would be a fine time if you wanted to use cayenne, if you wanted to put some hot pepper flakes, if you wanna take it to the heat, this would be the time to do it. I have my one pound of elbows there. And I’m gonna start now to pour this over top of the elbows. That’s all you have to do. Try to stand back so it doesn’t get you all over your clothes. Sometimes that happens though. Okay. And then you just wanna mix it to make sure that every little particle of macaroni has been covered like that, okay? Now, when Jody sent me this recipe, she didn’t include this, but I’m gonna include this ’cause I think that, you know, every recipe starts out with somebody’s idea, and then you make it your own. Well, I’m gonna make it my own by putting cheddar on the top. I just think when that bakes, and it only bakes for half an hour, I think that that cheddar on top, or mozzarella or whatever kind of cheese you’d like, or don’t put any cheese, you can’t do cheese, it will be fine without. Jody and her family eat it without it all the time. And all you need now is a salad and a crusty piece of bread, or maybe some other vegetable of some kind, you have dinner. This one’s going in for 30 minutes into 350-degree, and I’m gonna put it right in where the other one is because they’re both at 350, okay? Oh, boy. Take a peek at that other one. Look at that cornbread cooking up on that. Yummy, all right. Well, two down and one more to go. And this one, this one’s a little different. This has some noodles in it. This one’s called hamburger corn bake. I think this is unusual. I like it. We’re gonna do it in a 13-by-9 pan. We have browned a pound of ground meat with a nice big onion that we’ve chopped it, browned it, and drained it so we don’t have any grease on there, you wanna get rid of that. And that’s what we have in our mixing bowl right here. Now, we’re going to add one can of whole kernel corn that has been drained. Put that right in there on top of the meat. You know, when you go to church affairs and they say bring a covered dish, it’s a covered dish, or just bring something, I’m always at a loss like, do they want a dessert, do they want a casserole, should it be a main entree, should it be vegetables? What should I take? I like, I think some of the best recipes in the world can be found at church socials because everybody wants to bring the best. And I like that idea. Okay, so we have that. Now we’re taking one can of cream of mushroom soup. And we’re just gonna put that in on top of the corn. Gonna make sure we get all that out. Yeah. Yum. Okay, and again, we’ve used Campbell’s because we like that brand the best. All right, and then we’re going to add a whole pint of sour cream. So this is gonna feed quite a few. Pint of sour cream. You could probably use the low fat or the lower calorie, or maybe even yogurt. You know, you have to test those things. If you’re unrestricted, you could probably use turkey if you wanted to instead of the ground meat. All right, let’s make sure we have the corn, the soup, and the noodles. And these are just egg noodles. Not the real fine ones for soup. These are a little bit thicker. And we’re just gonna mix them in with this. And some salt and pepper. To taste. If you like a lot, beef it up. If you don’t, just use a normal amount, which would be about a half a teaspoon, something like that. Now, we want to mix this up. Already I know I need something stiffer to use than this little spatula. Okay. Look at that. Ha, ha. Looks good already. Smells wonderful. Nothing like a good casserole, the smell of the casserole when you pop it in the oven and people come in the door and they’re saying, “Man, does that smell good. What is that?” Say, “Oh, it’s just my new casserole that I’ve just learned to make, and boy, it’s tasting good, too.” So I hope these ideas will help to just, you know, casseroles are appropriate all year long. People think, oh, that’s a winter thing. It really isn’t ’cause you could make these ahead and freeze them, and then when it comes time to pop something in the oven ’cause you’re in a hurry, you got it made and ready to go in no time flat. If you’re really busy, if you have a job that causes you to travel a lot, or you get home late and you don’t wanna think about, man, what do I have to make now? These are the kind of things that you want to make ahead of time like on a Saturday, fill your your freezer with them. And there we go. Tell you what, the bowl almost got away from me, there’s so much stuff in here, Michael. Did you see that? Tried to jump out of my hands. Now remember, all the good things in there. You have onion in there, fried onion. You’ve got your meat, your veggies, your starch. Everything’s in there all at one time. If you like green pepper, add some green pepper to it. That would be appropriate. And all I wanna do with this now, even it out. And then we’re gonna dot a little butter on the top of it, just lay a couple slices. And then we’re gonna do some Italian breadcrumb. And we’re just gonna sprinkle that ’cause that’s gonna give it a little crunch on the top. Yeah, when that gets hot and bubbly, oh my, they’re gonna come a-running. We’re gonna pop this one in the oven. And while we are, take a break. When we come back, we’ll be in the dining room to show you all that we’ve prepared today, stay with us. I hope that you remember to send for your copy of our newsletter because it has all the recipes of today’s program, plus all the other recipes that we’re sharing during this entire month. And I know you’re not gonna want to miss not one. And also we have our e-zine newsletter called “Enjoy” that can be subscribed to by going to www.ctvn.org. And if you just click on At Home, it will take you through the process of subscribing. And it’s only $15 for the entire year, and every beginning of each and every month, that newsletter comes to your email address without you having to send for anything, ask for anything. It just comes automatic. We’re trying to make it simple and easy for you to get the recipes because I know you enjoy them. You tell us that you do, and that makes it really great for us. Well, today we did casseroles. We’re gonna start down there. Remember the one I said has this delicious cornbread on it? Look how that bakes up. And underneath there is the hot sausage and the beans, and then the wonderful cornbread on top. Here is Jody Gulish’s macaroni tomato bake, beef bake. And we just added some cheese on the top. That’s gonna be an awesome one, too. This one is called our hamburger corn bake. And I’m just going to spoon this out. Now, this gets bubbly. Look at that. Oh, boy. And the smell is incredible. When those flavors all get together, look how wonderful. That’s a full meal right there. You have your starch, you have your meat, protein, and you have your vegetable, the corn’s there. All we do is add a nice little salad with it, some dressing, a piece of bread, what more could you want? I say that a lot because we try to make them easy so that they aren’t complicated, because if something looks complicated, if you’re like me, you don’t wanna try it, and I don’t. So I try to keep them simple and easy. Doable recipes is what you get from here “At Home.” We hope that that you’ve had some time to think even over the program today, as I began the program and talked about prisons that a lot of us are in. The two gentlemen’s letters that I read, they’re in physical prisons, they are incarcerated. But you know, think about, is there a prison in your life? And if there is, and you want to get out of it, Jesus came to set the captive free. He wants you to be out of that prison of fear, of worry, of fear of all things, all kind of things, broken relationships, family ties that have been strained and you don’t know what to do. I have an answer. His name is Jesus. And if you’ll go to that number and call the number that’s on the bottom of the screen, go to the phone. That number will answer in the middle of the night when you can’t sleep and you’re worrying. It answers through the day when you have an emergency. It answers 24 hours a day. We are here. We are your lifeline for someone to pray and agree with. There is power in agreement. Well, we’re glad that you came by to visit us on “At Home” today, so be sure to join us the next time, because it just wouldn’t be the same without you. We’ll see you then.

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