cooking in someone else's kitchen

 

Last week, I took the boy to visit his grandfather. And while I was there, I ended up cooking a few things. Firstly, Dad had been freezing his overripe bananas and requested that I make banana bread with them. I'd done it when I was over for our family reunion last summer and he loved it. I think he may have left some of the bananas on purpose...

My Dad doesn't do much cooking anymore and never baked himself and over the years we have pared down his kitchen stuff, clearing out old and broken bits, consolidating odd sets of things and I've taken a few bits for my own kitchen (big blue casserole dish I'm talking about you), so the prospect of baking in his kitchen is a bit fraught. I made a quick shop run to buy flour, brown sugar, spices (he only has savory spices in his cupboard), vanilla, butter and eggs. He had 9 frozen bananas so I made a triple recipe of Deb's banana bread (omitting all spice but cinnamon and leaving out the bourbon) - I did find 3 loaf pans in Dad's cupboards which I don't have - most I can manage is 2 in my own kitchen. I gave one loaf to my uncle and put one in Dad's freezer and we had a few slices of one to test. Yummy.

I also decided to make supper one night instead of going out so I rummaged around in his freezer and fridge and decided to make sour cream noodle bake. My version was inspired by a Pioneer Woman recipe and is a staple of my home kitchen - filling, delicious and feeds many. I only had to buy some ricotta as the rest I cobbled from Dad's cupboards. It did take some searching to find a casserole dish large enough to accomodate this dish. There was lots left over, so some went to my uncle and both he and Dad will have a couple more meals with this.

Sour Cream Noodle Bake (inspired by Pioneer Woman)
1 tbsp oil
2 diced bison sausages
1 rasher of bacon, sliced
half a small onion, diced
1 medium red bell pepper, diced
10 or so mushrooms, sliced
300 mL marinara sauce
270g egg noodles
454g ricotta cheese
1/4 c sour cream
2 green onions, chopped
1/2 c medium cheddar, grated

Preheat oven to 350 deg F.

Cook the noodles in salted water until al dente. Drain well.

While the noodles are cooking, in a saute pan add the oil and saute the onions until translucent, then add the sausage, bacon, pepper and mushrooms and cook for about 5 minutes. Add the marinara sauce and season with salt and pepper to taste.

To the noodles, add the ricotta, sour cream and green onion and mix until blended.

In a large casserole dish, layer half of the noodles, cover with half of the sausage mixture and half of the cheese. Add the second layer of noodles, sausage and cheese

 and bake for about 30 minutes until bubbly and the cheese is melted and golden.