Congratulations, It's Not a Pumpkin!

Hello friends!  Hope we've all had time to clean the pumpkin from our systems--October is over, Thanksgiving is over, and I think by now most coffee shops have switched over from pumpkin spice to peppermint in preparation for the biggest commercial season of the year: Christmas.  I am working on a few special cookie recipes (originally I intended on doing the Twelve Days of Cookies, but the Thirteen Days of Pumpkin has convinced me this is a horrible idea) to share with you all in celebration of the season, but for now I submit for your approval a dinner recipe to warm your bellies in the chilly months (let's pretend it wasn't 68 degrees here today): Sausage and Rice Casserole.

This recipe is a throwback to my childhood, a staple on the dinnertable when my Gram would come to visit us--or at least, the original version of this recipe was.  Initially, I hated sausage and rice casserole night, because the version my mum and grandmother would whip up involved brown rice and celery, two things I refuse to eat, even as an adult.  Once I was old enough to cook for myself, I tweaked the recipe to appease my picky palate, and so I will offer you both versions and you can prepare whatever tickles your pickle (PS: I also don't eat pickles).

Preparation is pretty simple:

• Cook up 1 cup of your preferred rice (as in 1 cup dry; this will cook into about 3 cups prepared rice).  I use regular white rice; my maternal elders would insist on the long grain brown rice.
• Brown 1 tube of mild pork sausage, like Jimmy Dean or the stuff in the white and orange package, which we always used but I didn't discover is called Jamestown Brand till I moved down here.  Very apropos.  Chop up your sausage into little nuggets like you would ground beef.
• If you like nasty vegetables, you can brown some chopped onion and celery in the skillet with the sausage.  If you don't like these icky things, do as I do: sprinkle some onion powder over the sausage as it cooks (I like the taste of onion, but not the texture, so powdered or minced dehydrated onion is my best friend).  I don't worry about substituting for the celery; I don't like anything about it.
• Mix the rice and sausage (and optional icky veg) in a large casserole dish.  Add 1 can condensed cream of chicken soup.  Use about 3/4 can of milk to help dilute the soup.  Stir this all through the rice and sausage.
• Sprinkle some sliced or slivered almonds over the top of the casserole.  Bake 30-45 minutes at 350 degrees.

There's your casserole!  Hearty, delicious and simple.  Gram always made carrot-pineapple Jello to go along with it, this consisting of grated carrots and and crushed pineapple in lemon Jello; something about the citrusy-sweetness of the Jello salad paired nicely with the meaty goodness of the casserole.  I lacked two of the three ingredients needed to make it, so I had some of my homemade applesauce and it worked pretty well.

If you're looking for something tasty for dinner this week, give the sausage and rice casserole a try.  And gird your loins: cookies are coming soon!