Last Saturday night, there were circumstances in my freezer that came to a head. I had purchased some hamburger on sale, only to bring it home and find that it look a little old. Not spoiled mind you, but not freshly ground either. It was officially time to make a casserole.
I used to make casseroles all the time after college, but I haven’t made them as much recently because their so heavy. Plus, whenever I make a casserole, I miss out on my vegetable serving for the week. But every once in a while, I’ll make one to spare myself the act of cooking for a couple of days. This particular casserole wonderfully lasted from Saturday night through Tuesday night.
So Saturday morning, I went out and bought some refried beans and nacho cheese soup. I browned the hamburger, and then mixed in the beans and cheese soup. I suppose I could have added some milk to make it lighter and smoother, but I opted against that. One of the great things about making a casserole is you can just through a bunch of stuff together and worry about the results later. 
As you can see, it’s juicy. By the way, that’s my favorite wooden spoon making a cameo. I bought it in Chinatown.
For the topping, I decided to mix together cornbread, although the box was a bit short because of a bread recipe that called for two tablespoons. Needing to shake things up, I decided to put some sour cream in it to make it richer.
So the mix went in the casserole dish, and the cornbread went on top. Surprisingly, those couple of tablespoons went a very long way. I had to stretch the batter to get it to cover the whole casserole, but I got it down. I baked it for about thirty minutes at 350 degree.
In the end, I got what I expected: a heavy casserole, clunked with refried beans, cornbread, and cheese substance. Thankfully, I didn’t add any cheese on top, and I could have put in that milk. But the sour cream did help the cornbread, and in the end, a good filling casserole is perfect now that winter is upon us and as I said before, I didn’t have to cook for three days. Couldn’t ask for more.
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Derek Johnson
