Sunday food pron....

Try clicking on the pictures.....

Diet food? Only if you eat a really small amount, while exercising at the same time.
Not even then, I think.

So, what is the attraction here? Flavor.... eat till you are sick flavor.

This is sausage and rice casserole. No, you can't have some. It's all gone. Make your own..... and heres how.......

Good Italian sweet sausage, roasted in the oven till browned and starting to crisp slightly. I do nothing more than lay them in a cast iron pan and shove it in a 350 oven for an hour or so.
Let them cool a bit so they can be handled later.

Eat a sausage now... because fresh cooked sausage is worth sneaking. Oh, give one to the dog too... Because I said so.

Now, the rice. I use long grain slow cook, but you use what you like. It works best with real long grain rice though, and Basmati is best of all. You cook rice any way that works for you. There are many ways to cook rice, and mine is simple and best, but never works for anyone else. The rice should be done, but slightly tough. It has more liquid coming it's way later.

The 'flavor package' for the rice........ In a middlin hot fry pan start sauteing some chopped sweet onion in butter. Once it starts to just brown, turn down the heat and toss in a fair heap of sliced mushrooms and a big handful of slivered carrots.
Also add in half a dozen pieces of sun dried tomato, if you have it. Chop the tomatoes into small chunks. Season this mix with kosher salt, fresh ground pepper, a few crushed garlic cloves, and a stiff sprinkle of real paprika. Not the stuff you get in the grocery store, made from shaved bark and crayons, but the paprika found only in back alley stores manned by people who speak very little English. I keep mine in the fridge. Not to keep it fresh, but because I'm afraid it will ignite at room temperature.

Cover this pan and turn it to low for twenty or thirty minutes. No need to do anything else then, just shut it off.

When the rice is cooked, fluff it, then dump in the 'flavor package'. Mix it in, but don't beat the rice to death. Fold it in, adding a bit of butter to make it moister.

At this point, you have a meal. Sausage and rice... and a fine meal at that.
With the left overs, the casserole can be made.

To assemble the casserole, start with a heavy dutch oven. We're going to make a simple tan rue in the pot, so get it fairly hot. Now look, this is a RUE, and will not allow you to walk away, nor even turn away. Have everything following laid out ahead of time, within fast and easy reach. You can't stop stirring to go hunt something in the cabinet. If you MUST stop stirring, pull it off the heat and stir till it stops bubbling.

You'll need a whisk for this.....

In the hot pan, dump in a stick of butter. As it's melting, dump in enough flour to match the butter by volume, but it's not critical. STIR as it cooks. STIR till it starts to turn slightly brown, going towards tan. Now dump in about two cups of milk while STIRRING. Add a stiff shot of kosher salt, and some ground pepper, while STIRRING. Don't stop STIRRING or it will burn.

As it comes back to bubble stage, the mix will go thick fast. Thin with milk as needed while STIRRING till it looks like thinned crepe batter. Now, dump in about eight ounces of cubed Colby cheese while STIRRING. The cheese will melt slowly in the hot sauce, and when it's done melting you have a creamy killer cheese sauce. Pull it off the heat while STIRRING a while longer.

At this point I add some Crystal hot sauce. How much? Depends who's looking.
Enough that the final dish will remember I put it in there.

To this dutch oven add the rice mixture and way too much sausage cut in chunks.
Fold it together. You are looking for a loose mix, about like thin rice pudding. Kinda runny looking. Add some milk if needed to get there. The thing is, as it bakes the rice will absorb most of the cheese sauce, getting creamy on the way.

I like to place some more dried tomatoes on top, then lid the dutch oven and into
a 350 degree oven for about an hour or so. Pull it, sprinkle a layer of bread crumbs and grated parma cheese on top, then back in for another half hour.

That's it..... you end up with what is pictured above.

How does it taste? I got a helping, as shown. Four people ate the rest.....