Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

I wanted to make pasta for dinner tonight, except that I remembered just in time that most people had leftover pasta for dinner last night. I went browsing through Pinterest after picking up my elementary schooler, then, and found this Cheesy Ham and Potato Casserole. And while it was more effort than it might have been because I used our garden potatoes, on the other hand, there is no longer a box of dirt-encrusted garden potatoes on the floor of my dining room. (Just boxes and boxes of apples.)

Now, I DON’T know if using reds–or substituting carrots for the peas, since we’ve had peas recently and I do have one pea-hating child–is responsible, but it was surprisingly liquid-y when it came out of the oven, even though when I put it in I was worried about how little sauce the recipe made. (Of course, the biggest pieces of potato and carrot could also have used a bit more time to cook, but I took it out on the early side, since my overtired-from-last-night’s-trick-or-treating offspring were threatening to seriously turn on each other. Or me.) I added some garlic to the onion and butter mixture a minute or so before adding the flour, but other than that and the carrot substitution (and the reds, but I didn’t see that the recipe specified, and they were all I had), I followed the recipe and honestly quite enjoyed it. My 14-year-old, however, gave it thumbs middle to down, and my son gave it a middle. Of course, my exhausting-to-feed 8-year-old gave it thumbs up and had seconds, and my hubby liked it, so there you go. (My oldest ate at a friend’s house tonight.)

Ultimately, I think I’d make it again, and I rather liked the carrots in it. (Frozen peas would have been wildly overcooked, as would broccoli–at least, compared to how I like my broccoli.) If you try it, let me know what YOU think!