This.

I MADE THIS

A week or so ago, and the family Loved it! And so did I! I did change up a few things in the recipe when I made it though. Serving a family of 5, and especially My family, 8 slices of bacon just wouldn't cut it. So I bought a package of Wright Bacon and cut every slice in half, then cooked all the halves. I started the process of doing this (on the stove) about the time I put the potatoes in the oven. Keep the bacon soft, but not too soft. It needs to be cooked, but not crunchy.

Then when I finished cooking all the halves I started making the crumbles of bacon. You can do this with a knife or with your hands, but make sure your hands are clean! This was fairly easy to do, but it was pretty time consuming. By the time the bacon was finished, so were the potatoes. Luckily, and I was quite thankful to past me for being bored and deciding to start prepping ingredients,...

I had the cheese and scallions all prepared, but I didn't use any cream cheese and it still came out just fine. I bought a large, I think 8lb bag of preshredded cheese. Having been my first time making this, I wasn't sure I'd have enough so I overachieved, which turned out to be a good thing. I had the scallions chopped up, and mind you they should probably be pretty thin, and the cheese separated into two baggies. One for the inside of the casserole and one for the topping. I put in the baggies what the recipe called for and a little more. Maybe a handful more for inside the casserole (and a handful can mean whatever you want it to mean) and 1/3 cup more in for the topping. (After all, even if that wasn't enough, I had left over cheese, right?) So I let the potatoes chill out on the stove to cool for just a few minutes, then started the process of making them into a casserole. I did forget the salt and pepper, so I'd suggest putting it in the potatoes with the butter and sour cream. AND if you have any picky eaters in your household, who don't like sour cream you can substitute the sour cream with a little more butter or a couple of table spoons of cream. (Heavy Whipping cream would work fine). To do this, prepare your potatoes after they've been baked and put in the amount of butter the recipe calls for. Then use a potato masher to get the potatoes fluffy. Add a tablespoon of cream if you want it softer and fluffier. Take out half of the potatos and place them in a seperate bowl. Then to one half of your mixture add your sour cream. I added the full quantity of sour cream, but you don't have to if you don't want to. Then to the other half add half the quantity of butter listed on the recipe. If you don't want to add that much butter, substitute in with cream instead, but use about 1/3 or less of the cream compared to the quantity called for of sour cream. Then add in half the quantity of milk to both bowls and mix it together to form a fluffy and thick potato casserole. From there, take half the quantity of scallions and cheese for the inside of the casserole and add to each bowl and mix it together.

I used One casserole dish for this and lined it with some aluminum foil with a little bit of it folded at the middle to create a barrier for each half. You don't have to do this you can use two casserole pans or you can make two quantities of the entire recipe and do half and half in two dishes. Once you've lined your pan with the foil spray the sides with some non-stick baking spray (You can use a butter flavored spray with this, and it will work just fine.), then top the entire casserole with the topping cheese. If you grated your cheese, you might not have as much as I did on top, but it will still taste just as good. Before I stuck it into the oven I added a sprinkle of garlic salt right over the top of the entire casserole just to give it a little extra flavor. You can make this however you like or for as many people as you like, but just experiment to find the way that works best for you.

The single recipe with no alterations yields 8 servings. The recipe I made with alterations had about 6-8 servings. If you have a hungry family I definitely suggest buying a 10lb bag of potatoes and making a double recipe. The prep time should still be about the same unless you have to do one tray of potatoes at a time. You can have many of your ingredients prepared the day before so actually mixing it and prepping it for cooking won't take as long as if you had to run back and forth gathering ingredients. 

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we did, and I hope you have more patience than I do when it comes to making bacon on a stove! Happy holidays you guys, and I'll see you all later!

A Tale of the Impatient One

A Tale of the Impatient One

Growing up I'd always been a pretty impatient child. Never did I really realize this until now, in making a possible choice that might have forever altered the way I did things. Patience really is a virtue. It took me a while to figure this out, and over one of probably the silliest things. I wanted a new car. This new car was going to be like all the others. It was to be 'cool' and would make others like me more. Never have I lost pride in something I loved. It is a fact that I never did change my opinion, just tried to jump too fast at an opportunity that would be better off not taken right now. Maybe this opportunity was a once in a lifetime chance. However, I don't believe I've made any mistakes in figuring up my conclusion. My current car is a very reliable one, and I can trust it. While I miss home and would love the money to go back, even for a few days, I must be patient. I am where the great one says I should be. I feel as though my mother is guiding me in spirit. I feel as though, by selling my current car, and buying a new one, at my age, and in my sitiation, I'd be making a bad choice for my future. No, making a bad choice isn't always a mistake. To me, no one learns from a mistake. Its the choices they make that lead them in wrong directions that they learn from. They learn along the way that their choice in path was incorrect, and therefore have a chance to turn around. I feel it is almost never too late to fix something that may not be all put together at the moment. This choice for me, believe it or not has been very difficult. I smile to myself as I know now, what I should choose, and what will be best. A wise woman told me a story of how she waited for her dream car for a long time, and then she realized she needed the patience to get it. She now has it, and that can be me too one day. For now, Mali is my car, and it will stay as such, until I'm ready for something new.

Thank you mom for helping guide me. And thank you In-Laws for also guiding me, but in a different way. Life seems simpler when you sit down, think, follow your gut, and make a choice based on what may be good for your future. Light some candles, inscents, and turn on some soft music. Let yourself flow out onto the surface in front of you, before you come to a final decision.


-sips water-

Goodnight.

Home Was Home

Home was when she lived.When I was born.
While I grew up.

Home was when it was built
When it was filled
Where we had fun.

Sometimes, though, home becomes... not so home anymore.

Home was.

Home was home until she died.
Until I left.
After I grew up, and out.

Home was built.
Home was filled.
Home was fun.

Home was.

This is something I've realized and just come to terms with the fact of. Home was. I realized when she took that last breath I wouldn't be able to go back. When I did, it didn't feel like home. The old country road had turned into a road that was less traveled. A road that carried memories, like the trees beside it carried life.
The chairs were empty, the television silenced. All of the memories had gone, been locked up in a filing cabinet with everything else I forgot because bad things happened, and in turn of those bad things, I forgot. I forgot because I didn't want to remember. Because the bad things made the good things bad.

This place was just a house. It will be just a house for a long, long time. This house was built to be occupied by someone stronger than I. This house was built for those who want to settle down and stay, and deal with things that arise. This house was not meant for those who run. Run from fear, pain, emptiness. Who feel that a house cannot possibly hold anything to relieve that from them. This house was built with love, sweat, blood and tears. This house is held on memories. This house is not for the weak minded. This house is not for the emotionally obstructed.

Home was.

Home was full of memories. Some I still see faintly in my head. Those memories contain simple things that can be seen anywhere, but here it is special. The wind blowing on a fresh spring day where the air is filled with the fresh scent of rain, flowers and newly mowed grass. The water in the pond sparkling with the sun glistening off of it. The white siding on the house, too bright to look at directly, but if you looked to the side, you could tell it wasn't white, but off white, kind of gray-ish.