Squash Casserole

Well, we had the first real family Thanksgiving at our place this year, and it was great! I cooked for about 8 hours straight, but the end result was worth it!  Mom made turkey, cranberry-orange relish, and her EXCELLENT "ramshackle" mac and cheese (trust me, it's awesome!).  I made sweet potato souffle, stuffing, broccoli rice casserole, mashed potatoes, cornbread, Coca-cola cake, and an experimental squash casserole that ended up coming out wonderfully!  I made squash casserole last year from some random internet recipe, and couldn't remember what I put in it.  So this year, I started with Paula Deen's squash casserole recipe and messed with it until it looked tasty to me.  It went over very well, and it's officially being added to my Thanksgiving menu from now on!  It's very easy to put together, and it comes out as a cheesy, bubbly, savory dish. :)

Squash Casserole

8-10 small/medium yellow squash, diced (about 6 cups)
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
8 oz. Shredded cheddar
1 large onion, diced
1.5 sleeves ritz crackers, crushed
1 stick salted butter, melted
2 eggs, beaten
2 T. Olive oil
1 tsp. Kosher salt
1 tsp. Freshly ground pepper

Cook squash and onion in olive oil over medium heat until squash begins to break down. Place squash and onion in a colander and squeeze out excess water. Mix squash and onion and all remaining ingredients, reserving a third of the cracker crumbs. Spread into greased 8x8 casserole dish and top with remaining cracker crumbs.
Bake at 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

Chickpea Salad

One of the things I miss most about being vegetarian is great chicken or tuna salad.  There are all kinds of meat substitutes out there, but none quite get it right.  However, I discovered that using mashed up chickpeas as the protein actually makes for a really satisfying salad.  Of course, the chickpeas don't taste like chicken, but there's something about the texture that hits the spot. With a little tweaking, you can make this taste either like chicken salad or tuna salad. :)

Chickpea Salad

Ingredients:

2 cans (drained) chickpeas 

1/3 cup light mayonnaise 

1/3 cup chopped sweet onion 

1/3 cup chopped dill pickles 

1 T. pickle juice salt and pepper to taste 

2" square of nori (optional)

Directions:
Mash up the chickpeas with a potato masher, or by blending briefly in a food processor. They should have some chunky bits still, but be pretty creamy when stirred. Add the remaining ingredients (except nori) and stir to combine. This recipe makes about nine 1/3 cup servings, but that will vary a tad if you use more or less onion and pickle. If you want this to taste more like tuna salad, then add the nori to the food processor with the chickpeas, or grind it up separately and add it to the salad. This will give a slightly fishy flavor like you would have with tuna salad.