Project 7: Corn and Sausage Casserole

$5 Dinners posted this yummy looking recipe for Corn and Sausage Casserole last week, and I had to try it.  Since today was Presidents Day, and I had the day off, I had plenty of time to stop by the store to grab the goodies and cook something that didn't come with microwave instructions.  Besides, KP has a cast iron skillet, and I don't.

The pile on the right is my discard pile.

The problem?  Well, KP is a bit of a tomatophobe, and when I read him the ingredients over the phone he was totally on board through the peppers and onions, the sausage and corn, and then ---woah! Why does it always have to be tomatoes?  I promised him there would be less tomatoes in this dish than the spaghetti and meatsauce he cooks for himself all the time (I believe I called it a "wee can of tomatoes"), but I resigned myself to the fact that I might be taking the rest of this dish home with me to eat during the week. 

Cook baby cook!

So I started out browning the sausage on low while I chopped up the pepper and the onion on the cutting board.  I'm not really sure that I did the pepper right, as it seems that you trim more off of it that you actually use, but it was plenty for what I needed it for.  After the sausage was done, I left a little of the sausage grease in the skillet to brown the onions and peppers.  They smelled amazing!  Then in went the corn, and the tomatoes, and while I stirred the skillet I might have started up a little mantra of "Come on tomatoes, cook down to an unnoticeable size!"

Before it went into the oven.

Once most of the juice had evaporated, I added the sausage back to the skillet, stirred it up with some maybe questionable Italian seasoning (we're still working on getting rid of the old stuff) and then covered the whole thing in a layer of shredded Italian cheese blend.  While it melted, I put a cup of flour, a cup of milk, an egg and three tablespoons of olive oil in bowl, stirred it, and poured it on top.  The (very heavy by this point) skillet went in the oven at 400 for 20 minutes to bake, and I went in the other room to do something that didn't involve staring at the oven (you can't actually see through the door of KP's oven, so I would literally be staring at the door) and waiting for the timer to go off. 

The finished product!

The result?  Pure YUM.  I had a piece, and it's an interesting mix of italian with a sort of mexican feel (come on, I can't be the only one that associates pan fried onions and peppers with fajitas) but the whole thing works.  In fact, KP came home just after I finished it, and ate half of my second helping (bent over the plate going "Oh no--omnomnom--I don't think this is very good--omnomnom--wouldn't want you to eat it and get sick or anything--omnomnomnom.") He gives it two thumbs up, and so do I.  Yum!

Success!