Both kids were home from college, so we had the grandparents and some good friends over for dinner. Did family standards - flank steak, smashed potatoes, grilled asparagus, caesar salad and for good measure (and for kid carry-back to school leftovers) a chicken green bean casserole.

The casserole originally had an official recipe, but over the years has turned into a "dump dish" - very simple, very good.

Chicken Green Bean Casserole

3 cans cut green beans (very well drained) dumped into a 9 x 13 pan
cooked chicken shredded or just cut or torn up into "bite" sized pieces spread over the beans
can of cream of something (chicken, mushroom) dumped into a bowl
fill the can halfway with mayo and dump into the bowl
couple of squirts of lemon juice or about a half a lemon into the bowl
few good shakes of mild curry powder (probably about a teaspoon) in the bowl
stir that all up and spread over chicken
grate a bunch of cheddar or cojack or whatever kinda cheese you got that is meltable and put on top
cook at 350 for about 45 minutes or until browned and bubbly

Pork Loin Chili Stuff

I made something interesting on Sunday. Had a whole pork loin – cut the big hunk o’fat off the top – cut off a piece to do a pork roast for the two of us and then….

Cut the rest into hunks
Browned ‘em in olive oil
Took ‘em out and threw in 2.5 very roughly chopped onions (the .5 was cause one was partly bad)
Caramelized those a bit
Added a bunch of cumin and chili powder
Dumped in a can of chicken broth to deglaze the pan
Chopped up 2 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce and threw them and about a teaspoon of the sauce in
Added a large can of crushed tomatoes
Put the pork hunks back in
Threw it in the oven at 300 for about 3 hours (covered)
When the pork was breakup-able, I broke/shredded it up and then added two cans of pinto beans and a can of diced tomatoes for additional tomato chunks
Put it back in the oven uncovered to reduce a bit
Made some rice to ladle the pork “chili” over

It was very good. First time I have ever used the chipotle chilies. Turns out I’m a big fan.

Would have added some green pepper if I had some and some ‘shrooms would have been good too, but alas, I had none of them as well…