All I Care about is Love....

I'm listening to the original cast soundtrack for Chicago on vinyl. We got a turntable and a ton of awesome albums from Josh's aunt and uncle today. I'm in seventh heaven I tells ya. Finally an album I can do the Charleston to! Speaking of seventh heaven, there's nothing I like better than an easy night's dinner. And this dinner was pretty darn easy since it was comprised of leftovers topped with a few additional ingredients. And, side note, I'm also in a great mood because I've been getting comments from some bloggers that I think are fab! So thanks to everyone whose been stopping by my page lately. I sure do appreciate it! Well, let's get to the point then, so I don't scare off any of the new readers, ha. This dinner was made from the remnants of the chili I posted about last week. Obviously I didn't just leave this chili sitting in my fridge for a week, so if like me, you decide to freeze your leftover chili, just make sure to thaw in advance for this recipe.

Cheesy Hash-Brown Bake
Recipe from Everyday Food; Serves 4
4 cups reserved 30-Minute Chili
1 16 oz. fresh or frozen shredded hash-brown potatoes, thawed if frozen
4 oz. cheddar cheese, shredded (1 cup)
1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro
coarse salt and ground pepper

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees, with rack set in upper third. Divide chili among four individual baking dishes (10 to 12 oz. each). Set aside.
• Place potatoes in a double layer of potatoes; squeeze out as much liquid as possible.
• in a large bowl, combine potatoes, cheese, and cilantro; season with salt and pepper. Scatter potato mixture over chili. Place baking dishes on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake until potatoes are golden brown and chili is bubbling, 20 to 25 minutes. Serve.

My notes: I don't own any small baking dishes as described above, so I just went the casserole route. Everything turned out pretty much as described, just larger. The recipe has directions for cooking as one dish, but since my chili and potatoes actually didn't thaw enough before I started I had to heat them some prior to preparing the dish, allowing me to cook for a shorter time. If you are making it with unfrozen leftovers it suggest cooking for 40 to 45 minutes. Also, I didn't have any cilantro, and didn't get a chance to stop by the store for any, so ours had none. I love cilantro though, so I can only imagine this would turn out even better with it. We both liked this, although there was still the lingering issue of too much cinnamon in the chili. That aside I will definitely repeat this recipe, once I've tweaked the chili to my liking.