The "Clean Out My Refrigerator" Recipe

The wonderful bounty from my CSA was starting to clog up my refrigerator. I started pulling out brown bags (our farmer uses brown bags in lieu of plastic bags to package our produce), trying to figure out what to do with the things I had left. I hate to admit it, but I tend to be a slave to recipes. It’s rare for me to come up with something completely out of the blue. But my recent foray into food blogging has given me a sense of culinary bravery that I didn’t have before. So I looked at everything I had and came up with a sort of potato hash. And the results were a delicious accident!

4 Potatoes (I had two gold and two purple ones)
White Mushrooms (I had about six), sliced
1/2 Red Onion, sliced to preserve the ring shape
Large Parsnip
4 Ounces Sharp Cheddar Cheese, grated
Several Pats of Butter
Salt and Pepper

Preheat oven to 350

After peeling the potatoes and parsnip, grate all of them into a bowl. If you have a multi-surface grater like mine, use the side with the largest grating holes (I don’t know the technical term, but you get the drift). Slice up the onion, placing half in the bowl with the shredded potatoes and parsnip. Toss in the sliced mushrooms and a majority of the grated cheese (reserve some for the top of the dish). Salt and pepper to taste and place the mixture into a casserole dish (I used a square Pyrex dish). Top with the remaining onions and cheese, dotting with several pats of butter. Place in the oven for about 25-30 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

I made this fairly quickly…and while talking to my landlord. I had no clue if it would even taste good, but even my landlord agreed it smelled amazing. So I scooped out a bit and gave it to him…yeah, he was my tester! And he loved it! When I finally was brave enough to try it, I was very pleasantly surprised…the sharpness of the cheddar was a fantastic compliment to the red onions (which had carmelized thanks to the butter). This would make a great side dish or you could add some shredded ham to make it a main dish. I was pleased as punch that something I made on the fly tasted so good (my landlord even scraped the Pyrex dish to get every last bit). So yeah, I’m giving myself a little high five…now for some gelato and pound cake!