Rosie Makes A Squash Casserole.

I have a profusion of yellow squash in the garden and I'm always trying to come up with new ways to use them.

Today I'm making a squash casserole.

1 medium squash 1 medium tomato 1/2 onion 1/2 cup milk 3 eggs (I know there are only 2 in the picture but when I started mixing everything I decided it needed another egg.) 1/4 cup Greek yogurt 1/4 cup ricotta Monterey Jack cheese Cheddar cheese, which I forgot to put on top s & p I'm using the yogurt and ricotta because I happened to have them in my fridge. You could substitute sour cream.

First, I peeled and diced my squash ...

... and added that to my skillet

with LOLUB and ELBOO. (That's Land O' Lakes Unsalted Butter and Extra Light Bertolli Olive Oil!)

Add some freshly ground salt and pepper and saute for about a minute.

I chopped my onions ...

... and added them to the pan for about another minute.

I always like to add a little sugar to my veggies. Brings out the natural sweetness.

I cracked my eggs ...

... whupped 'em up ...

... added in the milk ...

... added in the yogurt ...

... and the ricotta.

I peeled, seeded, and juiced my tomato. This is very important when you're using the tomato in a custard dish. You want a custard, not a runny, tomatoey mess.

Next, I cubed some Monterey Jack cheese. At first, I was thinking about making a squash pie dish, but I didn't feel like making pie dough and although I did have some frozen crusts I knew those weren't big enough to hold everything going into this. A light bulb went off over my head. What do you do with the dregs of a tortilla chip bag?

I layered my baking dish with them.

Then I placed my little cubes of Monterey Jack on top.

Here's my tortilla crusted casserole bottom, chopped tomatoes, some red hot peppers, my batter, and an extra egg, since I decided to use up my corn and black bean and cilantro mixture.

Third egg in the batter.

Some salt.

And pepper.

Squash and onion go on top of the tortilla chips.

Then my corn/black bean/red onion/red pepper/cilantro mix. This is not necessary, but I had it and wanted to use it up.

Tomatoes on top.

Pour the batter over top.

Mr. Hawthorne scissored some chives over top.

I found a red hot pepper and sliced that ...

... and added it to my casserole.

It looked a little bare to me.

It needed a good topping of crushed Ritz.

And some slices of buttah. I have a huge oven in my kitchen and a smaller microwave/convection oven. I decided to use the smaller convection oven since it's 90-some degrees out. I don't use the convection feature very much on that oven, so I wasn't sure about times. In my regular oven I would have popped this in at 350 and checked it after 30 minutes. For the convection oven, I set the temperature at 350 and the time for 20 minutes. The convection oven adjusted the temperature to 325 and the time to 17 minutes. After 17 minutes, I set the temp at 350 and the time for 15. It adjusted the temp to 325 and the time for 12 minutes. After 12 minutes, I cooked it an additional 10 minutes. So 39 minutes total at 325.

Let it sit for about 10 minutes before cutting into it.

I loved the buttery crunch of the Ritz on top and the creamy ooziness of the melted Monterey Jack cheese. And I didn't even miss the cheddar cheese I forgot to put on top.

Then I encountered a flavor that made me go "Hmmmmm. what is that?" It was the tortilla chips which otherwise would have been thrown out.

This is one of those dishes that actually gets better. I've been nuking slices for lunch all week.

Enjoy!