Broccoli Casserole

At Thanksgiving dinner we generally find many of the same dishes each year. Well, why not try something different for a change of pace. This recipe adds body and fullness to the rest of your dinner and is not the usual fare.

Ingredients

Fresh Broccoli (I generally use a bag of fresh broccoli pieces that have already been cut up, and can be found at your local Costco or Sam's Club)
1 small box of fresh mushrooms (you can also substitute 2 cans of mushroom pieces in place of fresh mushrooms)
2 cans cream of mushroom soup (10 3/4 ounce size)
1 1/2 cups of mayonnaise
1 1/2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese
4 tablespoons of minced Dried Onions
1/4 teaspoons of black pepper
2 uncooked eggs

You first need to wash all the broccoli and drain off any excess water. Cook the broccoli until tender either on top of the stove or in the microwave. I prefer to cook the broccoli in the microwave for about 7-10 minutes until tender. Now that the broccoli is cooked, drain any remaining water from the broccoli. Take a large mixing bowl and place the cooked broccoli in it and set it aside. Wash the fresh mushrooms, dry them and slice them into pieces. Add the fresh mushrooms slices to the cooked broccoli. Don't worry about the mushrooms not being cooked, for they will cook once you place the casserole in the oven to bake.

An important note here, make sure that if you are using canned mushrooms instead of fresh mushrooms, you drain the liquid from each can prior to mixing the mushroom pieces into the cooked broccoli. Now add the cans of cream of mushroom soup, the mayonnaise, the uncooked eggs, cheddar cheese, dried minced onions, and black pepper. Make sure that you do not add any water or milk to the cans of cream of mushroom soup. You just want to use the cans of mushroom soup only, without adding any additional liquid, for you are not making soup here, you are using the canned cream of mushroom soup to flavor the casserole with.

Stir all the ingredients together making sure not to mash the broccoli or the mushroom pieces. Generally with the amount of mixture that you have inside your mixing bowl, you would use a fairly large rectangular Pyrex baking dish to place all the casserole ingredients in preferably a pan that measures 11 inches by 16 inches. Grease the pan lightly, and now place all of the mixed ingredients into the Pyrex dish. Make sure that you leave space around the top of the Pyrex dish, do not fill it too full, for you do not want it to bubble over when cooking and make a mess in your oven. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Cover the casserole with silver foil and place it in the preheated oven. Bake the casserole for about 1 hour depending on your oven. You want to make sure that the casserole is well baked, meaning that the liquid ingredients have mixed well with the broccoli and mushrooms and do not appear to be loose in texture, but not dried out either. If the mixture appears to be too loose then continue to bake it for some additional time, checking often to make sure that it does not become too dry. Take the casserole out from the oven and serve it piping hot to your guests and enjoy a different vegetable dish with the usual Thanksgiving fare.