Dorothy B’s Potato Casserole

Another traditional fixture at a Derby Breakfast would be a rich potato casserole. I suppose every cook has her favorite version of this classic, but mine comes from one of the most unique individuals I ever met. Dorothy was a blue-haired grande dame who was seldom seen without a cigarette held in an elegant gold edged cigarette holder. Her nails were long and painted a deep red, and she always wore several large diamond rings.

One day she appeared with a massive diamond solitaire set in a heavy gold setting. Her husband had inherited it from a distant gambler relative and he refused to wear it because it was so ostentatious. Dorothy told him that there was no diamond so big that she wouldn’t wear it, so she had it cut down for her pinky. It was immensely ugly, but it was Dorothy, and she often wore it to her weekly Bridge Club’s parties. That gambler’s ring must have felt right at home for Dorothy played Bridge with all the intensity of a hardened gambler at Vegas.

Dorothy also laid out a fabulous spread at her Bridge parties. One of her stalwarts was Dorothy B’s Potato Casserole. Her original recipe calls for boiling 6 to 7 potatoes, then cooling, peeling, and grating the potatoes. When Dorothy was preparing her casserole, frozen hash browns were a thing of the future. She would have been the first to drop that messy potato grating for the convenience of frozen hash browns as she didn’t like to get her well manicured fingers dirty.

Dorothy spent her last years playing in Bridge tournaments and using her needlepoint skills to decorate the vestments and kneelers at her church. When Dorothy arrived at the Pearly Gates, she probably pointed her cigarette holder at St. Peter and demanded to know where the Heavenly Ladies Bridge Club met.

This casserole is just like Dorothy. “There is nothing too rich that I won’t eat it.”

Dorothy B’s Potato Casserole:

1 package (2 pounds) frozen hash brown potatoes
¼ cup of butter
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 pint of sour cream
1/3 cup of chopped green onions
1 ½ cups grated cheddar cheese
Seasoned dry breadcrumbs mixed with a little melted butter (Optional)

Melt the butter, then mix in with the chicken soup, sour cream, onions, and cheese. Then add the potatoes and mix well. Bake in a well buttered 9 x 12 inch casserole for 45 to 60 minutes at 350 degrees. Dorothy always used the breadcrumbs to make a decorative border about an inch wide around the edge of the dish, and sometimes she sprinkled a little additional cheese on top for the last few minutes.

This is an excellent choice for the buffet table, as it still tastes good when cooling down to room temperature. For a little different look, try substituting a package of frozen shoestring potatoes for the hash browns, which makes this more of a country style dish.

Dorothy always fixed this casserole up to the part of adding the crumbs the day before her Bridge Club met. She would take it out of the fridge the next morning so it would be room temperature by lunch and add the crumb border Dorothy’s recipe said that this serves 6. In today’s calorie conscious world, it is more like 10 servings. Perhaps slapping those cards down on the table ate up more calories than you would think.