Culinary Creations

So, I've been watching more food network since coming to college and am starting to understand food and flavor and cooking a little bit more (nothing like being a poor college student to inspire you to get creative, right?).  And, as my friends know, whenever an opportunity presents itself, I like to take advantage of it.  Yesterday, an opportunity presented itself as I was cleaning the kitchen in the discovery of some potatoes that were starting to go bad.  Amanda and I decided we should probably use them for dinner so that we didn't have to throw away every single one of them anytime soon.  I thought, "Potatoes . . . potatoes . . . potatoes go well in almost any kind of casserole, so why don't we get some cream of mushroom and make a casserole?  But we need some kind of protein . . . I have chicken, but it's frozen and takes way too long to defrost . . . oh yeah, Amanda and Lillian have beef they were talking about on Sunday that they wanted to use up soon; how about that?  Beef and potatoes . . . that reminds me of burgers and fries.  Or a cheeseburger and fries . . . ah, such a classic American dish.  Eureka!  Cheeseburger Casserole!"  So, I whipped together my ground beef (cooked with dill to get that pickle flavor so common among cheeseburgers as well as some soy sauce and garlic to give it a tiny bit of flair in honor of my roommates and their Asian backgrounds), potatoes (soaked in lime juice), cream of mushroom soup, a bit of chopped onion, and, because this is Utah, a squirt of fry sauce and voila!  All-American Cheeseburger Casserole!!

Baked slightly longer than perfection, but still delicious!!

It really looks kind of gross doesn't it?  Good thing it wasn't!!