Autumn Casserole

Casseroles have such a bad rep, at least where Im from. My mother never made them (maybe its just not a Quebecois thing? I dunno). First time I tasted a casserole, it was tuna, 5 years ago, and it scarred me. I mean, nasty stuff. Scarred Jeff too, who doesnt eat ANY fish, but smelled the meal enough to turn his face green. And who made this epic dish? Me. One of the biggest failures in my culinary life haha!

Then I got some experience, mainly pulling together meals that were edible then tasty then delicious from exactly what I had around, because we generally have a tight budget and cant afford to run to the store for extra ingredients. I also feel like its an excellent philosophy to have in the kitchen anyways. I also used the casserole word much more loosely to just mean whatever was made in one pan on stovetop is casserole. Thus the creation of this here dish, the autumn casserole. Termed autumn because I tend to only make it in the autumn since apples and sweet taters are plentiful around that time.

Ingredients

• 2 sweet taters, peeled and half mooned
• 2-3 links of hot italian sausages, coined
• 1 onion, half mooned
• Couple of garlic cloves, minced
• 2 apples, peeled, cored, and chopped grossly
• 1 jar of salsa (I use sweet spicy roasted corn salsa that I make during the summer, loosely based on this)

1. Sweet taters take a while to cook, so I halfway fill my pan with water, boil it at high heat, add the taters and 'cook' for about 10 minutes, enough to halway cook em, not long enough for them to break down. Strain and reserve the taters.
2. Add a bit of butter and start frying those onions. Halfway through, add the garlic and apples, and a few minutes after the sausage coins.
3. Once those are thoroughly cooked, add the taters, and the salsa. Serve over rice or couscous if desired, but not really necessary. Because my salsa has strong flavor, I dont feel the need to add any spices or herbs. This is also a dish that quite easily becomes vegetarian.

CEST BON!