Last weekend was a busy one on our little farm. We added three more rows to the vineyard – 102 more vines. David drove the tractor with the 18″-auger while I helped set the auger and cleared dirt at each hole. Then I planted each vine by creating a mound at the bottom of each hole, spreading the vine’s bare roots around it, backfilling dirt just to cover those roots and watering. As the water receded at each planting, my son Ben added more dirt and continued to water ensuring no pockets of air existed around the roots. Occasionally we’d hit a gopher hole and our water and dirt ended up somewhere down the hill.

Needless to say, it was a very labor-intensive process that took all day Saturday and Sunday afternoon. When we came back to the house at 6:30 Sunday evening, it was dark and we were worn out – hungry too. After washing up, we headed to the kitchen and everyone pitched into make a delicious sausage and rice casserole.

Sausage and Rice Casserole
1-1/2 lbs. pork sausage
2 medium-sized onions, chopped
1 Tbsp. butter
8 oz. baby bella mushrooms, cleaned and quartered
3 cloves garlic
14 oz. frozen spinach, thawed
1 cup beef broth
8 oz. cream cheese
1 cup Half-&-Half (more if needed)
1 tsp. fennel seeds
1⁄2 tsp. nutmeg
6 cups cooked rice
8 oz. Swiss cheese, shredded and divided
1⁄2 cup bread crumbs
Salt and pepper

While my husband prepared the rice, Ben cooked sausage over medium-high heat in a large oven-safe skillet, breaking it into small pieces. I chopped onions, mushrooms and garlic. When the meat browned, I added onions and noticed the pork did not create much grease. (I bought this wonderfully tasty lean pork from a local farmer.) I added a Tbsp. of butter and as the onions cooked, they helped deglaze the pan. Then mushrooms were added, mixed in and allowed to cook on medium heat until nicely browned.

While Ben thawed the spinach in the microwave, I added garlic to the pan and cooked for about 2 minutes. Then I added beef broth, cream cheese, Half-&-Half, herbs and seasoned to taste. When the cream cheese melted, the rice, spinach and half of the Swiss cheese was added and stirred until well distributed.

Remove pan from heat, sprinkle bread crumbs and remaining cheese over the top. Bake in a 375-degree oven until lightly browned on top – about 20 minutes.

I’m not sure if it’s just because we were all famished, but the casserole smelled amazing, Ben said little but ate lots and David declared it to be awesome.

The recipe makes about 8 servings which is good because we love leftovers.