POTATO Casserole w/ FETA CHEESE, PARSLEY, MUSHROOMS, & TOMATO

POTATO Casserole w/ FETA CHEESE, PARSLEY, MUSHROOMS & TOMATO

TABLE OF CONTENTS: VEGETABLES

6 large Idaho potatoes

1 (15-oz.) can tomato sauce

2 tsp. granulated instant beef bouillon (or vegetable bouillon)

1 (8-oz.) can sliced mushrooms, drained

4 oz. (or more) Feta cheese crumbles

Flat-leaf parsley, coarsely chopped

Prepare a 9” X 13” baking dish with spray oil.

In a bowl mix together the tomato sauce, bouillon, and mushroom slices.

Peel the potatoes and place in a large bowl of cold water to keep potatoes from turning brown.  Dry each potato with paper towel as it is removed from the water to be sliced.  Begin cutting the potatoes into thin round slices.  Add the first potato slices to the tomato mixture and stir to coat potato slices.  Repeat with each potato.

Stir in the Feta cheese crumbles; then put the mixture into the prepared dish.  Sprinkle the top with parsley.  Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 30 to 45 minutes

or until the potatoes test tender using a fork.

This dish has some of the flavors from the countries surrounding the Adriatic Sea.  The pictures that follow were taken on the Croatian island of Korcula.  I thought I’d give you a taste of Westbrook-style Bohemian travel in Eastern Europe.

Our small ship landed on the island at night.  Everyone got off the boat and was met by family members or representatives of their island accommodations.   There we stood by ourselves, all alone with no one calling out “Westbrook?”  We went to a nearby small café to get information about the person that was supposed to meet us.   As I was trying to explain our plight, a huge guy about 6’4” tall with an equally huge mustache stood up and said, “What part of Alabama are y’all from?”  We were astounded!  He was a native of Montevallo, Alabama living in Seattle, Washington; and a professor of Western Civilization at the Art Institute of Seattle.  We, of course, became friends and continued our travels together by ship down the Adriatic to Dubrovnik.  Shortly after meeting our new friend, a panicky young man drove up to the café looking for us.  He was to have met the ship for his neighbor, our landlady, who was “on holiday”; and he had forgotten.  Many hand-waving apologies later, all was well when he delivered us to our apartment.

The photos following are views of Korcula, our apartment on the island, our Bohemian-style laundry being hung on a clothesline over the charming little restaurant below!  It can even be seen through the beautiful iron entry-gate to the restaurant.  You will be relieved to learn that we actually removed the dry undies and socks before they opened for dinner that evening……