Creeping Socialist Casserole
by John Weckerle
Okay, we admit it, this is not about creeping socialists; it’s a recipe. Ever since your editor read that phrase on the East Mountain Tea Party web site, though, it keeps popping into his head and cracking him up. We want to be clear: this is is one of the most ridiculously paranoid combinations of words we’ve run across in a while, but it’s so ridiculous that it’s kind of funny, and we can imagine that the ghost of Vladimir Lenin is slapping George Soros’s knee over it, too. I guess you could say that the zucchini and yellow squash represent the ultra-left-wing vegetarian peril lurking beneath the veneer of American “sausage,” pepper and onion patriotism – and then take it a step further and take the that the “sausage” is also some cynical, unauthentic, Socialist-Marxist exploitation of our meat heritage. And don’t get me started on the liberal cheddar cheese conspiracy.
At any rate, Sunday found us not wanting any of the food we had ready to eat, and a bunch of summer squash with which to deal, so your editor decided to go off the map and do something unusual. Here’s how it went:
- 1 tbsp butter
- olive oil
- 1 each medium zucchini and yellow squash, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
- 1/2 medium onion, chopped
- 2 small or 1 medium green bell peppers, chopped
- 8-10 fresh basil leads, chopped (or some dried)
- 1/2 to 3/4 package Morningstar Farms sausage-style crumbles
- dash of thyme
- salt and pepper
- 2-4 ounces of cheddar cheese, to taste (we used Cabot Reserve for this one)
Heat oven to 375o. In a large skillet, melt the butter and add some olive oil (go easy; you can add more as you cook). Over medium heat, saute the zucchini and yellow squash until tender, adding salt, pepper, and thyme. Not too much of any of these. Remove from heat, transfer to a bowl, and stir in the basil.
In the same skillet, heat more olive oil, and saute the onion and peppers until just tender, seasoning with just a bit of salt and pepper. Add the sausage crumbles, and saute until everything is heated through. In a medium casserole dish, make a bottom layer of the squash mixture and a second layer of the “fauxage” mixture while singing Gimn Sovetskogo Soyuza. Top with the cheddar cheese, and bake until the cheese melts. Note to vegans: I ate some of this without the cheese, and it was just great, and I’m betting you could substitute something un-American for the butter, as well.