Ham & Noodle Casserole

I have only recently begun liking ham.

I distinctly remember hating it as a child. It was always served on Thanksgiving and Christmas and I didn't like the smell, the look, the taste. If ham was the only meat served at one of the holiday meals, I ate only sides. And desserts.

As the years have gone by, I went from hating to ham to only disliking it to tolerating it. This year, however, I believe I have moved on to liking it.

It's okay to be proud of me; I am.

One of the couples who came to celebrate Thanksgiving with us brought a full ham. They very kindly left us with a bajillion pounds of it in our refrigerator. You can only eat so many ham sandwiches before you start hunting around for a recipe to help you get rid of it faster. I found this recipe and after making it, knew I needed to share it with you all. Some of you may be having ham dinners in the next couple of weeks and you need to have a back up recipe for leftovers!!!

The ingredients:

2 Tbsp. butter; 1/4 C. chopped onions; 1/2 C. chopped green onions; 1 can mushroom soup, undiluted; 1 C. sour cream; 1 (8 or 10 oz.) package of noodles, cooked and drained; 2 C. shredded Swiss cheese; 4 C. cooked ham, cut up. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

I need you to stop right here and pay close attention. This is the soup you need:
No matter how hard your hand tries to auto-pilot you to the cream of mushroom soup, it is not the soup you seek. GOLDEN MUSHROOM SOUP. Say it ten times before walking down the soup aisle. Don't let your mind try to play tricks on you!!!

Start by melting the butter in a medium pot and saute the onions...
and the green peppers.

Once the veggies are sauteed, remove from heat. Add the GOLDEN MUSHROOM SOUP...

and the sour cream.
Stir.
Cut up all that leftover ham you have learned to like.
You are ready to layer.

First start with a layer of noodles (1/3 of your total noodles).
Add 1/3 of the cheese. (I hunted the entire cheese aisle for shredded swiss and did not find it. The slices worked just as well for me.)
Add 1/3 of the ham.
Add half of the soup mixture.
Repeat the layers. The last third of the ham is the last layer.
Bake for 45 minutes until it looks like this:
People, I need to tell you how yummy this meal was--it was yummy!!!!
We all liked it; even Evan who is leery of all things with "casserole" in the title. It's totally the soup mixture and the swiss cheese that really give this casserole dimension. Please do not substitute the cheese because I think it would totally change the whole song and dance of the dish and would ruin it. We felt it needed salt and pepper and I will add them next time. It was great warmed up as left overs as well. I will definitely be using this recipe in the future for all left over ham emergencies.

Enjoy!!!