Cooking Through Magnolia Table In A Year: Week 48

This post may include affiliate links in which we earn a commission, as we are supported by our users. All opinions expressed are always our own and any commissions earned are of no cost to you. Thanks for your support!

Week 48! Only 4 weeks left! While we only have 11 more recipes to make and the finish line of this cooking through a cookbook in a year challenge is almost upon us, I am trying to make each recipe now with as much passion as I did back in January. Thankfully, we still are very excited to try new recipes, discuss our ratings and plug in around the table, so I believe I will be a little sad when this journey is finished. But for now, this week of cooking through Magnolia Table brought us two new GIANT dishes of Sausage & Hash Brown Casserole (p.33) and Garlic Cheese Grits (p.31). Growing up, breakfast casseroles were about the only kind of casserole that my mom made, so I was quite excited to try this one. Her go-to was a sausage and grits casserole that I always found delicious and my younger brother nicknamed “nasty grits casserole” in his effort to protest and display his preferences against sausage and grits. So, when I saw that this week consisted of both a Sausage & Hash Brown Casserole and Garlic Cheese Grits, I just had to chuckle. While both were delicious, I believe one will be coming back to our table very soon in the form of a Christmas brunch, as it simply would be perfect for Christmas morning.

Sausage & Hash Brown Casserole

When first envisioning this Sausage & Hash Brown Casserole, I had in mind a dish with shredded hash browns. While I am sure that would have been delicious, to my happy surprise, this casserole actually calls for diced hash browns which provides a welcome spin to a traditional dish. Almost like a frittata, this Sausage & Hash Brown Casserole is very tasty, flavorful and all around enjoyable. The diced hash browns and sausage give a wonderful hearty texture while the cheesy egg mixture brings everything together without strong egg texture or flavor. If you are looking for an easy breakfast casserole, I most certainly recommend this one as we thoroughly enjoyed it!

Crowd Average Rating:

Coming in as our highest rated recipe of the week, this Sausage & Hash Brown Casserole gained an average rating of 7.5! While I can’t think of a single way to improve upon this dish, I do believe it would make a fabulous Christmas morning breakfast. Joanna Gaines does not specifically mention that it can be made ahead of time, however with the ingredients it includes, I believe it could easily be prepared the night before and then popped in the oven to cook on Christmas morning. Either way, it is wonderful and we most certainly will enjoy it in the future.

Cooking Through Magnolia Table In A Year: Week 48 - Sausage & Hash Brown Casserole

Garlic Cheese Grits

As I mentioned above, my mom’s sausage and grits casserole was about the only time I ever would eat grits growing up. To me, grits have to be the perfect thick, creamy texture almost like a heavy mashed potato for me to enjoy them. A thin, watery, gritty texture just won’t do. So, when I noticed that we had a Garlic Cheese Grits recipe, I was very intrigued to see how they would be. Thankfully, they were everything I could have hoped for. Creamy, thick, cheesy and certainly full of garlic flavor, these Garlic Cheese Grits are the perfect breakfast option for a crowd. Top with a bit of the Bacon Tomato Sweet Drip Jam from Week 27 and this recipe is scrumptious.

Crowd Average Rating:

These Garlic Cheese Grits gained an average rating of 6.5! While this is a great rating, let me give a little backstory. Going into this recipe, I enjoyed grits, and Charlie really didn’t.

Cooking Through Magnolia Table In A Year: Week 48 - Garlic Cheese Grits

That being said, we were unfortunately the only two to be rating this recipe! To our encouragement, Charlie was very pleasantly surprised by these grits and they almost persuaded him to become a grits fan. However, after eating an entire 9×13 of them, we may not be able to touch them again for a long, long time. All that to say, these grits are wonderful and if you enjoy grits, I am sure you will love this recipe. If you don’t, they just might convert you over, but please try this dish with a crowd, otherwise you will be up to your eyeballs in grits and you might just wish you had invited others to try it with you.

Looking Ahead – Week 49

Week 49 Shopping List Includes:

Black pepper
Kosher salt
Butter
Onion
Brown sugar
Canned diced jalapenos

Stone ground mustard
Cream style corn
Canned corn
Sour cream
Eggs
Sugar

Corn muffin mix
Ground beef
Rotel
Southwestern style beans
Fritos
Cheddar cheese

Looking ahead to week 49 within our Cooking Through Magnolia Table In A Year Guide, this upcoming week will feature Jalapeno Drip Jam (p.83), Creamed Corn Spoonbread (p.187) and Gaines Family Chili (p.256). Having made this chili once in the past, I can’t wait to have it again this week! While I haven’t tried the Jalapeno Drip Jam or Creamed Corn Spoonbread, if they are anything like the Bacon Tomato Sweet Drip Jam and Jalapeno Cornbread, then I am sure they are going to be just delicious!

Final Thoughts

Do you have holiday parties coming up? While I haven’t tried all of this week’s upcoming recipes, I believe the Jalapeno Drip Jam would make the perfect holiday pepper jelly dip and everyone loves a good chili. This past week had so many wonderful breakfast recipes, however this upcoming week is definitely a party edition as the Creamed Corn Spoonbread can serve 12! If you do cook along this week with us, I would love to know your thoughts in the comment section below!

Happy cooking!