Broccoli-Cheese Casserole ... Or the Lack Thereof

There are long-favored “goodies” that our family typically enjoys only on certain holidays. Recipes we only pull out once a year. If you’ve ever created a family feast, you probably are familiar with the genre.

One of my all-time favorites has been (for decades, mind you) my Mom’s broccoli-cheese casserole. (Ever wonder how many “favorite” recipes begin with the word, “Mom’s…” ?!?) She turned it over to me eons ago; she says Tanya and I have improved it to the point where it’s better than hers. (She can’t recall the original source of the recipe, sadly!)

We make it only for Thanksgiving dinner. Never for any other occasion. Well, until a couple of years ago. And there lies the problem.

As Mom and Dad have moved graciously into their 80s, we can’t permit Mom to cook much anymore, especially a big holiday meal. Tanya and I have more or less taken over Thanksgiving dinner, but with her typically working most years right up until 6:00pm the evening before Thanksgiving, time to prepare a full meal is practically non-existant.

Soooo (and yes, I’m getting to the point), we’ve started to dine out as a family on Thanksgiving.

So far, our restaurant choices have been superb; none of us has been disappointed with the food we’ve been served, and none of us have ever gone home hungry!

However … there are those casseroles that we (used to) make only once per revolution around the sun: broccoli-cheese, scalloped tomatoes, sweet potato, etc.

Oh gosh, how I miss those. I long for them.

But, things change. Times change. People change. Nothing really remains the same, no matter how hard we wish and pray it to always be as it was before. Such is the rhythm of life, correct?

A time or two, we’ve made a “holiday dinner” somewhere between Thanksgiving and Christmas; Mom and Dad typically purchase a cooked turkey, and Mom will make dressing and pies. Mmmm! Tanya and I will crank out three or four casseroles, and perhaps a fancy fruit salad. When we’ve done this, for a glorious late-autumn weekend we feast and dine on a meal that still feels like Thanksgiving in many ways. And there are leftovers! Yes, yes, wonderful leftovers! (I personally think casseroles get better with each re-heating, don’t you?)

I truly miss the broccoli-cheese casserole the years that we don’t make it. Honestly, I do. Yes, we could prepare it for Resurrection Sunday. Or for someone’s birthday. But to me? It just wouldn’t be the same. This recipe needs to be devoured on Thanksgiving, trust me!

For any of you who would like to give this a try sometime, I present to you the definitive, all-time champion of broccoli-cheese casseroles, courtesy of Mom:



30 ounces frozen chopped broccoli*
2 rolls Ritz crackers
1 medium onion, chopped
ground black pepper
16 ounces cheese**
½ lb butter
1 teaspoon rubbed sage


Cook frozen broccoli according to package directions and drain.

Melt cheese in saucepan with half of the butter. Toss and mix broccoli and chopped onion with cheese.

Melt the remaining butter, mix in the crumbled crackers, put on top of casserole. Top with pepper & sage. (No salt required -- there's plenty in the cheese!)

Bake 20-30 minutes at 350F degrees or until bubbly.
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*When this recipe was written it was fairly simple to find 10-ounce boxes of frozen chopped broccoli in your grocer’s freezer case. Poof: those days are gone! We now end up buying plastic bags of chopped broccoli and trying to get as close to 30 ounces as we can.

**The original recipe called for American cheese, but a half-and-half mixture of American and cheddar works well...even Swiss will work, and adds an interesting flavor.