How The Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss

Photography by me.

Merry Christmas! Happy Hannukah! Happy Kwanzaa! Blessed Ramadan! Happy Holidays! Seasons Greetings! Happy Festivus! I hope everyone has had a happy and blessed holiday with their families, friends, loved ones, pets, and anyone else beloved.

So today’s post is probably not a surprise. But, it’s Christmas. I HAD to do honor to How The Grinch Stole Christmas, because it wouldn’t be the holiday without this story. I always loved the Grinch, and as I got older, could certainly relate to him much more, though I never particularly cared for Christmas Day as a child, either.

It was always a day of stress, my mother yelling about something, a mad rush to be seated at the table no later than 2pm because that was the time my grandmother insisted we eat, someone getting a little too tipsy and starting a fight, and when I got older, the heartbreak of waiting for the man I was in love with to meet me at my family’s house one Christmas and him never showing up and finding myself in tears in my grandmother’s bedroom. Not happy associations with a holiday that is supposed to be about joy and peace.

It was only when I decided that I was going to have Christmas at my own house, on my own terms, and invite only those who brought happiness and peace to my life that I began to enjoy Christmas. I got to see the people who truly cared about me, I got to cook the food that I liked, there was no  mad rush to be seated at a certain time. We ate and drank and relaxed and listened to music and enjoyed a very leisurely day and I realized that I actually did feel Christmas in my heart, just like our grumpy green friend The Grinch. So in opening my own heart and home to those who bring happiness to my life, I discovered the joys of the holiday season in my own way.

The part where he takes the last can of Who-Hash has always been my favorite, along with poor Max being forced into being a reindeer with the large antler on his head. “Then he slunk to the icebox. He took the Whos’ feast! He took the Who-pudding! He took the roast beast! He cleaned out that icebox as quick as a flash. Why, that Grinch even took their last can of Who-hash!’

I love the fact that hash is a mixup of whatever you have on hand. Meat, potatoes, vegetables, herbs and spices, cheese, and topped with the obligatory fried egg. It’s the perfect hangover meal, great at using up leftovers, delicious at any time of day, and takes so little time to cook. And it always tastes great. I had a couple of sweet potatoes, a yellow onion, and some sausages that needed cooking, so this was my version of Who-Hash. Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS
1 large yellow onion

1 tablespoon olive oil and 1 tablespoon butter
2 sausages, with the meat squeezed out of the casing
2 small sweet potatoes
3 cloves of garlic
Fresh thyme and fresh rosemary
3 eggs
Salt and pepper

METHOD:
Peel and slice the onion into little half-moons. Melt the butter with the olive oil in a cast-iron skillet, and put the onions in to cook down slightly, about 5 minutes. Add salt for flavor, and to keep the onion from burning.

While the onions are cooking happily away, chop the sweet potatoes. I don’t ever bother peeling potatoes, sweet or otherwise, because you get so much flavor (not to mention vitamins and minerals) from the skin. Chop into rough 1-inch cubes. Put into a bowl with a bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Grate in the garlic cloves over the sweet potatoes. Then, finely chop the rosemary sprigs, and strip several thyme leaves off their stems. Add these fragrant herbs to the potatoes and garlic, and mix together well.

Add the potatoes to the onions in the pan, and allow to cook low and slow for up to 20 minutes. The idea here is to somewhat dry out the potatoes, so that they get nice and crisp and slightly blackened at the edges, which just adds to the flavor.

Heat your oven to 425F at this point.

After the potatoes and onions have cooked, add in the sausage crumbles, and cook another 10 minutes. Check to make sure the sausage is cooked through. The smell of the onions and meat and herbs frying up will make you salivate, so be prepared to slobber a little bit.

Make three wells in the potato-sausage hash mixture, and crack an egg into each well. Sprinkle the eggs with salt and pepper. Put the pan into the oven and bake for 10 minutes, or until the eggs are set and cooked through.

Serve piping hot. If you’re like me and love that golden, ooziness of poached or fried or soft-boiled eggs, you’ll love breaking the yolk and watching that yummyness drip its yellow deliciousness all over the hash. Delicious and tasty, and could warm even the tiny, cold heart of The Grinch!

A very merry Christmas and joyous New Year to all of my readers! Thank you for the support in 2016, and I look forward to reading and cooking for you even more in 2017!