I can't make it better... but I can make you funeral potatoes (recipe)
Making funeral potatoes is easier than getting yourself to the funeral.
"I grew up in the Midwest and have lived my adult life in the South. It doesn’t matter if a funeral is in the morning or dark of night, right alongside the other warm and gooey church lady-made foods will always be a special, goopy concoction of potatoes, cheese and some kind of crunchy topping. People look at the cold cuts and cheese plates out of respect but always go back to those funeral potatoes. The hug of breakfast-y casserole known as funeral potatoes gets down to warm your very soul.
While they are a funeral staple (hence their name of honor), the origin of funeral potatoes are kind of hazy. Every state lays claim to their own version with Utah leading the pack. My best guess is that some church-going woman in 1946 had frozen hash brown potatoes, cheese and cream of chicken soup in her pantry and fridge and decided to just slop it all together. In 2018, Walmart even decided to make funeral potatoes easier to bring with their own frozen version and a resulting trending hashtag: #funeralpotatoes. While that was a nice time-saving idea, there’s nothing that replaces the staple, real-deal funeral potatoes.
Making funeral potatoes is easier than getting yourself to the funeral. Make sure you have one of those heat-keeping thermal pockets with handles to put the casserole pan in so the potatoes are hot and huggy and not just luke-warm hash browns lumped together. There are versions with onions but I like making them simply like my grandma did with the number “two” in mind for ingredients: 2 cups, 2 cans, 2 tablespoons. Basically the staple ingredients need to be frozen potatoes, lots of cheese, something creamy and something crunchy. Getting ready for the funeral might make you a little weepy so easy is just best. While it is a little odd to make funeral potatoes for a Mondaynight dinner, these are potatoes that go well with everything from brunch to fried chicken, at a funerals or not." - Amy Barnes, contributor
Ingredients
½ cup butter
2 cans cream of chicken soup
2 cups sour cream
2 cups shredded cheese
32 ounce package frozen hash browns
2 cups crushed corn flakes
2 tablespoons melted butter
Directions
Funeral potatoes are actually a kissing cousin of the “dump cake”, another funeral staple. Allow around 1 hour and thirty minutes for prep and cooking. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Melt the ½ cup of butter. A funeral reception needs lots of butter; informal studies show it helps in the grieving process. Crush up those cornflakes and put them on top with more melted butter. Bake for around an hour depending on the kind of frozen taters you are using; the shredded kind takes less time. Diced hash browns take right at an hour to cook. Use O’Brien potatoes if you want to get fancy. Add a little more shredded cheese on top in the last 10 minutes or so for an extra melty and crunchy top.