Long-Ago Friend; Casserole/Hotdish

OK, first thing: I loved the Lenten Fish Fry I went to last night.  I hung out with my usher acquaintance/friend and we had a great time.  Honestly, I was worried that I would automatically throw my defenses up because, frankly, we don't know each other all that well and it's been decades since we've seen each other.  But she was open with me, and in turn I was open with her, and we hung out for a few hours and it was great and easy.  Also, St. Albert the Great deserves its reputation of having one of the best fish frys in the Twin Cities.  It was packed and homey and inviting and, besides one alpha male not being quite in the festive spirit, everyone there was so nice and generous.  Gosh, I could go again.  Unfortunately, it'll have to be next year because I don't think I am free the next three Fridays.

---

Went to sleep at around 10:30, I think, and woke up around 7:30, and ever since, I've been looking at how to cook a casserole/hotdish on the Internet all morning.  The anonymous worker at my company left another batch of vegetables.  After leaving them all day, I saw that there were still a potato, a couple carrots and a few onions.  Combine that with cans of black beans and tomatoes that are still in our pantry, the bag of processed shredded cheese my parents bought on sale from Hy-Vee, and the rice I know my folks will notice I haven't touched since they left, and I felt compelled to make another hotdish/casserole to take care of a lot of the leftovers I still have at home.  It'll save me money, even if I don't want to cook the meat tonight and just want to buy pre-cooked meat instead.  My slapdash approach to making this, however, scares me into thinking I'll screw this up.  My first hotdish had directions; I'm throwing this one together, so I don't know, in particular, how long I should cook what I'm making.  But right now I'm in the mood of rushing headlong into something despite not knowing what in the heck I'm doing.  Wish me luck!