Hash Brown Casserole

I read this morning on the interwebs - and I think it was that Facebook thang - that somebody was offering to stir up a hash brown casserole that would feed six to eight people for your Thanksgiving Feast pleasure.  All this cook was asking for her troubles and the ingredients to have it ready for your feasting pleasure is a mere $25.  Whut?  Are you kidding me?  When all that is necessary are the ingredients below?  Nope, I'm making my own for my peeps.  Thank you very much!

Ingredients:
1 two-pound package of frozen country style hash browns
2 cups grated cheddar or casserole blend cheese
1 pint of sour cream
1 can cream of chicken soup (I have been known to use cream of mushroom or cream of celery in a pinch)
1/2 cup of diced onion
1/2 cup of softened butter (and be sure to turn it upside down for the photo op)
salt and pepper to taste

Optional Ingredients if you want a topping:
a handful of bread or cracker crumbs
thin-sliced or grated American or processed cheese - like Velveeta
minced parsley

Instructions:

• Break up the frozen hash browns if they are clumped up after the long drive from the grocery store.  I usually just waller the bag around a bit and then give them a good stir with a wooden spoon after I dump them into my gigantor mixing bowl.
• Sprinkle the diced onion over the top of the mountain of hash brown potatoes.
• Sprinkle the cheese over the top of the mountain of hash brown potatoes gilded with diced onions and stand back and admire the beauty of all that.

• Give these three ingredients a good stir with your trusty wooden spoon.
• Sprinkle with salt and pepper to suit your tastes (Or if you have high blood pressure, you may want to go easy on the salt and double up on the pepper.  Of course, if you have high blood pressure, you are not going to eat this dish very often anyway, so just go for the gusto!)
• Stir together the sour cream, cream soup, and softened butter.
• Add the creamy, buttery goodness to the cheesey, potatoy goodness and stir till there are no clumps and all the potatoes seem to be coated with the creaminess - or until your arthritic hands can no longer grip the trusty wooden spoon. (I have been known to just dive in and mix it all together with my hands but that is sort of squishy.)
• Pour the mixture into a 13x9" casserole dish and tamp it down to firmly smash it all together.

• Feel free to use the optional ingredients by just sprinkling a topping of bread crumbs over the top before baking or covering in more cheese to escalate your heart disease issues or sprinkling with a bit of parsley to make it look prettier.
• Bake at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes and serve warm.