Next Steps for the Starving, Reluctant Cook
Don’t cook? Don’t like to? Yet you have to eat. Don’t just survive on cereal or a tin of sardines. Cooking can be fun, and it doesn’t have to be complicated or mysterious.
If Farmboy can do it, you can do it, too. Let’s make it easy and fun.
That’s the kind of cooking I learned from my family and the other farm wives in the Corn Belt of the late 1950s. Back then, they didn’t have a large assortment of ingredients at their disposal, and they were usually pressed for time. The goal was always to get a good nutritious meal on the table that tasted good and satisfied big appetites. It was a time that made creative use of canned soups for a sauce, and the available meat from the freezer and the vegetables and starch at hand. It was a time for Jell-O salads and casseroles.
A meal that I made this week reminded me of those past farmhouse meals. Like those meals, this casserole, a Tamale Pot Pie, was easy to put together. The ingredients were both familiar and available in most grocery stores. It was enough to feed four, and it was ready in less than an hour. Moreover, it would have looked familiar to many of those hungry farmers.
About easy casseroles
Casseroles bake in the oven. The heat and time there marries the flavors and crisps the topping. The basic casserole ingredients: a protein and or vegetables, a starch, a binding agent or sauce, and often something that gives it texture. The Tamale Pot Pie has ground beef for the protein along with sweet corn from the freezer. The sauce comes from a can of diced tomatoes flavored with chopped black olives, chili power, and cumin, and the topping/texture comes from a mixture of store-bought biscuit mix coupled with a half cup of cornmeal, milk, an egg, and some chopped green chilis from the grocery store’s Southwest Food section. Brown the hamburger, add the tomato, olive, chili powder, and cumin mixture. Put it all in a baking dish, and top it with the mixed topping of combined biscuit mix, cornmeal, milk, egg and green chilis. Then pop it in an oven for 20 to 30 minutes for an easy casserole dinner with a Southwest flair.
About easier casseroles
Want to make it easier? Grab a can of chili off the shelf, mix in a can of corn, drained, or an equal amount of frozen corn from the freezer and top it with packaged cornbread mixed up according to instructions. It would turn out pretty much the same. It would satisfy most farmhands and would likely satisfy you.
I can peruse the cookbook I have from my grandmother’s local church back there in farmland. The casseroles all followed the same general playbook. Mrs. Davey’s School Day Casserole was made with packaged macaroni, dried beef, and a chopped green pepper. (I baled hay at Mrs. Davey’s farm.) The sauce was made with butter, flour, and milk, and the topping was grated American cheese. Mrs. King (on the neighboring farm) made a Reuben Casserole with a can of sauerkraut, a can of corned beef, and shredded Swiss cheese. The sauce was mayonnaise, Thousand Island dressing, and topped with sliced tomatoes and pumpernickel breadcrumbs.
Don’t knock these until you’ve tried them. Maybe not fancy, but they are easy and taste good.
Get these simple recipes down, build your confidence, and you’ll be ready to move on to new and interesting ingredients. As author Angelo Pellegrini writes, “Nourishment should be incidental to enjoyment.”
How about you? Do you have a favorite casserole recipe? Please share it with us.
