Pages, Pucks and Pantry

Grandma W's Hamburger Noodle Bake

I have been cooking and eating this dish for a long time. I have memories of me in my early twenties sitting at my Grandmas dinner table taking scoops of this out of a beautiful handmade pottery casserole dish that had been crafted by one of her friends. I think of it as comfort food. An easy dish to make, something you can add your own spices to...a dish that when I made my few furtive attempts to cook when I was younger, was a hit. Nothing fancy, just good simple comfort food.

I'm giving the basic recipe first and then I'll give you all the variations that were given to me or that I came up with.

GRANDMA W'S HAMBURGER NOODLE BAKE

1 (8-oz) package medium or wide egg noodles
Water, lightly salted
1 tablespoon oil
2 (8 oz) cans tomato sauce
1 cup cottage cheese
1/4 cup sour cream
1 lb lean ground beef
1 (8oz) package cream cheese (at room temperature)
1/3 cup minced green onions
1 tablespoon minced green pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 13" x 9" x 2" baking dish. Cook noodles in lightly salted water according to package directions, adding oil to water; drain. Brown ground beef in a large frying pan, breaking into small pieces. Drain excess fat. Stir in tomato sauce and remove from heat. Blend cream cheese to smooth. Blend in cottage cheese, sour cream, onion and green pepper. Spread half of noodles over bottom of buttered baking dish. Cover with cheese mixture and then remaining noodles. Top with meat sauce. Bake 20 to 25 minutes. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Note: I've used both medium and wide noodles, small and medium curd cottage cheese. I use full fat sour cream and good cream cheese (full fat Philly).

Variation: Saute 1 clove of crushed garlic with ground beef. Add 1 teaspoon chili powder, 1/2 teaspoon basil, 1/2 teaspoon leaf oregano and a pinch of ground clove to tomato sauce. Proceed as above. Serve with shredded Parmesan cheese. (Frankly I've made this version and have thrown in more of the required spices or less, depending on how much attention I was paying at the time).

Variation: Add diced green chilies to the cream cheese mixture.

Variation: Substitute some flavored soft cheese spread for some or all of the cream cheese (like garlic and herb or garden vegetable).

Variation: Make and add more of the cheese mixture because there is no such thing as to much cheese.

Over-the-Rainbow Macaroni and Cheese

The first time I made this for Mr. L was several years before I was Mrs. L.  He loved it. Needing come comfort food during the holidays, I pulled out LaBelle Cuisine and decided to make this Mac and Cheese dish again.

Please note. It has Velveeta in it. DON'T FREAK. This is really tasty! Mr. L kept commenting to everyone on the great "gourmet" Mac and Cheese I had made...until he found out it had Velveeta in it and then, well, he freaked. There isn't that much Velveeta in this, it's just one of four other cheeses. Everyone that's tried this has really liked it.

Patti tells a cute story about a piano player named Reggie Dwight (which isn't the name he goes by now) and Tupperware in her prelude to the recipe.

OVER-THE-RAINBOW MACARONI AND CHEESE

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 pound elbow macaroni
8 tablespoons (1 stick) plus 1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded Muenster cheese
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded mild Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup (2 ounces) shredded Monterey Jack
2 cups half-and-half
1 cup (8 ounces) Velveeta, cut into small cubes
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 teaspoon seasoned salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly butter a deep 2 1/2-quart casserole.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the oil, , then the elbow macaroni, and cook until the macaroni is just tender, about 7 minutes. Do not overcook. Drain well. Return to the cooking pot.

In a small saucepan, melt 8 tablespoons of butter. Stir into the macaroni. In a large bowl, mix the Muenster, mild and sharp Cheddar, and Monterey Jack cheeses. To the macaroni, add the half-and-half, 1 1/2 cups of the shredded cheese, the cubed Velveeta, and the eggs. Season with the salt and pepper. Transfer to the buttered casserole. Sprinkle with the remaining 1/2 cup of the shredded cheese and buttered casserole. Sprinkle with the remaining 1/2 cup of the shredded cheese and dot with the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter.

Bake until it's bubbling around the edges, about 35 minutes. Serve hot. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Patti's Pointers: She mentions that if you don't want to use all the cheeses (and really, it's what makes this dish) you can just use Velveeta and sharp Cheddar. She also says if you REALLY want to make this Over the Moon, add an extra stick of butter (which I have yet to try but figure next time I will). If you use the two sticks of butter, substitute milk for the half-and-half.

I pretty much made this straight up per the recipe. I used Dreamfields macaroni which made me feel just a tiny bit less guilty about the calories.

Shrimp With Dried Tomatoes and Linguine

This came from the Sunset Recipe Annual 2000 Edition. It came out pretty good. I was a bit concerned about the dried tomatoes (I was afraid they would be kind of chewy) but they really brought a wonderful taste to this dish. It was listed under the "Low-Fat" section, and was only supposed to be 377 calories a serving, but Mr. L and I finished off the entire batch...so much for low cal! It was pretty fast to put together too.

SHRIMP WITH DRIED TOMATOES and LINGUINE

2 teaspoons olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/3 cup dry white wine
2 cups fat-skimmed chicken broth
1/2 cup (3/4 oz.) dried tomato slices
9 ounces fresh linguine
1 pound (38 to 50 per lb.) frozen uncooked shelled, deveined shrimp
3 green onions, ends trimmed thinly sliced

In a 5 to 6-quart pan over medium-high heat, stir olive oil and garlic until garlic is limp but not browned, 2 to 3 minutes. Add lemon juice, wine, broth, and tomatoes.
Turn heat to high and stir often until sauce boils, about 2 minutes. Add pasta, return to boil, then add shrimp. Stir often until pasta is tender to bite and shrimp are opaque but moist-looking in center of thickest part (cut to test), 5 to 8 minutes. Ladle into wide bowls and sprinkle with onions. Makes 4 servings.

Note: I used chicken flavored Better than Bouillon for the chicken broth. I also cut the tomatoes into pieces and threw them in the bouillon  water as I was making it. Not sure if it made a difference or not but I had no problems with chewiness.

Note: I over cooked this just a bit. It kind of went from ok to overdone in the blink of an eye (not the shrimp either, they were pretty good, it was the dish itself got dry, the pasta a little mushy) so you'll need to watch it at the end. It's cooks so quick you should be standing there tending it anyway. With a good glass of white wine in hand from that bottle of wine you cooked with.

Orzo Pasta Salad

Toga! Toga! Toga! Mr. L and I were invited to a Greek party this past weekend. As the hosts were providing a nice juicy BBQ Leg of Lamb, guests were asked to contribute some sort of Greek side dish. I had been running across orzo recipes for ages and thought that something made with it would be a great dish to bring. I wanted to make a cold pasta salad thinking that would save the hosts trouble from trying to reheat it and cold pasta was something I could prepare ahead of time. Unfortunately, all the orzo recipes I came across were heated (don't worry, I took notes and will make them later!). Most of the recipes also had way to many ingredients and I was looking for something simple that the kids at the party might eat. Failing to locate anything in my cookbooks that seemed to go with the dish I had in my head, I, GASP, improvised and kind of put something together from all the recipes I found.

I think this turned out ok. I thought it was a bit dry, but Mr. L said it was fine. The party went well, the lamb was delicious, my toga was made out of a white curtain I found tucked away in a closet and Mr. L won the Olympic game of "one minute to eat five saltine crackers without water"...not an easy thing to do!

ORZO PASTA SALAD

16 ounces orzo pasta
4 Tablespoons olive oil
2 Tablespoons Red Wine vinegar
1/2 cup minced red onion
1 6oz container crumbled feta cheese
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
Salt and Pepper to taste

Cook orzo according to package directions. Drain pasta and transfer to large bowl. Stir in the olive oil, vinegar, red onion, feta cheese, lemon juice and basil. Toss to combine. Season with Salt and Pepper.

Though several recipes had adding tomatoes to the recipe, I didn't add them. I used them as a decoration instead. Serves 10 to 12.