My mom is a very good cook. When A. and I got married, she typed up all of her standby recipes and had them bound into a book at the copy shop. Since she is an eyeball kind of cook, they time she spent eyeballing and then measuring her ingredients in order to pass along the recipe was a real gift of time and love.
I don't think of my mom as a "convenience cook." She uses relatively few processed ingredients of any kind. As I mentioned yesterday, she makes a killer pie crust. She's never served Green Bean Casserole. Somewhere along the way, the rise of the convenience food in the 60's and 70's really infiltrated her psyche.
One time, I baked Tomato Pie from Mom's Cookbook. For the intervening decade between it's debut and today, it has stood solo at the top of the "flops" list. The recipe contains canned biscuits ( a product I would never use today), tomatoes, onions, peppers topped with the winning combination of warm mayonnaise mixed with cheddar cheese. I think the only dish I could serve to A. that would be less popular would contain beets.
For me, childhood would not have been complete without hamburger stroganoff. Not beef, hamburger. When I was a kid, it was made with canned mushrooms and Minute Rice. I've freshened it up some, and I no longer need to crack Mom's Cookbook to make it, but the skillet sauce still contains a can of Campbell's Cream of Chicken Soup and some sour cream. And some nights, there isn't any dinner I'd rather eat. K. thinks so too. She (who delights in loving mushrooms, since J. doesn't eat them), pronounced last night's rendition of the stroganoff "perfect dinner".
Hamburger Stroganoff
1 onion, chopped
1 clove minced garlic
1 lb ground beef
salt and pepper
splash of sherry or vermouth
1 lb mushrooms, sliced
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup sour cream
Saute onion, garlic and ground beef. Add mushrooms, salt and pepper, and saute until mushrooms are tender. Stir in soup and sherry wine. Simmer 10 minutes. Stir in sour cream and heat through on low. Serve over rice.
I don't think of my mom as a "convenience cook." She uses relatively few processed ingredients of any kind. As I mentioned yesterday, she makes a killer pie crust. She's never served Green Bean Casserole. Somewhere along the way, the rise of the convenience food in the 60's and 70's really infiltrated her psyche.
One time, I baked Tomato Pie from Mom's Cookbook. For the intervening decade between it's debut and today, it has stood solo at the top of the "flops" list. The recipe contains canned biscuits ( a product I would never use today), tomatoes, onions, peppers topped with the winning combination of warm mayonnaise mixed with cheddar cheese. I think the only dish I could serve to A. that would be less popular would contain beets.
For me, childhood would not have been complete without hamburger stroganoff. Not beef, hamburger. When I was a kid, it was made with canned mushrooms and Minute Rice. I've freshened it up some, and I no longer need to crack Mom's Cookbook to make it, but the skillet sauce still contains a can of Campbell's Cream of Chicken Soup and some sour cream. And some nights, there isn't any dinner I'd rather eat. K. thinks so too. She (who delights in loving mushrooms, since J. doesn't eat them), pronounced last night's rendition of the stroganoff "perfect dinner".
Hamburger Stroganoff
1 onion, chopped
1 clove minced garlic
1 lb ground beef
salt and pepper
splash of sherry or vermouth
1 lb mushrooms, sliced
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 cup sour cream
Saute onion, garlic and ground beef. Add mushrooms, salt and pepper, and saute until mushrooms are tender. Stir in soup and sherry wine. Simmer 10 minutes. Stir in sour cream and heat through on low. Serve over rice.
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