Thursday, August 14, 2008

Comfort Food







Today we just all felt the need for some comfort food. My grandmother's tuna casserole seemed to fill the bill admirably!






Mama Anne's Tuna Casserole


1 - 8 ounce package egg noodles, cooked according to package directions
2 - 6 ounce cans chunk light tuna
3 - medium sized potatoes, peeled, sliced and boiled until just tender
4 - hard boiled eggs, sliced
3 - tablespoons butter
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1 - 10 1/2 ounce can cream of mushroom soup
2 - cups milk
3/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 - cup cracker crumbs

Melt butter. Add chopped onion and simmer slowly until onion is clear. Add soup and milk and mix well. Simmer until thickened.

In a three quart casserole (or, as I did, you can use two casserole dishes and freeze one for later), layer noodles, then tuna, eggs and potatoes. Make two layers of each. Top with grated cheese. Pour sauce over, then top with cracker crumbs.



Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes or until cheese is melted and mixture is bubbly.



This receipe is a little bit of trouble, but SO good. Genuine comfort food.
It makes eight really generous servings, so for us freezing half gives us two full meals.






A good meal in the freezer is just like money in the bank!



Mama Anne was my mother's mother. She was born in 1900. She and her husband, a Presbyterian minister, raised four daughters and sent all four of them to college on a small town pastor's salary. This woman knew how to stretch her money to the maximum!



She made her own and her daughters' clothes. My mother said that each fall when school started she and her sisters each had five brand new dresses to start the school year. That's twenty dresses! She made slipcovers, hooked beautiful rugs, crocheted, tatted, maintained a scrupulously clean house, abundantly flowering landscape, and was a wonderful cook.



Don't ask me how. And all this under the watchful eyes of church members who felt free to drop in any time. She was also a state level officer in the women's ministry. Awesome example. I don't even begin to measure up to that one!




I often think how spoiled we are today. And how we could all stand to look back at the sacrifices our forebears made so that we can live this good life we now have.

I'm thankful! How about you?

3 comments:

Tori Leslie said...

Hi Elaine,

This looks so yummy. I love tuna casserole. I don't make it too often here in Croatia because a can the same size of the ones you used, here in Croatia is about $7. I think I can buy beef for the same.

BTW, thanks for the sweet e-mail, I really appreciate it.

Very nice blog, I don't think I've looked around enough, I see new things.

God bless and have a great weekend!

Oiyi said...

That does look like yummy confort food. I love that you make extra and put it in the freezer!

Stephanie Hughes said...

Oh, you got me.... I am going to try this next week! It looks wonderful. I love it when people share their favorite family recipes!!! Steph