Tasty Tuna Casserole for Two

I spent the weekend in Liverpool with Judson and a friend of mine from college, doing all the things you'd think we'd do in Liverpool... a lot of Beatles stuff and a lot of pint-drinking, mostly. While I was there, it struck me how I was walking into the very places my mom would have dreamed about visiting fifty years ago, and how the magic of that city still feels very real and not at all cheesy, the way I would have expected. I got to see Eleanor Rigby's actual grave, you guys. I didn't cry, but I totally thought about it. We danced in the Cavern Club, drank a pint at John's favourite hole-in-the-wall bar, and drove down Penny Lane on the sunniest day I've seen since we left Miami in January. (Oh, and we even stumbled into a mansion-turned-Irish-bar where we spent a couple of hours listening to two elderly British gentlemen sing Motown songs while a lot of elderly people danced along. Eleanor would have loved it.) Also, here's a weird fact: you know how the Beatles all kind of talk the same? It never occurred to me until we got there, but everyone in Liverpool sounds exactly like that. It's uncanny and a little weird to hear Paul McCartney's voice coming out of every cabbie, bartender, and child you meet, but there you have it.

Anyway, the weekend was more about Eleanor Rigby than my Eleanor, so it feels nice to get back into the swing of cooking again. Naturally, after nearly a week without cooking a single meal for ourselves, I dove right back in with a recipe for... 'tasty tuna casserole for two.'

(I know. Why do I do these things to myself? Partly because it sounded like good comfort food and partly because I tend to forget about tuna for about 364 days out of each year, then when I remember it, it's like a weird craving I can't get rid of until I have it.)

Strawberry fields forever, with Judson.

Andrew, me, and John lennon, just hanging out on Mathew street.

This isn't exactly light fare, though according to the newspaper clipping, it only has 331 calories per serving. We had it alone, but you could pair it with a nice rocket salad if you're ravenous. It was the perfect meal for these transitional days, where it's warm during the day and then cold as soon as the sun goes down. Plus, how often do you find a casserole for only two people? This makes an awesome dinner on a night when you're hungry and in a rush, but still want some proper homemade comfort food. Best of all, it's fast and cheap, so have at it! Next time you're stuck in traffic on your way home from a rainy day of work, make this casserole for dinner, then curl up with a book and a blanket and relax your way into a better evening.

The newspaper clipping that this recipe came from recommends serving it with a “marinated bean salad and hot coffee, for a hearty and even elegant dinner.” Unfortunately, it not being the 1970s, I didn't know what a marinated bean salad was, and drinking coffee with this seemed like a bad idea. If you try it that way, let me know, but don't hold me responsible if it's terrible.

The verdict:

3 spoons out of five. It's easy, fast, relatively low-calorie, and cheap... but it's not glamorous and it's not a beautiful meal if you're having guests.

The recipe:

Cheesy Tuna Casserole

THE DIRECTIONS:

Grease the rims of two individual casseroles or ovenproof tureens.
Preheat oven to 176C/350F.
Saute onion in butter until tender but not brown.
Stir in remaining ingredients except cheese.
Bake for 20 minutes until hot through.
Sprinkle cheese onto each casserole and bake 5 minutes longer.

the ingredients:

½ c chopped onion
1 tsp butter
½ can cream of celery soup
2/3 c tuna
3 tsp lemon juice
1 c cooked rice (we used Uncle Ben's microwave rice)
Salt and pepper
1/3 c grated cheddar cheese

Tax Day Cheesecake, or, Double-Crusted, Lightweight Cheesecake

Alright, let's be honest. If you're reading this, there's a good chance you're paying American taxes today, which, even if you're getting money back, is still a terrible amount of paperwork. Or perhaps you're a Brit, in which case, you probably should be celebrating the fact that you AREN'T paying American taxes today. Or maybe you started a new job this week (oh wait, that's me).

Regardless, I'm pretty sure this accurately sums up the way you and I both feel right about now.

In case you're just tuning in, when I sorted out the recipes in the box, it turned out that my grandmother had over a dozen recipes for plain cheesecake. Plain! Not even flavoured! So each month I'm making one, in hopes that I'll perfect my method, and also that maybe eventually I'll have a go-to unbeatable cheesecake recipe. So far, this is turning out more difficult than I thought.

Of all the cheesecakes I've made from the box so far, this one is most definitely the easiest. It's also hands down the most delicious... but that doesn't mean it came out pretty. Once again, the cheesecake rose to unmanageable heights in the oven, then slumped, fell, and cracked down the middle almost all the way to the crust. Also, good luck finding zweiback if you don't live... wherever zweiback is from. I settled for a mix of BelVita 'milk & cereals' biscuits and something called 'Nice Biscuits,' which I later learned are very sweet and coconut-based, so I don't recommend going that route. But if you do, then lower your sugar accordingly (I've included both amounts below).

However, it was still worth it, because this sucker was delicious. (Oh, and I finally found pie filling at an international grocer, so I'd be lying if I said I didn't eat my share of this topped with cherries. I'm sure Eleanor is glowering down on me from Heaven, but hey: a girl can't make one cheesecake a month without getting sick of plain ones!

This is the most worn-out, dripped-on, dog-eared recipe I've yet come across in the box, so I know Eleanor agreed with me: make this cheesecake when you need a break from the most taxing parts of your everyday life (pun intended).

The verdict:

4 spoons out of five. If I was ranking on ease and flavour alone, I'd have to give it a five, but alas, appearance figures into the mix here, and this cheesecake slumped and cracked like I've never seen before, so... a spoon is deducted accordingly. However, the uniqueness of having a top and bottom crust combined with the creamy-but-still-light flavour makes me think this might be the one most worth perfecting.

The recipe:

Double-Crusted, Lightweight Cheesecake

The ingredients:

The crust:

1 ½ c zweiback, digestive, rich tea, or graham cracker crumbs, ground very fine and divided
2 tbsp sugar (if using zweiback. Otherwise, cut this to a scant 1 tbsp)
3 tbsp melted butter

THE FILLING:

16 oz cream cheese
1 c sugar
5 eggs, divided
16 oz sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp lemon juice

CRUST:

Mix together sugar, butter, and 1 c crumbs, then press firmly into bottom of springform pan.
Reserve remaining ½ c crumbs for top crust.

 

 

FILLING:

Bring cream cheese to room temperature.
Once cream cheese is ready, preheat oven to 148C/300F.
In a large mixing bowl, beat egg yolks.
Add cream cheese and sugar and mix well, then add sour cream, vanilla, and lemon juice.
(Cream cheese should be soft enough that you can do this by hand-- if you use a mixer, make sure to use the lowest speed)
Set aside mixture, and in a separate bowl beat egg whites until very stiff.
Fold egg whites into cream cheese mixture gently until mixture is smooth. (This will take 3-5 minutes if working by hand. Mine still had bubbles in it, but all lumps were gone).
Pour into prepared pan and top with remaining crumbs.
Bake 1 hour, then, without opening the door, turn oven off and leave for another hour.
Open door and leave for a third hour.
Remove from oven and allow to cool thoroughly before removing sides of pan.

Broccoli and Cauliflower Casserole

Every time I gather the ingredients to make a recipe from the box that I think is going to be terrible, I am inevitably surprised when it turns out delicious. (Even the French Pudding, I'm embarrassed to say, was good enough to eat at least one serving.)

But when I assembled the ingredients for “Two Vegetable Casserole,” a recipe from my mom to Eleanor, I was convinced this would be the end of my winning streak. How convinced was I? So much so that I had a frozen pizza stashed in the freezer, just awaiting its turn in the spotlight if I couldn't make this casserole into something edible.

But I should have known: my mom is a pretty awesome cook, and this recipe did not disappoint-- despite the fact that it has a quarter of a cup of mayonnaise in it.* (I credit at least part of her cooking skills to the fact that my brother and I flat refused to eat onions, mayonnaise, or tomatoes until we were well into our teens. We taught her to be creative with her recipes, I guess?)

We love roasted veggies in this house, but it's easy to get stuck in the rut of “toss with olive oil, salt, pepper, and lemon juice and roast at an unreasonable temperature for 20 minutes.” So it was nice to give this recipe a try: roast veggies form the base of it, but they're dressed up with a creamy sauce and finished with an unbeatable crunch from the bread crumbs sprinkled over the entire thing. This is vintage food at its finest, but since Judson and I were barely children when casseroles were the ubiquitous solution for dinner, this is a totally new frontier for us and we love it.

I especially love that this recipe really does encompass Eleanor, my mom, and me, all in equal measure... and hey, it might not be the healthiest meal ever, but if you think of it as a low-fat broccoli soup, it's still a win in our book. I guess the moral of this story is that you should always trust your mom's cooking, even when it sounds gross. (Except when she tries to feed you beef stroganoff, because seriously, Mom? Eww.)

The Verdict:

5 spoons out of five. This made the perfect amount to have as a main course with a small salad, plus enough for leftovers the second night... and it was so good, we were actually looking forward to the leftovers. (Pro tip: sprinkle some fresh crumbs over it if you have this for leftovers, and it'll taste even better than the first night!)

*I really hate mayo and I don't see the point of adding the unnecessary fat here. I also ran out in the middle of this recipe, so I used 1 part mayo and 1 part greek yogurt. I think you could easily swap the entirety for greek yogurt (or sour cream) and not miss it, so that's what I listed below. In addition, I bought the veggies for this at our local co-op, so I used fresh instead of frozen, which I recommend. As noted here, I also omitted the final 2 tsp of melted margarine that was supposed to be drizzled over the final product because we found it unnecessary. If you want to do it the real 1970s way, then go for it... but that's on you.

If you're reeeeeally awesome, you'll use asian-style  panko bread crumbs instead of crushed  Ritz crackers, which is, assuredly, what eleanor would have used.

The recipe:

Two Vegetable Casserole

The Ingredients:

1 large head of broccoli (or 2 small ones)
1 medium-sized head of cauliflower
1 can cream of mushroom soup
¼ c greek yogurt
1 c grated extra sharp cheddar cheese
1 egg, beaten
Salt and Pepper
¼ c toasted bread crumbs

THE DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 200C/390F.
Chop broccoli and cauliflower into large-ish bite sized florets.
Put veggies in a roasting pan or casserole dish and drizzle with olive oil, shaking to coat. (It doesn't matter if your veggies are in a single layer-- you basically just want to add the great flavour that roasting imparts without cooking them all the way.)
Roast 10-15 minutes until you start to see brown bits but veggies are still crisp.
Remove from oven and turn temperature down to 176C/350F.
In a separate bowl, combine soup, yogurt, cheese, beaten egg, salt and pepper and blend well.
Pour soup mixure over vegetables and sprinkle evenly with crumbs.
Bake for 20-30 minutes.

Serves 4 as a main course with a side salad, or 6-8 as a side dish.