Surrendering
After 3 days of fighting and refusing to admit it, I think I finally have to say the words: I have a cold.
There's nothing I hate more than being sick. This cold is pretty mild so far, just a bit of coughing and fever, nothing overwhelming. Though the dry radiator heated air in my apartment has meant that there is a lot of blood in the tissue when I blow my nose. (Sorry to be yucky.) Hopefully admitting it early and deciding to nurse myself through it will get me over the hump and back to health quickly.
Being sick does mean that my thoughts start running towards comfort food. So for dinner tonight it is the simplest of my childhood comfort foods: macaroni and tomatoes. It's exactly what it sounds like, macaroni mixed with a can of crushed stewed tomatoes. Really simple, but really tasty and chock full of that "mommy made it just like this" goodness.
Tomorrow I'm thinking it may be time for a hamburger casserole. This is a another dish that I have very fond childhood memories of. Again, a very simple dish: egg noodles, browned ground beef, stewed tomatoes, and cheese layered and baked into a bubbly delicious casserole. Here's the kicker: my mom swears she has never made this dish. In fact she says she'd never considered the combination until I told her about it a few years ago. In my memory though this recipe graced our table once or twice a month. Clearly one of us has been abducted by aliens and had memories implanted, but which one? Maybe me... maybe that's what left me susceptible to this cold.
There's nothing I hate more than being sick. This cold is pretty mild so far, just a bit of coughing and fever, nothing overwhelming. Though the dry radiator heated air in my apartment has meant that there is a lot of blood in the tissue when I blow my nose. (Sorry to be yucky.) Hopefully admitting it early and deciding to nurse myself through it will get me over the hump and back to health quickly.
Being sick does mean that my thoughts start running towards comfort food. So for dinner tonight it is the simplest of my childhood comfort foods: macaroni and tomatoes. It's exactly what it sounds like, macaroni mixed with a can of crushed stewed tomatoes. Really simple, but really tasty and chock full of that "mommy made it just like this" goodness.
Tomorrow I'm thinking it may be time for a hamburger casserole. This is a another dish that I have very fond childhood memories of. Again, a very simple dish: egg noodles, browned ground beef, stewed tomatoes, and cheese layered and baked into a bubbly delicious casserole. Here's the kicker: my mom swears she has never made this dish. In fact she says she'd never considered the combination until I told her about it a few years ago. In my memory though this recipe graced our table once or twice a month. Clearly one of us has been abducted by aliens and had memories implanted, but which one? Maybe me... maybe that's what left me susceptible to this cold.
Hi Cully, Hope you feel better soon. I had to laugh about your story of your Mom forgetting her recipe. I once asked my Mom for her recipe for Chicken Ragout and she looked at me as if I was from Planet 'X'. Never did get the recipe, but if I close my eyes I can still taste the chicken in it's creamy sauce.... Yumm!
Hi Cully, Sorry to hear you're not well. Get well soon ok. :o)
She probably did make it Cully, she just doesn't remember. We do suffer from CRS the older we get.
OK....I surrender. I did make hambuger casserole. The dietician from my junior high gave me the recipe, very kindly reducing it to family size from school size. It was called John Marzetti on the lunchroom menu and was my favorite school lunch. The only thing you left out is onion and celery sauteed in butter and added to the tomatoes. I rarely used celery just because it was not a favorite thing of mine.
Being a southern cook, the mac and tomatoes were seasoned with bacon or fat back grease.
I've no idea why I denied making this because I remember it clearly. Right now I can't remember the denial. Any more secrets you'd like to know?
Hope you feel better soon.
Oooh. That's a FANCY version. I don't ever go to trouble of sautéing anything but the beef. and a quick google search of John Marzetti does indeed come up with similar recipes. Wonder why it has that name?
Way back when, when I wasn't eating meet I called you to say that I had made a version of this with a soy based ground beef substitute. At the time you declared that you had never heard of it, but that it sounded tasty.