Tuna Noodle Casserole

Every Friday during Lent we had fish for dinner, and even when it was not Lent, we often had fish on Friday. I recall that fish sticks were a common Friday dinner, but there were other Friday specials, including Tuna Heroes and today's dish, Tuna Noodle Casserole.

This casserole is made with simple ingredients, but what I always loved was the potato chips on top. There was something special about having potato chips at dinner when I was young. Now that I am old and can anything I want for dinner, I don't really want to eat potato chips for dinner. Mom usually bought a box of Jay's potato chips. In the box, there were two bags of chips. While Jay's chips are still available in the Chicago area, I have not seen them packaged in a box in a long time.

A warning about this casserole: it is very large. If there are only two people in your house, it will last a week. When we were young, there were so many of us that I suspect this casserole did not last long.

Tuna Noodle Casserole 

1 pound elbow noodles, cooked

1 can Cream of Mushroom soup

2 cans tuna, drained

6 hard-boiled eggs, chopped

Potato chips, crushed

Mix the noodles, soup, tuna, and eggs.  Pour into a greased 9x13 casserole dish. Bake for about 20 minutes at 350. Sprinkle crushed potato chips on top to cover the casserole. Bake a few minutes more. Enjoy!

Corned Beef and Cabbage

Every St. Patrick's day, Mom made corned beef and cabbage. I am not sure how it came to be that corned beef and cabbage is considered an Irish-American meal, but it is, so enjoy it today.

Around March, corned beef and cabbage can easily be found in any grocery store. Corned beef brisket is a salt-cured beef that is usually sold with a packet of spices and pepper that is used to season the beef while cooking. If your corned beef does not come with the seasoning packet, just use a bay leaf or two and whole black peppercorn. It can be difficult to find corned beef brisket in grocery stores outside of March. I do not know why it is not sold year-round because it makes for a delicious meal. Sure, it is easy to get a corned beef sandwich, but most corned beef sandwiches are not as delicious as this meal.

Corned Beef and Cabbage 

• 2 to 3 pound corned beef brisket
• 2 medium potatoes, quartered
• 3 medium carrots, quartered
• 1 large onion, cut into wedges
• 1 small cabbage, sliced

Trim the fat from meat. Place the meat in a Dutch oven; add spice packet and enough water to cover the meat. Cover and simmer about 2 hours or until almost tender.

Add potatoes, carrots, and onion. Return to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer 10 minutes. Add cabbage and cook 10 to 20 more minutes. Remove meat and vegetables. Slice meat across the grain.

Serve with rye bread and mustard. Enjoy!

Pizza

Mom often made pizza from scratch. Homemade pizza is not too difficult. But most importantly, homemade pizza is easy to customize. Mom always made this pizza as thin-crust pizza, but you could use the pizza to make a stuffed pizza if you wanted.

I remember helping Mom make pizza. She always used rectangular cookie sheets and cut the pizza into squares. Cutting pizza into squares is common in Chicago, even for round pizzas, and is known as "party cut" or "tavern cut." Also, Mom had a few mini-pans, that were about 4 inches by 2 inches, and Mom always let me have one of the mini-pizzas that I could top however I wanted.

For the cheese, Mom used to get a block of mozzarella and cut it into slices. Using this type of cheese can create a nice thick layer of cheese on the pizza. For this batch, I made one pizza with sliced cheese and one pizza with shredded cheese.

I suspect that the most popular pizza topping in Chicago is Italian sausage. Mom's standard topping was usually ground beef. For this pizza, I used Italian sausage, but any toppings will work. Sometimes, Mom would use vegetable toppings, but I am not sure my siblings like anything but Mom's standard pizza. The great thing about homemade pizza is that you can use any toppings, any sauce, any cheese that you want.

Pizza 
(yields 2 pizzas)

• 1 package active dry yeast
• 1 cup warm water (110 degrees)
• 2-3 cups flour
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 tsp. sugar
• Sauce (16 ounces of tomato sauce seasoned with garlic and oregano)
• 2-3 cups mozzarella cheese
• toppings such as cooked sausage (about one pound), veggies, etc.
• grated parmesan cheese

Dissolve yeast in the warm water and let stand for about 10 minutes until foamy. Combine flour, olive oil, salt, sugar, and yeast mixture in a large bowl. Stir well until the dough comes together and is stiff. Add additional flour, if needed. Cover dough and allow to rise until dough has doubled, about 1 to 2 hours. When the dough is almost done rising, cook any of the toppings (such as sausage) that need to be cooked. Turn out dough on floured surface and form into pizza crusts. Grease the pans and sprinkle with semolina flour. Place dough into pans and create a slight edge with the dough. 

Cover the dough with sauce, toppings and mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle pizza with grated parmesan cheese. Bake at 375 for 20 to 25 minutes, or until pizza is golden. Enjoy!