Ham and Bacon Quiche

Humble Pie. I used to think of Quiche Lorraine as a fancy meal on a pricey menu. It’s really more of a deliciously smart use of leftovers! Technically, Quiche Lorraine is made with cream, Gruyére (a Swiss “Swiss” cheese), eggs, and crisped bacon bits. All of that is baked in a rich buttery pie shell. However, you don’t have to use Gruyére. You don’t even have to use Swiss cheese! You can use whatever cheese you’ve got! However, since you need 6 to 8 oz. of it, a strong blue cheese or salty parmesan would need to be paired with a milder cheese. I’ve used yellow and white cheddar, provolone, mozzarella, jack, goat, and Swiss cheese. Mixing whatever you’ve got works! An oil crust is very tasty and cheaper than a butter crust. Use leftover meats: ham, bacon, sausage, ground beef, turkey, chicken, or shrimp.

Oil Crust. Choose a generous 10” pie plate. Make an oil crust: mix 1 ¾ c. flour, 1 t. salt, ½ c. oil. Mix in 3 T. of cold water. Press the dough evenly into the pie plate. There’s no need to roll it out or make a crimped edge. This is actually a double-crust recipe. That much dough is required for a large pie plate. Preheat the oven to 350º.

Prepare Filling. Use a blender or food processor to mix 3 eggs, 8 oz. of cubed cheese, 1 ½ c. ½ ‘n ½ or heavy cream, ½ t. salt, pepper, and 2 T. of any kind of onion you have. No onion? Use a tsp. of tarragon or basil. Add the cheese little by little if your blender is not heavy-duty. The filling should be smooth, without lumps. Use whatever cooked meat you have but mince it. Sprinkle it over the pie crust. Use 6 slices of fried bacon or 2 slices of ham or a combination of both. If you have leftover cooked vegetables, chop and sprinkle them on top of the meat: potatoes, asparagus, broccoli, zucchini, or corn! Pour the egg and cream mixture over all. Bake for 20 min., then turn the plate half way round and bake another 20 min. Cool 10 min. to set before serving.

Serving Suggestions. Quiche is great hot or room temperature. It’s a versatile dish to make ahead for a party entrée, hors d’œuvre, picnic, or gift! I often bake up a quiche for my aging parents. It’s so easy for them to slice and heat up a wedge in the microwave. They really feel like they’ve gone gourmet! One 10” pie generously serves 6 for brunch or a summer dinner. Add a soup, salad, or vegetable and fruit for a complete, budget-wise, yet elegant meal. A glass of wine adds French flair. If you have little tart pans or mini-muffin tins, you can make up little “pies.” Reduce baking time to 25 min. But, slicing the large pie into appetizer-size slices or cubes is much easier.

More Ideas. Get creative with filling combinations. Think Italian or Mexican quiche! Use mild, minced Italian sausage with mozzarella or provolone cheese and a little oregano. Put sliced tomatoes on top of the quiche to bake during the last 10 minutes. Or, use leftover taco-flavored ground beef and cheddar and/or jack cheese. After it’s baked and cooled, serve with sour cream, fresh chopped cilantro, and a tomato salsa. Let me know what combos you come up with! Corned beef or pastrami and Swiss cheese with a side of caraway-speckled sauerkraut? Spinach, mushrooms, and Gruyére? Wow!

Kugelis, Potato Pudding

Summer Food Festivals. Learn how to create your own ethnic food festival this month, potluck style. Once upon a time 50+ years ago, my family would trek from Northern Indiana into Chicago to Dan Ryan Park in the summer. That was before gangs and the health department intervened in wonderful ethnic celebrations. Families in the Chicago area would set up booths in the park to sell their favorite traditional dishes. People flocked to these celebrations of diversity. I couldn’t wait to sample the Russian piroshkies, deep-fried doughnuts filled with savory ground beef and onions. Delicious! Why not invite friends to a summer melting potluck gathering in your backyard or at your local park?

National Foods. Almost everybody’s family in the U.S. can ultimately be traced back to some other land of origin. What ethnic food is like a national treasure to your family? All the ladies in my husband’s Czechoslovakian family would say pierogies! These are delicate kraut, potato, cheese, or prune dumplings served in butter with browned onions. Fantastically savory! Ask guests to cook up their family’s special recipe just before arriving for the food fest, keeping the food hot or cold, as required. Supply heating trays, an oven, stove, refrigerator, or cooler to be sure food is kept at a safe temperature.

Regional Selections. If guests all come from a similar region, then the menu will hang together, e.g., Easter European, Asian, or Latin. But, if they don’t, then you will have a melting pot of dishes, for which there is a fancy term—culinary fusion. Some restaurants are actually based on fusing ethnic cuisines at a high price. The great thing about a potluck is sharing the cost of feeding a crowd. Sharing ethnic food makes good cost sense, because most beloved ethnic food is made from simple, inexpensive ingredients. These are often the peasant dishes that filled a family’s stomachs and warmed their hearts.

Kugelis. Such a dish very dear to my Lithuanian father, is potato pudding. We make it for birthdays. Preheat the oven to 350º. First, in a food processor, finally chop ½ large onion and whir in ½ c. matzo meal, ½ c. sour cream, 4 eggs, 2 t. salt, 1 t. baking powder, ¼ c. melted butter, and 4 crumbled slices of crisp bacon. Set this aside in a large bowl. Peel and quarter 7 large potatoes. Grate them in the processor. Remove and squeeze out liquid in towels. Return grated potatoes to processor to chop finely. Add potatoes to onion mixture. Mix well. Pour into a buttered 11/2 to 2 qt. casserole. Bake for 1 ½ hrs. Serve hot with sour cream. Slice and fry leftover kugelis in oil or butter as a side dish.

Experiment. There are probably as many recipes for kugelis as there are Lithuanian cooks! Hot milk can be substituted for sour cream in the mix. Some people use farina instead of matzo or bread crumbs or none of these. But, the trick is to work with the potatoes at the last minute quickly, so they don’t turn pink. Some squeeze the liquid from the potatoes, letting it sit awhile. They pour off the liquid and put the remaining white starch into the mixture. Vary amounts of ingredients to your liking. Enjoy with friends.

Cookies and Milk

Hi, I’m Home! The child in all of us would like to come home to a treat after a hard day of work, school, or activity. When dinner may still be hours away, and there’s a hollow to fill, what satisfies? Of course, the first thought might be warm cookies right out of the oven and a cold glass of milk. That’s at the top of the nostalgia meter for comfort food! It’s also at the top of the calorie content scale. Boo hoo! What registers high with a yum factor and low on the sugar/fat chart? First, serve non-fat milk. Here are more ideas.

Old Stand-Bys. Pre-schools and thrifty moms have certain commercial, small snack favorites they offer children that total just 58 calories: 2 squares of crisp sugar honey graham crackers, 2 gingersnaps, 1 oatmeal cookie with raisins, or 3 vanilla wafers. One fig bar is 50 calories. Four whole saltine crackers are 48 calories. The trick here is to dole out the snacks, rather than offer a big cookie jar or box full of them. For adults watching their weight, having a measured amount waiting on a plate upon arrival home is a treat, too.

Homemade Goods. Cookies made at home tend to be larger and chock full of more goodies, like 1 of Mrs. Field’s cookies: chocolate chip 280, chocolate chip with walnuts 320, oatmeal raisin 180, oatmeal chocolate chip 280, peanut butter 220, peanut butter with chocolate chips 300, butter cookie 290. Although we tend to think of oatmeal cookies and rice crispy treats as being healthier choices, size and rich ingredients load on calories. A 2” x 3” x 2” (not very big) rice crispy bar is 150 calories. Instead of making a batch of cookies all at once, consider making 1 cookie for each family member, then saving the rest of the dough in the refrigerator. You could bake 1 cookie every other day per person to control how many get eaten in a day! Also, make the cookies smaller.

Other Snacks. Ever heard of ants on a log? There are only 7 calories in a stalk of celery. Spread a scant 2 Tblsp. of peanut butter or cream cheese along the entire stalk (200 calories). Cut it into 4 “logs.” Then evenly divide 1Tblsp. of raisins (26 calories), the “ants,” over the logs. Each log will be roughly 58 calories. A cup of canned chicken noodle soup is 67 calories. One whole, peeled cucumber sliced and chilled in a dressing of rice vinegar and soy sauce is only 58 calories. To satisfy a craving for something crisp, ½ cup of dry Cheerios is 50 calories (and they help lower cholesterol).

Fruit Pros and Cons. While fruit doesn’t have the fat content of peanut butter or cream cheese, it does have sugar. Fruit calories add up: medium orange 71, apple 80, pear or banana 100. A cup of plain yogurt is 144 calories; but with fruit, it’s 225.

Comfort in Company. Focus on finding and giving comfort through communication, instead of food. Sharing how work, school, or activities were while nibbling on a light snack or low-calorie drink can nourish the need for comfort. I applaud Michele Obama’s efforts to help children manage their weight through good food choices and exercise. If we don’t learn that as children, it’s even more difficult to practice as adults. Make it fun!

Gourmet Sandwiches

Tri-Tip Value. When shopping for just 2 people, buying 2 tri-tip beef roasts in a CostCo package for $21 may seem like a huge splurge. However, stretching those dollars over five meals is the trick to getting the most bang for your buck! First, though, you need to like roast beef enough to eat it for a week! I think it is better to use it up than freeze one roast for later, but you could do that. I prefer to season the meat well with salt, pepper, paprika, onion powder, and garlic powder and oven roast it all at once on a cake rack over a jelly-roll pan at 350º for about 30 minutes: medium rare, to well done at the tips.

Meal 1. My husband loves his tri-tip hot. So our first meal is 3/8” slices of the roast, after it has rested for about 15 minutes from the oven. I heat a beef bouillon cube, red wine, onion powder, and thyme to make au jus to dip the beef into as we enjoy it.

Alternate Meal 1. Instead of eating tri-tip after it’s roasted, chill it overnight. Then slice it paper thin along with a sweet onion. This can be done by hand. However, an electric meat-slicer makes the job easier. (We bought one at a garage sale very reasonably priced.) For Mother’s Day last year, we served the sliced beef on halved croissants dressed with champagne dressing and the onion rings. It was delicious! Assembled before the party, wrapped in plastic wrap, these were chilled in the refrigerator until the meal was served. For another party, we served the meat in smaller sandwiches on steamed Hawaiian sweet bread rolls, as sliders. Potato salad or chips are tasty sides.

Meals 2, 3, 4, and 5. Today, people eat smaller portions of red meat than they used to. If you have meat left over, use it to make a stir-fry, fajitas, vegetable/barley soup, or salad! To prevent the beef toughening up, add the beef at the very end of your cooking time.

Stir-Fry. For the stir fry, slice all the vegetables before stir-frying them one at a time in an electric wok set at 375º, pushing up each as it softens a bit. Include: onions, green onions, broccoli flowerets (green beans or asparagus), and mushrooms. Add ¼ c. soy sauce, ½ cup beef broth, 1 T. brown sugar, 1 T. cornstarch–then the beef “matchsticks.” Serve with hot rice.

Fajitas. Fry sliced onions, green and red peppers, and zucchini. Add a sauce of chicken bouillon, chili pepper, garlic powder, cumin, and paprika–then the beef “matchsticks.” Serve with sides of refried beans, guacamole, and sour cream to spoon on flour tortillas.

Soup. Sauté chopped onions, carrots, celery, and potatoes in olive oil in a soup pot. Add 4 cups of chicken or beef stock. Season with salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, basil, marjoram. Add ½ cup barley. Simmer covered for 1 ½ hours. Add beef before serving.

Steak Salad. Arrange beef and Swiss cheese “matchsticks” on crisp torn romaine lettuce. Garnish with hard-boiled egg halves, tomatoes, and cooked asparagus and/or ripe small avocado halves. Serve with your favorite dressing, such as champagne or Italian.

Fry Up a Fritter. Here’s an economical, versatile recipe that can be the base for breakfast, lunch, a side dish, or hors d’oeuvres! It’s almost as easy as making pancakes. Although just about any firm chopped fruit or chopped and cooked vegetable can be added to the batter, my favorite is fresh white corn. Fresh corn cut off the cob, micro-waved for about 3 minutes, retains its crisp crunch when added to the batter. Don’t tell your guests what it is. Let them be surprised. They’ll ask, “What is this?” It’s unexpected and delicious!

Basic Fritter Recipe: 1 cup flour, 1 tsp. baking powder, 1 tsp. salt, 2 eggs, ½ cup milk or cream, 1 tsp. oil, 1 cup cooked or canned corn, 1 tblsp. minced onion (optional additions: 1 tblsp. minced green pepper or green chili). Mix all the ingredients. Heat vegetable oil in a hot frying pan and drop two large spoonfuls of batter in for each fritter. Brown on one side and flip to brown on the other side. Drain on towel paper. Good news: these can be made ahead and reheated in an oven or microwave. I make a double batch (18 fritters) and store them in a plastic bag in the refrigerator for use over several days.

Breakfast Variation. Add minced ham or crumbled crispy bacon to the basic batter. Serve with melted butter and hot syrup. A baked apple topped with cinnamon and brown sugar makes a fancy accompaniment for overnight guests.

Luncheon Variations. Corn fritters make a hearty side dish alternative to potatoes or rice with pork chops, ribs, or steak. Or, they can be the star of the show. Some people like ketchup on corn fritters! Tomatoes are a natural accompaniment. Or, offer an assortment of toppings for your corn fritters, hot off the griddle. Include some or all of these options: zesty tomato/onion/cilantro salsa, chopped avocado, shredded lettuce, grated jack cheese, chili-seasoned ground beef, and sour cream. A corn fritter is “meatier” than a simple corn tortilla shell and far more satisfying.

Hors d’oeuvres Ideas. Drop tablespoon size dollops of the fritter batter into the frying pan to make appetizer bases. I find that these are delicious hot, room temperature, even cold. Here are some ideas for a tiny topping on appetizer size corn fritters: hot pepper jelly, apricot jelly, whole cranberry sauce, sweet pickle relish, Ranch dip, refried beans, grated cheddar cheese, crisp radish slice, ground ham salad (mixed with mayonnaise and pickle relish), or half of a grape tomato (cut-side down).

Deep-Fried Fritters? You betcha! Try deep-frying this thick corn fritter batter in your deep-fryer to make puff balls. They take on a southern-fried comfort appeal, perfect with deep-fried fish or fried chicken with a bowl of celery-seed flavored, crunchy cabbage and carrot slaw and orange slices. Mmm. I’m making myself hungry just thinking about the possibilities. Let me know if you discover some more tempting combinations, like maybe with buttered spinach and caramelized butternut squash cubes! Enjoy!

Low-Cost Meal. Celebrate Valentine’s Day all week with quick treats. Start with a delicious, affordable dinner centered on juicy, tender chicken breasts. Buy a bag of frozen chicken breasts to keep handy in the freezer for just such a dinner. Discount markets offer the best deals on frozen chicken breasts. Partially frozen chicken breasts are easier to trim and cut than fresh ones. Slice them length-wise into 3 or 4 cutlets. Once they are breaded, 2 or 3 chicken breasts may be enough to feed a family of four!

Chicken Piccata. The meaning of the word “piccata” varies according to whom you ask! It seems like a particularly apt culinary word because of all its meanings. Traditionally, a veal cutlet is pounded, breaded, cooked in butter, and served with lemon, parsley, and capers. Piccata means speared, larded, and savory (with lemon and capers). Chicken is an affordable alternative to veal. Sliced thin, it doesn’t have to be pounded. If you can’t slice it thin, then pound it with a rolling pin between two sheets of plastic to ¼” thick.

Breaded Chicken. Prepare three bowls to dip the chicken cutlets in, each one seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and paprika. First, dry the cutlets and dredge them in a bowl of seasoned flour (1 cup). Second, dip them into seasoned eggs (2) beaten with a little cream or milk. Third, coat them in fine, seasoned bread crumbs (1 ciabatta roll or stale French bread, whirred in a food processor). These can be made ahead, covered, and chilled until you are almost ready to serve them. They cook very quickly in a moderate to hot frying pan heated with olive oil (3 Tblsp.) and butter (1 Tblsp.). When the breading is browned, they are done (about 3-4 minutes per side).

Sides. Rice or pasta makes a tasty accompaniment. Or, offer both by serving chicken flavored Rice-a-Roni, “The San Francisco Treat,” usually a real family favorite. If you want to get fancier, instead fill and bake cooked large pasta shells with creamed spinach smothered in marinara sauce and parmesan cheese. Super markets are beginning to feature asparagus at good prices. Our Ralph’s Market had asparagus for 99¢/lb. this weekend, while Vons offered it for $1.98/lb. Read newspaper ads for market specials!

Garnish. If you’re serving the breaded chicken “piccata style,” then lemon wedges (or lemon juice) is the finishing touch for the chicken and asparagus. Capers are nice but not necessary sprinkled into the pan and heated through, once the chicken is removed. Parsley (dried or fresh) and especially fresh cilantro are good on the Rice-a-Roni. To dress the meal for your sweethearts, slice a Roma tomato vertically to show off its heart shape. You may need to shape it a little more, by cutting out the stem end in a V-shape.

Dessert. A couple of large strawberries dipped in chocolate chips, carefully melted in the microwave oven, make a very romantic finish to this lovely meal. It’s always appropriate to serve a sweetheart dinner. You don’t have to wait for 2/14/11. Buon appetito!

Date-Nut-Tea-Sandwiches

Low Cost Tea Party. Offer tea for two or more for very little money. Do you feel a bit of a let-down after the holidays? Once the decorations are put away, the house can seem rather stark. A bit weary of the expense and work of big get-togethers, but still wishing for more intimate time with best friends? A tea party may be just the answer. The great thing about tea parties is make-ahead treats. You can make your party simple or lavish depending on the number goodies you offer and how fancy your service is.

Tea Offerings. Rinse out your teapot with hot water before you brew your tea. Boil fresh water and pour it over loose leaves or tea bags. Let the tea steep for 5 minutes, then remove the tea bags or strain the tea over the cup when it’s served. My favorite full-strength tea is good old Constant Comment Orange Pekoe. I’d also offer an herbal tea, such as peppermint or hibiscus. Some guests may want sweetener or lemon.

Tea Sandwiches. I remember my mother having coffee klatches in her heyday, featuring a single glazed, nutty coffeecake. That is certainly an affordable choice, especially when made from Bisquick! I personally like one or more tea sandwiches: date or banana nut bread sliced thin and spread with cream cheese; tuna or egg or chicken salad on crustless thin bread; and/or thin-sliced cucumber or tomatoes on buttered bread. Make the sandwiches ahead of time, quartered into triangles, and arrange on a serving platter. Cover the sandwiches with a clean wet, wrung-out towel and refrigerate until serving time. Garnish your plates with candied cherries or offer jam or a fruit slices, if you like.

Favorite Date Nut Bread. Save those soup cans (8)! Use them to bake date nut bread in. Spray them with Pam flour spray. Heat the oven to 325º. Pour 2 cups boiling water over 2 tsp. baking soda and add 1 cup chopped dates. Let cool. Cream 2 tblsp.butter, 2 cups sugar, 2 well-beaten eggs. Sift 4 cups flour, 1 tsp. salt and add alternately with liquid to the sugar mixture. Lastly, add 1 cup chopped walnuts and 1 tsp. vanilla. Mix well. Fill cans 2/3 full. Bake 50 – 60 minutes. Remove and cool. Wrap in plastic wrap.

Optional Sweets. If you want to go all out, then include a cake, petit fours, little tarts, or cookies. I’ve never met a lady who did not find a little room for a sweet treat like mints, nuts, or chocolate candy! Although sweets are nice, they are not necessary. Guests may be just as happy not to be tempted to violate New Year’s resolutions to cut back.

Party Ideas. My idea of fun with lady friends is to browse through magazines and cookbooks while chatting. Our library has used magazines, some very recent and others older, priced at 5 for $1. It’s fun to get a number of issues that address ideas for decorating, gardening, and entertaining in the New Year. Another thought is to ask guests to make copies of their favorite recipe to share with the tea party guests. Invite everyone to help themselves, kick back, relax, and simply enjoy each other’s company

Low Cost Pork Chops. I bought 4 thick, bone-in pork chops for $8.60 today, on special, using my Von’s card. This is what I consider to be fancy food fit for company or a special family dinner. Holiday entertaining is upon us. But, given current hard times, how do you put on a dinner that only looks extravagant? Check out the meat counter. Pork is usually the best buy. However, today’s pork has become so lean that it sometimes comes out tough and tasteless. Here’s how to get a succulent result every time.

Baked Stuffed Chops. Preheat the oven to 350º. Stuff pocketed pork chops with a bread stuffing of your choice. Dust them liberally with salt, pepper, and paprika. Then, brown the chops on both sides in hot olive oil in a frying pan. Transfer the chops to an oven-proof pan that has a lid. I put the dressing that didn’t fit into the chops around the chops in the pan. Melt two pats of butter in the fry pan and add 2 tablespoons of flour to make a roux, scraping up any bits from browning the chops. Then pour 1 can of chicken stock into the pan to make gravy. Pour the gravy over the chops. Cover and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. The gravy thickens, from the extra dressing in the pan, into a savory sauce.

Low Cost Stuffing. The cost of bread has gone up along with everything else. Be thrifty, look for day old bread shelves in regular markets. In some areas, there are bakery outlets that sell day-old goods, too. We are lucky in our area to have a British Import distributor who sells drastically reduced food items once a month. Their delicious dried, elegantly packaged sage and onion dressing is just 50¢ a box, and it serves six people! I fry up some celery to add to it, with butter and a little chicken broth.

Roasted Root Vegetables. Roast inexpensive peeled carrots, parsnips, and quartered beets with halved small onions in their skins tossed in olive oil in a shallow jelly-roll pan, while the pork chops bake. You can even add a halved, whole garlic cluster. Season them with salt and pepper. Half way through the cooking time, turn them over. The HGTV chef, Tyler Florence, makes this dish with reduced Balsamic vinegar. He adds it to the vegetables halfway through their cooking time. If you have Balsamic vinegar, try it. If you don’t and you’re watching pennies, just sprinkle a little brown sugar over the veggies for carmelization. Or, bake halved acorn or dumpling squash (removing seeds), stuffed with butter and brown sugar. Delicious!

Presentation. This meal is sumptuous. You don’t need potatoes or rice or rolls, because the stuffing is so rich and filling. Plate up all chops, extra stuffing, gravy and root vegetables or squash on a large platter. Don’t spend extra for parsley. Wash and dry the beet greens, even sauté them in a little olive oil and butter with salt and pepper, if you like. Use them as a garnish for the plate. One extra festive addition to the meal, if your budget allows, would be cranberry sauce. Apple cider, sparkling cider, or rosé wine would be an excellent accompaniment. If guests ask what to bring, suggest one of those beverages to round out the feast. Enjoy!

Book Launch

Celebrate with Me. My first book, Entertaining for All Seasons, has just been published by Pink Peppercorn Press! I wanted to share my good news with you! It’s been a year in the making. Ironically, the book also provides a year’s worth of festive holiday and seasonal celebration ideas. The twist is you learn how to celebrate these special occasions with fashionable, yet affordable international flair.

Homey Goodness. Have your friends and family ever said to you, “You’re such a great hostess and decorator, you should write a book!” Well, my sister insisted I take up the challenge. With her unfailing support, the book has just squeaked into its 2009 publication date. It is available now at www.lulu.com for $31, plus applicable taxes and shipping. In the colorful pages of the book, you are invited into my home and heart. I’m basically sharing my style of homemaking, which is full of family fun and dramatic play at garage sale prices!

What’s Your Style? Do you like to play house? Do you go for simple design with clean lines? Do you go in for romantic settings with a hint of French country influence? Is your home chock full of treasures in merry clutter? I love all styles of decorating, entertaining, and gardening. My home and parties reflect a truly eclectic mix of furniture, china, paintings, plants, and menus. In the pages of my book, you are invited to come play with me in the rooms of my home and garden. There are so many ideas in the details of my photos; you will want to revisit each page. For example, be sure to notice how I stenciled my window frames (with a stencil you could make).

Make Home Special. Where would you go on vacation? At what five star restaurants would you dine? What kind of activities sound like fun for after dinner? If you are like me, you either don’t have the time or the money to fly to St. Tropez in the south of France for Coquilles St. Jacques (scallops in a sumptuous sauce) next week. But, with help from my book, you could plan a fantastic fax simile at home. Here and even more so in my book, I encourage you to be the writer, director, actor, and caterer of your own productions. My book is meant to inspire you to new levels of artistry. It’s a springboard for activating your imagination, discovering your decorating and partying style, but with the wow factor turned up.

Write Your Own Story. If you have ever thought about writing a book about what you love best, here’s my advice. Get started. Take digital photographs to support your text. Think about how you want to organize your book and, consequently, your thoughts. My book is organized by holidays within in each season. It’s also written in bite-size chunks, so that you can get the gist quickly or savor specific details. I also wanted to include favorite family recipes. I have a very large collection of cookbooks that have been gathered from our library’s used book store. However, there are those favorite recipes my family loves most. I’ve shared those with you in my book. I hope you will enjoy it!

Low Cost Meal for 6. Here’s how to make comfort food for company–without breaking the bank! First, shop for ground beef on sale. Vons Market in Southern California has value pack specials for store “members,” with a Vons card, every 4 to 6 weeks. When you buy a 3 lb. package of hamburger, it’s priced at $1.48 per pound. To make a delicious chili mac casserole for company, you’ll need 1 ½ lbs. Shape patties out of the rest of the meat and freeze them for burgers later.

Ground Beef and Macaroni Dinner. I call this make-ahead dish Chili Mac; however, it’s light on the chili powder. Add as much or as little as you like; also, check for the amount of salt you like. If you don’t have the seasonings called for, improvise! This recipe is done in five easy steps:

1. Macaroni. Boil 4 cups of salted water, then add ½ lb. of elbow macaroni, stir, cook for 20 minutes, then drain.
2. Crumb Topping. While the macaroni is cooking, sauté 1 cup of bread crumbs in 2 tblsp. butter, then remove from pan and reserve to top the casserole. (Or, crumble a small package of corn chips, like Frito’s, for a topping.)
3. Beef. In the same frying pan, sauté 1 ½ lb. hamburger in 1 tblsp. olive oil with ½ medium onion and 1 garlic clove chopped (1/2 green pepper chopped, too, if you like). Season this mixture with 1 tblsp. of chili powder; 1 tsp. each paprika, marjoram, basil, savory, and salt; and ¼ tsp. pepper. When the meat is browned, add 1 large can (28 oz.) of chopped tomatoes.
4. Cheese Sauce. Make a roux in a sauce pan by melting 2 tblsp. butter, stirring in and cooking 2 rounded tblsp. flour, then 1 cup half and half or milk. Stir the sauce, as it thickens. Shred 2 cups of cheddar cheese. Stir 1 cup of the cheese into the sauce. Reserve the rest of the cheese to top the casserole.
5. Assembly. Oil or butter 1 large casserole or 6 ramekins. Mix the macaroni and cheese sauce into the beef mixture. Evenly divide mixture into the casserole dishes. Top with bread crumbs and grated cheese. Serve at once or refrigerate and reheat in 350ºoven for 20 to 30 minutes.

Side Dish. A salad of baby spinach in a light vinaigrette would complement the richness of this dish. Or, sauté the spinach in butter for just a minute before serving with a sprinkle of salt to one side in the same bowl.

Cost-Saving Options. This dish is delicious without the crumb topping and cheese sauce. To save money, time, and calories, leave them out, or just sprinkle on a little grated cheese.