Another mild cooking adventure the other day. I was craving, I'll admit it, Hamburger Helper. I don't know why, but I was. Of course, there was none to be had in the house, so I started going through my recipe box. You know, a wooden box with recipes in it, not a file you create on a cooking site, lol.
The above is what came of it all. It's called Hamburger / Spaghetti Casserole. It's rather plain, probably something out of a magazine or something sometime, but I jazzed it up as much as I was able. Here's the recipe, yes, in my own handwriting from years ago. I copied some things from my mom's recipe box when I started my own.
Look at the top right corner - see that? That says "V. Hobart"? That's short for Vi Hobart, this little old lady who used to live next door to us. When I was a kid, a real kid, like kindergarten age. She was older and I called her Grandma Hobart. Apparently this was her recipe, because in my family, anything like this you get from someone is noted on the recipe card. Most of my cards have names on them, in fact.
Anyway, this is pretty plain, but good solid food, I guess. Of course, I didn't make it exactly like this. What I added (more than changed anything, lol).
1. I cooked the onion and green pepper with the ground beef, not add it after. I also added parsley, pepper and basil to the cooking ground beef.
2. I used cream of onion soup rather than mushroom (no mushrooms here, thank you very much!).
3. Added a little milk and tomato sauce, since it sure didn't seem like it would be enough "juice".
4. I probably added more cheese than anyone meant, because I'm a cheesy person and I really, really love cheese, lol.
Here's the casserole after:
It was pretty good. Nothing fancy, mind you, and there are probably all sorts of ways to play with it even more. But it did the trick and I was happy. That's what matters, right?
:)
