Community cookbooks represent the best tried and true recipes for food often served at pot luck suppers or taken to friends in time of need.
In my collection of cookbooks is one simply called “30th Anniversary Cookbook of the Evangelical Free Church 1953-1983.” I have no idea where I got the book, nor the community it represents. It is not a fancy production: it appears recipes have been typed on a typewriter, divisions made from plain cover stock and bound by holes punched into the pages and held by rings.
This week’s recipes come from this book and feature one favourite ingredient: ground beef in casseroles.
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Dinner In A Dish
- 1 lb. ground beef
- 3/4 cup uncooked rice
- 1 tbsp. butter
- 1 can tomato soup
- 3/4 tsp. dry mustard
- 1 cup water
- 1 1/4 tsps. salt
- 1/2 cup grated cheese
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1/2 tsp. oregano
- 1 can peas
- 1 can kernel corn
Form beef, cheese and salt lightly into balls. Brown in melted butter and place in a large casserole. Add rice around meatballs.
Bring onion, soup, water and mustard to boil then pour over meat and rice. Arrange peas and corn around the edges of casserole dish. Cover and bake at 350 degrees F for 1 1/4 hours.
• • •
Company Casserole
- 1 pkg. medium pasta noodles
- 2 tbsps. butter
- 1 lb. ground beef
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. garlic powder
- 1 can tomato soup
- 3/4 cup creamed cottage cheese
- 3/4 cup sour cream
- 3 green onions, chopped
- 6 tbsps. grated cheese
Cook noodles until tender in boiling salted water. Drain and rinse in cold water.
Melt butter in skillet. Add meat and cook until done and pour off fat. Add salt, garlic powder and soup. Remove from heat.
Combine cottage cheese, sour cream, onion and noodles.
Alternate layers of noodles and meat mixture in a large casserole. Sprinkle cheese on top. Bake at 350 degrees F. for about 30 minutes until cheese melts and is beginning to brown.
• • •
Cranberry Meat Loaf
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup cranberry sauce
- 1 lb. ground beef
- 1/2 lb. smoked ham or bacon
- 1/2 lb. ground pork
- 3/4 cup milk
- 3/4 cup cracker crumbs
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/8 tsp. pepper
Spread brown sugar over the bottom of a large and greased loaf pan. Mash cranberry sauce and spread over sugar.
Combine other ingredients and shape into a loaf to place over sugar and cranberries.
Bake for one hour at 350 degrees F. Serves 12. Note: finely ground onion may be added to meat mixture.
Joyce Walter can be reached at [email protected]
