As a child, my sister and I would visit my grandparents for a few weeks each year. I loved this time with them! My Grammie was very crafty, and always had us creating something together. She would take us to a flea market type store and give us each $5 to spend on whatever we wanted to. I always bought some type of craft and she would patiently help me create it.
Grammie never made us feel like we were anything but a delight to be with. But this picture tells me how worn out we must have made her! I want to be like her - always making people I care about feel welcome and loved.
One thing I have always admired about Grammie was her ability to create something out of practically nothing! I have tried to instill this trait in my children as well. Unfortunately, both of my grandparents had passed before my children were born, so the lessons I wanted them to learn from her have had to come from me.
Meals and Memories
One meal that she used to make for me as a child was American Chop Suey. It may be the simplest and easiest meal to put together when you are limited with time and need to use what you have on hand. This meal is one of my son's favorites, so he decided it was next on his list to learn to cook.
American Chop Suey is made with very few ingredients. You can find lots of variations on this recipe, even the name can be different! My husband always refers to this as "Goulash" which makes me shake my head. It is American Chop Suey to me! I had to google it to find out why he calls it that, and he's not alone! There are even blogs discussing American Chop Suey vs. Goulash. In my mind, American Chop Suey wins EVERY time!
Getting Started
To begin making this simple dinner, Grant needed to chop his first onion. I explained the steps involved and he followed directions carefully. First, we cut the onion in half, keeping the roots in tact so that the onion stayed together. Then we slit through the top layer of the half onion and removed the peel. Next we made sure the cutting board was clean as bits of onion peel and even dirt can get on the board.
I taught Grant to carefully make slices into the onion, again leaving the roots in tact. He then made horizontal cuts into the sliced onion (usually a smaller onion only needs one cut, but a larger one could use more). Finally, he cut small dices by slicing parallel to the roots and used the knife to chop any pieces he thought should be smaller.
He did great for his first try! He couldn't believe how easily the onion brought tears to his eyes. He was using a Vidalia (sweet) onion, and I told him that these bother me the least. I once heard that lighting a candle while chopping an onion can help with the burning feeling and tearing eyes. If onions bother you, it might be worth a try!
Once the onion was chopped, he put a tablespoon of olive oil in a saute pan and added the onion. I'm not really a gadget girl (much to my mother's dismay) but using a dough scraper makes transporting chopped veggies so easy!! He cooked the onions on medium heat just to get them to begin softening. He sprinkled a little bit of garlic salt on the onions once they had cooked a bit, but I told him not to use too much since the tomato soup would have plenty of sodium in it.
Grant started a large pot of water to bring to a boil so he could cook the elbow macaroni for our meal. Next Grant added the ground beef to the onions and began the process of browning the beef. He wasn't sure how big to make the chunks of meat, and I shared with him that personal choice comes into play here!
Once the water began to boil, Grant added the elbow macaroni and stirred occasionally to keep it from sticking together. Partway through cooking we realized we made a MISTAKE (with many more to come, I'm sure!). We forgot to set a time to see when the macaroni would be done!
Well – one of the things I want to teach Grant is to not freak out when things go wrong in the kitchen. He's not really the freak out kind, so it wasn't that hard! Forgetting to set the timer allowed me to teach him to check for doneness instead by just trying a piece of macaroni after a while. He didn't trust himself fully to be able to decide, so we both tried one. We looked at each other and said at the same time, "Maybe another minute." LOL. I love this kid!
Once the macaroni was cooked, Grant drained it. I really like the colander we have because it keeps water away from the food by resting on the edge of the sink and counter. I'm always worried my food will sit in drained liquid before making it down the sink drain. Problem solved!
What Would You Do?
Grant and I discussed how to get rid of extra fat in cooked hamburger. I usually buy ground beef with less fat, but believe that some fat is okay. Today we used 85% which is higher than I usually buy, but it was all they had in the store. I let him decide whether to remove the excess fat, and he chose to leave it. Some might think this was a bad idea, but he was in charge!!! (Another perk of being the chef!) FYI, I would have drained it.
To finish, Grant poured the cooked macaroni, cooked onion and ground beef mixture, and cans of tomato soup into the big pot the macaroni had cooked in and stirred it all together. It's as simple as that! American Chop Suey. If you can saute an onion, brown some beef, and cook macaroni, you can make this simple meal!
I know my Grammie would have been proud of him. For a guy who still isn't too excited about this process, he is making progress in his culinary skills. Neither of us expect him to be the next Top Chef, but I think someday he'll be glad he learned to cook. In the meanwhile, I'm enjoying this time with him.
We usually serve this with parmesan cheese and a veggie – but salad would be a great addition, too.
Here is our recipe:
American Chop Suey
1 1/2 pounds of elbow macaroni, cooked
1 pound of ground beef
1 onion, chopped
2 (23 oz.) large cans of Campbell's Tomato soup (use less if you like your chop suey less saucy)
Olive oil for sautéing onions
Garlic salt to taste
Boil water and cook elbow macaroni according to package directions. Chop the onion and saute in a small amount of olive oil. Sprinkle garlic salt to taste on onions after cooking til they begin to soften. Add ground beef and cook til browned and cooked through. Drain any excess fat from ground beef. Mix cooked onions, browned beef, and elbow macaroni with tomato soup. Serve while warm. Parmesan cheese is also good with this!
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