Start as you mean to go on

Mac and cheese. Fish sticks. Spaghetti. Chili. Tacos. Mashed potatoes.

Most comfort foods, the ones your mom cooked, are easy to make from ingredients in your larder. They don't take any longer than it takes to open a box, and they afford you just as much time with your family as any "convenience" food you might buy.

I always get annoyed at the prepackaged food ads that use as a selling point that you'll get to spend more time with your family. I don't know about most families, but my family tended to hang out in the kitchen and on the back porch while I was cooking, or running back and forth from the living room where they were watching tv, or at the dining room table doing homework. What exactly is it that these mythical tv moms are doing with their families instead of cooking? Is it not quality time if the pursuit is other than frivolous? What is it, exactly, that they are saving all this time for? I can't honestly think of a better way to spend time with my family than in a warm, fragrant kitchen, cooking something that my grandmother learned from her grandmother and passed on down to me to teach to my granddaughter. That's called immortality.

Would you rather your daughter think of comfort food as something in a box, or as something with a memory attached? Do you want to teach your granddaughter how to open a box or how to cook?

Would you rather save time, or be immortal?

I thought so.

Fish sticks
Any dense non-oily fish like salmon or tilapia
1/2 cup to 1 cup of bread crumbs
1-2 teaspoons seasoning
1-2 eggs

Use the higher amount for more fish, obviously. The low end works with a little less than a pound of fish.

I tested two seasonings:
• 1 teaspoon orange zest (never throw away an orange rind without zesting it, then drying the zest in the microwave), ground green peppercorns, seasalt, 1/2 teaspoon rosemary
and
• 1 teaspoon garlic flakes, 1 1/2 teaspoons ground sage, black pepper, seasalt

Both delicious

Lightly whip the egg in a shallow bowl. Combine the bread crumbs and seasoning in a second shallow bowl. Cut the fish into 1 x 5 inch strips, pat dry, coat in egg, then roll in the breadcrumbs. I tried this with salmon, whitefish, and tilapia. The salmon could be easily manipulated fresh and never frozen. Slice off the skin and then bread it. The tilapia worked best frozen and then lightly defrosted; otherwise it fell apart when rolling. Cooked up beautifully and just as fast. White fish is much too loose, even frozen, and you couldn't get the skin off.

Pan fry, turning once, in shallow oil (a lighter oil like canola or corn); 3-5 minutes max. Drain on newspaper.

Serve with rice or mashed potatoes and homemade cole slaw, with a remoulade or tartar sauce. I think this would be charming at a dinner party, made with tuna or shark.

You will not believe either how easy these are, nor how much more delicious than the frozen kind. This is food that kids will eat. You have to wash an additional 2 dishes and 1 pan, but you have just taught your children how good food can be both to make and to eat.

Do we really NEED another garden blog?

I've been toying with the idea of adding more gardening to this blog. Lately there have been a number of posts touching on the dilemma of a home-cooking blog: you run out of recipes. I'm not a "cook," I'm just someone who cooks well in a home setting. I have no ambitions to write a cookbook, and for the most part these recipes are passed down, borrowed or existing, so I'm not breaking any new ground here either.

The web abounds with gardening blogs; several excellent ones are in my blog list and every one of those blogs has another list of excellent blogs and on and on ad infinitum. I don't think the web, or anyone/where else, needs my gardening tips.

But gardening is a big part of my cooking, and the creative act of homemaking has an awful lot to do with dirt, from digging it to cleaning it to making it (as in compost). I started the garden a couple of decades ago so that my urban children would know what food looks like in its natural state, and that you can have control over it from seed to feed (hah--there's a new title for the blog!). We eat better in the summer, when I "grocery shop" basically on the walk from the garage to the back door.

So I may start in on my garden progress, especially in the tweets. I promise to be marvelously and originally philosophical and to always include a recipe.

Mom's open-faced toasted cheese sandwiches
Bread
Cheddar, swiss, or Edam, or American cheese

We must have eaten traditional stove top grilled cheese when we were kids, but frankly I don't remember that. What I remember are these wonderful, drippy, crunchy-edged delights. I also remember that my terminally suburban college roommates had never encountered "grilled" cheese made this way.

Thickly layer the cheese on open slices of bread. Place on a baker's cooling rack, then on a baking sheet and place directly under the broiler (or use a counter-top toaster oven on the broil setting) for about 5 minutes. The cooling rack allows the air to flow around the bread, so it doesn't get soggy. For the oily cheeses like cheddar, it's done when it starts to bubble. For the drier cheeses, let it toast a little bit.

Serve with homemade fruit soda.

What do I know how to cook?

The limitations of a blog devoted to the stuff you can cook at home for someone like me, a fairly typical housewife cook, is that you just don't make that many different things. Not, you don't know how to make different things, or that you're not willing to try different things. The repertoire, it turns out, just isn't that large.

I do believe at this point, I've chronicled all the family favorites here: pilaf, casserole, stew, meatloaf, shepherd's pie. I'm going to have to start reblogging some of them, or start in on permutation after permutation of soup! One begins to feel astonished and awed by cook book writers. So many recipes.

UPDATE! Thought of two more. Hooray! Watch this blog!

Well, I do have one more, and kids, if you're reading this, let me know what I've missed, and I'll make it! Meanwhile, readers, take the poll-- how many different meals are in your regular "cycle" of recipes?

Pastitio (Greek noodle casserole)
Another recipe from Can the Greeks Cook

First:
1 1/2 lbs penne or other tubular macaroni

Cook according to directions on box. This needs to be timed so they don't sit around getting sticky once you've drained them.

While penne is cooking:
1 lb. hamburger
1/4 cup butter
1 6oz can tomato paste
1-2 large onions, diced
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 egg, well beaten
1 cups boiling water
salt and black pepper

Saute hamburger over high flame until well-browned. Do not drain. Add butter and onions and continue to brown until onions are translucent, stirring occasionally. Blend tomato past with water & cinnamon and add. Turn down flame, cover and cook for 15 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Remove cover and continue to cook until sauce thickens, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat, allow it to cool a little, add eggs and mix well. I used a wonderful grass-fed beef gifted us by our friends from Ranney Ranch.

Then:
Krema sauce:
1/2 quart milk
1 1/2 heaping tablespoons flour
1/2 stick butter
2 eggs, room temp, well beaten

Scald the milk in a saucepan or the microwave (heat to just boiling). Melt butter, add flour until it becomes a smooth paste. Add eggs quickly and stir vigorously until all is well blended and smooth. Slowly add hot milk. (It will form a thick paste as soon as you put the hot milk in. Keep adding slowly, stirring the whole time to keep the consistency smooth). Salt to taste and set on a light simmer for 15 minutes, stirring constantly. Cover and remove from heat. If it sits around a little it may thicken too much; add a little water or milk to thin it.

Finally:
Cooked noodles, well drained
1/4 cup butter
1 egg well beaten
1 cup grated Kefaloteri (hard) cheese. Romano will also work, as kefaloteri can be hard to find.

Drain well in collander. Put half of the penne in a large bowl, add egg and mix thorougly. Spray a 9x12" pan with cooking spray, or grease with butter (cooking spray is better). Sprinkle with half the grated cheese. Spread the meat sauce over this, and then layer the rest of the penne on top, sprinkling with the remaining cheese. Melt butter and pour over the entire mixture. Top with the Krema sauce, making sure that the macaroni is entirely covered so little bits don't burn.

Sprinkle with grated cheese and cinnamon. Bake at 400F/200C for 20-30 minutes, keeping an eye on it so it doesn't burn. Cool for 15 minutes before serving so that it doesn't slip apart.

This recipe can be easily doubled. Remember, it's a Greek recipe, so it uses every pot in the house.

Equinox

Of the lunar events that mark the calendar, I think the fall equinox is my favorite. There is such a sense of balance as the garden stands poised between summer and winter. There is still food to harvest, and a few 3-season flowers like cleome and black eyed susans won’t give in to the cool nights. The main color has changed from the neons of summer to subtle reds and purples of fall. The canterbury bells, whose blue insistence marks the beginning of July’s peak, have formed hard seed pods and the leaves are turning yellow. The delphiniums and baby’s breath breathe one more bloom into the chilly morning air. The banes are flowering— bugbane, fleabane, wolfsbane, leopardsbane.

The goddess sends her winter scouts in the guise of spiders the size of a finger joint, and the cicadas scream out one more chorus before the chill takes them underground. The morning dew has that heavy cold sparkle that says “I want to be frost”.

I'll be eating leftovers all week, as there's a fridge-full of the pumpkin variations, as well as some pilaf. Towards the end of the week I'll pick the rest of the black beans and make chili; I need to figure out something to do with 9 turnips (the lo bak gau was a dismal failure). In the meantime, here's another family favorite.

Beef stew
I know lots of people like the supposed no-work method of using a slow cooker for beef stew; this recipe can be put together easily in 15 minutes, then simmered for an hour after getting home from work.

1/4 to 1/3 lb. per person, of any beef cut you like. Don't feel like you have to buy "beef for stew" which is the cheap awful tough stuff they can't sell any other way. Get a nice cut and you'll have a better stew. If you get a bone-in cut, you can use the bone and fat trimmings to make a nice stock*

large onion*, sliced
1 large carrot*, sliced
2-3 celery stalks*, sliced
4 large tomatoes or 1 small can of whole peeled tomatoes
2 cups beef or vegetable stock*
dried oregano
salt and pepper

broccoli or green beans
1 large potato for every two diners
additional water or stock as needed

To make stock: Trim the meat and all the vegetables. Put all the trimmed items (bones, fat, carrot ends, onion skins, potato skins, celery leaves) in a 2 quart pot filled with water. Add peppercorns and salt and boil; simmer until it is reduced to half; strain.

Place the onions in about a half cup of water in a large stew pot and saute until all the moisture is gone. Add 3 Tablespoons of olive oil, the oregano, and the meat; brown the beef (meaning, sear it until all pieces are browned on one side at least; okay if there's still a lot of red on the meat when you add the other ingredients). Add the celery and a small amount of water and saute until the celery starts to get translucent. Add the tomatoes and about a cup of water, simmer until the skin comes off easily. (If using canned tomatoes, skip the simmering and move straight to the next ingredient). Add the stock, carrots, and potatoes, then add enough water to cover all the ingredients. Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce to a simmer. Let this simmer for about 30 minutes, adjusting the seasoning. Add water if you like your stew with more sauce. Add the green vegetables 5 minutes (for store bought or frozen) to 10 minutes (for garden fresh) before serving and continue to simmer covered-- you want these to be al dente not mushy.

Serve over rice.

Back to family favorites

Fortuitously, the bell peppers are ready to harvest for Nora's last dinner at home before she's off to Europe. Stuffed green peppers are another dish that I learned from my mother, and I think one of the ones that I've duplicated her recipe, from memory, the best. I almost never make this from store bought peppers for some reason, but only in late summer from the garden grown ones. I really wanted all of the vegetables to come from the garden this year, but the onions didn't do well, I chickened out on growing potatoes, (and I just didn't think it would be the same with turnips, which are too bitter for this dish).

This dish falls under the comfort food category in our household, as it's a huge favorite with everyone. You can tell it's Greek because you end up using every pot in the house to make it.

Stuffed Bell Peppers (for 4)

• 5-6 large green peppers
• 1 pound chop meat
• 2 medium potatoes, diced
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 cups tomato sauce
• 1 large tomato, diced
• fresh or dried parlsey
• fresh or dried mint
• salt and pepper

Cut off the tops of the peppers (save these) and clean out the seeds. Blanch the peppers by immersing them for about 5 minutes in boiling water. Drain and arrange in a casserole (make sure you use a casserole with a cover). Set aside.

Cook the rice per package instructions. Please do not use minute rice or I will have to cry. Extra long grain or basmati is fine. Boil the diced potatoes until just soft.

Saute the onions in about a quarter cup of water; cook until transparent, or until all moisture has boiled away, whichever comes first. Add the chop meat and sauté until completely brown. Add herbs about half way through. Once the rice and potatoes are done, mix them together with the meat. Add the diced tomatoes. Salt and pepper to taste.

Fill each pepper to the rim with the meat/rice mixture, and put its top back on. With any leftover meat fill in the casserole so that the peppers are sitting in a bed of meat/rice mixture. Pour the tomato sauce over the top. Cover and bake in a 350F/175C oven for 30 minutes.

For a vegetarian version, substitute pine nuts and blanched raisins for the meat. A Facebook friend also sent a wonderful recipe for polenta-stuffed peppers. I'll post it when I try it.

The benefits of travel

Despite our extremely cosmopolitan, eclectic and generally adventurous approach to cuisine, until a visit to New Orleans in our late 20s we had never made dirty rice, and I for one had never heard of it. What a revelation. Dirt cheap, dead easy and delicious, it's one of those "stone soup" meals that you can make with pretty much anything at hand.

Since the fridge is filling up with garden goodness (we'll prepare a lot of it for our annual garden party this weekend) today is dirty rice day. I'll use the day's harvest-- broccoli, chard, an early turnip and its greens-- for the veggies in this dish. Might go see if there's a carrot ready to pull so I can get some color in here as well.

Dirty rice

Medium onion, diced
Any vegetables, fresh or frozen
chop meat, 1/4 pound per serving
couple cloves garlic, smashed and diced
herbs like tarragon, parsley or oregano, fresh or dried
rice, 1/4 to 1/2 cup dry per serving (depending on how you like your meat-to-rice ratio for this dish. Experiment)

Make the rice (takes about 20 minutes; instructions here)

While the rice is cooking, saute the onions in a 1/2 cup of water until all the liquid is gone, immediately add the chop meat. When the meat is about halfway done, add the garlic and the herbs so that the fat releases the oils; this will enhance the flavor of both the meat and the herbs. When the meat is fully browned, add the vegetables and cook, stirring frequently, until the veggies turn bright green. I don't drain the fat, but you can do so if you want to once the meat is fully browned and the vegetables have had a chance to wilt a little. Salt and pepper to taste.

Add the rice and mix it well, continue cooking for a few minutes. You can add a little soy sauce here or some brown sugar for color (a teaspoon or less so you don't end up with too-sweet dirty rice). Or not. It tastes great as is.

Heritage

My mother was Greek, so I grew up eating and cooking Greek. My father’s food heritage—Irish and Swedish—got short shrift. The only thing we ever ate that might have come from his childhood was Zweibach, a nasty, tasteless bread with the texture of stale cardboard. It might have been Swedish, I can’t imagine why we ate it otherwise.

Shepherd’s Pie is sauteed chopped meat layered with green beans and topped with mashed potatoes. It was a staple of my mother’s menu and a childhood favorite. My kids love it too; it’s one of the dishes they request when they come briefly home.

The funny thing is, I never knew it was a Greek dish. I happened upon the recipe one day when leafing through my Greek cookbook. Discovering this gave me a wonderful feeling of continuity. This is how culture descends through the ages. I never saw my mother use a recipe for this dish, and when I started making it, I simply copied what I saw her doing, with an innovation or two of my own. But the basic dish has probably descended in my family from mother to daughter for generations.

Food can be a beautiful thing.

Shepherd’s Pie

3-5 medium russet potatoes
1/2-2/3 cup milk, half-and-half or cream
1 egg

1 pound of ground chuck for each two people eating
medium onion, diced
1-2 T flour
seasoning: thyme, parsley, oregano or mint (dried works best)
salt and pepper

Preheat over to 350

Peel, cut and boil the potatoes for mashing. When the potatoes come to a boil, start the meat layer. Saute the diced onions in water until all the liquid is gone, add the meat. When the meat is about halfway done, add the dried herb (only one of the ones suggested, but they all work with this dish), and salt-pepper to taste. Finish frying the meat until it is cooked through and dredge with flour. Spoon about 1/2 to 1 cup of the boiling water from the potatoes onto the meat and heat it, stirring constantly, until it forms a thick gravy (this will happen fairly quickly. Don’t walk away). Put the meat into a prepared casserole (buttered or cooking sprayed).

Drain the potatoes and leave them in the pot (no sense dirtying another pot). Add the milk and egg and mash (quickly before the egg can cook). The egg gives the potatoes a nice color and body. Add salt to taste and mash to your preferred consistency (if you like a very smooth mashed potato use a beater, otherwise a masher and fork are fine). The potatoes should be wetter than you might want for a side dish, since they’ll bake for 25 minutes and you don’t want them to get dry.

Layer the potatoes over the meat and bake uncover for 25 minutes.

Traditional shepherd’s pie as a layer of blanched green beans over the meat; however my kids never liked it that way, so I serve the vegetable as a side dish.

For the carnivores in the family

Here's some stovetop recipes for chicken and pork. A family stand by, so it probably qualifies as comfort food. As a child, I had no idea chicken could be cooked any other way.

Porkchops with mushrooms and onions

Season one porkchop per person, both sides, with parlsey, salt and pepper. Set aside.

Melt about 2 T of butter in a very hot sauce pan, sautee a pint of mushrooms until all the butter is absorbed (this will happen very quickly. Pan will end up slick but not greasy). Dash with the juice of half a lemon, or jar equivalent, and sautee until the shrooms release moisture. Add another 2 pats of butter, and sear both sides of the chops. (It's seared when it releases easily. If you have to pry it up it's not done). Cook another 5 minutes, until the pan browns nicely. Add a little liquid (water, tea, or stock, maybe 1/4 cup at most) and the onions. Continue sauteeing, turning the meat periodically, until the onions are transparent. Add 1 to 1 1/2 cups of stock or tea, about 1/3 c at a time, until a nice brown gravy forms. You can thicken the gravy by dredging the meat with about a tablespoon of flour before adding the liquid.


Greek chicken

Marinate the chicken in the juice of one lemon, oregano, salt and pepper. Let sit at least one hour (or, in fact, all day if need be).

For true Greek Chicken, you'll want to bake it at 375 for 45 minutes, turning it once. You can also pan fry this dish. Put 2 T of olive oil on the hot pan, then sear the chicken, turning it when it releases easily, until it's nicely browned on all sides. Add stock and simmer until the meat is thoroughly cooked. The stock will make a nice clear gravy; to increase the amount, just add more after you remove the chicken and make sure the pan is scraped clean. For pretty gravy strain it, but it's fine with all the flotsam in it too.

Serve with garlic mashed potatoes.

Food for a rainy day

Forty degrees and torrential winter rain, plus a long discussion on line about fennel of all things, inspired this meal today.

Nearly identical recipes for tomato fennel soup are all over the web, but I originally found it in the Chicago Tribune Cookbook 20 years ago when I grew fennel and tomatoes in my own garden for the first time. Back then, I grew the wrong kind of fennel (some fennel you grow for seeds, and some for the fleshy bulb). I got the seed kind, which has a woody, inedible root and no bulb. I used it anyway, but it added just flavor, no edibles. This one is made with proper bulb or Florence fennel. The anise flavor of the fennel adds both sweet and savory elements, and compliments the acidic tomato beautifully.

This recipe made two large bowls of soup, which we served with grilled cheese made the America’s Test Kitchen way (with melted butter, butter the bread, not the skillet).

Roasted Tomato and Fennel Soup
Coat a baking sheet with cooking spray; preheat oven to 325F/160C


Halve 6 medium tomatoes (or 8 plum tomatoes) and place skin up on the baking sheet. Add two small fennel bulbs cut into wedges or chunks, a halved onion, and 2-3 garlic cloves wrapped in foil. Brush the vegetables with olive oil, season with salt and pepper (I use sea salt and mixed white and green pepper for this recipe) and roast for 50 minutes. While this is baking, make stock with the fennel greens and onion skins. (You can also used canned stock—vegetable or chicken, but making your own stock both improves the flavor of the soup, and reduces your carbon footprint.)

Once roasted, place the vegetables in a large saucepan with 2-3 cups of stock and simmer until the fennel is very soft. Remove the tomato skins and puree. I use a hand held immersible blender, or you can put it in a blender or food processor. Once it’s pureed, run it through a food mill to smooth it and reduce bulk.

Add half and half or cream and serve with grilled cheese on a cold rainy day.

Not for the squeamish

If you like mudpies you’ll love meatloaf, because there is no avoiding sticking your hands into that meat concoction to thoroughly mix it. You really really need to remember to wash your hands before making this dish, because you’re going to be in it up to your elbows. I also always leave warm water running before I start mixing so that I don’t have to handle the faucet with my icky meaty hands.

This is the meatloaf that my mother always made and one of a handful of dishes for which I never saw a recipe. I have no idea how I learned to make it; just watched her so many times that it sunk in. It’s another major family favorite.

1 1/2 to 1 ratio chopped beef and chopped pork (or lamb if you’re feeling fancy and rich)
1 egg
1/2 cup breadcrumbs (please make your own, it’s super easy; see below)
2 teaspoons fresh or dried oregano
1T fresh or dried parsley
salt and pepper to taste
ketchup

Coat an 8” or 9” loaf pan with cooking spray. Preheat oven to 350F/175C.

Dump all ingredients together in a mixing bowl and mush them around with your hands until really thoroughly mixed. Form into a loaf and press into the pan, artistically apply ketchup (you heard me, ketchup, this ain’t the Cordon Bleu). Bake 1 hour (longer for a larger meatloaf). Check it at around 40 minutes; if there is a lot of fat, pour it off and return it to the oven. When done it should be brown all the way through; no red at all. If it’s not quite done you can slice it and top it off in the microwave, or serve just the ends, which are probably done, and finish off the rest in the oven.

You can also turn this mix into meatballs— about 1 1/2 to 2 inch round balls pan fried in oil and then sautéed in a can of whole tomatoes for typical Italo-American ones. For Greek style, make them more egg shaped, lay a tomato slice over each one (canned peeled tomatoes are fine, or fresh) and bake them at 350F/175C for about 30 minutes, turning once.

Serve this with potatoes:

Homemade potato chips
Slice potatoes paper thin; blot thoroughly (you want to remove as much moisture as you can so that the oil doesn’t foam up) and deep fry in very hot oil til deep golden brown. The oil should be at least 2” below the top of the saucepan but still deep enough to thoroughly submerge a good sized handful of potato slices. I drop the slices in just 1-2 at a time until there are 10-15 slices at once. This keeps them from sticking to each other. You’ll need a slotted spoon or wok “spider” to scoop out the finished potatoes. Shake the oil off in a brown paper bag or drain on a pad of newspaper. Do NOT leave the cooktop unattended while cooking these.

Once the oil has cooled return it to an empty container; you can probably use it again within a couple of days, or seal it tightly and discard it with your regular garbage.

or

Mashed potatoes
Peel and boil til thoroughly soft, 1 medium Russet potato per diner (America’s Test Kitchen says start with cold water; the potato will finish with a better texture.) Drain off the water (leave the cooked potatoes in the saucepan). Add 2-3 pats of butter, salt and pepper to taste, an egg, and enough milk to get a creamy texture, then whip with a hand held mixer. You must mix the egg in immediately so it doesn’t cook to solid in the hot potatoes. The egg gives it a nice color. Don’t overmix or the potatoes will have a sticky texture; basically stop when they are just smooth.

For extra interest add to the boil a couple of cloves of garlic and a small diced onion (make sure they are very very soft before mixing), and/or a mix of root vegetables like celery root, parsnips, or rutabagas.


Homemade breadcrumbs
Instead of throwing away the heels of the bread, or palming them off on your partner, toast them in a warm oven (about 250D) until thoroughly dry, then crumb them in a food processor or heavy-duty blender.

Comfort Food

If you define comfort food as the food your mother makes, then every recipe in here will fall under that rubric. But this is true comfort food, one that everyone can agree on. Naturally, first the back story.

When I lived in Austria, my Austrian friends had an image of Americans built upon their encounters with tourists and their parents' encounters with American soldiers after the war. They therefore believed that no American ever cooked-- they always ate at restaurants (tourists) or directly out of a can (soldiers' c-rations). My friend Ulli was consequently shocked when I made a tuna casserole for her, where the only food item from a can or package was the tuna (which you couldn't get fresh in Austria for anything approaching an afforadable price). I make it truly from scratch-- no canned mushroom soup here.

Tuna Casserole

one medium onion, diced
3 stalks celery, diced, if desired
2-3 large pats of butter and equivalent amount of flour
1 1/2- 2 c. scalded milk
large can of tuna
4-5 c. egg noodles or 3-4 c. rotini
1-2 cut up carrots
about 20 small florets broccoli
parsley, caraway, salt and pepper to taste
breadcrumbs
grated cheese (a hard and/or non-oily cheese works best. I like mozzarella or romano, but Monterery Jack is also nice. Cheddar and American are wrong for this, don't use them)

You can make this hours or days ahead of when you eat it. Make it on a Sunday afternoon, then pop it in the oven when you get home from work sometime later in the week.

In a large saucepan, boil enough water for the pasta. Add the carrots when you set the pot on the stove. Two minutes before the pasta/noodles are done, add the broccoli so that it just blanches. If the pasta is done before the sauce, drain it and set it aside in a greased casserole (I use cooking spray, but you can also grease it lightly with butter).

While the pasta is boiling, make the sauce:
Scald the milk in the microwave, about 5-6 minutes at 80% power.

While the milk is scalding, cook the onions (and celery if you like it) in a 2-quart saucepan in about a 1/4 c of water, until transparent. Melt the butter in the onions; before it browns add the flour and saute over very low flame for 2 minutes, stirring constantly and not allowing it to brown. Turn off the flame; when the sizzling stops, turn the heat back on low and add about 1/4 cup of the scalded milk. This will instantly create a thick paste; immediately start adding the rest of the milk very slowly, stirring constantly to create a creamy sauce. Add the seasonings and tuna and simmer uncovered very low for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, and being careful not to let it burn.

When the sauce has thickened slightly, fold it into the pasta/veggie mixture, making sure that the fish, carrots, and broccoli are evenly distributed throughout. Lightly sprinkle just enough bread crumbs to cover the top, then same thing with the grated cheese.

Bake uncovered at 350F for 25-30 minutes (depending on how browned you like your cheese).

Serves about 4