Hamburger Pie
My mom credits this recipe to Marge Zuzel. I don't recognize the name but Marge had a huge impact on my childhood. This is one of the few recipes in this collection that I do remember. It was a staple in our family dinner and continues to be one of my favorites. I've passed down the fondness to my children as well. It's warm and tasty but not weird. For me - it's comfort food.
My pet peeve - "small onion" - how big is that? I used four decent sized slices from a small-medium (for Texas) sized onion. I know - I'm being as vague as the original recipe. I think it depends on how much onion you like in your food. Since my sensory challenged child does not like slimy food I went a bit light on the onion but wanted to get the full experience of following the recipe to a "T" since, over the years of making this from memory, I might have morphed the recipe a bit.
I preheated my sapphire pan and put random amount of canola oil in.
In the middle of the Corona Virus pandemonium I did not have ground beef so I used ground turkey. If anything I think it made a more mild flavor.
I like to use this nylon tool to break apart meat - as I get older my hands and wrists can't handle the heavy duty kitchen tasks. (My burner is on 2 because for this pan the highest it should go is 3.)
Normally I make this casserole in a 9x9 Pampered Chef stoneware which is probably a lot bigger than 1 1/2 qt. casserole. But, in an effort to follow the recipe, I used this Corningware which was exactly 1 1/2 qt.
The recipe didn't say to drain the meat - but I did.
I was surprised to see monosodium glutamate on the ingredient list. I've heard of MSG through the years. I think my mom used to think she was allergic to it. I was curious so I googled it and found that it is sold in this seasoning called "Accent" which is just pure MSG. What I read online was the basic, if you give a ton of it to a lab rat they will get side effects. But I only needed 1/2 tsp so obviously not going to do any major harm. I did give a lot of consideration to whether it was worth buying the whole container for just 1/2 tsp but - like I said - I wanted to follow the recipe. I also like the idea of this magic powder that makes people desire the food. I wondered if it would've helped Joan's Rolls. I've been making this recipe 30 years without it so I was very curious. In the end, I really didn't taste any difference and the family wasn't wowed. Of course, they've eaten it many times before - the husband never likes it because he doesn't like casseroles and the msg made no change in his enjoyment. Sorry hon - sometimes in life there are days when its a casserole or nothing. The sensory challenged kid was distracted by the onions so he didn't like it any more or less than normal.
I forgot to check out ahead of time what a #2 can is. Turns out it is 15 oz. I only used 14.5 oz - another example of big companies sneaking less out of the cans and charging us more (like cake mix). In the past I've always made the green beans a middle layer but this time I mixed them in to the meat and soup. I liked it better mixed according to the recipe than the way I've been doing it all these years.
I'd made some mashed potatoes last week and froze the left overs so I spread the thawed potatoes over the top. They seemed a little clumpy but that didn't seem to have any impact on the end result other than they weren't browned like normally happens but the taste and consistency was fine.
When you take it out of the oven it you should see some of the red soup color bubbling up the sides of the dish, around the potatoes. (Sorry, I forgot to take a picture.) Best served with a flat spatula / turner (like a pancake turner) - sort of like you'd serve lasagna. Often the potatoes slide off or the whole thing flips over when getting it onto the plate - but the taste is always delicious.
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