More cooking

Hmmm. I am running around today so this will have to be short.

I had a great time for my last class with my two jr. high students. (You met Tetsuhiro-kun last week.) One boy is moving away and Tetsuhiro-kun will be busier with school clubs so he is "graduating" too. I will miss both boys. They have been coming since 1st grade and actually got very good at comprehending and they weren't afraid to string English words together to communicate. For their last class we made dinner. Same menu as last week. (But a lot more fun!) The boys were joking and moving around and tasting things and even making suggestions about what might be good additions. (If you want to know what's with all the peace signs check out this old blog post.)

Okay. Here is the recipe for Cherokee Casserole from my childhood.

1 pound ground beef
3/4 cup chopped onion
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 clove garlic
1 can of tomatoes
1 can of mushroom soup
1 cup (or more) of cooked cold rice
6 stuffed green olives chopped
shredded cheese

Brown meat in oil.
Add onions and garlic and cook until tender.
Stir in ingredients in order given (except cheese)
Bring to boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 5 minutes.
Sprinkle with cheese and broil.

My recipe card is sepia colored and torn and splattered with who knows what. I think my mother typed it up for me when I got married (29 years ago!) This is an old stand-by recipe in our house and Tetsu calls it "American Ojiya" which means rice gruel. Actually I can't get mushroom soup in Japan but I used canned white sauce or sometimes gratin sauce (for any Japanese blog visitors.) I also can't often get stuffed olives so what do you think I use instead? You know how when you think of those pickled green olives how your mouth starts salivating? Well, the same thing happens (Pavlov's dogs?) when I think about Japanese pickled plums so I tried chopping up some Umeboshi (pickled plums) and my Cherokee Casserole turns out great! Japanese think that is a horrible thing to do to pickled plums but even Tetsu agrees that it is a good substitute! Delicious!