Eat Hearty!

Feeling a bit homesick, so I thought I would share a favorite family dish.

Let me start by saying Happy Holidays etc. I hope that this finds you and yours well. I’m not a religious man, but I do believe in Tactical Santa. He and I wish you much holiday cheer and a Happy New Year.

Merry Xmas from Golly Old Saint Necklace

I live a thousand miles away from my childhood home (998 miles away if you wish to be pedantic). I rarely want to move back to there, but I often miss FabEuless.

Earlier this year, I spent more than five months in a Texas that I no longer recognize. That should have cured me of being homesick for at least a year, yet here I am wishing that I was back home for the holidays. I’m not really missing the place—I am a stranger there now. But I really miss my people. This time of year reminds me of just how far away my family and friends are. Covid and other circumstances have kept me from being able to go home for the holidays for so long that I actually don’t remember when was the last time that Jennifer and I went home for Christmas. All I know is that 2020 was supposed to be our year to go to Texas, but ol’ ‘Rona and bedbugs had other things to say. And Omicron, having to move houses, and my having to leave my job due to injury and illness made 2021 an impossibility. Maybe 2022 will be our year—if there isn’t a Sigma or Upsilon variant wreaking habit by then. Until then I’m homesick. Maybe I will burn one of these homesick TEXAS candles. I’m very curious to smell one. What iconic smell(s) of Texas does it smell of?

It better smell like smoked brisket and not of a fresh cow pie.

When I get homesick I immediately think of the foods of my upbringing. Chicken fried steak, Texas BBQ, pecan pie, fried peach and apricot pies, blackberry cobbler, Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream to put on it (before they callously killed three people in the name of gross neglect and Capitalism), Whataburger, and Tex-Mex. Of all of these, I miss Whataburger and having ubiquitous chicken fried steak. Being able to order a CFS at every other restaurant was one of the things that was a joy on my stressful trip home earlier in the year. I can make chicken fried steak, sure, but I sure don’t like to. It’s messy, it’s dangerous, and it’s pretty fiddly. It must be constantly monitored in some way or you will burn it. It’s restaurant food. I don’t really miss Tex-Mex because Chicago has an Uncle Julio’s. Uncle Julio’s is a chain of spendier Tex-Mex restaurants that was a special treat when I still lived in Fort Worth. When I get homesick for Texas, I can hop on the Red Line for forty-five minutes and enjoy the food of home. But it is a little spendy so Jennifer and I save it for special occasions or I will meet my friend and recent Texpat, Tiffany for lunch on occasion. I know it’s a chain, but it may as well be the embassy of Texas as far as I am concerned. And they have the best damned fajitas anywhere. I think that this is probably the third or fourth time I’ve talked about this place on this blog, but I really have a soft spot for it.

Always busy and always an amazingly diverse cross-section of Chicago diners.

I want to share a recipe with y’all, before I post this and go make it myself. It is called Green Enchilada Casserole or occasionally Green Enchiladas in my family. It comes from my Grandma Noah, my mom’s mom. Grandma would have called it Mexican food—it can loosely be called Tex-Mex, but I would call it comfort food. It is one of the three meals that would have with my extended family on my mom’s side. Green enchilada casserole, spaghetti and meatballs, or Mexican pile-up. The tradition of spaghetti and meatballs all but died when my Aunt Sherri passed away in 1999. Mexican pile-up is kind of a fun 1980s party food, a build-your-own affair with rice and ground meat, salad fixings, cheese, salsa, kind of like a taco bar without shells or tortillas, with the odd toppings of shredded coconut and chopped pecans thrown in to confuse children and my Yankee wife. I always enjoy Mexican pile-up when it is placed before me, but I never reach for it. I desperately miss my Aunt Sherri, but I don’t make spaghetti and meatballs for Christmas Eve either. House Peepas-Nichols either makes lasagna of some sort or green enchilada.

Much like the Voltaire quote by way of SNL “Coffee Talk” joke “The Holy Roman Empire was neither holy nor Roman nor an empire. Discuss.”, this casserole is neither green, nor is it enchiladas, but it sure is a casserole—there is definitely a can of Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup in this bad boy. Though they are not rolled, this is a distant cousin of the stacked enchiladas which are endemic to the Panhandle region of Texas where my family originates and nearby New Mexico. Like a lot of Tex-Mex it’s hues tend toward the earth tones with browns, beiges, ambers, and bronzes being the color palette. The green in the name comes from the green chiles used in the recipe. It is not a feast for the eyes but it is ABCDelicious (as Grandpa Noah used to say). Without further ado, I give you Green Enchilada Casserole:

Green Enchilada Casserole

by Nita Noah, adapted by Nicki Suttle and Jan Nichols with personal tweaks by Jeremy D. Nichols

Ingredients:

2 lb. of ground beef

1 medium onion, chopped (reserve 2 to 3 tbsp. for layering)

2 tsp of chili powder

Salt to taste

Granulated or minced fresh garlic to taste

1 15 oz. can of evaporated milk

Dash of Tabasco or other hot pepper sauce (I use Crystal or Louisiana)

1 small (5 oz.) can of chopped green chiles

1 15 oz. can of red or green enchilada sauce (Grandma, Aunt Nicki, and Mom use(d) red, Dad and I use green)

1 15 oz. can of cream of mushroom soup

1 small package of corn tortillas (8 to 10 count)

2 to 3 cups of shredded cheddar cheese

Directions:

1. Brown the meat with the onion, chili powder, salt, and garlic. Drain if desired.

2. Spray a 13” X 9” baking dish with cooking spray.

3. Quarter the tortillas and line the greased baking dish with them.

4. Combine the evaporated milk, hot sauce, cream of mushroom soup, green chiles, and enchilada sauce.

5. Alternate layers of meat, the sauce, and the cheese and reserved onions, topping with cheese.

6. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes until bubbling.

7. Top with more cheese and return until oven until melted.

8. Eat Hearty!

To say that my family loves this dish is an understatement. My Aunt Nicki memorialized this recipe back in 1972. She used découpage and her beautiful schoolteacher handwriting to make this plaque enshrining this beloved meal. It hung in my grandparents' kitchen until Grandpa Noah passed in 2006. It now hangs in Aunt Nicki’s kitchen. I have loved this heirloom since before I was old enough to read and seeing it in her house always gives me pleasure. I especially love the admonition to “Eat Hearty!” One thing you can say about my family is that we eat hearty!

Isn’t it as cute as a button?

Thank you for letting me share this special food with you. I hope that you have the happiest of holidays and let’s all hope that the new year is calm and healing. We need it.

Thank you, as always, for reading.

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