Ham-and-Noodle Casserole

As soon as the furnace starts to kick in, I know the season of casseroles is beginning. Easy to make ahead, even freeze, they are nice on a cold day. If you don't have leftover ham, purchase a ham steak. But this recipe is at its best when one uses Boar's Head Pesto Parmesan ham. Just have the deli slice it about 1/2 inch thick.

• About 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups dry egg noodles. I used Inn Maid medium noodles--non curly
• 2 cups cubed fully-cooked ham, such as "Boar's Head Pesto Parmesan Ham"or any left-over ham.
• 3/4 cup grated Parmesan
• 1 can cream of celery soup
• 1 cup sour cream
• 1/4 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced without the stems
• 1/4 cup finely chopped yellow onion (not sweet onion)
• 1/4 cup finely chopped celery (optional)
• 3/4 teaspoon dried mustard
• 1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
• 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire (optional)
• about 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper or to taste
• Pinch or two garlic powder
• Topping
• 1 cup SOFT bread crumbs
• 2 tablespoons melted butter or margarine
• 1 cup shredded Parmesan

Cook noodles. Drain. Put in bowl with a bit of olive oil so they don't stick.

In a large bowl, combine ham, soup, sour cream, mushrooms, onion, mustard, seasoned salt, Worcestershire, cayenne. Mix. Taste and re-season if necessary. Add the noodles and mix. Transfer to an 11 x 7 x 2 greased baking dish or a 9x9 pan.

In a bowl, toss breadcrumbs and butter. Add cheese. Sprinkle over casserole. Bake uncovered at 325-350 degrees for 30-45 minutes or until heated through. You may cover it with foil for the first 30 minutes and then uncovered for the last 15.

Note: To make fresh breadcrumbs, put a couple slices of bread in the mini-processor and whirl until breadcrumbs form. I don't like cubed, uniform ham chunks. Using a sharp knife held at an angle, I make thin non-uniform slices as if you really were using leftover ham. But that's just my own preference.

This can easily be doubled and you can freeze one.

Come to the Stable

By Gary T. Czerwinski

The United States finally came clean and admitted what most of us already knew: we are in a recession. Venice, Italy wishes it were in a recession, a recession of water, that is. It is inundated with the highest tides ever recorded. Our presidential election is over. The world turns and events go on.

This is one of the bleakest of holiday shopping seasons. Economists call it “deflation” because the discounts are so steep retailers aren’t making any money. And since most of what is selling isn’t made in the United States, it really doesn’t do us any good. To be honest, it’s not doing China much good, either. They are laying people off and the amount of container shipping across the oceans has decreased to a trickle.

I recently received an e-mail chronicling the number of big-name retail stores that will either shut their doors for good or begin closing outlets across the country. The numbers are staggering. Even more staggering will be the number of people who will lose their jobs.

Here’s a sampling:

• Ann Taylor closing 117 stores.
• The Bombay Company closed all 384 U.S. stores.
• Charming Shoppes chain closed 150 outlets.
• Circuit City filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November 2008 and is closing 155 stores across the U.S.
• CompUSA closed most of its 103 outlets.
• Dillard's closed 21 outlets in 2008 and said it expects more store closures in 2009.
• The Disney Store closed 98 outlets.
• Eddie Bauer closed 29 outlets
• Ethan Allen closed 12 retail design centers and two service centers in 2008.
• The Foot Locker closed 274 outlets in 2007 and another 60 in the first quarter of 2008. More are likely.
• Whitehall Jewelers began liquidating and closing all 373 of its stores.
• The Home Depot announced in May 2008 that it would be closing 15 underperforming outlets.
• Kirkland's is expecting to close 130 outlets by the middle of 2009.
• Levitz Furniture: Good-bye.
• Macy's closed 11 outlets in 2008.
• Sharper Image began closing and liquidating all 184 of its outlets in June 2008.
• Sprint will be closing 125 of its 1,400 retail outlets.
• The Wickes Furniture chain began liquidating merchandise at locations nationwide in February 2008.
  

With the current economic forecast, expect more to follow. And this list doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of really small businesses. In 2007, 637,100 new businesses were created, 560,300 businesses closed and 28,322 filed for bankruptcy.

In my own lakeshore area where tourism is king, it’s not unusual to see stores open and then close within a few years. But we are now witnessing well-established businesses closing their doors for good. Mine included.

I’m always somewhat aghast when I walk into these big-box stores. Merchandise piled to the ceiling. A lot of it is the same stuff in other stores. The poet’s line “earth cry mercy” always pops into my head. How many more natural resources can we rape from our planet to produce all this … junk? Has it really been worth it?

Many families are planning more simplified Christmas celebrations. At last! Fewer gifts. More handmade, personal items. Less is more!

With so many people facing home foreclosures, becoming homeless and jobless, even living in cars, the meaning of “born in a manger” might just rekindle a divine and somber simplicity we seem to have forgotten.

Sweet Potato and Apple Casserole

The first time I had this I knew I would never again make sweet potatoes topped with gunky marshmallows. This is more of an "adult" version. The apples sweeten the potatoes just right. Great with pork and ham. And, of course, turkey.

This recipe is really a naked canvas. Feel free to create your own masterpiece:

• Add toasted pecans or walnuts.
• Top with pumpkin seeds.
• Sprinkle with a bit of cinnamon.
• Go festive and decorate with a few sugared cranberries or candied cherries, red or green.
• Drizzle with honey or maple syrup. 

This need not be a "holiday" recipe. It is great for a weeknight side. This recipe is easily doubled.

Serves 4

• 3 medium sweet potatoes or 2 large
• 3/4 cups thinly-sliced apples (about 2)
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/4 cup water or apple water

Cover and cook the potatoes in salted, boiling water until they are nearly done. You will know this when you insert the prongs of a meat fork into the potato and it goes no more than half way then stops. They will cook the rest of the way in the oven.

Drain and rinse under cold water to stop some of the cooking. Return to pan to cool more and proceed with apples.

Peel apples and slice. Don’t bother to core the apple, just begin making slices all around it until you reach the core. I like to use one Golden Delicious and any other variety. Just make sure they are of equal density or crispness. If soft, make the slice large

-OR-

Core, but do not peel the apple. Slice into rings.

In a small frying pan, add a bit of water, add the apples and cook until they just begin to get soft. If using rings, try to keep intact.

Generously butter a 1.5-quart dish.

Peel the now-cooled potatoes and slice into 1/4-inch rounds. Layer the potatoes with the apples, sprinkling each layer with a bit of brown sugar and dotting with butter. Pour the apple water or water over them. Bake uncovered at 350 for about 45-60 minutes. Can be made one day ahead and then re-heated in the oven.

Eating Our Way into a Depression

by Gary T. Czerwinski

I feel like it’s “back to the future” and 1976 all over again. That’s when I got my first teaching job in a small rural school in Indiana. The pay? $8,000.00. Even then, it wasn’t much and I learned how to scrimp to get by. State law mandated one had to get a Master's Degree within five years, so there was the added burden of paying tuition, night classes, and lots of travel in old cars. I learned to ration hot dogs and made lots of pancakes. But things got better.

 According to a recent New York Times article, the makers of SPAM, “the canned wonder meat” by Hormel, can’t make it fast enough. They are working around the clock, literally, to keep up with growing consumer demand. Ground meat sales are up because people can’t afford the continually-rising price of more expensive cuts of beef. And that includes chicken. 

Other foods suddenly in demand: pancake mixes along with Jell-O, dried beans and rices, boxed mashed potatoes (all belly fillers). Many name brands, especially cookies, can’t compete with cheaper, generic brands. Sales of paper towels are down along with socks. What’s a hole or two if no one sees? But McDonalds’ sales are up. A burger, fries and Coke beat a twenty-dollar dinner in this economy. 

So when I saw a sale on hot dogs at the supermarket, I grabbed several packages and it was déjà vu. I was 24-years-old again. You can do a lot with hot dogs (recipe follows). I’m pinching pennies like I did 32 years ago. 

Still, I don’t have it as bad as families who are actually doling out their children to relatives like during the Great Depression because the family house has been foreclosed and there’s no work. I keep thinking of “The Waltons.” It was sappy but popular and could make a great comeback. Everyone pitching in, moving in together, to make ends meet. FDR’s optimism and strength during the Great Depression. In case you haven’t heard, FDR is the new Reagan.

It’s difficult to imagine that the American Dream of owning a home was responsible for this current nightmare of ruining economies across the globe. But it’s true.

We can point and wag fingers of blame at banks, lending institutions, Washington, Wall Street, fat cats. We can cite greed and ignorance, even stupidity, but it was always that promise of ownership, property, that drove it all.

It’s a peculiar, American phenomenon rooted in our whole history of Manifest Destiny, poor immigrants, peasants and serfs from Europe who worked other people’s property. They yearned for their own future that began with a farm. Displacing Native Americans was rationalized with audacious Biblical claim.

Even after the Civil War, freed slaves were promised their forty acres and a mule.

After World War II, the dream of home ownership took off like never before. Returning GI’s, with government-backed programs, staked their bungalow of freedom. Suburbia was born. My dad bought our first house for $5,000.00.

But some dreams can outlive themselves. And this may be one. Suburbia drained cities and small towns of precious resources and monies. Many still struggle and are boarded up. Interstate highways were built to move farther away. Precious lands were bulldozed. More cars built. Strip mall after strip mall. Carbon dioxide and ozone depletion. Ironically, they are still building.

We will get through this, but it will be tough. The ultimate irony, of course, is that the great “ownership society” has made us less free and lessened our options and opportunities. And 401k’s. Some hot dogs are just hard to swallow.

Hot Dogs and Pasta

If you can add a splash of dry white wine and chicken stock to the onion mixture, it's even better.

Serves two.

2-3 hot dogs
8 oz. dried linguine or spaghetti
1 small onion
1 clove garlic

Bring a pot of water to the boil and add the pasta to cook.

Slice the hot dogs lengthwise down the center and then into fourths. Melt a bit of butter in a small pan and sauté the hot dogs until they begin to brown. Remove from pan and keep warm.

Slice and dice the onion and garlic. Melt a bit of butter and olive oil to the pan you cooked the hot dogs in and sauté over medium heat until soft and just turning brown. Add a splash of dry white wine and stock. Allow to steam and cook down a bit.

Drain pasta well. Add the hot dogs and the onion mixture. Mix through.

Hint: Fill an ice cube tray with leftover chicken stock and freeze. When frozen remove and seal in a plastic bag. When needed, just remove a few to add to recipes for added flavor.