Durand - Not Your Mothers Casseroles

REVISED AND EXPANDED EDITION

Faith Durand

On any given weeknight, in any given place, you will find mothers and fathers, grandmothers and young professionals, and single college students and newly married couples staring blankly into the refrigerator as they ponder the age-old question: What should we eat for dinner?

These days, the answer to this question isnt simple. On the one hand, we need to eat quicklythat appointment, soccer practice, or late-night study session wont wait. On the other hand, we want to eat fresh food that has some connection to the current season, is grown not too far away from us, and is likely to be good for our bodies.

Old ways of growing and gathering food, as well as eating in rhythm with the seasons, receive fresh attention; urban gardening gains new footing; and families are more than ever prioritizing fresh produce and organic food. These are old ways of eating, and we celebrate them.

And yet, the old ways are slow ways, and our modern lives have sped up. How do we cook sensible and reasonably fresh food in simple and delicious dishes that still allow us time for other things? How do we nourish our families and find balance in the modern conflict of freshness versus convenience?

One way to resolve this conflict is with a return to the casserole.

Casserole! That much-maligned word carries connotations of four-day-old turkey, paired unfortunately with mayonnaise and mushy vegetables. Perhaps visions of cream-of-whatever-soups dumped over canned peas and tuna flash in front of your eyes. Casserole should signify easy comfort food, but lets face it: Its come to be a bad word in many households.

Lets talk about my family of origin, for instance. I grew up in a huge family, one of eight children. Life was busy and noisy in such a full household, and getting dinner on the table every night was not an easy task for my mother. She often turned to baked dishes that could be mixed up quickly and put in the oven, letting her turn her attention to more pressing things (like arbitrating disagreements among her many children).

And yet, my five brothers and two sisters wouldnt have been happy to hear that casserole was on the menu. My mother, being a wise cook, didnt often call her baked dishes casseroles. Many favorite dishes at our table were actually casseroles in disguiseCreamy Cheesy Potatoes, for instance, which makes an appearance later in this book.

As I grew up and learned to cook for myself, I rejected the casserole and my mothers baked dishes, tooso old-fashioned and bland! And so full of fat and canned ingredients! No thanks.

Life became full. I got a job, got married, got a house, and got really busy. Even though cooking was part of my job, I often found myself turning to easy baked pastas and quick one-pot dishes. If I could squeeze my starch, meat, and vegetable into one dish, I was a happy cook.

Then one day I had an epiphany: I had been making casseroles all along!

But I had tools and a range of ingredients that werent available to my mother 20 years ago. Canned soups were off the ingredient list, and I wanted to bring my favorite flavors and preference for the freshest foods to the one-dish meals I enjoyed so much.

Casseroles had the potential to be easy, delicious, and quickbut I didnt want to make the recipes I grew up with. I also had friends with vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free eating preferences, and I wondered whether casseroles could stretch to accommodate their eating needs as well.

Today, Ive come full circle, as Im a mother now too, to a toddler daughter who needs to eat (loudly! with vigor!) and I want to nourish her with tempting food that sustains. Here, again, the casserole has proved to be one of our best family strategies.