Christy Jordan - Come Home to Supper: Over 200 Casseroles, Skillets, and Sides

Workman Publishing New York

To Ricky, Brady, and Katy Rose: God set our little family together, and I sure am glad He did!

I was raised in a time of tradition. My family had rituals that we followed each day, each month, each year, because that is what our ancestors had taught us. At the end of summer wed go to the orchard to pick apples. Fall meant spending a day walking behind Papa Reeds tractor as he turned the soil in his garden, picking up potatoes and putting them in buckets. Christmas Eve meant dinner at the Sanders house in Huntsville, Alabama, and Christmas Day meant dinner at the Reed farm in Toney. In the spring, we got new dresses and dyed eggs for Easter and in the summer we held huge family reunions and spent the entire day reconnecting with long-lost cousins from other parts of the state.

And each night, no matter the time of year or season, we sat down to supper.

We were often joined by guests: Police officers who worked with my dad, friends from school, even other families dropped by from time to time. Mama would quickly set another place and not hear of them refusing her impromptu invitation. Oh, weve got plenty, come on and sit down would be her gentle chide, and a few whiffs of her cooking left even the busiest person completely lacking the willpower to turn her down.

Todays world makes sitting down to supper feel so difficult. We scatter in different directions each morning and are pulled in even more throughout the day. Your son needs to go to soccer practice, a meeting is running late, you forget to pick something up from the cleaners, and the list goes on. Its no wonder that the brightly lit drive-through promising inexpensive quick eats and no cleanup seems to call out so strongly. Worse yet are the evenings where bags are passed out in the car and the food is finished before arriving home, so that everyone just walks in the door and scatters again to their respective rooms (I speak from firsthand experience here).

But then weve missed it. Weve scattered only to scatter again. Our loved ones have gone out into the world for that entire day and we missed our chance to see who they became as a result. Miss just a few of those days and we risk waking up in a house with people we no longer recognize. We grow apart and lose our strength as a family.

That is why coming home to supper is important. My favorite way to end the day is to gather around the dinner table with my family, holding hands as we give thanks for our meal and for each other, and then to pass the plates and fill our glasses as we talk about our days and I learn who my children became during their time away.

Our suppers together are the anchor that keeps us from drifting apart.

My mama told me a wonderful parenting secret when my firstborn was still a toddler. She said, Christy, you have to sit down to supper every night and then just let them talk. Youll be amazed what theyll tell you. That is where youll learn about their friends, what is going on in school, what theyre struggling with. Theyll open up and not even realize itif you just sit down to supper together.

Believe me, Ive had many of those drive-through paper-bag nights myself, and Im not about to judge. We do what we have to do and sometimes that may mean eating on the run. But I hope this book will help you to make those nights few and far between.

These are the suppers I make for my family. They dont require a lot of time in the kitchen and they certainly dont require a large grocery budget. Theyre kid friendly and in most cases easily customizable for your own dietary needs and preferences.

The thing that bothers me about the food world today is that sometimes it seems we have entire channels dedicated to teaching folks how to cook the perfect filet mignon while were sitting at home trying to come up with one more thing to do with a pound of ground beef. Filet mignon is great, but what we really need to know is how to keep a family of four fed and happy.

In this book, youll find a whole slew of ground beef recipes that will work for those long days when you leave in the morning and wont be back until just before supper time. Youll see plenty of recipes for the slow cooker (indicated with an symbol), as well as tips and tricks for buying and using this workhorse appliance. Youll find lots of one-dish casseroles, skillet meals, and things you can make ahead of time, and youll also find recipes and suggestions for pulling off the bigger meals as well. Ive made sure to include plenty of chicken dishes, too, because from speaking to you I found that it is the meat served more often than any other in your homes. And youll find plenty of recipes for pork, other cuts of beef, seafood, and a generous helping of simple sides. Dinner breads and make-ahead desserts round it all out.

I set out to write the one cookbook that I myself would use the most when it came to planning suppers for my familyI hope youll find it as useful as I intended it to be. Please keep in mind, though, that the recipes in this book and the meals you and I make are really just a way to bring our families and friends together. Because, at the end of the day, the supper table is where we teach our families where they came from and they let us know where they hope to go. Values, heritage, history, dreams, and encouragement are passed around with the serving platters and roots grow a little deeper with each bite. We may have high hopes and aspirations when we set off into the world each morning, but if you really want to make the world a better place, end the day by coming home to supper.

Christy Jordan

My grandfather, Papa Reed, was a farmer. When I was growing up, hed gift each of his childrens families with a calf at Christmastime. Wed pile into Daddys truck and go to the butcher to have him fill all of our coolers with ground beef, roasts, steaks, and stew meat. With the deep freezer full, we had beef aplenty for months after that. I still look to this versatile, flavorful meat when it comes to satisfying my cravings for hearty meals.

With times lean and our food budget stretched tight as a drum, having beef in the freezer was a considerable blessing to my family. I know it was a huge relief to my mother, who could whip up all manner of delicious suppers using beef as her key ingredient.

My stomach growls even now as I remember walking through the front door to the smell of Mamas roasts, hamburger steaks, and stews. Come to think of it, we never actually walked home. If we knew one of Mamas suppers was waiting on us, we ran!

Serves 4

This was one of my favorite dishes to order at Mexican restaurants until I began making it at home. Turns out fajitas are so simple to make, and they have even more flavor when prepared in this zesty lime marinade. In making them I also discovered a little trick: Transferring the beef to the freezer for a few minutes after marinating it makes it much easier to slice into thin strips.