By Late May. Twenty-three weeks pregnant. Dustin’s parents Kathy and Mike drove down from Owasso Friday afternoon to spend the long Memorial-Day-weekend at the apartment with us. The weekend was the small first-grandbaby-prep-visit Kathy had been planning since the anatomy scan in May. The apartment-second-bedroom (currently the small office I have been using for the green hardcover and the small writing desk Aunt Linda had given me as a wedding gift) is going to become the nursery in July.
Saturday afternoon Kathy walked me through the nursery-prep checklist she had brought in a small spiral notebook from her own first pregnancy back in 1997. The checklist had been updated for 2021 across the past month with Kathy’s own current research. The list was thirty-seven items long. I had ten of the items already. Kathy had brought twelve more in her trunk as small grandbaby-gifts.
Sunday I made tuna noodle hot dish because Dustin had asked for the Minnesota-leaning casserole his Owasso friend Anh’s grandmother had once made when Dustin had been at a sleepover at Anh’s house in 2010. Dustin had been carrying the dish around in his head for eleven years. The hot dish format is a covered casserole — ground beef or tuna, noodles, cream-soup base, vegetables, baked under a crispy topping. Anh’s grandmother’s version was tuna. I made the tuna version. Dustin had three plates. Kathy had two. Mike had two. I had one and a half.
Tuna Noodle Hot Dish
Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 25 minutes | Total Time: 35 minutes | Servings: 6
Ingredients
- 3 cups egg noodles, uncooked
- 2 cans (5 oz each) tuna in water, drained
- 1 can (10.5 oz) cream of mushroom soup
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese, divided
- 1/4 cup diced yellow onion
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup crushed buttery crackers (such as Ritz), for topping
- 1 tablespoon butter, melted
Instructions
- Cook the noodles. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook egg noodles according to package directions until just al dente. Drain and set aside.
- Make the sauce. In a large skillet or saucepan over medium heat, combine cream of mushroom soup, milk, and sour cream. Stir until smooth and warmed through, about 3 minutes.
- Build the hot dish. Add the diced onion, garlic powder, salt, and pepper to the sauce. Stir in the drained tuna, frozen peas, and 1/4 cup of the cheddar cheese. Fold in the cooked noodles until everything is evenly coated.
- Simmer. Reduce heat to low and let the mixture simmer gently for 8–10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the peas are tender and the sauce has thickened slightly.
- Top and finish. Sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup cheddar over the top. In a small bowl, toss crushed crackers with melted butter, then scatter over the cheese layer. Cover and let sit off the heat for 3 minutes, or run briefly under the broiler for a golden crust.
- Serve. Dish up straight from the pan. Best eaten with people you love, at a table that’s seen better days, in a kitchen that smells exactly right.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 340 | Protein: 22g | Fat: 12g | Carbs: 36g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 620mg