…about casserole. “What?” You ask yourself. “Casserole? What is there to wax eloquent about? We have casserole twice a week.” Or maybe you’re of the school of thought that casserole is an abomination, and you would never wax eloquent about it unless it was the ultimate and final demise of all casserole everywhere. In which case, you may want to stop reading now and come back when I’ve posted more pictures of the kids.
My family had casseroles regularly when I was growing up. I liked them. They were good, and they were comfort food. Some of them involved broccoli, some of them involved sausage and black olives, some of them involved eggs, some of them involved tuna, some of them (made by my dad) were called “Amalgam Casserole,” because he put all the leftovers he could find into them and baked them up. Okay, so those were not always my favorites. [Dad, I’m sorry, but some flavors don’t blend well. And even cheese can’t always cover that. But I do appreciate your efforts to feed us, nonetheless.]
One thing casseroles always involved: dairy products. Milk, cheese, cream of mushroom or celery or whatever soup. Mmmm.
When I started out to make the casserole tonight, Hannah asked what I was doing. “Making dinner.” She wanted to know what I was making. “Casserole.” Then came the kicker:
“What’s casserole?”
My kids haven’t been able to eat dairy. Hannah and Naomi both have lactose intolerance issues, although they can handle some cheeses in small quantities and also yogurt. Simeon is just plain allergic to dairy. Casserole has not really been in our menu rotation since…6 1/2 years ago. Enough so that when I went somewhere with the kids a few years ago, Michael made himself a tuna casserole and ate the whole darn thing for meal after meal while I was gone (But not for breakfast. I don’t think.). He got the recipe online, since we don’t really have any casserole recipes.
How, you may ask, did I manage to make a casserole? Did my children magically start to handle dairy better? NO! I discovered, thanks to this recipe, that one can make a vegan bechamel! This may mean nothing to you, but there was one line in the recipe that caught and held my attention: “We used all the roux to create a sauce with the consistency of thick, heavy cream.” The heavens opened, angels sang, and a whole new world of recipes (using magical vegan sauce the consistency of thick, heavy cream) opened up to me!
Vegan cream means that I will be able to make casserole! I can make the vegan bechamel and I can add it instead of the milk and cream soups! This changes everything! I can make chowder that everyone in my family can eat! (Will they? I don’t know, but it won’t be harmful to them!) I can make tomato cream sauce! I can…the possibilities are mind-boggling!
Of course, you may be rolling your eyes at this point. I know, I know, there are vegan cheezes, there are vegan cream cheezes, there are vegan cream soups, there are soy creams that are thick like heavy cream. I know that, but have you ever tried that stuff? It’s not very good. And if you have tried it and thought it was fine, have you ever read the ingredients? I’m not into gums and 40-word ingredients. I’m also not into having lots of soy in my diet, so we use rice milk – that’s how I made the vegan bechamel.
All I’m saying is that I made chicken and rice casserole today using the roux method, and it was good. Everyone in my family ate it. EVERYONE. Even Naomi, the resident food-separatist and judger-of-food-based-solely-on-how-it-looks ate this casserole, after finally trying a bite. She was convinced she wouldn’t like it, but she ended up eating a huge serving.
And Michael said it was a make-again dish. Michael is a generous and loving husband, and I love him very much. I appreciate that he always thanks me for making dinner, no matter what it is that I am serving him. But he doesn’t tell me things are make-again dishes if he doesn’t really think they’re make-again dishes.
Casserole. It’s the little things, isn’t it?
