GREEN BEAN CASSEROLE RECIPE

In the great interior, where the buffalo and cavemen roam, wearing flannel shirts and shooting liberals, people eat the darndest things. Of course I've never been there, and have no wish to go, but sometimes their cuisine fascinates me. I wrote about this earlier (Minnesota: the bleak and forbidding zone), and I may have mentioned the Texas State Fair where everything is deep-fried till mahogany on a stick. As all food is there.


The following recipe contains some ingredients I do not have in my larder. To make it, I shall have to go on Amazon. It's "comfort food".

[Normally I disapprove of comfort food. Food is not supposed to "comfort" you, dammit, but fill you with existenzangst, tiefe selbst-tzweifel, gicht, and an identitätskrise. Plus solid American values.]


GREEN BEAN CASSEROLE

Two cans (14½ oz.) green beans, drained.
One can (10½ oz.) condensed cream of mushroom soup.
One can (6 oz.) French fried onions.
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese.
Quarter cup milk.
½ Tsp. ground black pepper.
Pinch nutmeg.

Preheat oven to 350°F.
Mix cream of mushroom soup, milk and spices in a 1½ quart baking dish. Stir in green beans, add the fried onions and cheese on top, mixing slightly in. Do NOT add salt.
Bake 30 minutes till hot and crisping on top. Stir.


If this is too spicy for Midwesterners, omit pepper.
This goes well with Sriracha hot sauce.
Perhaps with rice or sour dough.


If you are health conscious, leave out the cheese. Or substitute tofu for everything.

Survival in the heartland is ALL about preventing constipation.




==========================================================================
NOTE: Readers may contact me directly:
LETTER BOX.
All correspondence will be kept in confidence.
==========================================================================