Gidget Roots - Journey Through Family Recipes - Episode 11 - Spanish Delight

Can you say procrastination? It is I your resident Scrappy Gidget and I admit I am behind on telling you of our most recent and quite delicious cooking adventure! Although, I am not apologizing for it at all – it has been a crazy month and as things have settled I realize our next cooking adventure is only a few days away, so I best get to telling you about our Spanish Delight!

Many choose to celebrate Cinco de Mayo and for us we thought it would be great fun to pair our Cinco de Mayo with homage to the “Spanish Delight” recipe in our family cookbook. When I read the title I was really excited – thinking of Spanish or Mexican influenced cuisine I think lots of flavor and sometimes even a little kick! Then I read the recipe and was confused (as I am sure you might be as well, once you hear the ingredients!)  Riddle me this – what does ground beef, macaroni, and saltine crackers have to do with “Spanish”? Apparently absolutely nothing. I asked this question to my aunt several times. I don’t think our decision was finalized until we were inspecting our meal (which by the way turned out to be one of the most flavorful and one of our favorites, so far!).  “I suppose it’s called that because of the peppers and onions in the dish, maybe” was the final result of this inquiry.  Regardless the nomenclature confusion, this “Spanish Delight” was truly and honestly quite delightful with layers of flavor (and of course, a couple additional ingredients, courtesy of yours truly).

Now for the adventure. We are still maintaining responsible social distancing and conducting our adventures in the virtual realm of video call.  We also realized that it is a little difficult to capture the essence and energy of these adventures, but still do our best! (Also, my aunt is lucky to have her beautiful chef assistant to help navigate chopping, cooking, timing, and photography! Kudos to her!) There were a lot of moving parts so to speak so this one was a little challenging for me to multi task and still remember to take photographs along the way documenting the process. Through it all, the process is still entertaining and brings me much joy.

Let us do a quick review of the ingredients. If you have been following this blog you will have noticed a theme going on with canned tomato soup and also rice as key repeat offenders in our family recipes. Don’t judge them, sometimes ingredients are just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Like the macaroni in this recipe. Yep, that is right – a “Spanish” delight made with macaroni noodles instead of rice. Of all the times to use rice in our family recipes, I would have thought this would be it! Onions, bell pepper, can or corn are also listed, along with saltine crackers for the topping.  Again, outside of maybe the tomato, onion, and bell pepper is the closet stretch to the “Spanish” influence in this dish. After initial review of the ingredients, we already knew one addition we would be making – garlic!

First, the mis en place – chopping up the onion and  bell pepper (I had some jalapeno on hand, taking creative license with the recipe, added some minced jalapeno to the mix, too!) Once the chopping was completed, it was time to begin the cooking process. We needed two pots, one for the meat mixture, the other to cook the macaroni.  

We began cooking the ground beef and once it started, added onion and our precious golden goodie superhero, garlic.

 Once that became fragrant we added the peppers (both sweet and spicy for me!) We continued to let that cook down, and while that was working away, began our macaroni. 

(This is the easiest part, boil salted water add the macaroni and cook until al dente, about 8-10 minutes depending on your preference and size of pasta. Remember that the macaroni will steam / bake a little bit so you don’t want to overcook to mush).

Once the ground meat mixture is cooked through, we added our frozen corn ( right – we didn’t use canned corn we all prefer the flavor of frozen corn) and the ever so loved tomato soup. Mix it together until all ingredients are mixed together. Now it is time to start the fiesta by adding the macaroni (does anyone else see the humor in this step?!) Mixed carefully until well combined, you don’t want to munch up the pasta so stir together gently.

Fun step – this would be a great step for kids to help too! Saltine Smash! Easiest way to crunch up the saltines is to place some in a plastic zip bag and roll over with a rolling pin, crunching into a crumble. You want some texture so don’t over do it (not making breadcrumbs!). 

If  the pot you were using for the mixture is not oven safe, you will want to transfer the macaroni meat concoction to an oven safe baking dish. I used my Pampered Chef Rockcrock which was perfect because I can transfer straight from stove top to oven. Once in a baking dish, sprinkle and cover the top with the crushed up saltines.  

Time to bake! 

Now it is a waiting game – baking until warmed through and the cracker crumble is golden brown. Remember, all the ingredients are already cooked, we are just warming up and adding a golden tan! Once you have reached the just return from vacation tan on the cracker crust, it is time to pull from the oven and dig in!

I will be the first to admit this is probably not the most beautiful looking dish. However, looks notwithstanding, this dish was ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS!

I’m not sure about “Spanish” but it sure was a delight!  I will be marking this as a favorite as I know my future swookie littles will love this dish too. And now I have my own story to tell about the time I made this with my beautiful aunties during Covid Quarantine of 2020.  As we dug in (I am pretty sure we all had at LEAST second helpings of this delight) we conversed about books, life, the crazy world, and enjoyed much needed laughter and smiles. 

As I am posting this, we have already conducted our next cooking adventure... again procrastination! But consider this a fun TWO FOR ONE READ! I saved you one time from biting at the bit in anticipation for the next adventure, you're welcome! Hope you all are staying safe, sane, and happy during these challenging times. Remember to find your happy place and stay connected, no matter how weird it may be!

NEXT EPISODE: GREAT GRANDMA KZ'S RECIPE - POTATO DUMPLINGS

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ORIGINAL RECIPE

SPANISH DELIGHT

2 pounds of hamburger

1 onion

1 can tomato soup

1 green bell pepper

1 can whole corn - drained

1 cup cooked* macaroni (we were informed this was a typo and it should be "uncooked" at this point)

Brown your hamburger and onion. Add your diced pepper, salt and pepper. Add your can of whole corn. While this is cooking slowly, you cook up your cup of macaroni and drain it. Add this to your hamburger mixture. Mix in 1 can of tomato soup and a little bit of water. Use a rolling pin to roll out some crackers (usually one package). Top the hamburger mixture with the cracker crumbs. Bake in 350 oven until everything is warmed through and the cracker crumbs have turned a golden brown.