My Mom's Chop Suey

Ahhhhh, Chop Suey and biscuits, just the thing when you're cold and need a bit of comfort. I grew up having this throughout my childhood, never knowing that it was going to become the comfort food of all comfort food in my adult years. As far as I was concerned when I was growing up, this was the only Chop Suey. Imagine my surprise (and slight disappointment) when my 13 year-old self ordered Chop Suey from Chinese take-out and got something completely different! In my defense, it seemed totally logical to find this on the menu, when the menu also offered hamburger plates and chicken nugget platters. When I was in my twenties, I had to spend nearly two weeks at Tuft's NEMC. The food served there was actually quite good, but not home food. On occasion, my Dad would go to Au Bon Pain and treat me to a latte or grab me a mini pizza from Pizza Hut; those treats brought a wonderful break from the hospital cuisine. When it was time for me to return home, my aunts gathered together to rally me home and to help my parents settle back into normal life. One of my aunts offered to make me a dinner, anything that I wanted and she'd have it ready when we got back. I could have anything that I wanted; so, I asked her to make me Chop Suey. To me, nothing could be better than homemade Chop Suey after weeks of eating away from home. When I finally was able to eat the meal she prepared for me, it tasted gourmet.... it was exquisite!

Chop Suey has all the perfect ingredients to soothe most of my nerves- pasta, tomatoes and beef. It is simple, easy to make, cheap to make, and you can make a huge batch of it to feed many or if you want something to last for days. Chop Suey is also one of those magical dishes that tastes even better the next day.

Here is the recipe if you feel like trying it out.-

Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
2 large cans of stewed tomatoes (don't drain)
1 small can of tomato paste
1 lb of macaroni pasta

Directions:
In a large pan, brown the beef. Add the tomatoes and bring to a boil. Add the tomato paste and then fill the tomato paste can with water and dump it into the beef and tomato mixture. Fill the tomato paste can with water one more time and add to the mixture. Stir the mixture to blend together and bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer.

While the beef mixture simmers, boil water in a large pot and cook your macaroni until tender. Drain the pasta and then add the pasta to the tomato and beef mixture. Stir everything together, making certain to cover the pasta with the sauce. Turn off the heat and it's ready to eat. You can season this any way you like. I just add salt and pepper to taste.

For the biscuits, we use the recipe on the back of the can of Bake-Well Cream and they always come out perfectly.

This dish makes me very happy. It is just the thing on a dreary winter day! When I'm not busy eating comfort food, I've been reading, having a Netflix binge ( watching the show Wolfblood to lighten my mood after watching The Returned), and working on some crafts. I will reveal more about this in future posts. Until next time~ Toodahloo!