After Graham’s grandmother passed away, he brought home one of the things he was able to have as a keepsake…it was her recipe box. I promised {not only to myself, but others in the family} that I would get all of the handwritten recipes scanned in and shared.
The first two recipes are for two different, yet oh-so-similar, chow mein dishes. As you can see from the pictures of the recipe cards, most all of the recipes are void of any instructions. I am not going to lie, it actually puts a smile on my face when I am trying to figure out what I am supposed to be doing with the list of ingredients.
I have tried my best to come up with instructions I think were meant for each recipe, but I am sure I am missing things here and there. So, feel free to print off the recipe cards and make up your own process. Tip for printing: Simply right click the picture of the recipe card and hit print!
Specifically for these two chow mein recipes, I did make a few minor changes and we actually ended up liking a finished product that basically combined the two {yes, I cooked this meal about three different times to make sure I could write possible directions}!
Chow Mein Recipe #1
Ingredients:
1/4 cup butter
1 1/2 cup lean meat (veal, pork, beef, or chicken)
1 cup onions
1 tsp. salt
pepper to taste
1 1/2 cup hot water
1 can (drained) mushrooms (as large as you want)
Directions (as made up by Jen):
Melt butter in pan; cook meat and onions in pan until meat is no longer pink; add salt, pepper, water, and mushrooms and cook until thick; serve hot over chow mein noodles.
Jen’s variations:
— Instead of mushrooms (since they are not favored in our household), we used a can of black beans
— I cooked the mixture for about a half an hour and it was still pretty soupy, so I did add a tablespoon of cornstarch and a can of cream of mushroom to help aide in the thickening process (my mixture may not have thickened as much simply because I was using beans instead of mushrooms, but who knows!)
— Added 1 cup of chopped celery
Jen’s notes:
The chow mein noodles get soft pretty quickly, but there is still enough crunch!
Chow Mein Hot Dish Recipe #2
Ingredients:
1 lb. ground beef
3 sm. onion (chopped) (I just used one large onion…at least it was large for me!)
1 cup chopped celery
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can cream of mushoom soup
1 cup water
1 cup mushroom
8 oz. chow mein noodles
Directions:
Pan fry ground beef, onion, and celery until beef is no longer pink; add in water and cook 15 minutes; add in cream of chicken and cream of mushroom soup; add in mushrooms and chow mein noodles; bake in casserole dish at 350 degrees for one hour (bake uncovered the last half hour)
Jen’s Variations:
— Used one can of black beans instead of mushrooms
— Saved some of the chow mein noodles and sprinkled them on top before baking
Jen’s notes:
As you can imagine, the noodles ended up puffing up and getting soft during baking, so the noddles on top helped provide a bit more crunch. For even more crunch, do not cook the celery and onions with the meat, but instead add them in with the mushrooms.
Thanks, Grandma C!
