Grandma McDonald's Tuna Casserole

 

VINTAGE FAMILY FIXIN'S

(revived)

Tuna Casserole is quick after a track meet

Welcome back to Vintage Family Fixin's.

I prepared this week's recipe after a middle school track meet to feed members of my family who didn't get their fill of pizza, hot dogs and other concessions at the chilly Cambridge event.

It is from my late grandmother Ruth (DeVol) McDonald's recipe box, and after we all tasted it … devoured it … I told my sons I wished she was here to tell her how much we loved it.

Grandma and Grandpa McDonald helped take care of me after my mother, Sandra Ellen (Watson) McDonald, died, and my father, Fred S. McDonald II, worked in Columbus.

Grandma worked a full-time job at the Noble County Courthouse. Grandpa (Fred) was a carpenter with Hill's Store in Caldwell. He was well known for laying carpet and linoleum in many Noble County homes.

Me following my graduation from Caldwell High School in 1984 with my grandparents, the late Fred and Ruth McDonald.

I'm convinced this was something grandma and grandpa made regularly as it is quick to prepare and very tasty.

Tuna Casserole

Mix together:

1 - 10 1/2 ounce condensed cream of mushroom soup

1 - 8/12 ounce drained small sweet peas

1- 5.33 ounce can chunk tuna

Pour into baked 9 inch pie shell. Bake 25 minutes in 350 degree oven.

Top with 3 1/2 ounces of french fried onion rings.

Bake 5 minutes more.


•••••

I used solid white albacore tuna and a frozen Pillsbury Pet-Ritz 9 inch deep dish pie crust which I baked for 15 minutes just before making this dish. This recipe is labeled a casserole but resembles a pot pie both in appearance and taste.

My husband asked if it was made with turkey or chicken. LOL

My star runner, William Donis Loos, had three helpings.

Today's bonus recipe is from Carrie Beatrice "Bea" (Tompkins) Loos' recipe box.

Bea was my husband, David's grandmother and she died on Dec. 9, 2001. I was blessed to have met and spent some time with her before she died.

She and her husband Willard (who my runner is named after) owned and operated the former Loos Produce poultry dressing business on the city's West End before retiring to a farm off Route 662 on Loos Lane.

Bea and Willard had two sons, John and Donis "Don;," the later was my husband's father. Don died before David and I met. Our son Will is named after him too.

This recipe is does not have a title but it is "from the kitchen of Don Loos."

Don Loos was a cook at several places in town.

I'm going to call it Don's Hash.

BONUS RECIPE

Don's Hash

1 package dried beef
1 tablespoon butter

1 can of potato soup

1/3 cup milk

1/3 cup cream

1 small can or 1 cup peas

Lightly brown beef in butter, add soup, milk, creams and peas. Heat and serve.

Let me know if you try the recipes and please share any stories you have with me about any of the people I talk about in my columns.

Caldwell's former eye doctor, Dr. Robert "Bob" Rudge sent me an e-mail this week informing me that his wife, Nancy, happened upon my Two Ruth's column from March 23 (published September 13, 2014 on this blog) that mentioned a recipe for Chicken Cashew Casserole by Ruth DeMarco.

"I went to Cambridge High (1944) with a Ruth Campbell and thought it would be quite a coincidence if this is the same one that provided a recipe that may 'grace' the table of one of her 'old' classmates," he wrote.

Yes, Dr. Rudge, son Steve confirmed that Ruth Campbell DeMarco also graduated from CHS in 1944.

Dr. Rudge fitted me with my first pair of eyeglasses ever in the 1980s.

Nancy was the pianist and organist at the Caldwell United Methodist Church, where I became a member in junior high.

It is a small world.

Originally published on April 6, 2014; reprinted with permission from the publisher of the newspaper where I used to work.