Pot Roast in a Slow Cooker

Ingredients

Roast: three pound chuck roast with plenty of visible fat (seriously, the fat is an ingredient and pot roasts exist to turn it into food) (the perfect roast will be 1.5 to 2 inches thick, but thicker will also work fined)

Mushrooms: eight ounces cut to around one-inch square pieces

Yellow onion: medium, cut into thin half moons

Carrots: about two-thirds of a pound, peeled and sliced 3/4 inch thick (for skinny carrots, cut longer slices to get something in the neighborhood of similar proportions.)

Garlic: eight cloves minced

Olive oil

Half a tablespoon of dried thyme

Half a tablespoon of dried rosemary

Half a tablespoon of salt

Fresh ground pepper

Broth: a quart of chicken broth with a plan not to to use it all (Good beef broth is hard to make right, so the standard grocery issue isn't made right, but store-bought chicken broth is quite good)(Having four one-cup boxes of broth on hand will let you open only the ones you need, but I am rarely able to plan that way and usually just throw away what's left in the quart box)

Process

Prepare the vegetables as listed above

Heat a wide skillet over medium heat, film with olive oil when warm, and then warm the oil.

Brown the roast on all wide sides (this is where a two-inch wide and mostly flat roast saves time: one that's close to bread-loaf shape has more sides worth browning.)

Put the roast in the crock pot.

Add a little more oil to the skillet and swirl.

Add the mushrooms, give them a minute on the heat, and then turn them once a minute until you like how brown they are.

Put the mushrooms in the crockpot.

Lower the heat on the skillet and add a little more oil, giving it half a minute to warm.

Put the carrots and onion in the skillet and cook for around three minutes, stirring often. (This lower-heat step can be called "sweating" the vegetables, because the aim is to soften them and strengthen their flavors, without browning them.)

After three minutes, add the garlic and stir steadily for two more minutes. 

Dump the entire skillet into the crockpot.

Sprinkle the thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper over the surface. (For pepper, I aim for it looking like around the same amount as the salt.)

Move the vegetables down around the sides of the roast.

Add enough broth to just barely cover almost everything. (See why the amount of broth is unsettled above?)

Cover the crockpot and cook either:

• for seven hours on low (best)
• or two hours on high and three on low (quite good and helpful if you get a slow start)

Enjoy!

(Want potatoes in the pot? Don't add pepper at the beginning, and do add the full quart of broth at the beginning. Cut the potatoes bite-sized and add half-way through the cooking. Offer pepper at the table since it isn't in the pot.)

Pork and Farro Improv

This is a dish I invented on the fly, and it worked.

What I Used
Two cups uncooked farro
One pound of ground pork
Two big cloves of garlic
Half of a medium-sized onion
A bit of olive oil
A bit of apple cider vinegar
Salt and pepper

What I Did
1. Put farro in a three-quart pot and added four cups boiling water.  Then I put that pot on the burner on high until the water boiled again, lowered the heat to simmer, covered the pot, and set the timer for 20 minutes.

2. Stuck a standing colander in the sink.

3. Put a dutch oven on the stove, added enough oil to cover the bottom thinly, and set the heat to a low-medium.  (For enameled cookware, standard advice is to heat with the oil already added.  That's the opposite of the advice for stainless steel.)

4. Peeled and chopped the garlic into little pieces, and the onion into slightly larger pieces.

5. Put the garlic and onion in the dutch oven, and stirred until it began to turn a little bit brown.

6. Added the pork to the dutch oven and broke it up into little pieces and then stirred it and the garlic and onion until everything was light brown.  (At this point, I had a little problem because there was a lot of liquid in the bottom of the dutch oven, so that my pork was going to steam instead of browning further.  So I ran the sink tap until the water was hot, left it running, poured the pork mixture into the colander, and then poured the pork back into the dutch oven with much less liquid--and put the colander back in the sink.  The hot water protected my pipes from clogging with fat.)

7. Continued cooking until the pork was the darker brown that says "Yum.  Cooked meat."

8. Added maybe a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar to the dutch oven and stirred everything around in it until it all disappeared into the meat.  I plan to experiment with adding a bit more next time I cook this.

9. Heard the timer go off on the farro and did a chew test to confirm it was nicely soft even though some water was left.

10. Poured the farro into the colander, shook the colander over the sink, and then poured all the farro into the dutch oven.

11. Stirred it all together, tasted, and added a bit of salt and fresh pepper. (For someone on a low fat diet, don't do the mixing. Let them choose the ratio of pork and farro.)

Cinnamon could be a lovely addition. 

Cinnamon with lamb in place of pork would mean heading toward Moroccan flavors. Maybe a few sliced apricots or some golden raisins cooked with the farrow would suit that?

Mushrooms could contribute, though probably not with the cinnamon option, maybe added with the pork rather than with the onion so they don't get cooked to oblivion. 

Other vinegars could be fun, and I wouldn't be surprised if wine or beer also worked nicely.  

Rice in place of farro would be great, or quinoa or bulgur.  

One more idea, imagine using the mushrooms and adding cream or half-and-half after the farro and the meat are combined.  I can't decide whether the vinegar would be a plus or a minus that way, but I'll try both next winter.

Pork following "Pollan's Second Recipe"

Ingredients:

• A pound or so of thin boneless pork chops, patted dry
• An onion, sliced thin
• Four cloves of garlic, chopped small
• Six ounces of shitake mushroom, chopped into bits no bigger than an inch square
• Half a pound of raw green beans, cut in one inch slices on the diagonal
• Grapeseed oil or another oil with a high smoke point (not olive oil or butter)
• Tablespoon of chicken Better than Bouillon
• Tablespoon of soy sauce
• Tablespoon of corn starch
• A cup of quinoa or rice or some other grain you like or have around

Steps:

• Assemble the ingredients, including measuring and chopping
• Put the grain onto cook as per its own directions and set a timer so you don't forget it.
• Measure three-quarters of a cup of water and add the Better than Bouillon and the soy sauce.
• Put half a cup or water in another cup near the stove.
• Put some of the oil in the dutch oven, and heat on the stove until it shimmers--probably a bit below maximum heat, but pretty seriously hot.
• Put one layer of pork chops in the pan and check after three or four minutes.  
• Flip when they are no longer stuck to the bottom of the pan and nicely brown on one side.
• Remove from pan when no longer stuck to the bottom and nicely brown on the other side.
• Do another round if needed.
• Add a bit more oil to the pan and heat for a few seconds
• Add the onion and garlic and stir constantly until you smell them and then a bit longer until you notice that some of the garlic is brown
• Add the green beans and stir constantly until you notice that most of them are a bit brighter green.
• Add a bit more oil and then the mushrooms, and stir constantly until you notice that most of the mushrooms are a darker brown (bonus: the onions are likely to be brown and caramelized and lovely by this time)
• Add the water and use it to deglaze the bottom (meaning scrape gently until the lovely tasty brown stuff mostly comes off the bottom and some of the water has evaporated
• Add the water-Better than Bouillon-soy sauce, stir, and then put the pork chops back in
• Lower heat and cover for maybe five minutes, and then check that you like the green beans (cook more if not, and cook more if Molly is worried about the chops being done.)
• Mix the cornstarch with three tablespoons of water
• Add that to the pot and stir until the sauce thickens nicely
• Check to see if you like the level of soy flavor (add more if not)
• Serve over the grain (you did remember to set the timer and get the grain off the heat, right?)

Chicken following "Pollan's second recipe."

Ingredient:

• a pound of chicken boneless chicken thigh, cut into cubes of about an inch
• three cloves of garlic, minced
• one onion, chopped up small
• about a quarter pound of mushrooms
• about half a pound of snow peas
• grapeseed oil (though only because my olive oil bottle was empty)
• a teaspoon of “Better than Boullon” stirred into half a cup of water
• the juice of a lemon, squeezed into the water with the bouillon
• a tablespoon of cornstarch, stirred into three tablespoons of water
• some farro, cooked according to its directions, which are the familiar one cup with two cups water brought to boil and simmered twenty minutes--but rice, guinoa, or anything else that cooks like that will work as well.

Process

• Get the farro started
• Heat the oil in a dutch oven (or big frying pan)
• Brown the chicken pieces at a moderately high temperature in two batches and move to a plate
• Lower the temperature a bit, add the garlic and stir until you can smell it, add the onion and stir until it gets kind of soft, add the mushrooms and a little more oil and stir until they darken a bit.
• Add the liquid and use it to deglaze the bottom of the pan (meaning scrape it gently to get most of the brown bits of flavor to come loose)
• Add the chicken, cover, and simmer for about ten minutes.
• Add the snow peas and simmer for another two or three minutes.
• Add the cornstarch mixed with water and stir until the sauce thickens.
• Serve over the farro or other grain

Footnotes:

• The Michael Pollan part is "Roots browned in fat, then simmered with protein, vegetables, and liquid."  In Cooked, he has great fun working through world cuisines as separated mainly by the choice of which roots: carrot-onion-celery is French, but onion-garlic is Italian and scallion-ginger means you're in Pacific Asia.  It's kind of a master rule that allows for infinite variations based on what looks good at the store or what has been in the fridge long enough that it probably should be cooked tonight.
• I originally planned to use soy sauce rather than lemon juice, but found my jar had vanished. Then I looked for white wine, and had none of that in the pantry.  Lemon was my third choice--a sign of how flexible the recipe really is.   It could also be done with pork.  Or beef.  Probably shrimp.  Certainly broccoli if added a a few minutes sooner.  Or whole green beans.  Or whole chicken thighs and allowed to simmer another ten minutes before adding the vegetables.  If I didn't have soy sauce or wine or lemon juice, I'd probably add some parsley or thyme to the water and bouillon.

• Pollan's first recipe is basically dead animal over slow fire watched by a group of people (often all male) consuming some fermented liquid.

Lentils and ground lambporkturkeybeef

8 cups water
1 pound lentils, rinsed, drained

1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 tablespoons ground cumin,
1 teaspoon chili powder
2 garlic cloves minced

1 pound ground lamb or pork or turkey or beef
1/2 onion, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Cook lentils in water for about 20 minutes, testing for doneness by biting a few.  There should be more crunch left than in a lentil soup.

While the lentils are cooking,  combine the next five ingredients, whisk together until they merge nicely, and set aside.

Add the other olive oil to a frying pan and heat.  Add onions and cook five minutes, stirring occasionally, until they're getting soft.

Add the meat to the onion brown, breaking it up and stirring and flipping until it's all brown and in small pieces.  (If there's a lot of fat in the pan, run hot water into the sink, use a colander to drain the meat with the water still running, leave the water running, and flip the meat and onions back into the pan.)  Add the remaining four spices to the meat, stirring rapidly to spread it around and paying attention to whether you're smelling the spices as they heat.  Move the meat into a small bowl.

When the lentils are done, drain into a colander and move to a large bowl.  Mix well with the oil-vinegar-spices you set aside.

Serve bowls of the lentils with a smaller amount of the meat nestled on top.

This recipe uses altered quantities, less salt, and different meat than the original I found at Epicurious.

Regular spaghetti sauce with anything but spaghetti

Sometime very early in mom-life, I realized that children with forks could handle almost every kind of pasta better than than they could manage spaghetti.  Somewhat later, I realized that Susans with forks also benefit from this strategy.  

Ingredients
1 pound ground beef (Your mom strongly recommends for Laura's Lean or explicitly organic, on account of hormones and slime and ugh.  She even more strongly recommends the kind that's at least 90% lean, meaning no more than 10% fat.)
1 large jar spaghetti sauce
1 pound pasta (gemelli, rotini, fusilli, bow-ties, elbow macaroni, etc.)

Steps
Put the pasta water on to boil.

Put a dutch oven on another burner, turn on the heat high, and put the ground beef into the pan right away.  After a minute or two, start breaking it up with a spatula.

When the beef is all in little pieces, make sure you can get the lid off the spaghetti sauce.  If brute strength is not an option, try whapping the edge of the lid with the side of a knife a lot.

Go back to flipping and stirring the ground beef, watching for red and pink bits until there are absolutely none in sight.

If you took your mom's advice and got the lean beef, there won't be much grease in the pan. You can just add the sauce, stir a couple of times, and move the pan off of the heat.  If you didn't, go to the serpents' tooth directions below.

Put the pasta in the water and set a timer for the recommended number of minutes.

When the timer goes off, use a spoon to take out one piece of pasta, drop it in the colander, run cold water over it, and bite it to see if it's right.  

If yes, drain all the pasta.  

If no, cook another minute and check again.

Serpent's tooth directions
When the beef is cooked, if you didn't take your mom's advice and there's lots of grease, run the hot water in the sink until its really hot.  Leave it running while you put a colander into the sink and empty the beef pan into it.  Put the pan back on the stove, shake the colander once or twice, and then quickly toss the beef back into the pan.  Now you can add the sauce, stir a couple of times, and move the pan off the heat.

Put the pasta in the water and set a timer for the recommended number of minutes.

Remember the greasy colander?  Go back to the sink and run hot water all over the colander to get the grease off of it.  Now you can turn off the hot water. (If you turned it off before your mom said to, you'll get what you deserve and I won't even bother explaining about grease in sink pipes.)

When the timer goes off, use a spoon to take out one piece of pasta, drop it in the colander, run cold water over it, and bite it to see if it's right.  

If yes, drain all the pasta.  

If no, cook another minute and check again.

Breakfast sausage in the oven

Other moms cook sausage in one frying pan while cooking eggs in another.  I would burn everything.  All the sausage you have ever eaten at home came from a hot oven.

Ingredient
Breakfast sausage links, usually labeled "original" or "old-fashioned" rather than "maple" or other odd things

Steps
Preheat oven to 400.

Put sausage in a glass pan in one layer.

Put pan in oven.

Leave for 15 minutes.

Then you can either cut it open to see if it's brown all the way through, or leave it in until it looks very dark the way Mom does it and you know for sure it's brown before you take it out.

Cooking it to almost black would have worrisome implications if you ate sausage more than once every three months. Used very sparingly, I think it's great.

Added Fact
If you switch the oven to broil after cooking this way, so you can do toast, expect the toast to get done extra fast because the oven is extra hot.

Added Idea
Look up how to cook bacon in the oven.  You need a cookie sheet and aluminum foil, and it's quicker than sausage. I don't have a method yet, but I've done it, and it's almost as good as pan-cooked and much easier to do it for six or more people.

Those spicy chicken bits in those lovely wraps

This recipe reconstructs one from the best cookbook I ever left at Kroger.  The original called for grilling the chicken, but that never turns out to be one of my options.  I should try using the broiler.

Ingredients
1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breasts cut into slices about an inch wide (or thighs done the same way or store prepped chicken fingers)

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon turmeric
a pinch of cloves
a pinch of cayenne pepper

More oil

1 cup plain yogurt
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 cucumber, peeled and thinly sliced

spinach leaves
flat bread sandwich wraps or tortillas.

Steps
Check out the chicken and see if you need to do any cutting to get it the right size.

Combine the next seven ingredients in a glass or pottery bowl and mix well.

Add all the chicken and toss it around with your fingers until the stuff is on all of it and then wash your hands. Or use a spoon and spend three times as a long and still have to wash your hands afterward.

Cover, and refrigerate for an hour.

Add a thin film of oil to a frying pan and heat until a tiny bit of garlic from the chicken bowl sizzles when you drop it in.

Add pieces of chicken, shaking each one a bit over the bowl to limit how much of the marinade comes along.

Turn them after a minute, and keep turning until they look really beautifully browned, maybe with some little black bits.  Then cut the thickest piece open to see if it's cooked-chicken color all the way through.  If not cook all of it a bit longer and test another piece.  (Someday I will amend this recipe with a better idea of how long to do this cooking.)

Move that batch to a plate, and do another batch the same way and a third if necessary.*

As soon as the last chicken is in the pan, pour the marinade down the drain and rinse the bowl well with water.  (This may not be necessary if Beau Weston is in another state at the time.  If you are sharing a house with Beau or someone else who will smell something good and want to try it as a sauce, it is essential.)

When the chicken is done, combine the cumin and yogurt, and then stir in the cucumber.

Make your wraps with a layer of spinach leaves, two spoonfuls of the yogurt/cucumber, and one of two of the chicken pieces.

* If the pan has brown bits stuck to it, that will actually make the food better.  If it gets completely black on the bottom and starts smoking, not so much.  In that case, between chicken batches, pour in a cup of water and use a wooden spatula to push along the bottom until most of the stuff comes off.  Pour all that stuff down the sink,and put the pan back on the stove until it looks very dry.  Then add new oil, and go back to cooking the chicken.  (BTW: adding water and scraping the pan is also called deglazing.  In lots of recipes, you keep the liquid in the pan and use it to make a lovely sauce.  Not this time, but it's useful to know.

Pork bits and carrots on spaghetti

This is pretty the only recipe I have ever made that needs actually long stringy pasta. There's a texture issue that matters. It's also my only sauce that is actually made in the microwave. It's fab.

Ingredients
1 pound pork boneless shoulder or boneless pork chops or pork loin (something you can cut into bits)
3 medium carrots, cut into 1/4-inch piec (about 1 1/2 cups)
1 medium onion, chopped (about 1/2 cup)
1 tablespoon minced garlic

1 teaspoon "better than bouillion" or one bouillion cube
3/4 cup water
2 teaspoons chopped fresh or 3/4 teaspoon dried basil

1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons cold water

1 pound spaghetti or angel hair pasta
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon grated parmesan

Directions
Cut pork into 3/4-inch pieces, removing any fat that's easy to remove.

Mix pork, carrots, onion and garlic in 2-quart casserole.

Cover tightly and microwave on medium (50%) 9 to 11 minutes, stirring every 3 minutes, until pork is no longer pink and vegetables are crisp-tender.

Stir in bouillion, basil, and pepper.

Cover tightly and microwave 20-30 minutes, stirring every 6 minutes, until pork is tender.

After the pork has cooked 20 minutes  put on the water the stove and start heating it to cook the pasta.

When you're sure the pork is done, mix cornstarch and water thoroughly and stir into pork mixture.

Cover tightly and microwave on high 1 minute 30 seconds to 2 minutes or until mixture thickens and boils.

While that's happening, cook the pasta.

Drain the pasta fully, then mix in first the butter and the parmesan.

Serve pork and vegetables over spaghetti.

Turkey/Navy Bean Chili over Rice

Two notes

This is a five-hour project.  It's not a vast amount of work, and you can do lots of other things while things simmer, but you have to be somewhere in the house to do the "stir occasionally" part.  It's perfect for the first cold, rainy weekend of the year.

Also chili is very mild: spice lovers could include a chopped jalapeno when they sauté the vegetables and double the chili powder.  The recipe I started with did that.

Ingredients

 1 lb bag of navy beans

1 lb ground turkey

2 cups uncooked brown rice (six cups cooked)

1 onion (finely chopped)

1 green pepper (diced)

2 stalks celery (finely chopped)

2 cloves garlic (minced)

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 bay leaves

1Tbsp chili powder

2 Tbsp cumin

1 Tbsp turmeric

1 Tbsp salt

2 tsp black pepper

1 tsp oregano

1 14.5-oz can diced tomatoes

shredded cheese (optional)

chopped green onion (optional)

sour cream (optional)

Steps

Put the beans in a pot with a quart of water.  Bring to a boil for one minute, turn off the heat, cover the pot, and leave to soak.

After two hours, drain and rinse soaked beans, then set aside.

Heat oil in stockpot over medium high flame. Sauté onion, garlic, celery, and green bell pepper s until onions are translucent and the other vegetables are slightly tender.  Remove from pot and set aside.

Add six cups water, soaked beans, tomatoes and spices to the sautéed vegetables,. Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer for approximately 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

After the chili has cooked for an hour, put the brown rice and four and a half cups water in a separate pan, bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to low.  Set timer for 45 minutes.

Brown the turkey in a frying pan.  Drain and add to the chili.

The chili will be ready at the same time as the rice.

Serve in bowls and garnish with shredded cheddar cheese, chopped green onions and/or a dollop of sour cream.

Tuna-Pasta Salad

This actually started out as Grandma Charlotte's recipe, and I think she started out with a potato salad idea from The Joy of Cooking.

Ingredients
1 pound spiral pasta
1 cup Wishbone Italian Salad Dressing Accept No Substitutes
13 ounces of white tuna in water
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup of chopped celery
1/4 cup of chopped up sweet gherkins
Anything else you like in a summer salad: canned corn, fresh cooked corn, green pepper, red pepper

Steps
Cook the pasta according to the package

While it cooks, do any needed chopping.

Open and drain the tuna, then empty into a large mixing bowl and break it into small pieces.

Add the mayonnaise, celery, gherkins, and anything else you like to the tuna and mix well.

When the pasta is done, drain it, then instantly shake up the salad dressing and pour it on to the pasta, stirring well to spread it around.  Let it sit for a couple of minutes for those flavors to blend.

Add the pasta to the tuna and again mix well.

Eat warm or chill and eat later.

Oven Roast

Shopping thing: you have to figure out which beef roasts only work as pot roasts and which work as oven roasts. Pot roasts go in a pot with liquids and a lid on top to help them stay moist and become tender enough to chew.  Oven roasts are the kind that can be cooked pretty much dry in an open pan because they're more expensive meat that won't dry and be tough that way.  At Danville Kroger, the roasts just say "oven roast" or "pot roast" on them, so you know.  If you're elsewhere and don't have hints that obvious available, ask a butcher or someone standing next to you.  Or call someone who reminds you of Hermione and ask that person to look the information up on line.

Ingredients
An oven roast (pretty much any size)
Chinese hot mustard (My no-longer-secret ingredient)

Equipment
A baking pan--like one you'd use for brownies or a cake, with sides
A meat thermometer (or a knife to cut the meat open and look at it)

Steps
Multiply the pounds of your roast by 20 minutes a pound, and then add 20 more minutes. That's how long it will cook.

That thing with the ground beef

Ingredients
1 pound ground beef
1 can cream of mushroom soup in a can with a pull-top lid
1/2 of a soup can of milk
1 cup of rice (can be white/quicker or brown/better for you)

Equipment
A frying pan, a cooking pot with a lid, a big spoon or a metal spatula to stir with, a measuring cup, a stove

Real chicken soup

Real cooking, where you put in a bunch of effort one day and then have food for several.  

Shopping tips:
1. If you don't already have spices, the list below could get expensive, but you can leave some of them out.
2. If you don't have a great strong spatula or spoon to use getting the chicken out of the pot, buy a chicken that has already been cut up or three or four pounds worth of pieces.  That'll cost a little more, but that beats dropping the chicken.

Ingredients
A whole chicken (preferably one with giblets, preferably 3 to 4 pounds)
1 pound of carrots
2 pounds of potatoes (either little ones or a few big ones)
8 ounces of mushrooms
A yellow onion
Minced garlic
Bay leaf
Thyme
Parsley
Salt
Better-than-Bouillion chicken
12 ounce package of frozen green beans--the cut up in one-inch chunks kind.
Pepper

Saltines because you always have to have saltines

Equipment
Necessary: A soup pot with lid (or a slow cooker), a knife, a carrot peeler, a strong spatula or metal spoon, a big fork
Helpful/optional: A frying pan (optional), a cutting board, a colander

See, you can tell it's real cooking because we're already at the break and not yet at the instructions.

Ten fast meals that are better than pizza

1.  Buy a rotisserie chicken and stuff from the grocery salad bar.

2.  Corned beef hash from a can, with mandarin oranges.

3.  Kraft mac-n-cheese, with peas (because mom always serves them with peas).

4.  Scrambled eggs with rye bread toast and orange juice (because mom pretends that counts as fruit).

Murdered Pot Roast

Concept
Cook the roast for way longer than other recipes recommend, either by accident or on purpose.  Lovely caramelization (sweetness and bits of crispness) will result.

Ingredients
3 or 4 pound beef roast (can be a cheap one)
1 pound carrots
8 ounces of mushrooms
1 onion
beef better-than-bouillion
minced garlic
soy sauce

Equipment
Slow cooker (big dutch oven could work: see notes)

Mouse Galore

Ingredients
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 can milk
13 ounces of tuna (one big or two small cans)
1 pound egg noodles
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Steps
Preheat oven to 350.

Put  noodles on to boil according to package directions.

In the casserole dish, mix the soup and and the milk.