“Never apologize for your cooking,” said Chef Morgan to her class of 12 students. We soaked up her words of cooking wisdom while drinking a glass of white wine, and watching her create a scrumptious three course meal for us. (My kind of cooking class!)

Her comments return to me when the taste of my cooking is questionable, or, if I forget to add a crucial ingredient to a recipe.

It’s happens - in our first year of marriage my husband and I were having friends over to our newly rented apartment. Crammed into a small eating area by the galley kitchen the eight of us enjoyed a pasta dish I had created.

Halfway through the meal I went into the kitchen, and there, sitting in a colander on top of the refrigerator were the vegetables waiting to go into the pasta primavera.

I had out-organized myself by cooking the veggies ahead of time with the plan to toss them into the pasta at the last minute. The veggies didn’t make it, I didn’t tell anyone and I never apologized.

Speaking of pasta, here is a Tuna Casserole that my good friend created. When she mentioned her kids ate this tuna casserole, I had to try it. I added 1 clove of garlic to the onions and purposely left out the mushrooms and red peppers to appease my kids. Enjoy!

Tuna Casserole ingredients

Tuna and Pasta Casserole

Tuna casserole has all the components of comfort food: hard boiled eggs, noodles, cheesy white sauce….plus potato chips on top. Everyone will want seconds so there won’t be left overs tomorrow!

Serves 5

½ package egg noodles
¼ cup butter
¼ cup flour
2 cups warm milk
½ teaspoon dry mustard powder
½ cup cheddar cheese, grated
½ cup mozzarella cheese, grated
2 hardboiled eggs, thinly sliced
1 can (7 oz) tuna, drained
½ medium-sized onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup sliced mushrooms (optional)
1/2 red pepper, diced (optional)
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and diced
1 cup bread crumbs or 1 cup crushed regular potato chips

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Cook noodles according to the package. Drain, rinse and set aside.

Heat butter in a large oven-proof pot over medium high heat.

Add onions and garlic and sauté until soft, about 5 minutes.

Add mushrooms, red peppers and jalapeño pepper, if using, and sauté until almost soft, about 4 minutes.

Add in flour and stir until lightly brown. Slowly whisk in milk, stirring constantly until thickens.

Stir in mustard. Add cheeses, hardboiled eggs and tuna; spoon in noodles. Mix to combine.

Sprinkle bread crumbs or crushed potato chips on top. Bake 20 minutes in oven.