Versatile Beef Mix

I saw Mom and Dad. Finally. Not inside — we sat in the Grinnell driveway, lawn chairs six feet apart, masks on, the most Iowan form of social distancing: too polite to break the rules, too stubborn to stay away entirely. I brought food. Of course I brought food. The cooler had meatloaf, potato salad, deviled eggs, and a jar of strawberry jam. I set it on the driveway between us like an offering at an altar, and Dad opened the cooler and looked at the meatloaf and said, "You used the good ketchup." I said, "Always." The good ketchup is Heinz. The bad ketchup is everything else. The ketchup hierarchy is not negotiable and never has been.

Roger looks thinner. The months of isolation have taken something — not his mind, not his will, but his body, which was already diminished by the surgery and the years and the grief of the farm, and now the isolation has removed another layer, and the man in the lawn chair is smaller than the man who stood in the corn and calculated yields and carried four hundred acres on his shoulders. He's still Roger. He still watches the garden (from the chair, pointing, directing Marlene who does the actual bending and pulling). He still talks to Jack on Wednesdays. He still checks the crop reports. But the volume is lower. The man is quieter. And quiet in a man who was never loud is a whisper, and a whisper is the sound before silence, and I am not ready for silence.

Marlene looked okay. Tired, yes — the tiredness I noticed in February has deepened — but present, alert, Marlene. She told me about the quilting circle (virtual now, on Zoom, seven women in their sixties and seventies learning to video-call because a virus can stop you from meeting in church basements but it cannot stop a quilting circle). She's almost done with Jack's quilt. Farm patterns. Tractor blocks. Green and gold and the specific brown of Iowa soil. She held up a corner for me to see, across the six feet, and even from the driveway I could see the stitches — tight, even, precise. The stitches of a woman who does everything with care and does not take shortcuts because shortcuts are for people who don't respect the material.

I drove home and made tater tot hotdish and cried into the onions, which is a convenient thing about cooking — you can cry while chopping onions and nobody asks why because the answer is always "onions" and the real answer is always something else.

When I got back to my car after that driveway visit, I sat for a minute and watched Mom and Dad disappear into the house before I pulled out of the gravel. The meatloaf was theirs now, and I had nothing left in the cooler, so I stopped for groceries on the way home and made tater tot hotdish—because that is what you make when you are sad and Midwestern and need something that will hold together. This beef mix is the base I start with every time: brown it, season it, stretch it into whatever the evening requires. That night it required a casserole dish and the better part of an hour before I felt like myself again.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 30 min | Total Time: 45 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

2 lbs lean ground beef (85/15)
1 large yellow onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 green bell pepper, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, drained
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp vegetable oil

Instructions

Brown the beef. Heat vegetable oil in a large skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add ground beef and cook, breaking it up with a spoon, until no pink remains, about 8–10 minutes. Drain excess fat.
Soften the vegetables. Reduce heat to medium. Add diced onion, bell pepper, and celery to the skillet with the beef. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are softened and the onion is translucent, about 6–8 minutes. Add garlic and cook 1 minute more.
Season and simmer. Stir in the drained diced tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder. Reduce heat to low and simmer uncovered for 10–12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the mixture thickens slightly and flavors meld.
Use or store. Use immediately as the base for tater tot hotdish, stuffed peppers, or pasta. To store, cool completely and refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 4 days, or freeze in 2-cup portions for up to 3 months.
For tater tot hotdish. Spread beef mix into a greased 9x13-inch baking dish. Pour one can of cream of mushroom soup (diluted with 1/2 cup milk) over the top and stir gently to combine. Layer frozen tater tots in a single layer over the top. Bake at 375°F for 35–40 minutes until tots are golden and the casserole is bubbling at the edges.

Nutrition (per serving)

Versatile Beef Mix — The Hotdish I Made When I Finally Got Home