Dinner

Old-fashioned Southern chicken and cornbread dressing baked in a 9x13 pan: day-old cornbread and stale white bread, onion and celery cooked in butter, sage, hot broth from a poached chicken, eggs and cream of chicken soup, baked until the top crisps and the inside stays soft.

The classic potluck chicken and rice casserole: cooked chicken, white rice, cream of chicken and cream of mushroom soup, sour cream and cheddar, baked under a cheese and cracker top. Feeds ten, freezes whole, and it is what gets carried to new mothers and to families in a hard week.

The classic Texas and Oklahoma chicken spaghetti casserole: chicken poached with an onion, spaghetti cooked in the broth, cream of mushroom, tomatoes with green chiles, pimentos, green pepper and a lid of melted cheddar. Feeds a crowd and freezes before baking.

Old-fashioned stuffed green bell peppers with ground beef, rice and tomato sauce, finished with melted cheese. With the three minute parboil that makes the pepper tender instead of raw.

Southern fried catfish the fish fry way: a 30 minute buttermilk soak, a seasoned cornmeal crust, an inch of oil at 350 degrees in a cast iron skillet, and hushpuppies with grated onion fried right after in the same oil.

The ground beef lasagna the middle of the country grew up on, with a cottage cheese and egg layer instead of ricotta, a full pound of mozzarella and the 15 minute rest that makes the squares stand up. Cups and grams.

The classic Southern poppy seed chicken casserole: pulled chicken in a creamy sauce, a snow of poppy seeds and a thick crust of hand-crushed butter crackers. Fifteen minutes to assemble, 30 minutes at 350°F.

The American family shepherd's pie: ground beef with onion, carrots and peas in a thick brown gravy, under stiff mashed potatoes dragged with a fork so the ridges bake brown and crisp, with a handful of cheddar. Cups and grams.

Old-fashioned stuffed cabbage rolls: ground beef and rice rolled in tender cabbage leaves and baked for 1 hour 30 minutes under foil in a tomato sauce with brown sugar and lemon. Golumpki, halupki, holubtsi, all the same good dish.

Old-fashioned American Sunday spaghetti: a thick ground beef meat sauce simmered an hour and a half with a teaspoon of sugar, then the noodles stirred right into the pot and left ten minutes with the lid on.

The classic Minnesota tater tot hotdish: seasoned ground beef, cream of mushroom soup, green beans and cheddar under a top of frozen tater tots standing in tight rows, baked until golden and bubbling. A 9x13 pan, 15 minutes of work, dinner for eight.

Classic chicken fried steak: cube steak pounded thin, dredged twice in seasoned flour and buttermilk egg, fried in a cast iron skillet until deep gold, and covered in white pepper gravy made from the drippings in the same pan. Four steaks in 40 minutes. Cups and grams, plus the reason the crust slides off and how to stop it.