Recipe: Tuna Cheese Noodle Casserole

Wow... I found it rather difficult to find a tuna noodle casserole with cheese sauce difficult.  They all seemed to use kraft dinner as a base and I didn't want that.

I eventually found this one, declared it good enough, and modified it just a touch. 

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, divided
• 1 (8 ounce) package uncooked medium egg noodles
• 1/2 medium onion, finely chopped
• 1 stalk celery, finely chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 8 ounces button mushrooms, sliced
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 cups milk
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 (5 ounce) cans tuna, drained and flaked
• 1 cup frozen peas, thawed
• 3 tablespoons bread crumbs
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese 

 Modifications: No mushrooms (goal is to have son eat it as well).  A touch more egg noodles as I wanted to use up a wee bit left left in another bag.   I put about 1 cup grated cheese into the sauce.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Butter a medium baking dish with 1 tablespoon butter.
2. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add egg noodles, cook for 8 to 10 minutes, until al dente, and drain.
3. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a skillet over medium-low heat. Stir in the onion, celery, and garlic, and cook 5 minutes, until tender. Increase heat to medium-high, and mix in mushrooms. Continue to cook and stir 5 minutes, or until most of the liquid has evaporated.
4. Melt 4 tablespoons butter in a medium saucepan, and whisk in flour until smooth. Gradually whisk in milk, and continue cooking 5 minutes, until sauce is smooth and slightly thickened. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in tuna, peas, mushroom mixture, and cooked noodles. Transfer to the baking dish. Melt remaining 2 tablespoons butter in a small bowl, mix with bread crumbs, and sprinkle over the casserole. Top with cheese.
5. Bake 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until bubbly and lightly browned.

Modification: Added the butter into the vegetable mixture and then mixed the flour into it and added the milk slowly to that.   Stirring the whole time.  I added finely ground old cheddar to this milk/veggie mix.  

K is for Karst

Welcome to another week of blogging through the alphabet. Amanda and I are delighted to have you join us (for this week or every week) with the Letter K.

You can read others in the series:

A: Sidney Altman, Canadian Scientist.
B: Beavers!
C: Chant National/O Canada.
D: Dog Sledding.
E: Edgewalk.
F. Tailed Frogs.
G: Greats of Canada.
H: Henry Hudson.
I: Igloos and Inukshuks Work

Karst is "a distinctive topography in which the landscape is largely shaped by the dissolving action of water on carbonate bedrock (usually limestone, dolomite, or marble)." (source)

source: http://www.cancaver.ca/docs/karst.htm

Karst is a geological process that takes a long time to form, it is the result of "the carbon dioxide cascade". The result of this process is the formation of sinkholes, vertical shafts, streams that disappear, and complex underground drainage and caves.

As rain falls through the atmosphere it picks up carbon dioxide, and when it lands on the ground it picks up more carbon dioxide... this causes it to form a weak acidic solution called carbonic acid.

This weak solution filters into cracks and crevices, naturally exploiting them.... overtime this leads to the formation of subsurface caves.

This happens in areas where there is a lot of limestone, dolomite and/or marble.

Karst is found in large quantities in Quebec at Ile d'Anticosti, the Bruce Peninsula and Manitoulin Island, large patches beneath glacial-lake clays like Lake Agassiz (Winnipeg area) and in the Northwest Territories.   Small patches can be found in Hamilton, Montreal and Ottawa.   The mountains in British Columbia can also host Karst. 
See this site for more information.

A protected cave system in British Columbia. It became protected because of vandalism issues. Cavers asked the government to help protect the cave system, thus leading to the guided tour system today.

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