Broccoli Casserole and Mom

My Mom probably knows that she would be a fantastic cook if she was ever allowed to stray from her usual menu items. She has the creative panache and desire to cook things that are exotic, different and expensive. However, she was on a budget and we liked the budget foods. My family is not picky, we just like the things that we were brought up with and we don't like to stray from tradition. Mom would buy magazines and read about fabulous things to cook and bake. I would look at the pictures and ask if she could make them. Usually she turned me down because nobody else would have eaten those things and she didn't want to waste her weekly grocery budget on one entree that only the two of us would enjoy.

I remember when my Mom found the broccoli casserole recipe. I don't remember if it was in a magazine or on the back of a package. She wanted to try it for one of our many family outings where she needed to bring something for the pot luck. It could have been Thanksgiving at Grandma's or Easter at Aunt Ellen's. I don't know. What I know is that she should have made three broccoli casseroles because they all would have been eaten. Everyone immediately took to the casserole and began asking my Mom for the recipe. The broccoli casserole was the star of the dinner table. Quite a place for the usually undesirable vegetable.

Mom continued to make the broccoli casserole for the holidays every year. We would always inquire a week ahead of time to be sure the casserole was on the menu. Sure enough, she always made two batches- one to eat with our leftovers since the one on the table would go quickly. Over the years, she began to alter the recipe to make it her own. It is one of the many recipes my Mom stores in the back of her mind- no need to write it down on paper or a cute little recipe card. The ingredients are easy: broccoli, cream of mushroom soup, egg, cheese, crushed crackers and butter. However, as she began altering the recipe, she required a certain kind of cheese, a certain kind of cracker and then began adding secret little scoops of things here and there.

This recipe is difficult to duplicate. It will always taste okay, but it will never taste like Mom's. I, too, have begun making the casserole for holidays and it has become part of my repertoire. I don't have a recipe card either and I guess at the amounts of ingredients to add each time. It never comes out the same. What is difficult is getting the right consistency. Sometimes it will come out soupy, sometimes not creamy enough and sometimes the topping doesn't come out crunchy like Mom's.

It is also not an appetizing dish to see before it is baked. I remember one time in Santa Fe, my friend Jeff was visiting for Thanksgiving. He watched me dump the ingredients into a bowl and suddenly fell ill. He could not imagine eating something with all of those things mixed together. It turned out to be one of his favorite things, of course, as it always does to those who try it. I imagine it being a great way to get your kids to eat broccoli.

What would be nice is if I could make this recipe just like my Mom does and I am convinced that she is hiding a secret ingredient from me. She promises that she isn't. In the meantime, I will put the casserole together again this Thanksgiving and hope for the best. What will end up happening is that I will have a bite of broccoli and wish I was at my Mom's dinner table instead.