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SPANISH DELIGHT
Great Grandma Birdene’s Specialty (Created in 1930)

2 lbs of ground beef (or ground chicken/turkey)
4 cans Del Monte Tomato Sauce (or pasta sauce plus 1 tomato sauce) 1 large can drained whole kernel corn
1 large can creamed corn
1 onion, chopped or sliced
1/2 lb cheddar & jack cheese (or all cheddar)
1/4 cube butter
Thin spaghetti, 8 oz. or 16 oz. as desired.
Turn on the oven to 350 degrees.
Butter a large casserole dish and set aside.
Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large frying pan to brown the onion.
After onion is light brown, add more butter and brown the ground meat. Then add tomato sauce and corn.
Simmer for 5-8 minutes on very low heat.
While the food is simmering, cook the spaghetti. Drain.
Add a layer of the cooked spaghetti on the bottom of the buttered dish.
Add bits of cheese and butter on top of the spaghetti.
Add a layer of the meat sauce. Then add another layer of spaghetti and put bits of cheese and butter on top. Then add the rest of the meat sauce.
Cover it with the rest of the spaghetti. Put the remainder of the cheese on top. Cover loosely with foil and bake for 45 minutes in the 350 degree oven.
Uncover and bake for 15 minutes
My mother was usually out when I came home from school. She would be shopping or playing cards with her friends. She was a decent cook and we usually had either broiled lamb chops, green peas, baked potatoes and salad or her specialty, “Spanish Delight,” a favorite dish of our entire family. When I was about ten, six of us girls formed a club called “The Jolly Six” and rotated our Wednesday meetings. All the other mothers made delicious desserts like hot fudge sundaes, brownies or strawberry shortcake. My mother made red jello.
Sometimes my parents had several couples over to play cards, probably poker, and my mother would get very nervous preparing the meal to be served before the game. I would stay up late and sit in the hallway and listen to them laughing, talking and telling jokes. I’m still a night person.
Above
Me at age three in Ocean Park.