not goulash, yes pumpkin

Editor's note: Ok, so one of the reasons I was hesitant about this project (crazy cheap dinner, that is) is because I knew that, eventually, I would run out of recipes.  But (shock and awe!) I haven't yet made goulash.  My daughter pulled out my copy of Rachel Ray's Family cookbook, Yum-O! a few days ago, and opened it up to the garlic-filled Ghoul-ash, and asked if we could please please please make this?  I said sure, (love the pun!) but we'd wait until tonight and use my mother's recipe, not Rachel Ray's.  Just the same, I read hers and it sounds... um...very different from every other goulash ever made.  Right down to the dill and pimentos.  So I got out all the ingredients for my mother's super-delicious goulash:  

Yep, that's it.  Top-cut hamburger made from locally grown beef, probably $5 a pound in a store, so that's what I'll call it.  For me it was free.  Have I said I LOVE my hometown?   The rotini was $1 a box and I only used about 2/3 of the box.  The onions were previously calculated at 14 cents each, and the can of tomatoes was $1.49 but I ended up not using it.  Which is why I can't really call this goulash, since to me, goulash always includes diced tomatoes.



So, I started by putting on some water to boil the rotini, thawing out the burger in the microwave, and then putting it in my large skillet to cook.  I diced half the onion (other half in the fridge) and put that in with the burger.  I expected to have lots of drippings to brown the onion, but this was apparently top-TOP-cut burger, because there was none.  I mean, maybe an eighth of a teaspoon of grease from the whole pound but basically, NONE.  I didn't want it to dry out so I added 1/2 cup or so of water.  Without really knowing why, I added a bullion cube.  ???  Who knows ???    I added the rotini to the water and turned down the heat on the burger meat  to medium, and set the timer for 6 minutes (I like my pasta medium-well).  I couldn't get the idea of dill out of my head, so after some (very) quick decision-making, I sprinkled on 1/2 teaspoon of dill before any other spices.  So all that was in the pan was burger, 1 bullion cube, some water (mostly evaporated already) onion, and dill.  And at this point, it smelled delcious.  I mean, so, sooooooo good.  And I just couldn't dump tomatoes on top of that delciousness.  It would be culinary murder.  So even though I've already done beef bechamel, I did it again.  I scooped out the burger meat (and onions) and set it on a plate, added a cup of milk, another bullion cube and another half-teaspoon or so of dill, let it reach a boil, and mixed in some flour to thicken it up.  Then I put the burger and pasta in the sauce, and mixed it all up.  Mmmmmmm....

As a side, I just took 1 cup of frozen pumpkin meat, microwaved it, and added salt and pepper.  In less than 20 minutes from beginning to end, we had dinner for four.

The kids were fairly skeptical about the pumpkin meat.  My oldest said straight up that he would not eat it.  I insisted that everyone try some.  They all ate their pasta first.  In case you forgot, it was the opposite the first time I served this: everyone ate their vegetables first, because they didn't want to try this strange pasta concoction...

 And my youngest drowned his pumpkin in salt and pepper before he'd even touch it.

In the end, everyone ate what was on their plates, but they requested that I only put pumpkin in desserts from now on, and never, never cook it this way again.

But we all LOVED the non-goulash.  

Dessert was halloween candy, and the calculation here is easy:  The most expensive candy is the mini-bars, and at DG, they're 8 for $1.  So I told the kids to take 2 pieces each, and I knew that it would be at most a dollar.  My oldest actually declined dessert.  He wanted to leave the table and go build with legos.  I took 2 mini candy bars, and my other 2 kids gladly ate their brother's share.





So, our total for tonight is: $5 top-notch burger (Free for me, but I'm special) + 67 cents rotini (2/3 of a $1 box) + 7 cents onion (half of 14 cents) + $1 dessert + 23 cents (1 cup milk) + 50 cents (2 bullion cubes and 1 teaspoon of dill) + 80 cents that I would pay for 1 can of canned vegetables, even though my kids didn't like the pumpkin meat anyway...

= $8.27

So, again, sorry I didn't make the tomato-y goulash.  But this was friggin delicious.

Actually, I am not sorry at all.