Johanna Hill of Dryden likes to bring her heritage to her cooking. Born in Uruguay, her mom often made a dish called Canelones. Hill liked it so much that she started asking for it to be made for her birthday every year. Canelones is a Spanish dish with an Italian base.

    Hill’s family is from Uruguay and the cooking there is very European-based, specifically French and Italian. The cooking isn’t very different from here. “If I make something typical it’s not like making Mexican food that’s very different from here,” she said. Hill’s mom always loved to cook and she would let Hill help her in the kitchen. She enjoyed watching and helping her mom cook. Food was a big part of their culture and family. Her mom let her try new things and gave her practice but Hill didn’t cook a full meal until she was in college.

    The first time she made the dish herself was when she and her husband, Dan were dating and he came over to her house to see her for the first time around Christmas time. She wanted the meal to be something interesting that was sort of about her. They cooked it together. He really liked it and appreciated the meal that came from her heritage.

    Since then she has made it quite a few times as they have made it a tradition to make the meal at Christmas. It can be kind of time consuming to make but it isn’t difficult. After you make the dish a couple of times you can tweak it. Substitutes can be made such as chicken or pork instead of the beef and Swiss chard instead of spinach. You could even use a jar of tomato sauce if you’re pressed for time. Whenever she makes it, people usually like it although younger kids sometimes have trouble with it because there is spinach in it. “It’s kind of filling. At least in our family we always ask for seconds even though we’re stuffed,” Hill said.

    Hill and Dan have always tried to introduce their two kids to adult flavors. They encourage their kids to try everything on their plate. Their children have grown to love vegetables, cooked onions, garlic and other seasonings.

    Hill didn’t work from recipes until she got married. That is when she also started taking on her mother-in-law’s recipes that have been passed on, such as her lasagna. “We try to mix it up and have some of his home cooking and some of my home cooking,” she said.

    Before she had her children, Hill was a Spanish teacher at Newfield High School. She decided to stay home after she had her kids and now she does things within her church and family. She is also the Coordinator for the Cortland MOPS, Mothers of Pre-Schoolers, group. “I do try to cook every day. Even though it gets old, it’s always being in the kitchen and doing it,” she said. 

Canelones Recipe

FILLING: Brown: 1 lb. of ground beef. 1 large onion, minced. ½ tsp. salt. Add: 1 lb. of cut leaf Spinach, drained. ½ Rue Sauce.

RUE SAUCE: 2 Tbsp. butter in hot pan, melt. Add 2 Tbsp. flour, blend. Slowly add 2 cups milk, bring to a boil on medium heat, stirring very often with a whisk. Add salt, pepper and parmesan.

TOMATO SAUCE: 1 can of diced tomatoes. 1 clove garlic, finely minced. ½ medium green pepper, minced. 1 medium onion, minced. ½ tsp. oil. Salt and oregano to taste. Cook over medium heat while the rest gets prepared.

CREPES: Combine in Blender: 2 cups flour. ½ tsp. salt. 1 tsp. baking powder. 1 egg, beaten. 1 cup milk. 1 cup water. ½ tsp. oil. Prepare a paper towel with oil. Rub hot pan with paper towel, pour in 1/4 – 1/3 cup of batter. Turn pan to spread into disk, turn over when edges curl up.

Spread a thin layer of Rue sauce on the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Roll the filling in the crepes, laying them out up tight to each other. Spread the rest of the Rue sauce on top, then the tomato sauce. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes or until heated evenly. Use a spatula to carefully scoop out the rolled crepes whole. Serves 6-8.