Sometimes, you put a recipe out into the universe and genuinely wonder: Will anyone care? It’s the scary, vulnerable side of developing recipes, and I felt it when I first published this recipe for homemade Hamburger Helper (above) in 2019. In many ways, the recipe felt like a left turn, what with all the American cheese and bacon. And Hamburger Helper is so deeply retro — would people still be interested in cooking it? put a sharp accent on the dish, making it feel more restaurant-y than supermarket-y.

---

Persons: Sam’s, Mark Rosati Organizations: Shake