Something about his mother’s heavenly hamburger casserole made Richard McCracken and his wife Molly create Mimi’s Meals.
That and the lasagna, macaroni and cheese, and other casseroles made by his mom K.C. Bryant, who is known as “Mimi” to her grandkids.
“When we had our baby, my mom made us a lot of casseroles,” McCracken says. “And these are just like the ones I grew up on as a kid.
“My wife was like, ‘Oh, my God. These are the most amazing casseroles. Even when you put them in the freezer, take one out, thaw it, and cook it, they were still awesome. Get all her recipes and make these casseroles.’”
The McCrackens now sell the casseroles at their Memphis Kitchen Co-Op & Marketplace at 7946 Fischer Steel Road in Cordova.
They feature 14 different casseroles, including chicken macaroni and cheese. Million dollar chicken is a chicken and cheese dish. “And it’s really good and gooey.” Heavenly hamburger is “everybody’s favorite. It’s macaroni noodles with marinara sauce. Then it has ground beef, cream cheese. On top it has cheddar cheese.” Then there’s chicken chili spaghetti, which is “ground beef, onions, peppers, with a chili sauce, and chunks of chicken in it. And tossed with spaghetti noodles. It’s to die for.”
McCracken created some of his own casseroles, including the ooey gooey casserole, which is “like the million dollar chicken, but has penne pasta and broccoli in it.”
He also put his own twist on the heavenly hamburger recipe, and altered it to come up with a cheeseburger casserole. “I put sauce in it and make it moist and gooey and just kind of go from there.”
McCracken also created the tuna noodle casserole and salmon pasta casserole.
His mother has “tried every one,” McCracken says. “She loves them. They are Mimi approved.”
The casseroles, which include a caricature of his mother on the logo, are available online at eatamplified.com and at Memphis Kitchen Co-Op & Marketplace. “You can order them online and have them delivered to your house on Sunday. Or walk in the store and order them as well.”
His mother inspired him to become a cook, he says. “I grew up with three sisters and none of them were really that interested in the kitchen stuff. So, I would always help mom when I was 6 or 7.”
McCracken helped with the casseroles, too. He did “as much as you can let a 6- or 7-year-old kid do. I don’t know. I probably chopped some veggies for them or something.”
Bryant, who lives in Heber Springs, Arkansas, explains why she likes to make casseroles. “Because it’s a meal in one,” she says. “You’ve got your everything. When I grew up, you had meat, you had starch, you had a vegetable. And I found you could put them all in the casserole dish and kids would eat them. Especially if you had cheese in them.”
As for recipes, Bryant rotated “probably about a dozen [casseroles] that the kids would really like.
“I’ve always been an experimentalist, I guess you could say. I’d see a recipe and say, ‘Ooo. That sounds good. I can change this and we can make this so much better.’”
A friend, who co-owned a beauty shop with her, came up with the original heavenly hamburger recipe for a cookbook they decided to put together, Bryant says. They wanted to give discounts to anyone who brought in a recipe to “get more people to come in.”
Bryant, who thought heavenly hamburger was delicious, tweaked the recipe and made it her own. It’s now her go-to casserole. “My husband requests that once a week. I won’t make it for him once a week, but he requests it.”
Bryant, who works at an elderly community, still does a lot of cooking for others. “Someone has a baby, someone is sick, someone is coming home from the hospital, just if they need a little help — they had surgery or whatnot, I’ll bring them a casserole.”
And, of course, she loves to cook for her 16-month-old grandson Ryker McCracken. “He’s a little hoot toot.”