Thursdays Are For Cooking….
Baby red potatoes
Since cold weather is closing in on us like there is no tomorrow (and there might not be a tomorrow!), I thought a hearty casserole which is quick and easy to fix would be the best thing possible.
This is from a Campbell’s Cookbook that I bought at a bookstore when they were real bookstores instead of the equivalent of warehouses with shelves. It will make up to five servings, to adjust the quantity accordingly.
Ingredients:
1 can cream of celery soup
1 can cream of potato soup
1 cup of milk – 2% is fine
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
4 cups of cooked vegetables (I use the frozen mixed veggies and thaw them in warm taer. One 8-ounce bag is 2 cups.)
2 cups of leftover cooked chicken or turkey
4 cups of boxed dressing (1 box will cover a half recipe.)
1 1/2 cups of water
4 tablespoons of butter
Proceed:
Stir the soups, milk, thyme, pepper, veggies and chicken or turkey together in a baking dish or a bowl. I line the baking dish with foil for easier cleanup and use a bowl to mix the ingredients and pour them into the baking dish. The recipe calls for a 13x9x2 shallow baker.
Prepare the boxed dressing according to the package directions. That should take about three minutes to fix. Spoon the dressing over the casserole mixture.
Bake at 400F for about 25 minutes, but check on it. When you can smell the thyme floating through the air, it’s ready. It is quick to fix, easy, uses up leftovers and needs only the usual side dishes (like cornbread) to go with it. Lots of butter on the cornbread, too.
I usually skip the cream of celery soup and add chopped celery to it instead. I also use about a 1/2 teaspoon of thyme, because it just adds flavor. You can also toss in some chopped green onions, including the chopped tails, to add more flavor. And yes, you can use chicken leftover from one of those chicken cookin’ places. Good way to get rid of leftovers.
If this doesn’t fill your tummy and make you happy, nothing will. Pumpkin pie with real whipped cream is for dessert.
Happy harvesting!
Category: Economy
That sounds pretty damn awesome….
Here’s a super simple contribution that tastes great and is so damn easy anyone with a couple of functional brain cells can make it work.
Chicken and Broccoli Pasta:
2-3 boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into fork sized piece
Fresh or frozen Broccoli florets (just not diced broccoli although you could use that if you prefer it) a pound or so
Package of pasta (your preference it works great with everything from linguine to penne)
Onion/Garlic/Butter/Seasonings you like
Heat up some oil in a frying pan, not too much oil required here…enough to cover the bottom of the pan without having to move the pan around…
Drop in your chicken and onions and seasoning and let it cook up in the frying pan, the small chunks of chicken won’t take long to cook through and you can turn the chicken during the process to uniformly cook both sides. I like mine with a bit of that well done edge on the pieces…
while the chicken is cooking boil your pasta and cook the broccoli drain the pasta and broccoli and mix together I like putting in about a half stick of butter to get the pasta and broccoli a little moist…
take your cooked chicken and oil and garlic and seasoning etc…and dump that into the pan and mix it
Dole out into bowls and serve with a nice crusty bread and a salad and you can easily get 6 or so bowl sized servings from this mix for your family.
this is a meal for small money…frozen broccoli 2 10 oz packages are a couple of bucks around here and the chicken and pasta shouldn’t run more than $10 total depending on how much chicken you buy…
It’s good reheated if you store it as well, usually the microwave heats it pretty nicely if you put a damp paper towel over the mix…
Sounds like something you could mostly do in a large cast iron skillet – saute the chicken & onions then add the other stuff. Lazy bones here would likely cook the pasta and broc in the same water or throw the broc in with the chicken, then add the pasta to it. Maybe with a bit of the pasta water instead of the butter, for those who must watch intake of either fats or lactose.
Sounds good. And easy enough even for me! (I might even throw some fresh pasta in there with a little extra water and eliminate the second pan.)
OWB that’s what makes it great, once you have the basic concept the prep can be done any way that suits your time frame and desires no fancy measurements, no fancy cooking implements, a couple of pans and an appetite and it’s a good meal, the chicken is a great protein source, the broccoli is awesome for you and the pasta can be any form you like as well…and provides a nice starchy carb load.
I think I’ve made something like that and didn’t know it. Just throw the stuff together and season it, and use up leftover chicken that way, too.
Good food. Good for you and for what ails you.
Perfect Bourbon cocktail.
In a tumbler,
Fill to rim with crushed ice (crushed, not rocks).
Add a couple TBLs of water.
Stir to mix well..
Dump that crap down the sink.
Add Bourbon.
Ahhhh…
I have a very similar recipe. Calls for the elimination of steps 2 thru 5.
Another recipe eliminates step 1.
I have been known to take a bag of cheap potato chips, break them up and top off a casserole, particularly tuna noodle casserole. Hinky as hell but tasty nonetheless.
As an aside, the story has it that Campbells is in dire financial straights and may discontinue making some of their flagship products such a cream of mushroom, chicken and celery soups. That’s dang near heresy.
There are plenty of work-arounds but the operative condition is work. Better to have access to a can of delightful Cream of Mushroom soup than to improvise.
You can actually make your own cream of whatever soup base at home. We have done that in the past, then pressure canned the results in pint jars. We did ruin a great little egg slicer using it to slice mushrooms for that variety though.
Hey! Sometimes recently retired folks get bored and try new things, like canning stuff. The phase passed fairly quickly here but we are glad to have learned the techniques involved. Still have all the equipment and can some things when the season and easy access warrants it.
Same here. We keep a pressure cooker on the stove from October until May and the crock pot never leaves the kitchen counter.
One joy of retirement is being able to try new things and not having to worry if it doesn’t work the way it was supposed to.
Coming up on time to make some Boudain. Yanks don’t have much exposure to this sort of sausage but it seems to be well received by the few folks who have tried it.
Kept expecting to read about a layer of red taters layered on the top before baking. Will have to try this one soon. Don’t usually keep the boxed stuffing mix on hand. I’m guessing a moisty cornbread dressing may somehow substitute?
“the usual side dishes…”(cornbread) with lots of butter”
Corn bread dressing is a vital repast, all of itself, yet a joyful enhancement for many entrees.
Cast iron skillet required.
Cheesy corn bread w/ jalapenos is a required side for my “two burn” chili..
This is what happens during a career in the Navy where they take perfectly delicious food and find ways to unseason or denature the flavor. So said my brother, a retired Sr. Chief. He added jalapenos and cheese to nearly everything to try and recover the flavor.
When he made Chief and they had access to their own mess they found all kinds of ways to make good food taste good.
Improvise and overcome.
I have probably one of the finest collections of cast iron cookware known to kitchenkind. Skillets of every size, pots, pone, muffin pans, dutch ovens; some are a hundred plus years old. Had even more that I didn’t get custody of.
Nothing like a skillet of cornbread/cornbread dressing, Southern style, goes with anything.
Some of feel the only reason Sherman marched thru Georgia was his quest for the perfect recipe for said foodstuffs.