Edible (?) Mashup

A guest post from Dan. He also wanted to mention that you can basically use any kind of canned vegetable for this. It's all about using what's been sitting in your cupboard for way too long collecting dust (or, you know, buying really cheap nasty canned foods):

"I created this as a way of getting a filling meal in little time, with no necessary trips to the grocery store. The most recent version went as follows:

1 can sliced carrots
1 can corn
2 cans grean peas
2 cans whole new potatoes
1 can roast beef
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 can turkey gravy
1 Tbsp chili powder
2 tsp garlic powder
salt, pepper to taste

Throw everything together in a pot and heat over medium high heat, stirring often." When hot, eat.

Community cookery & feedback

I hope I'm not the first to actually make use of this blog in the kitchen, but if I am, what is everyone else waiting for (other than for Joy to get back...diana...)?!

I must confess to having sinned slightly. I got sick of having meat-centric meals everynight, so I went quasi-vegetarian for a week. Consequently, Claire's chicken enchiladas were filled with sauteed zuccini, red peppers, corn (canned), and black beans (also canned). But, as you can see, I didn't skimp on the cheese, so this dish still belongs here. The cream of chicken soup and salsa mixture is delicious and ingenious. I love it when my only dishes leftover from preparation are a line of empty cans/jars, and one giant mixing bowl.

"Build-a-mountain"

This is one of my family classics that I recently dug out of the recesses of my memory and plopped onto our dinner plates. It seems like a really gross combination of ingredients until you try it. Trust me. Note, however, that it is essential to include as many of the ingredients as possible to achieve the desired taste chemistry. The way my family set up the "buffet" was to put bowls of each ingredient in a row on the counter. Each one had a piece of paper with a rhyme to go along, explaining which part of the "mountain" the topping was to represent. Example: coconut is the snow, chow-mein noodles are...trees? okay it made sense when I was a kid, but the most important part is that you end up with a delicious mountain of food on your plate. My sister and I would be in charge of putting easy things in bowls and writing the directions (in crayon), complete with illustrations and arrows so as to keep any diners (our grandparents) from wandering the wrong way around the buffet and ending up with an inverted mountain. This is an essential recipe for this site, since it includes both cream of mushroom AND cream of chicken...in their purest form!

INGREDIENTS (recipe serves 8-ish)
2 cups uncooked long-grain rice
1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
some milk (about a cup?)
chow mein noodles
3 tomatoes, sliced
1 cup chopped celery
(1/2 cup chopped green bell pepperl)
(1/2 cup chopped green onions)
1 (20 ounce) can pineapple chunks, drained
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
(1/2 cup slivered almonds)
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1 tbsp diced pimentos, drained

DIRECTIONS

Make rice. It might be prudent to have all your toppings chopped or set out beforehand if you don't have a family of helpers to do it for you.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine chicken and mushroom soup concentrates with pimentos. Mix well and heat a little, then add enough milk to not make it totally disgusting that you're eating condensed soup. Basically you want it to have the consistency of pudding, not soup. Stir until heated through.

On each plate layer cooked rice, sauce, tomato, (other optional vegetables), pineapple, celery, cheese, chow mein noodles, and coconut. Every bite tastes different!

(The picture comes from a site with a recipe that is inferior to mine, as it has the pimentos on top instead of doing their proper job flavoring the sauce)

Potato Insanity

This family recipe was contributed by Nicole:

1 bag (thawed in refrigerator) Ore-Ida diced hash browns (I think they are called "Southern Style Potatoes").
8 oz. Sour Cream
1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
1/2 Onion, diced
8 oz shredded cheddar cheese (or more)
1/2 stick of Butter
Potato Chips (plain)

Preheat oven to 375. In a bowl, mix the potatoes, sour cream, soup, cheese, onion, salt & pepper. Glop into pan. Roughly crush potato chips, sprinkle liberally on top. Melt the butter, drizzle over potato chip crust. Bake 30-35 min, until crust is golden and crunchy, underlayer is bubbly.

My family's version of this has corn flakes on top, but potato chips are obviously the better choice. I can't believe I've been putting them on tuna casserole all this time and never extended the deliciousness to other recipes! Also, I suggest we talk meatloaf on this blog because I made mine last week and DAMN is it good. It's been posted on someone else's blog somewhere but I think it's time to bring it up here, since there's bound to be some discord about where the ketchup goes.

A Gringo twist on a Mexican favorite

Before I get started I just want to express how delighted I am to be a part of what I think will obviously become a bestselling cookbook, followed by a hilarious spinoff television show featuring cynical cigarette smoking stylish vulgar tom collins drinking cooks, and probably will lead to a highly successful chain of restaurants.

Here we go:

Creamy Chicken Enchiladas
1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
1 container (8 oz.) sour cream
1 cup salsa
2 tsp. chili powder
2 cups chopped cooked chicken
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
10 Flour Tortillas, warmed
1 medium tomato, chopped
1 green onion, sliced


MIX soup, sour cream, salsa, and chili powder.

MIX 1 cup of this mixture with the chicken and cheese.

SPREAD about 1/4 cup of this mixture down center of each tortilla. Roll up and place seam-side down in a baking dish. Pour the rest over the enchiladas. Add some more cheese, you know you want to. Cover with tin foil.

BAKE at 350°F. for 40 min. or until hot. Top with tomato and green onion (this is the classy part).

Guacamole! Sour Cream! Patronizing oversized sombreros! Let the fun begin!

Childhood and curry.

Last night I made my mother's recipe for "Chicken Devan". First, it must be stated that I don't know what this dish is really called. When I was studying abroad my British roommate made it and called it Chicken de Vian (or something like that), and it seems more likely that this could be the original name. However, I belive JofC refers to it as "Devan", so that is what I will call it, as did my mother before me.

The JofC recipe lacked several important things: 1. simplicity - nothing makes a recipe simple like two cans of cream soup, and a pile of cheddar. 2. mayo - lots of it. 3. curry - this is the true secret. The JofC recipe involves making a Mornay sauce (a white sauce with cheese added), which is a lot of trouble. Why spend so much time stirring and reaching appropriate heat levels when you can combine one can of cream of mushroom soup, one can of cream of chicken soup, 3/4 cup of mayo, juice of 1/2 a lemon, and 1 tsp curry powder to create a sauce that tastes one hundred times more delicious?!



i used frozen broccoli and cooked the chicken in lots of olive oil beforehand. My mother used Minute rice, but even I have limits. top it with some shredded cheddar (sharp) and put it in the oven at 350 for around a half hour, making sure to check it periodically so the top doesn't burn. Serve atop non-Minute rice.

(note, in this blog JofC will refer to Joy of Cooking. I have the 2006 or 2007 edition..the one that tells you to put a tablespoon of salt in your pancakes. wrong.)