Tinfoil Chef

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We had something the other day that was so good we just had to do it again tonight. It turned up in a Pillsbury Favorite Casseroles cookbook and with just a touch of tweaking it turned into something truly great.

Recently I wrote a review of Sam’s Choice Black Angus Beef patties. As good as they were, we ended up using the variety with Vidalia onion in them. After using that instead of the ground beef that the original recipe called for and doubling it, here’s what it turned into:

Take a box of Vidalia onion burgers (all six of them) and break them up into the skillet. As that cooks chop 1 medium onion (sweet onion if you can get it) and a couple of stalks of celery and add them to the burger. Break up the burger as it cooks. When it’s thoroughly browned, drain it thoroughly.

Add to the pan two cans cream of mushroom soup, two cans cream of chicken soup and two cups worth of frozen green beans. Stir this together and add about a quarter teaspoon of garlic powder and a little bit of black pepper. Mix well and then pour into a baking dish, top with a layer of potato nuggets, tater tots, what have you and put into a 350 degree oven.

Bake for about 50 to 55 minutes or so. It’ll be bubbly underneath and the taters will be golden brown when it’s done.

This makes enough to have it for two meals and it’s absolutely great for those cold winter days. Also, a variation on this would be to use ground turkey instead of the burgers. In fact, there’s no reason you couldn’t use practically any meat you choose.

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Remember Space Food Sticks? They were all the rage back around ‘70 - ‘73 or so. I’ve no idea what they actually had in them and right now I’m feeling a little to lazy to bother looking it up.. maybe tomorrow.

Anyway, they came wrapped in a paper covered foil package and were about five or six inches long. I don’t recall that they were offered in any kind of flavors, although I do remember that they were on the sugary side.

The advertising for them was all about taking advantage of the fact that a LOT of kids (people my age) were seriously into the space program (even if they didn’t want to admit it) and wanted to be astronauts, pilots and so on.

Then almost as quickly as they appeared, they vanished. Right about the same time you stopped seeing ads for Tang I think.

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JoyofBaking.com is one of those sites. On one hand it looks kinda like a blog, but it kinda treats itself like a conventional website. In any event, regardless of which it is. What I can say for certain about it is that there is a gold mine in those pages.

The recipe index alone is something you could spend weeks browsing though everything that’s in it. Longer if you actually made even a tenth of what’s listed. Something I like about it is that in addition to the name of something, they’ve also got a thumbnail image of it.

When you go to the specific page for a particular recipe you’re greeted by the large version of the thumbnail image followed by not just a list of ingredients and a quick how-to. Theres a little bit about the food in question. For example this Almond Shortbread Cookie recipe talks about the problem of the tips of wedge shaped cookies and such breaking off and a simple way to not have broken and uneven pieces.

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Complete Recipes is a whole site full of just exactly that. The site is essentially a huge, even monstrous, database of recipes of all kinds.

It’s a plain page that’s more interested in serving up recipes in response to search queries or alphabetical browsing. Each recipe is delivered in a clear, easy to read format with instructions spelled out nicely. Anybody that can read will be able to use this site to produce a really wide variety of stuffs.

I couldn’t begin to estimate how many recipes are there but I’m certain it’s in the thousands, perhaps over (or at least approaching) ten thousand.

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In my last entry I mentioned that we’d gone back to get some more of those Philly Cheesesteak Pringles that we’d liked so much. After the part about not being able to find them I kinda got off track griping about Wally World but that’s ok since they make themselves such a good target.

Anyway, the part that I forgot to mention was the thing that we DID find…. In a colorful can labled “Pringles Extreme” was an absolutely great find that they called “Screamin’ Dill Pickle” and another variation called “Kickin’ Cheddar”.

We tried the Dill Pickle last night and they were great. The effect was just like you’d taken a good hamburger dill and pressed it into a potato crisp. It was the best of both worlds. Something we’ll be certain to get again sometime. (*IF* Wally World doesn’t decide not to bother stocking it again that is.)

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I’m really getting aggravated with WalMart these days. A few weeks ago I wrote about a recent find my wife discovered at WalMart in the form of Philly Cheesesteak Pringles.

They were great and we’d looked forward to having them again sometime. Tonight we were there and remembered them and went to get some more. Not only did they not have any, they didn’t even have a place on the shelf where they were supposed to be. Apparently they weren’t just out of stock, they were just plain off the menu.

Of course, that’s pretty much WalMart for you, just when you get used to something or decide you like it is when you stand a good chance of it disappearing from the shelves never to be seen again.

On this same trip, we were also looking to buy a ham. We’ve been buying this particular 5 pound Corn King ham for $6.95 for years. Far as I can recall they’ve never been “out” of them. They always have a chunk of cooler space loaded up with dozens of them if not actually a hundred or more at any one time. They’ve been moved around once in a while but that’s another Wally World adventure that while we find it aggravating as all get out, we’ve come to expect it.

I asked an employee where I could find it, He replies that he works in the dairy dept and doesn’t know. He points to another guy halfway down the meat area and suggests I ask him. I do so. He gets yet another person to ask. That person disappears through a door behind the meat area and returns less than a minute with the pronouncement “we’re out of them”.

I’m betting that he ducked through that door, waited a bit and then returned and gave us the news simply to avoid having to deal with the situation. By this time we’re tired of the whole thing and just want to get out of there.

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As the Superbowl draws near, it’s another one of those times when we start thinking a little more seriously about snack foods and assorted game time munchies.

The Superbowl is one of those times that while a bowl of popcorn is all well and good, it’s somehow not quite the same. It’s time to jazz it up by adding parmesean cheese or maybe some garlic powder.

Most people are going to want to go a lot farther than popcorn no matter how you add to it. Frankly, If I could afford some heavy investing, I’d get in touch with a good futures broker and load up on stock in the major pizza chains and sub shops because I don’t doubt that there’s going to be at least as much of those things used for game day munchies as there are folks that prepare their own personal favorites.

Just for the heck of it and because I want to know, What are you planning on for game day? Will you be venturing into the dark side and calling pizza the hut or will you use the force and create your own game day menu?

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This is the first recipe I’ve seen that actually used spaghetti in a slow cooker. That and the fact that I love tetrazzini was more than enough reason to give this a try. The first time we had this it didn’t turn out so great because the spaghetti was mostly dry and the whole thing just didn’t have a whole lot of flavor.

When I reheated the leftover from that batch we decided to try adding a can of cream of mushroom soup and some milk. That did the trick and the second meal with that batch was a lot better. It restored the creamy consistency that we’d expected and added some flavor as well.

Before making it again we did as we almost always do and changed the original recipe. Made this way the spaghetti came out perfect and there was plenty of flavor and a perfect creamy consistency. We only finished eating a few hours ago and I’m already looking forward to having this one again soon.

Naturally, as in many recipes that my wife and I tinker around with, this one got doubled so that one making will be useful for two or more meals. Besides, we’re working with a seven quart slow cooker. The way this recipe was originally written called for a four quart unit, it would have gotten lost in out seven quart cooker. Anyway, here’s how the ingredients list turned out by the time we were done:

3 cups hot water
1 10oz can cream of mushroom soup
2 10oz cans cream of chicken soup
2 4oz cans mushroom stems & pieces (NOT drained)
2 lbs ground turkey
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 medium onion diced
2 teaspoons parsley flakes
dash nutmeg
4 cups broken uncooked spaghetti

In a bowl combine the water, soup and the mushrooms (with the liquid). Stir in the turkey, cheese, nutmeg and parsley.

Put the onions in a skillet with either a pat of butter or a drizzle of olive oil and saute for two to three minutes or until they’re starting to turn translucent. Add the onions to the bowl and then add the spaghetti. Stir to combine everything.

Spray the slow cooker with a flavored non-stick cooking spray and pour the mixture into the crock. You’ll need to do a bit more mixing to get all of the spaghetti covered.

Cover and cook on LOW for 4 to 6 hours until the spaghetti is tender. Give it one more mixing just before serving.

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For me, living in a rural area, “Sliders” is a flashback to something I haven’t seen in quite a while. No, I’m not talking about the TV series by that name. “Sliders” is a slang term for the singularly unique hamburgers I discovered at a White Castle restaurant back around 1979.

Exactly where the term originated I never did know, perhaps sometime I’ll see if I can find it just for curiosity’s sake.

These burgers were unlike any that I’ve seen before or since, although I’ve been told that another restaurant… “Krystals” is known for a burger that’s similar to the White Castle Slider.

They’re approximately two inches square, a shade less than a quarter inch thick and have a cluster of five holes in the meat. They’re cooked on a hot grill that’s been covered with a mixture of one part dried minced onions in two parts water.

The meat is laid down on the onions, then the bottom part of the bun is put on top of the meat and the top of the bun sits on top of that.

If you’re thinking that this makes turning them difficult, that’s the reason for the holes, they allow steam from the onion and water mixture to pass through and cook both sides at once. It also means that a White Castle burger never has a dried out bun.

They cook like that for just two or three minutes and they’re ready to go. The cook then picks up the top bun, flips the burger and bottom bun over, drops on a slice of cheese (this part is optional depending on whether you’re ordering White Castles with cheese or not), Add a dill pickle chip, put the top half of the bun on and it’s popped into a pasteboard box.

They were bagged up, the boxes made it easy to pack ten of them in a single bag, by facing the open side of the boxes together.

There was a time when I’d pick up a sack of sliders (or two…sometimes three.. what can I say? I love those things), a two liter bottle of Coke and spend the night watching Tv while munching sliders.

Unfortunately those days are gone for the foreseeable future because actual White Castle restaurants can only be found in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee. It’s true that frozen White Castles can be found in supermarkets in most major cities, but frankly I’ve tried them on a number of occasions and really, they’re just not the same.

Somehow I don’t expect they’re going to build a restaurant somewhere in northeast Arkansas any time in the next hundred years,

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No, I’m not about to talk about an old movie that I haven’t actually seen. This is a treat that goes good as a side dish, in sandwiches for lunch or a snack or just because you gotta have ‘em.

The basic recipe is really easy. They’re fried in either oil, bacon drippings or a combination of the two. I like Olive oil in most things that need oil so I would use that for it’s flavor and ability to stand higher temperatures and bacon grease for it’s flavor. in all you want about a quarter inch or so of hot oil in the frying pan when you start.

The tomatoes should be green and firm without being hard. If they’re starting to turn red that’s fine, Ripe tomatoes are good this way too. Slice them anywhere from a half inch to a quarter inch thick.

Season them with salt and pepper then dip them in cornmeal and place (carefully) in the hot oil.

Cook for two to three minutes or until they’re golden brown on the bottom, then turn ‘em over and brown the other side.

They make a great side for breakfast or any meal really. I’ve enjoyed them just by themselves with nothing else but a fork and loved every bite.

Some variations on this include mixing some general purpose flour to the cornmeal (maybe season that mixture with a bit of salt and pepper) or crack an egg into bowl, add a bit of milk (or buttermilk if you prefer) and dip the tomatoes in that mixture before coating them. You could even make up a batter and deep-fry them.

You can also use other things besides green (or red) tomatoes. Dill pickle spears, {insert your favorite veggie here}, little smokies or even Vienna sausages

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