What's For Dinner Tonight, or Miller Gives You Three Different Recipes To Make Up For Not Posting Anything For A Long Time

Greetings Kitchen Comrades!

Now, before you verbally berate me via the interwebs for being so damned flaky when it comes to posts, let me just go ahead and say that that is all about to change. We're back to the old blogspot, got a new design up and running, and we're ready to roll! So, without further excused and with no more ado, I give you a post!

Let’s talk turkey.

Well, not turkey. Soup.

Well, not really soup either…

Let’s talk about that good ol’ Amurican classic, condensed cream of something soup.




Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I grew up on the stuff and I loved it. It’s creamy, it’s rich, and whatever you put it in is usually also deliciously decadent. It also reeks of a certain celebrity chef…

(Paula, I’m sorry, I love ya.)

That being said, it is HORRIBLE for you. Yes, yes, grandma and mom and aunt Ruby might have put it in everything they ever made, but they were also raised in lead-based-paint-coated cribs.

This is the ingredient list for Campbell’s condensed cream of mushroom soup:
WATER, MUSHROOMS, VEGETABLE OIL (CORN AND/OR COTTONSEED AND/OR CANOLA), MODIFIED FOOD STARCH, WHEAT FLOUR, CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF: SALT, SOY PROTEIN CONCENTRATE, MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE, CREAM POWDER (CREAM [MILK], SOY LECITHIN), YEAST EXTRACT, SPICE EXTRACT, DEHYDRATED GARLIC.

Remember my post about broth? Remember how we talked about monosodium glutamate? Well, lo and behold, MSG strikes again!

No matter how good recipes using cream of whatever may taste, it’s just not worth feeding all that extra crap to my family. Hmm…cream of crap…has a nice ring to it. (The ring of truth!)

So, recipe number one tonight is a replacement improvement for the classic cream of mushroom. It can be tweaked for your needs, but I’ll get into that later.

So, the cast of players are as follows for one can of cream of mushroom:

2 Tbs. butter

2 Tbs. flour

1 cup milk

About 8 oz. finely diced and sauteed mushrooms (You could also use dried mushrooms, but I have a thing about dried shrooms…)

In a saute pan, melt the butter and add the flour. If you’ve ever made a roux, this will be familiar. When it’s thick and looks kinda like playdough, start adding the milk a little at a time. (I sauteed my mushrooms ahead of making the roux and added them in after all the milk was added, but you could just as easily skip the pre-saute and add them in with the butter and flour.)

That’s it. Super simple right?

Now, if you need cream of chicken instead of mushroom, you could add a bouillon cube instead of mushrooms. If you needed cream of celery, perhaps some celery salt or just chopped celery. Experiment and taste and let me know what you like and dislike.

Now, on to recipe number two.

You have a saucepan of chemical-free cream of mushroom soup now; whatever are you going to do with it? Well, I have a solution comrades! Hashbrown casserole!

It’s got potatoes and cheese and creamy stuff. Who could ask for more?

My step dad’s casserole is particularly amazing, but I think I may have managed to one-up him this time around with my homemade cream of mushroom. See, not only do I get the benefit of no added chemicals, but I also get all those yummy chunks of mushroom in the casserole now too. I’m a mushroom fan though, so adding mushrooms to anything is a plus.

Alright, the ensemble for this beauty is as follows:

1 30 oz. bag of frozen hasbrowns—thawed (or if you're impatient...not thawed...)

1 small yellow onion, sauteed in butter

1 serving (the entire recipe) of our cream of mushroom improvement

1 container sour cream (I used a cup of homemade yogurt though, for a healthier version)

8 oz. shredded cheese (Cheddar works wonders, but it’s up to your taste buds)

Salt, pepper, and granulated garlic to taste

In a large bowl, mix all your ingredients together into a creamy mass of goodness.

Butter a 9x13 casserole dish and plop out your mass of yumminess into it.

Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 45 minutes.

Grab a large spoon and eat the entire thing without shame.

Now, here’s what might happen next:

“Miller,” you begin tentatively. “What can accompany this delicious casserole I just made? What could possibly hold up against this mind-blowingly simple and comforting dish?”
“Simple,” I answer, caressing your worried brow. “Roasted chicken.” I whisper.

Okay, maybe that’s just all of the Nora Roberts novels speaking…

But yes, roasted chicken is just the simple, tasteful dish that can hold up to the richness of the hashbrown casserole. It takes literally 3 ingredients, and one of those is chicken. Now, in lieu of typing out a step by step recipe for how to roast a chicken, I’m going to point you in the direction of a favored recipe instead.
Thomas Keller knows his shit. Seriously. Even if you don’t watch Food Network or Cooking Chanel, you’ve probably at least heard the name somewhere. So, when I want a simple roasted chicken, I turn to this recipe of his and lick the grease from my fingers with glee.

Alright. Three recipes. There we go. We did it.

Pat yourself on the back.

Next time on The Days of Our--no, wrong show...Next time we're gonna talk about all the things I didn't post about last year (ie: Thanksgiving, L's Second Birthday, Christmas, etc.)

Until next time comrades,

Keep it Classy.