Every once in awhile don’t you just crave those oldies but goodies you grew up on. There is something about the flavors of our childhood that bring us joy and comfort. The recipe your mom made you were we’ll acquainted with. Like old friends.
I had some pretty weird things growing up liked chipped beef on toast and canned creamed asparagus on toast. I think these dishes came from the great depression when to make things go further they added a thick white sauce to everything and put it on toast. I think the slang for it was “shit on a shingle”! I don’t see me blogging about these anytime soon. Even though at the time I ate it up.
One childhood favorite that I long for every now and then is tuna and noodle casserole. I don’t have my mothers recipe it was probably one of the recipes on the label of Campbell’s soup.
I looked at joy of cooking for some guidance and this is what I came up with. Books such as joy of cooking are good resources for creating some of these old recipes. You can revamp them to your liking and create a new updated version.
What I love about this recipe is the crunch top and creamy interior. So soothing for these colder days ahead. My husband voted it the best one I have made so far. So hey it is definitely worth a blog post.
For the topping cooks have used things like bread crumbs, potato chips, etc. I happened to have some trader Joes dried French onions (you know those onions that go on the famous dish a lot of people make at thanksgiving with overcooked green beans) my husband picked up a can last year and I never opened them yet. When I was making this casserole they came to mind for the crunch component. I really liked how it turned out . I hope you do too.
Tuna and Noodle Casserole
2 Tbsps butter, unsalted
½ cup chopped onion
6 ozs wide egg noodles, cooked
1 can cambpells cream of mushroom soup
3/4 can (use empty soup can for measure) whole milk
1 tsp white wine Worcestershire sauce
2 small cans albacore tuna, drained
1 cup frozen or fresh peas
¼ cup chopped parsley, loose pack
salt and pepper, to taste
Directions
Melt butter in saucepan. Add onions and sauté until translucent.
Cook Noodles in large pot boiling water. Do not over cook. Cook al Dente. You are cooking them again in the oven if you cook them too long at this point they will be mushy and overcooked.
Drain when done.
When onions are translucent turn off heat. Add soup, milk, tuna, Worcestershire sauce, parsley, peas and salt and pepper. Mix well.
Mix gently with noodles and place in casserole dish. Top with trader joes French onions Bake at 375 degrees F. until heated through. Top will look slightly crusted and browned. If getting too dark put tin foil gently over top and continue heating. About 15 minutes total.
Suggestion: I would go out on a limb here and serve this with a full bodied chardonnay and salad of mixed greens.
Muffins are a big hit with everyone in our household. They are a favorite after school snack for the kids and mom loves them with a piping hot latte or tea.
Super easy. These muffins remind me of individual coffee cakes. The crumb is very tender. The cinnamon and freshly grated nutmeg is just right.
I found this product called cinnamon flav-r-bites at King Arthur Flour a great place to buy flours, sprinkles, decors, flavorings, anything for baking really. So these were the inspiration for this recipe.
One thing that is so important when making muffins is to not over beat the batter.
I learned this lesson in food science class in college and even vaguely remember doing a report on muffins and leavening. However it was the time another stylist sternly told me about muffin mixing that really hit it home for me. I knew over mixing was bad it produced a pointed top and could lead to nasty tunneling in the crumb. But on this particular job the stylist I was assisting was not sure I knew that and upon my mixing looked over my shoulder to tell me to stop mixing the muffins. I got it. She was a perfectionist and wanted perfect muffins and she was unsure of my ability to do so. So this lesson was brought home and the muffins were photo ready that day so many years ago.
Cinnamon Chip Muffin Recipe-makes 12
8 Tbsps unsalted butter, room temp
2/3 cups sugar
1 lg egg
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp soda (baking)
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 cup king arthur cinnamon flav-r-bites
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 tsps vanilla
**cinnamon sugar made with 2/3 cups sugar and 1 Tbsp cinnamon for topping.
I always have this on hand in a shaker jar for cinnamon and french toast
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin tin with paper liners.
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy about 2 minutes. Make sure butter is at room temperature. Add egg.
In another bowl mix the dry ingredients flour, baking powder and soda salt,nutmeg. You can put them through a strainer to sift or whisk when all together. Then add cinnamon chips.
Add vanilla to buttermilk.
Add flour mixture and buttermilk mixture to the butter alternating between the two and starting and ending with flour. Be sure to do this step by hand and only mix until incorporated no more. Actually you can have a slight bit of flour unmixed and you will be fine.
Put batter in muffin tins sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and bake for approximately 20 minutes.
When done muffins should be golden brown. Leave cool in tin about 5 minutes on cooling rack and then take them out of pan and let finish cooling on the rack. Otherwise the muffins will steam in the tins and get soggy.
Note: I have no affiliation with King Arthur Flour I just blog about things I like.
 |
| The End |
Time to reflect a bit on where I have come from and where I am going. It has been six months since I started blogging. At that time I never knew what a blog was or about all the food blogging going on. Thanks to Julie at democralypsenow for acquainting me to the blogging world. Her advice to the audience "blog about what you know." That is exactly what I did.
As a food stylist I work on sets with other stylists preparing beautiful food for advertising. In a suburban kitchen I prepare what my family likes, experiment with recipes and create new ones.
I love photographing food in my kitchen especially when the light is perfect. Light is everything. When we cook there is a story. I try to be conscious of that, the story.
In my kitchen there is no art director or any one telling me what looks good. This is a blessing and maybe at times a curse because you are Hans Solo. I think this one comes from cousin Liz.
So blog I will out into the cybersphere and hopefully people will come to visit and hang out and talk food.
Today I am making broccoli soup. Cream of to be exact. I opened the vegetable drawer, as we call it, and noticed it was brimming with broccoli. It was a no brainer as to what to do with it. This soup is easy and it is wonderfully satisfying and high in fiber as you can imagine. This recipe is from one of my favorite cookbooks and it may be one of the first ones in my library. It is Mollie Katzen’s Moosewood Cookbook. What I like about this book is the simplicity. The book has no photos, no bells and whistles but what it does have is great recipes. Every one I have made has not disappointed. This cream of broccoli soup tastes just like it should. Smooth, creamy and comforting to the core. Grab your favorite baquette for dipping and you have a meal.
You can make it vegetarian as Mollie does or you can substitute chicken broth for the water and adjust the seasonings.
As with all recipes they are guides. Feel free to make them your own and make notes. You may find you like what you did better. Or not.
 |
| smart phone shot |
This is the base recipe I used.
The changes I made are I omitted the dried thyme because I had fresh lemon thyme in my garden. I also omitted the basil.
For the milk I used 1 cup whole milk and one cup heavy cream. I liked the richer flavor of the cream.
This soup is not super thin or thick. If you like a thicker soup you could make a roux. To me the viscosity was perfect. Mollie suggested garnishing with some steamed broccoli florets. I like this idea a lot. It adds dimension and makes a nice accoutrement.
Another garnish idea is fresh thyme. I have this fragrant lemon thyme in the garden and it is perfect for this soup.
Please feel free to comment and let me know what you think. Would love to hear from you.
