I used to cook a lot with cream of _______ . Especially in college when I lived with Kristen C. and we roommates all cooked together. (I could never really get it to work, the "let's all take a night" thing, unless I lived with Kristen. I tried. It just never worked without her.)
Anyway. Cream of blank. Used to use a lot of it, but gave it up about the time I got married and realized that 1) Cream of blank is just a poor excuse for a good white sauce or cheese sauce 2) Making those big casseroles with cream of blank was doing nothing for my hips and 3) I find cream of blank rather disgusting, the way it slurps out of the can. SLURP! So good-bye cream of ______. Gave it up, haven't looked back. We manage.
So a few Sundays ago, the women's group at church needed a sign-up for a dinner they were hostess-ing. The last thing on the list, oh yes, funeral potatoes. When I balked at bringing them, the Sign-er-upper said, "Oh, it's easy. I'll give you the recipe. It's just hash browns, a tub of sour cream, a can of cream of chicken, and a few other things."
Hash browns, sour cream, cream of chicken. That's nutrition!
I had to explain, with a straight face, that, oh, I could figure out how to make them. I just didn't like to do it. In the end, I found a mix for Scalloped Potatoes at SaveMart, did my duty, and took the dish on time. Hot.
But I didn't eat it.
Blech.
P.S. Eric and the kids liked it though, when I left some for them as I went to deliver it. Later, I will teach my boys that scalloped potatoes should mean real potatoes, some cheese other than Cheddar, and milk.
P.P.S. Let me add, as a final note, that I will use cream of _________. When camping. With a Dutch oven. Then I think it's just fine. But there better be some real vegetables in there.
2 comments:
The way my grandma makes funeral potatoes is real potatoes, baked and shredded, sour cream, cheddar cheese, salt and pepper, and green onions all mixed in and cheddar cheese on top. I won't say it's any more nutitious, but it does skip the soup can.... Mitch on the other hand, makes real scalloped potatoes. The kind where you rub the garlic clove on the edges of the pan, cut the potatoes with a mandolin (he bought one because I didn't have one), use half and half, and sprinkle with gruyere cheese. It's awesome!
Good for you! Our stake got all the sisters to submit recipes and made a cookbook. I was excited to see some of the 'tried-and-true.' I couldn't believe when page after page after page of recipes all called for cans of cream of _____! We have dropped using the cans because the ingredients read like chemistry experiment (about 6 different forms of MSG among other things). I make my own now(with real ingredients) and then freeze in 'can' proportions for the few recipes I use that do call for it.
I also cook a lot out of the 'Best Recipe' series from the America's Test Kitchen. They never use the cream of-s (and always mock it) instead they make a sauce specifically for the dish at hand.
The cans are convenient/fast and do taste good (scientifically concocted to), but a high price to pay for what you are taking into your body.
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