Look. Do not judge me. Sometimes you have 'nursery dinners' imprinted in your memory. Quick, mildly weird things that your Mum or Nanna or Dad used to serve you on the run. Tonight we are having a rare 'nursery dinner' night. This is because I have been in the shop for two days and even though I cooked LOTS of food to make sure that these two night's dinners were sorted, the hungry people in my house ATE tonight's dinner already. And Cam is at work. So he's no use in the dinner cooking department tonight.
So, we are having something which Max and Rin and I love (Ari, notsomuch.) Prepare to be shocked, but don't be too hard on me, because you KNOW I know about food. AND you KNOW I am a good cook. AND you've even cooked some of my recipes, perhaps? Maybe. This, of course, does not mean that I don't go weak at the knees for a nostalgic, nursery favourite. This dinner dates back to when I was a wee child. The idea may originate from the label on a can of soup, I am not sure. I am too scared to ask. Maybe it came on the spaghetti pack even...?
Here is what you do.
Cook a packet of spaghetti til it's al dente (I say that to make this seem fancier and more foodie than it is, truth be told, but DO cook your spaghetti nicely)
Then you need
One warmed tin of condensed tomato soup (don't add water! must NOT be salt reduced! if you like a lot of sauce, get the biggest can of soup)
One block of Kraft cheddar cheese, grated (this is the one that is NOT kept in the fridge at the supermarket)
You cook the spaghetti, as we said.
You use the warm non diluted soup as the pasta sauce.
You put a LOT of cheese on top.
You eat it up.
Shame. Shame. Shame. Yum.
Do you have any recipes like this? From a label on a can, or from the 'handy hints' section of a 1974 newspaper, or from your Nanna's scribbly recipe file? Do tell!
xx Pip
Pip, my mother taught us to make "Easy Goulash". You brown a pound of ground beef or turkey in a deep skillet, pour in a couple cups of uncooked elbow macaroni when it's cooked, and add an entire can of tomato juice. Cook until the macaroni is done! Voila! I grew up on it and love it to this day! Yum!!
ReplyDeleteGolly Pip...that sounds feral! ;-) Our family nursery food is tuna casserole made with a packet of curried vegetable soup in the white sauce. Except you can't get curried veg soup packets anymore and I've had to improv with a spring vegie soup packet, a teaspoon of curry powder and one of tomato paste. And then my mum also does this 'porcupine meatballs' thing in the pressure cooker which is just mince, rice and a chopped onion formed into meatballs and then cooked in a tin of tomato soup. I still ask for this everytime I go home to visit. :-)
ReplyDeleteOh Pip, you make me laugh! My family have that recipe too, and I do believe it came from the soup tin. Bolognese sauce also uses tomato soup as a base when my parents make it, to this day!
ReplyDeleteMum also has a "chow mein" recipe (it definitely needs the inverted commas, as it's unlike any chow mein you'll get in a Chinese restaurant), that came from the back of a French Noodle Soup packet. It's pretty tasty, but does seem a little naff!
Is that cheese the one in foil in a blue box? When I was little that was the kid cheese at our house and then there was Dad cheese, semi matured cheddar, ha! I sometimes wondered if they still made that cheese, but I think I've seen it in the aisles, not the refrigerated ones.
ReplyDeleteScrambled eggs is what Mum would make us if there was no real dinner to be had, but my shameful standby is macaroni cheese made with only macaroni and kraft cheedar cheese spread....
Braised steak: line a casserole dish with 2 layers of foil, get some stewing steak and sprinkle it with a packet of dehydrated french onion soup. Seal tightly and bake in the oven for a couple of hours until very tender. Serve with mashed potato and peas. MUST use salt-reduced or it will be inedible.
ReplyDeleteFear not you are NOT ALONE!
ReplyDeleteWe have a serious LIKE for Apricot Chicken! chicken bits, french onion soup, canned apricot nectar - bung it all in together and bake. so wrong but so right!
I love that cheese that sits on the shelf in its little blue box and wrapped in foil. This was the cheese that was always grated into the sandwiches at the tuck-shop and for which I have undeniable cravings to this day.
Split a hotdog bun, put in tuna, mayo and caramelised onions. Top with grated cheese or put a Kraft single on top. Put under grill or in oven. AAAAAAAAAAAAARGHGHMMMMMMMMMM...
ReplyDeleteMy mum's quick spaghetti "bolognese" is shameful, but i've been craving it lately. It consists of over boiled pasta, Campbell's tinned Bolognese sauce and Kraft Parmesan in the green can. The stuff that looks like sawdust and smells like sick. Mmm, delicious!
ReplyDeleteOh Thank GOD for that!!!! I LOVE that cheese and I also LOVE tinned tomato soup. My posh friends screw up their nose at "that plastic cheese" (use posh voice for that) but really and truly.....cut it thick and make 'toasties' (grilled cheese on toast) and have it with tomato soup. YUM! It is the BEST for Fri night or Sunday night or maybe even tonight! xx :) sue
ReplyDeleteHe he, I love this too :) I've been eating it a lot lately. Also, a spoonful of marmite in spaghetti and sometimes I use instant mash potato to thicken up sauces!
ReplyDeleteMash potato + mushy peas + red sauce = the business! (if you can be arsed to fry a few onions to stir in then all the better)
ReplyDeleteOH I love this one!! i remember you telling me about it.
ReplyDeleteand then I made it. as it's right up my alley in terms of cooking ability.
I remember mum used spice up baked beans with chopped up vegies and ham and onion.
And also boiled up some pasta, chucked some eggs in it and scrambled it up xo
Didn't know you could still get that kid cheese. Thought I had blocked all childhood memories from my data base but one mention of that cheese and it all came back. The foil, the blue packet and all.
ReplyDeleteHa ha! I am a packet mac and cheese girl - the stuff you make in the microwave. Reading all the comments brought back memories though - apricot chicken! Ha! My mum also used to put uncooked two minute noodles in our tomato soup to make it more filling. Oh! And when we would have toasted sandwiches my mum would make dessert ones - filled with apple or banana and served with ice-cream....sounds gross but is really yum!!!
ReplyDeleteThat was our Saturday lunch fall back when i was growing up, except my mum just used Rosella Tomato Sauce, not the soup! A primary school friend of mine declared to her parents that was the only way she would eat spaghetti from then on, so her poor mum would serve up bolognese or carbonara to the rest of the family and then the sauce and kraft version for Bron. Gourmet!
ReplyDeletehaha!! oh no where do i begin!? you wouldn't believe that my mum is an amazing cook either, but these are the things she regularly made us for dinner:
ReplyDelete-cooked polenta in a bowl of hot milk (its actually really good!)
-cooked polenta with sour cream
-old bread in a bowl of hot milk
-cooked rice in a bowl of hot milk (notice the trend...)
-toast with grated cheese and tomato sauce (i think that was my sister's creation)
and my favourite:
take left over plain cooked pasta from your dinner, cover in freshly made walnut meal and white sugar. yum! carbo loading here we come!
thanks for bringing back such good (and bad) food memories!
jel
Hey Pip, we go through a couple of blocks (sometimes 3!)a week of the fantastic blue cheese. My middle son is a huge fan of blue cheese toasted sandwiches and practically lives on them. I have lots of yummy tasty cheeses in the fridge, but that's the only one he likes!
ReplyDeleteI also make that yummy apricot chicken (french onion soup mix and tin of apricot nectar), bung on steamed rice and voila, dinner is served! Have a great day, Julie:)
Seriously, is there nothing you can't do with campbell's, its great!
ReplyDeleteWe have one the I recently learned from our Nanny (my husbands grandmother)
Now there is meat in this one, but you could do it without too.
Cook pork chops.
While those are cooking boil some macaroni style noodles until al dente.
Then whilst thats happening chop a fourth of a big onion.
When the chops are just about cooked take them out of the big pan, and then throw in your onions to saute for a few minutes.
Next open your amazing Campbells tomato soup pour that in the pan, and then another can and a half of water.
Throw a few tablespoons or whatever your liking of garlic powder, and then salt and pepper as you wish.
Once your noodles are done boiling (al dente) put them in the tomato soup mix. Put the pork chop in as well, and blanket them in the noodles and sauce for a few minutes to cook the chops and noodles in the juices.
I just learned how to do this one, it's cheap, it's dirty, but it's oh so good.
Nanny calls it "french spaghetti."
I like the cheese part of yours!
I have food like that! I've eaten it before every batch of exams I've ever done. Your description of this kind of food as "nursery food" seems so right! anyway! My "nursery food" is onion gravy and mince on bucatini pasta with grated kraft cheese on top. You just brown an onion and add some beef mince and some water and a touch of salt and some cornflour, and cook until it's all thick and gloopy looking (haha sounds delicious doesn't it). You then lump it on some bucatini (and it MUST be bucatini) and top with generous handsful of cheese. YUM. Makes me almost wish I still had exams to do.
ReplyDeleteHmmm.... I cook that porcupine meatballs that someone mentioned, only on the stove-top. It's a favourite around here. I also make chow mien on the odd occasion... I'm not sure that Kraft stuff in the blue packet really is cheese at all.
ReplyDeleteWhat is this cheese in a little blue box and wrapped in foil? It sounds very comforting. :P
ReplyDeleteOn those nights, my mom would usually fix eggs for supper or the occassional tomato soup with sliced weinies and longhorn cheese. I'd take the eggs over that ANY night!! LOL
We used to have Macaroni and cheese with hot dogs sliced into it. For real. Or Dad like fried bologna. Or grilled spam. My brothers joke about how non-food it is but they still *love* it.
ReplyDeleteCome to think of it, most of the non-food came from Dad, LOL!
Lol..no shame in this! We all need to master the art of throwing things together for a meal. We make a quick dinner with maggie noodles and dress it up with some soy chunks and peas (all of it prepackaged or frozen) - makes me feel like a kid!
ReplyDeletewe usually do the same, but water down the condensed soup with chicken stock. sometimes i just throw broken noodles into a pot of broth and add a little lemon juice and skip the tomato soup altogether. i think i may have read about it in "apples for jam"? we've been eating it so long, it feels like our own thing now.
ReplyDeleteOh man I just have to add my little bit to this fabulous conversation. Growing up in the 80's , with a single, very hard-working Mum, we had a few of these "nursery dinners" - comforting, filling, cheap and fast - winning combination! Our most favourite, and the one that now makes Mum cringe whenever we mention it - is "hotdog pasta". Boil up some pasta, throw in the hotdogs (skinless) and cook in the same water. While they're cooking, make a runny white/bechamel sauce and put aside. Then drain off the pasta, chop up the hotdogs into bitesize pieces, and mix the whole thing together. And of course, grate a heap of cheese on top. Voila! Delicious. I still have cravings for it, to this day.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this post, Pip, it's brought back so many wonderful memories of my childhood.
from my childhood in chicago:
ReplyDeleteone can campbell's mushroom soup + one can tuna + half cup frozen peas and heat on stove. meanwhile, split and toast an english muffin (as they are called in the states). finally, pour mixture over open-face muffin halves (on a large enough plate). in case you're wondering, it will be necessary to eat this with a fork and knife. very comforting and rib-sticking.
Hee I used to do that when I was in my 20's I would cook paster add to the soup with some fresh veg & cream cheese with a dash of cream yummy nothing like a nice mug of hot soup for the winter!! :))
ReplyDeletePip,
ReplyDeleteI used to cook macaroni cheese for the kids when they were younger...
1 packet of elbow macaroni, cooked
Add...
1 tub cottage cheese
1 tub sour cream
lots and lots of grated cheese
1 egg
top with more grated cheese.
Cook in oven until cheese on top and all melted (about 30-40 mins in 180)
Still a favourite and my daughter now cooks it for the grandkids...
xo
No Shame! It's mandatory to have a few recipes like this under your belt. And it's still SO much cheaper (and healthier) than "fast food"!
ReplyDeleteOur version is mac'n'cheese with a can of soup, more or less. Cook macaroni, toss in a dish with a tin of tomato soup (or mushroom soup, in a pinch). Stir in whatevr veg is kicking round the house - frozen peas, a sliced carrot, whatever. Grate about a pound of cheese on top, bake till yummy. If we're feeling fancy I fry an onion and some bacon and toss that in too.
ReplyDeleteOh, my mother's version of shepherd's pie! I think it was a recipe on the soup can label back in the 80s: involves mixing a can of condensed cream of mushroom Campbell's soup with mashed potatoes, spreading over a layer of seasoned ground beef, sprinkling the top with Baco*s (a fake bacon bit made of soy) and shredded cheese. I haven't had it in decades, but damn it is good, especially when reheated as leftovers (the top gets all brown and crusty...yum)!
ReplyDeleteMy mum's two classics were apricot chicken as someone else has mentioned with french onion soup and tinned apricots. Our other alternative to that was cranberry chicken which consisted of one jar of cranberry sauce and a sachet of dry french onion soup spread over chicken thighs. cover with foil and cook for about half an hour. Both are quite delish in a kitsch type of way and certainly bring back good memories.
ReplyDeleteWhen my husband and I travelled around Australia in a campervan our treat was homemade laksa. This consisted of two minute noodles and a tin of campbells thai chicken soup.
Ha! You can tell that the majority of us spent our imminent years in 80's households!
ReplyDeleteMy Mum also served up the delicious apricot chicken recipe that others have mentioned (and I still cook it sometimes now!) and of course, the spaghetti, tinned soup and cheese combo; although we stirred the cheese through in our house!
Thanks for the reminder of fun, family meals, Pip!
Oh yes - we had our 'nursery food' for dinner last night:
ReplyDelete1 can Campbell's Cream of Asparagus or Cream of Celery soup.
Cooked pasta to serve 4(we used gnocchi last night for something 'new')
A big tin of tuna
Grated cheese.
Mix the soup (unheated), tuna and pasta together in an oven dish, sprinkle cheese all over the top, bake until the cheese is brown at 180 degrees.
Yum!
For variation we sometimes add curry powder too.