1967 just called. It wants its casserole back.

[Sparkly]

I bought these crazy cookbooks at Costco... the same way you'd find yourself buying frozen lima bean ravioli with curried raisin sauce at Costco. You don't intend to, but somehow you do.



There are four volumes of these, for desserts, salads, meats, and of course, casseroles. They're basically reprints of cookbooks from 1967 -- collections of Home Ec. teachers' favorite recipes.

Well, yesterday Stinky insisted on dragging me to the Asian market, for fish to grill. Unable to decide, we ended up with a fish steak "sampler" -- hake, salmon, cod, and barracuda. Needless to say, we had leftovers.

What to do with leftovers? "Seafood salad!" said Stinky, but fish alone doesn't count as "seafood," in my book. Fish is just fish.

In 1967 though, they knew their leftovers. These are the people who grew up in the depression. "Shoeleather Surprise" could be in that cookbook.

I decided to rise to the challenge and make supper, which means he has to stay away until it's done. Sure enough, there were plenty of recipes for fish casseroles in that cookbook. I settled on:

Hot Halibut Salad Souffle!

I glanced just enough to know I had the ingredients. Here we go!

So first you cube bread and put half of it in a casserole dish. Then you literally make a sort of fish salad -- onion, celery, peppers, and a ridiculous amount of mayo (even skimping a bit), with the fish. Spread that over the cubed bread, then top with the rest of the bread cubes.

Are we done yet? Nope. You beat eggs and milk, and pour it over the whole thing.

Cover and "chill" one hour to 24 hours. Looking a little further down the recipe, I realized it had to bake for an hour after the "chill." So after 15 minutes, I got it back out of the frig. What's the point of "chilling" when it's going right in the oven soon anyway? I think it's about the days of exploiting the awesomeness of having a refrigerator at every possible opportunity. (That would explain the 50 pages of jello creations in the "Salad" volume.)

It definitely looks done now, right? Nope. You take a can of condensed cream of mushroom soup and, without diluting it (I checked three times, thinking, "really?!"), you "spoon soup over top." I worked on this "spooning" and found it was more like "glopping" it on there, and if glopping isn't a verb it should be, from this experience.

Then I discovered that once it's completely glopped, it starts to spread like frosting. You can swirl it around, adorning that thick cake of bread, custard, and mayonnaisey fish salad with undiluted cream of mushroom soup, oddly fascinated, until you come to your senses and wonder what the hell you're doing and how you ever got into it in the first place.

(Leftover fish flakes, oh yeah.)

You bake all that an hour at 325.

Is that enough? Nope! Near the end, you put shredded sharp "process cheese" on top. (I had to leave out the "process" part.) That gets melted.

It's like a nightmare of a concoction, but the fish taste came through enough that Stinky Jr. politely made no comment, and I went for a lemon wedge. Stinky, however, called it sensory nostalgia.

It was kind of cool the way it came together and made this thing to cut and serve with a spatula. With a green salad and a glass of wine, it wasn't so bad... And it led to a discussion with Stinky Jr. about our Depression-Era Parents, and how we grew up with leftovers... He might as well learn now!!

(P.S. I must thank Mrs. Meryl R. Fishback of Franklin Jr. H.S. in Yakima, Washington, for the recipe. :) )

[EFerrari]

1. Well, that was sort of scary, Sparkly!

lol

Now I have to go check my Mayberry Cookbook to see what Aunt Bea did with leftover fish. :)

[Duer 157099]

2. So, basically tuna casserole? But without noodles.

And with other fish. I'd eat it.

[Vinca]

3. I recently found a collection of old Pillsbury Bake-Off cookbooks

from the late 50's and early 60's. I don't think the ingredients could possibly have gotten more processed. My favorite is monosodium glutamate (sp?). LOL. The desserts and breads sound pretty good though.

[supernova]

4. Is there something n the air?

*Sniff* *Sniff*

Oh yes, it's that retro cooking style.

Hubs to be has been on a cream of _____ soup casserole kick lately too. His faves for this are cream of celery and cream of mushroom soups. Since I try to minimize gluten, we use rice or gf noodles.

I've asked him if we can forgo the cream soups.

Ugh. It's one trip to the 60s and 70s I'd rather forget.

[The empressof all]

5. I admit to sometimes getting a craving for my mothers Tuna Noodle Casserole

She used cooked egg noodles and combined a container of the full fat cottage cheese, a can of drained oil packed tuna (or two depending on how flush we were that week) and then wet the whole thing down with a glob of milk if needed. She topped it with Bread Crumbs and butter.

It was rather on the bland side but in a soothing kind of way.

[Arkansas Granny]

6. Years ago I had a cookbook titled "Favorite Recipes of Home Economics Teachers",

but it had all categories in one book. The recipes were great for a beginning cook. I lost it when I loaned it out to the daughter of a friend when she was first got married.

I love cookbooks like that, but some of my favorites are the ones that have compiled recipes for a fundraising project for an organization or school. Some of those recipes are wonderful, but you know that some of them were submitted in an effort to impress people and weren't anything that the donor cooked on a regular basis, if ever.

[trud]

7. frozen lima bean ravioli with curried raisin sauce

lima bean ravioli? I am trying hard to think of some way this could be tasty...

Does anyone here make anything with lima beans? I am nostalgic for succotash, because my Mom made it, but not to the point that I'

[yellerpup]

8. Thanks for the "nightmare of a concoction"

My SIL sent me a community cookbook from Oklahoma that had a recipe for Pistachio Salad. Were there pistachios in it? Noooo...it was made from Jello instant pistachio pudding and Cool Whip. How's that for a salad? LOL! Thanks for the grin this morning.

[hippywife]

9. Oh, you know you wanted those books the minute you laid eyes upon them! LOL

They are so right up your alley, gal. I see them as the next inspiration for new book. :hi:

[Sparkly]

16. Yes, and it turns out there are FIVE volumes!!

So I got the other ones on our last trip there.

Meats
Casseroles
Vegetables
Salads
Desserts

I think it's just hilarious how simple those titles are. It cracks me up that there's a cookbook called, just, "Meats." :rofl:

[Warpy]

10. My problem is that the musroom soup turns into musroom veloute

and the mayo gets combined with sour cream to lighten it a bit. I don't know what the hell I'd do about the cubed bread since I no longer tolerate wheat all that well. I just never have stuff like cream of mushroom soup in the house. My cheese would have been the real thing, too.

What always amazes me is how all that processed crap came together at the end and produced something palatable. Sometimes it was even good. It certainly made short work of any leftover protein, something that was never discarded by any Depression survivor or their children, either.

One of my former favorites had cubed leftover turkey, onions, peppers, celery, peas, my mushroom soup substitution, real Romano cheese instead of whatever is in that green can, and noodles. It was really wonderful.

[NMDemDist2]

11. maybe a greek yogurt instead of all the mayo??

that would help.....

or not.


:hide:


:rofl:

[pengillian101]

12. Here's a guy who has written hilarious books on this. "Regrettable Food"

http://www.lileks.com/institute/gallery/index.html

Be prepared to waste hours at his website, but it's so fun!

:hi:

[Sparkly]

15. My foodie sister gave us that for Christmas one year!!

It is a riot.

[WhiteTara]

13. thank you for the good laugh!

Oh my, my sides are a bit achy. I'm impressed you ate it! Especially after the mushroom soup addition. :rofl:

[pinto]

14. LOL. I still do the tuna, onion rings, peas etc. thingie at times...

:hide:

[GoCubsGo]

17. Given the price of halibut these days...

There ain't now way in hell I'd use it in that recipe.