It’s always a pleasure to visit my mom, not just because she finds 33 cent cookbooks at the flea market for me. Moreso because we play the “What’s in that Salad” game while we go through the cookbooks. Let me tell you, she’s a ringer at that game, and can guess the ingredients in a surprise salad faster than you can say “congealed”.
In her latest haul, I found the “Cooking with Soup” Campbell’s cookbook from 1977, and I couldn’t just pick one recipe out of the book, so I made a FEAST of soup-related recipes for Sunday brunch.
I started with Yankee Noodle Bake, which includes:
½ pound hot dogs, cut in ½-inch pieces
¼ cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons butter
1 can (10 ¾ ounces) condensed tomato soup
1/3 cup water
1 teaspoon prepared mustard
2 cups cooked noodles
2 tablespoons buttered breadcrumbs
First, I cut up the hot dogs, which the pups were THRILLED about, and demanded to sample them for quality control purposes. I cooked the hot dogs with the onion and the butter. Then, I boiled the noodles, drained them, and mixed the remaining ingredients all together in a loaf pan. I halved the recipe for the safety of my palette, and then forgot to add any mustard. I topped the whole thing with breadcrumbs and threw it in the oven at 350 for 25 minutes.
My husband snacked on this while waiting for the other dishes to finish cooking, and reminisced about having “Hot Dog Spaghetti” at home when he was young. That explains why it’s called “Yankee” Noodle Bake, I guess?
I saved some noodles and mixed them up with cream, garlic salt and parsley flakes for the little one. She gave me a huge thumbs up before asking if she “looked cool like a gamer”.
Next, I started the Smothered Steak Roll-Ups
1 ½ pounds thinly sliced round steak (1/4-inch thick)
1 ½ cups prepared packaged herb-seasoned stuffing mix
2 tablespoons shortening
1 can (10 ¾ ounces) cream of mushroom or golden mushroom soup
½ cup water
I began this second recipe by channeling my rage into smashing the round steak with a mallet, and seasoning it with Tex-Joy Steak Seasoning (my favorite). I made the stuffing, and put a giant spoonful on the steak. Then, I rolled it up and put toothpicks in it to hold the giant meat roll-up together. I browned all the sides of the roll-up in a skillet, and then put it into a pan, covered it with the soup/water mixture that looked mysteriously like a raw egg, and then baked it for about an hour at 350.
Next, I started the Lobster-Shrimp Thermidor
1 can (4 ounces) sliced mushrooms, drained – or cooked fresh because you can’t FIND the damn canned mushrooms at the grocery store
1 tablespoon butter
1 can (10 ¾ ounces) cream of celery soup
¼ cup milk
1 cup diced lobster
½ cup diced cooked shrimp
¼ teaspoon dry mustard
Dash of cayenne pepper
Grated Parmesan cheese
Paprika – which I’ve just now realized I left out
My only frame of reference for Lobster Thermidor was on Saved by the Bell when Lisa orders it on a date with Screech. I had no idea what we were in for. I cooked the mushrooms in the skillet I cooked the beef in earlier, because I don’t like doing dishes. Then added the soup, milk, and shrimp. I skipped the lobster because it was $20 at the store and there is NO EXCUSE for wasting lobster. I added the mustard powder and cayenne pepper and scooped it into ramekins and a tiny ceramic pot because it’s cute. So sue me. Then, I added grated Asiago cheese on the top, and put it in the oven at 400 during the last 15 minutes the steak was cooking.
Lastly, I made the Sunbather’s Sipper
1 can (10.5 ounces) condensed beef broth
½ coup can apple juice
Dash of ground cinnamon or nutmeg, if desired, or pumpkin pie spice if you’re basic like me
This was the most sinister of all the recipes. It is advertised as something you can “sip while you soak in the sun”. I'm not sure who chooses BEEF BROTH and APPLE JUICE while they’re sunbathing, but I digress. While the other dishes were cooking, I mixed all the ingredients together and poured them into pretty cocktail glasses hoping to deceive my husband. Spoiler alert: it didn't work.
Before this was all done cooking, my husband walked through the kitchen to ask what was for lunch and said it “smells deceptive”. It’s like he knows me. I plated all of it up on our finest crystal dishes because we are FANCY, and then invited him to come to taste it.
He had already devoured his portion of “Hot Dog Spaghetti” but seemed to thoroughly enjoy the Steak Roll-Ups. He barely touched his Shrimp Thermidor because he’s “just not a soup guy,” and then had to be coerced into drinking the Sunbather’s Sipper after the face I made while drinking mine. He said this meal made him feel like he was at his grandparents’ house and they’d made fancy dinner. He wasn’t sure if it was good or bad, just that it transported him back 40 years whether he liked it or not.
Final rating: The Yankee Noodle Bake is fine if you’re feeding the kids or the dogs. The Shrimp Thermidor was delicious and is getting poured over some pasta for dinner tonight. The Smothered Steak Roll-Ups were probably the best of the lot, and there’s just no excuse for the Sunbather’s Sipper. Do NOT serve that at your next pool party, unless you want to find a new group of friends.
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