Saturday, January 15, 2011

Weekend cooking: What's for dinner?


Well, it was one of those nights - what to cook for dinner to go with leftover rice pilaf and sliced beets. Let's say my enthusiam was not at the highest levels nor was TBG's. I mentioned steak - he gave me a shrug. Feel like a pork chop? Eh - not really. Hmmmm .... I knew there were a couple of Perdue perfect portion chicken breasts in the freezer so I hauled them out and let them defrost in the fridge. A little after 5 PM I figured I better be making some sort of culinary attempt - here's how it went down.

Trolling through the cabinet, there staring me in the face was a lone can of Cheddar Cheese soup. Okay, I thought, maybe I'm onto something. I got out a corningware dish big enough for the two piece of chicken and sprayed it with Pam. I then put some of the cheddar cheese soup in the bottom, slapped the two pieces of chicken on top of it and seasoned with some salt, Mrs. Dash (original) and a quick grind of McCormick's Garlic Pepper Blend. I then put some more of the soup on top of that followed by some leftover shredded mozzarella; probably about 1/3 cup. We Remember, I'm winging it here and trying to use what's on hand. I then found some garlic and cheese croutons with not too many left in the bag. I gave them a few runovers with a rolling pin and put that on top of the dish. It looked a little skimpy so I filled in a few spots with a sprinkling of panko bread crumbs. A little bit of celery flakes were added last which in retrospect should have been somewhere under the crumb mix. They tended to look burnt on the top. Popped it into a preheated 400 degree oven and gave it about 30 minutes.

Result : it was so darned good, I got a piece of paper and wrote it down quickly before I forgot what I did. TBG was all happy with this recipe and proclaimed it a definite keeper. He didn't even mind the left overs we had with it. Now off to the store to stock up on some more Campbell's cheddar cheese soup!

This is my contribution to Weekend Cooking, a meme hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs.

For more information, see the Welcome Post on Beth Fish Reads.

18 comments:

  1. Don't you just love it when winging it *and* cooking from the pantry ends up a success? I need to remember to write stuff down.

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  2. Some of the best meals are those that you create yourself. I generally have trouble re-creating them, though.

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  3. why when I "wing it" does it usually turn out a mess?

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  4. I've made some of my best tasting meals by winging it. Sadly I didn't write them down.

    You can find my WC HERE

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  5. Very creative! You work well under pressure. :)

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  6. I often make meals out of thrown together leftovers. And they almost always turn out to be our favorites! (except the one I made last week that I called "Goop")

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  7. Wow, you are a master at using what happens to be left in the fridge. This sounds delicious.

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  8. Kaye - You are a culinary genius. I've had a can of cheddar cheese soup in my cupboard for ages trying to remember what I bought it for. This is an excellent solution. You really ought to submit it to the Campbell's website. You might start a run on their cheddar soup which means I should buy some Campbell stock.

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  9. Margot - I don't even know why I had that on my shelf either but like you I must have bought it with some recipe I found somewhere. it's not a soup I would normally buy. TBG was still talking about it today.
    Jill - believe me, in almost 45 years of marriage, I've made my share of "goop". I'll never live down corn hamburger bake - a concoction I made during our first month of marriage.

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  10. The winging it and creating a masterpiece in the kitchen has NEVER happened for me. I'm so impressed!!

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  11. Great job. Love when this happens.

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  12. What a great post! Sometimes just winging it is best...

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  13. That is too funny!!! Next time take a picture! I loved that you winged it and it turned out fantastic!

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  14. I love it when this happens! It sounds delish. Good thing you wrote it down too ;-)

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  15. I'm sure Rachel Ray creates her signature dishes the same way! What a great sounding dinner! Hmmm, cheese soup! I need to buy some of that! Thanks for sharing!

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  16. Fascinating! When I stand in our pantry and look around me I get a headache and order takeout.

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  17. Oh yum! That sounds delicious. We make something similar but it also has cream of chicken soup and broccoli mixed in. Another version has stuffing mix layered at the bottom of the dish and cheddar cheese soup and sour cream mixed on top.

    This is a great feature! So glad you and TBG both liked the meal!

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  18. I am so darned impressed and ashamed...I never do anything like this and I should. I cook the same old easy-peasy meals all week and then repeat. I know I am married to a saint (and also one who will pretty much eat anything). You have inspired me to go out on a creative limb.I used to be a creative, good cook but 38 years kind of lets you slide. I have no food in the house at the moment but when I do!...I'm going for it and shall email you about my endeavor. Thanks for the inspirations!

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