4:59am

Wed May 22, 2013
Food for Thought

My secret shame's no secret anymore

Credit Campbell's Soup Co.
It's versatile. And red.

This is an encore episode of Food for Thought.

I blame my mother. 

She used canned tomato soup to top meatloaf.  And canned vegetable soup in the meat loaf.  And if I told you what she was capable of with ketchup you'd have a heart attack and die. 

Even so, now and then

I still get a yen

for the way my mom cooked

way back when.  

Nancy Leson tells a similar story in this week's  episode with her quickie version of  Shrimp Schecter -- a dish she named for her aunt, made with canned cream soup (the dish, not the aunt). 

Usually I stop reading any recipe that calls for canned soup or other prepared foods because I think of myself as a guy who cooks everything from scratch.  But can I truthfully say that my home-made pasta is really from scratch if I didn't mill my own flour?  Even if I did, what if I didn't grow the wheat?  Or slaughter my own chickens and squirrels?

That way lies not only madness but also way too much work.

Got a favorite "secret shame" dish you simply must have every once in a while?  Post it proudly below.

Are you casting asparagus on my cooking?
-- Curly Howard