Pantry Raid

Sometimes, we run out of food. It happens. There's this downtime in our kitchen that happens right before another trip to Walmart or Sams. It is during these times that my title as Food Alchemist shines through: my competence, my knowledge and my ability to completely and utterly BS my way through a recipe.

I had little available, so it was time to scavenge. And, since I had so little available, as casserole was in order. Plenty of ground beef was ready to go, so that was no issue. Neither were the onions I still had. Cream of mushroom soup was plentiful. But that was it at first glance. At second glance, I found some cornbread stuffing mix. Hello yummy crust for casserole. More scavenging revealed a few carrots left. They were sprouting a little but some quick surgery removed any gross parts. Aha! A teeny can of mushroom heads and stems. Wife would enjoy those. My aromatics were complete. Those were given a cooking in a teaspoon of butter and a pinch of kosher salt, which we're running out of. After a bit, they picked up some nice color and the whole kitchen smelled wonderful so off the heat.

Cooking the beef, which is about 1.75 pounds of the stuff (as it's half of a roughly 3 pound package), was easy. At this stage, I was trying to figure out how to stack everything. Adding the soup to the veggies I thought might thin things out too much and defeat the purpose of a binder. As I'm busy stirring, I think, "Boy am I stupid" and dump the veggies into the beef for a second quick simmer. More mingling flavors, including Adobo.

Speaking of the binder, CoM Soup I thought lacked a smidge in the flavor department. There was also not enough room for adding cream of celery soup. More thinking, and as a nod to Salisbury Steak, Worchestershire sauce went in, along with some Cumin and more Adobo.

The crust was too easy. Follow instructions on the box. Except... oops. No milk. Half and Half tagged in. The goo went on the bottom. Then the meat and veggie mix. Then soup. Then a bag of hash browns we had left over.

But uh oh! How long do I cook this for? Both Wife and mother of friend agreed a half hour on 350. I topped it with shredded cheddar 25 minutes in. Then poof.

Wife inhaled it, despite my protests. And now we have a reasonably stocked fridge. So all is well.