Tales from the Kitchen!!

One has to wonder if a large number of recipes out there are a result of someone trying a completely different recipe and either messing up, or substituting ingredients because they were out of whatever they needed. Like if someone was trying to make brownies and ended up with blondies.

I had a similar experience the other night, where I was forced to make some substitutions. I feared the worst, but I ended up with good results. I was wanting to make a tuna noodle casserole (yes, I wanted to make one) and so I looked on one of my best friends when it comes to cooking, Recipezaar. I found a recipe that looked like it had everything in it that I wanted, and set out to make it the next night. The following day I was at the grocery store and did some shopping.

Lo and behold, I did what I end up doing a lot - forgetting ingredients completely, and not realizing it until I got home. And I REALLY did want to have to go back out again. So, I just made some creative decisions and substituted some things that I had in the pantry and refrigerator, hoping everything would turn out fine. I didn't find the odd veggie brand the recipe called for, so I decided to use some frozen vegetables I had. I forgot milk, and I didn't have really enough to spare, so I used some cream I had from another recipe. No egg noodles, so I used some whole wheat rotitni. No mayo (which I don't particularly like anyway) , so I used yogurt. The recipe also didn't have enough tuna to my liking, so I added more. It ended up like this:

1 can of cream of celery soup
1/2 cup milk (Cream did in a pinch)
1/2 cup yogurt
8 oz. cooked and drained pasta
1 1/2 cups frozen veggies (uncooked)
2 cans tuna (I spoiled myself and used albacore)
a couple of handfuls of shredded cheese
spices to taste (anything will do. I used some old bay)
and if I had some breadcrumbs I would have used those on top!!

Anywho I mixed all the above together in a casserole dish, put the top on it, and cooked it at 350 for maybe 35-45 minutes (I didn't time it exactly) and was rewarded with a creamy and rather tasty tuna noodle casserole. It even reheated well the next day!

So I guess substitutions can be a good thing. Especially in angel food cakes. But that's another..

TALE FROM THE KITCHEN!!