Comfort food from childhood - Tunafish and Peas on Toast

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

We had this fairly frequently and I loved it.

A can of tunafish
A can of peas
A can of cream of mushroom soup

Buttered toast.

Combine the first three - (I think the soup was diluted by the water in the can of peas)

Heat thoroughly. Spoon over toast.

We LOVED this!! Easy, simple, cheap

What are your memories of this kind of food?

[pengillian101]

1. Very similar - Tuna hotdish is my comfort food!

Yum!
http://bp3.blogger.com/_VCAFEoy93mc/SDjacZ1MzlI/AAAAAAAAADU/CIpnSX4l7nY/s400/dinner+004.jpg


http://frugalhealthysimple.blogspot.com/2008/05/tuna-casserole.html

[Tesha]

5. I've moved on - just a bit

need comfort, no time?

Baked potato - rushed? nuke it!
frozen peas - rushed? colander and hot tap water!
cooked salmon - rushed? open a can

butter, sour cream, salt, and pepper

oh, from cold winter night to instant comfort.....

[Tsiyu]

22. Oh yeah

Except for me it's boiled potatoes, CANNED peas (frozen are too sweet for me and always made me gag,) Salmon straight out of the can with a wedge of lemon. Some butter and pepper and I'm all set.

When times were tight Mama made that and I still love it. Some of the other stuff we endured (like liver once a month whether we liked it or not blech) I just say NO.

[grasswire]

2. yes, but with white sauce instead of soup

Creamed tuna (or salmon) on toast.

Make a white sauce, add tuna and peas. Serve on buttered toast.

Sounds Amazing right now. I can recall being in my great aunt's farm kitchen and watching her making three batches of this one after another because the family couldn't get enough of it for supper.

If I could eat the toast, I'd have this for Saturday's lunch!

[Tab]

3. You ain't getting me there

You managed to name three ingredients I would not (and probably still cannot) stomach. Maybe it's my 1960's industrial food heritage, don't know.. If you liked it, that's cool, but damn, I couldn't do it.

[Arkansas Granny]

4. I haven't fixed this in years and I don't know why. I always made mine

with a white sauce instead of the soup. We also would omit the tuna and just have the creamed peas as a vegetable with a meal. I like a combination of peas and cubed, cooked potatoes, too.

[hippywife]

6. Ours was always

spaghetti and meatballs on Sunday. It's still my comfort food, except I don't fix it every week.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

11. I want you to know that I think you influenced me to make spaghetti and meatballs tonight.

So simple that we forget to make it. I made Rigatoni, Meatballs, Sauce, Salad, and homemade bread. Everyone loved it.

Raging family debate: Meatballs finished in the sauce or left plain and garnished with sauce? Family evenly split so half the meatballs have to go into the sauce (gravy for some of you) and some have to be left plain.

[hippywife]

12. That was exactly what we had.

Except I was so tired by the time I got all my baking and cooking done for the day, I hadn't the energy to make a salad. I really should have.

I drop my meatballs into the sauce completely raw and let them add to its flavor as they poach in it.

Glad you had a good dinner! :)

[Lucinda]

7. You know, I cant think of a single thing from childhood.

We ate a wide variety of foods and I never really had a favorite meal. I still don't. I do remember always finishing off the salad bowl though :)

My grandmothers chicken and dumplings may fall into that category, but I didn't have them much until I was an adult. (I grew up in California and she was in Arkansas)

[Gormy Cuss]

8. That's like tuna noodle casserole made with toast instead.

I can't stand the saltiness of those canned "cream of" soups anymore but as a kid anything my mother made with cream of mushroom or cream of celery soup as the base was a big hit.

[troubleinwinter]

9. Yes, except the canned peas.

I actually have the makins' of tuna noodle casserole in the pantry. I happened to come across a good deal on canned chicken, so have that instead of tuna. I keep such things in case I get snowed in(!).

Only difference, I guess is noodles, not toast (but it's a very clever idea!), and I will not endure canned peas....have froze ones.

I have very fond memories of tuna noodle casserole. As a child, my mother would make it on the rare occaision my dad would be out of town, cuz she & I liked it & he didn't. It was a *Girl Party*!

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

10. I understand the resistance to the canned peas

but I was just relating the way the original dish was prepared. It was designed to be quick, fast, simple, cheap and easy and made do with stuff you had on hand in the sixties.

It would be fine to add todays frozen petite peas instead and it would be a heck of a lot better.

I applaud the people in this thread who had family members who could actually make a white sauce as opposed to using a canned soup - but that means THEY COULD COOK! If you told my mother to make a white sauce, she would have melted mayonnaise.

The recipe I recalled is food that you might eat happily in the basement fallout shelter, so your analogy of being snowed in is perfect.

[troubleinwinter]

15. Hahahaha!!!!

"she would have melted mayonnaise"!!!

I think if I were in the basement fallout shelter, canned peas would be plenty good enough for me.

[Gormy Cuss]

14. We had casseroles at least twice a week when I was a kid

because they're cheap, easy, and kid pleasers. My mother even had a cookbook that was nothing but 1960s era casseroles, LOL.

I can't stand canned peas either but they're my father's favorite vegetable and they were on the dinner plate at least twice a week.

[troubleinwinter]

16. A million years ago, I had a casserole cookbook.

There is one recipe I actually make!

It's several packages of powdered brown gravy mix, powdered ginger, brown sugar, bay leaf and cider vinegar, thrown in a pot with browned cubed beef chuck & cooked in the oven for hours.

They claim it's "Sauer Bratten" & it's served over parsleyed noodles.

(How embarassing to admit to using powdered brown gravy mix.)

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

17. I love casseroles, I really do

It's always a challenge to get beyond 80% of them which are meat, vegetables, starch and glop to bind. But the other 20% can be fantastic. Over the years, I have put together a few real winners and keepers and I'm constantly on the lookout for more. I love the whole one pot thing that you serve with a side salad and Bob's your uncle!

I can see where the ingredients you're talking about would be very tasty, slowly cooked. (In fact, if you can and don't mind, I would appreciate the recipe)

I am never embarrassed about any ingredient ( cream of something soup, powdered gravy mix, etc.) if the end result is food that people enjoy.

[troubleinwinter]

19. Oh, no!!!!! You WOULD ask for the recipe!!!

This is why I don't bake! I don't measure!

I long ago got rid of the recipe. I do it just by taste now. I also about quadruple the recipe. I fugure if I'm gonna heat the oven and make a mess, I might as well make lots.

I gave up buying the little packets of gravy mix, and buy the big 21 oz. (McCormick) jar.

I put maybe quart and a half of water in an enameled la cruset pot, with how ever much gravy mix it calls for on the jar(about a cup) on stove top & heat it. I don't concern myself with completely cooking the gravy, it'll do it's thing in the oven. I put brown sugar, powdered ginger & vinegar in and keep tasting. I think I usually use 3/4-1 box of sugar, maybe 2 cups of vinegar & LOTS of ginger. It should be SWEET and it should be SOUR and it should be SPICY.

I cut beef chuck into large bite cubes & brown & dump them into the pot with the gravy & a Bay leaf.

Into the oven to cook on low heat maybe 300 for perhaps 1-1/2 or 2 hours, sometimes more, depending! I usually don't cover it. I just watch it to see the sauce thickens and reduces and taste the beef to see when it's tender.

Then- buttered parsleyed noodles.

When I was young, I called my mother and told her that each time I made it, the meat seemed drier and drier, even thoough I'd buy better & better meat. She laughed and said, "Oh, ya dumbass, ya need to buy CHEAP chuck for slow cooking!" It was an early lesson in cooking for me.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

20. Thanks - I understand.

When you've made something for so long without a recipe, you just do it til it seems right. I think your flavor combo sounds excellent which is why I was interested and I think I could wing it using your guidelines.

One of the best things I ever made was a carbonnade of beef (beer, caramelized onions, etc.) that had a lot of candided ginger in it and was finished at the end with vinegar. It was just outstanding and quite unusual. I lost that recipe and have never been able to locate it again although I was pretty sure it was Bon Appetite or Gourmet - it doesn't show up on Epicurious, too old, I guess. Your stew reminded me of this.

[troubleinwinter]

23. Ohhhhhhhh... your recipe sounds good!

Beer, onions & candied ginger, huh? Hmmmm....

[LaydeeBug]

13. rotisserie chicken.

I could spit tie a bird before I could ride a two wheeler. The farberware rotisserie is like an heirloom...my Dad STILL USES it.

[eleny]

18. Homemade soups

One of my favorites was always lima bean with fresh pork. Mom would make it from fresh shoulder bone and meat.

I got some fresh pork soup base from Penzy's that makes this soup take only a few minutes when I'm in a rush and can't use fresh vegetables and make it from scratch.

saute 1/2 diced onion, add to
soup base and water
add a couple of cans of lima beans and a can of sliced carrots
add one can of tomato soup - any variety
a bay leaf
salt and pepper to taste

Sounds odd but it's a delicious soup of medium consistency because of the beans. If I have some fresh pork in the freezer left over from a roast, I add it in diced.

[kestrel91316]

21. My mom used to make Tuna-Biscuit Bake, which had the tuna and pea

glop (with butter in it, for sauteeing the onion and celery I think, topped by Bisquick biscuits.

It was never one of my favorites. Especially since she made it with canned peas.........

[troubleinwinter]

24. Good news!!!!!!!

there is an actual use for the horrid things. Feed 'em to the birds:

"Waxwings like: Berries, chopped fruits, canned peas, currants, raisins"

[troubleinwinter]

25. One must always be suspicious of anything called "(so and so) Bake"

[susanna]

26. Words from recipe titles that make me cautious:

"Surprise" or "Delight." :hi:

[grasswire]

27. oh lordy!!

My mother made (a few times) a Bisquick recipe for Tuna Shortcake!

It was a big round biscuit -- probably 12-14 inches -- filled with cooked potato chunks, onions, canned drained tuna, and cheese sauce. And cheese sauce poured over the top.

Ahhhhhh! Nasty! I'm going to see if the recipe is on the Internets.

[troubleinwinter]

28. "I'm going to see if the recipe is on the Internets."

I sincerely hope not.

[grasswire]

29. I could spend all day looking at vintage recipes

http://recipecurio.com/main-dish-bisquick-party-book/

look at this thing called "ring around tuna"

http://bp3.blogger.com/_qaSJZ4Rs_xY/SHFcZ7mpThI/AAAAAAAAAFA/VxUavG4Ld-

Edit: the link to the photo doesn't appear to work. Here's the link to this page of funky tuna things: http://recipesofthedamned.blogspot.com/2008/07/fresh-tomato-shortcake-bisquick-ick.html

[pengillian101]

32. Me too!

"I could spend all day looking at vintage recipes."


Thanks for posting the links!

[eShirl]

30. sounds a lot like something my Mom used to make, called "salmon wiggle"

white sauce (2 cups milk, 1/4 cup butter, 4 Tbsp flour, salt pepper to taste) add canned salmon and small package of frozen peas

serve over toast or crackers

yumm

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

31. I think "wiggle" was a British term for this type of stuff

Shrimp wiggle, salmon wiggle, etc. Sometimes people put sherry in the white sauce. Add some parmesan and then you're in the Newberg area.

[kestrel91316]

33. Today for dinner I made (from the recipe I found on allrecipes.com)

Creamed Salmon and Peas on Toast. The cream sauce was of course from scratch, the peas frozen not canned, and the bread was freshly baked half whole wheat. I added some sauteed onions because I think they BELONG in it. Really nice comfort food.

On the side I made coleslaw from half a cabbage and some dying carrots in the crisper, and I use the sweet-sour dressing with celery seed rather than mayo dressing (I always hated my mom's slaw that was literally just cut up cabbage with mayo).

The sweet-tart crispness was a nice contrast to the warm soft kinda blandness of the main dish.