waffles, berry syrup
black bean quesadillas
chicken & rice casserole, green salad(!!)
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The end is near. You can feel it in the air, in the people coming and going, a subtle shift in attitude. Our focus evolves from sustaining to using up that last bit of toothpaste in the tube and going home. With the finish line in site, the pace quickens. Every day the helicopter deposits another load of last-minute plumbers, electricians, carpenters… it would seem that even Antarctica is not immune to procrastination. I’m in an endless cycle of cooking and dishwashing and cooking- to feed eight to ten people three times a day at a kitchen table with only six chairs. In trying to use up things in the pantry which can’t freeze or have been there for years(!?) I find myself facing down a decrepid can of cream of mushroom soup. I am the first to admit that the casserole chapter in my cookbook is a little thin. The casserole is often a family tradition- something most folks learn to love and make as a child. The casseroles of my youth were almost exclusively limited to the mysterious concoctions served by my grandma on Wednesday game nights. They were delicious, and unnatural in a way that, as a child of whole wheat, fruit juice sweetened upbringings, I craved fantastically. These mythical casseroles, like Froot Loops and Kraft American Cheese Singles were ephemeral delights gorged upon when visiting relatives, and never seen at home where my culinary foundation was laid. In Antarctica, I am learning to embrace the humble casserole as a convenient vehicle for feeding many people with few ingredients. While I have become comfortable with shamelessly disguising lackluster canned and frozen ingredients with a topping of cheese and buttered cracker crumbs, today will be my first foray into the world of Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom. Here on this frozen continent, I may be homesick for dim sum and taco carts, but I know that for my diners du jour- a group of electricians from Michigan, chicken and rice casserole tastes like home.
Yum yum! The casserole sounds wonderful. The reference to “Fruit Loops” was not lost on me!
A good chef is like the coach of a sport’s team. You take what you have and make something spectacular! Besides, ANY casserole, regardless of how meager, and even if it includes canned mushroom soup, is infinitely better than a dead shrimp wrapped in death-pallor egg white!
Jesika, Great piece of writing! I can feel a book coming on! Is this your first blog? If it is I would say you’re a natural. I can take lessons form you! Remember Julie Powell!
Funny you mentioned the cream of shroom soup in a can. Yestrday I was talking to an older woman in Pdx. Been married close to 50 years I’d guess. She told me one of the first cassaroles she made as a young bride was tuna cassarole, made with cornflakes and good old cream of shroom in the red and white can. Well this one day, while her husband was a student at Yale, she was planning on making that dish. But she was out of corn flakes. She didn’t have a car and grocery stores didn’t deliver in the 60s! So she used the Frosted Flakes she found in the cupboard. And guess what, her husband loved it! She never tld him what the secret ingrdient was that made it taste better. So to this day, whenever she can’t think of what to make him for dinner she makes tuna cassarole with Frosted Flakes and canned soup.
Have a wonderful good bye on the ice. See you in March and I can’t wait to eat and cook with you again!
Love the story! Thanks and I’ll see you soon back in the beautiful northwest…
Just a quick note to thank you for sharing your culinary adventure with us. I always look forward to reading the next post from the “cook on the ice.” You say the end is near, so I get the impression that you will be moving on to better, hopefully warmer things. Good luck and keep writing; you have more talent than just cooking!
Peace.
Jesika,
Thank you for such a fun read. I know those dining at your table appreciate your creativity. Would love to share a cup of coffee with you when you return. I think we will be able to find a coffee shop somewhere in Portland….. Your adventures have brought me smiles and laughs to me. Hope you will be able to look back at your days in Antarctica and say with a laugh , “I remember when……”
ono don’t leave, i like reading your adventures! and i like cream of mushroom soup in my green bean cassarole- buck made it once with fresh green beans, bechamel sauce, sliced mushrooms, and homemade frizzled onions. it was good ‘n all… but the next year we went back to canned goodness.
nostalgia is the best spice.
I like that you found the can of soup *after* making tator-tot casserole
I can’t wait to be kicked out of your kitchen again! hurrah!