Thread by @mjfrombuffalo

So while I'm stuck sitting at the computer, listening to @WGR550 to catch #BUFvsMIA since it's blacked out down here, I might as well share the latest #YeOldenTimeCooking adventure, from this 1964 book full o'awesomeness

Yearning for seasonings and herbs that give a special lift in this case is not a thinly-veiled allusion to ganja, and also note the casual sexism in the intro to the section, just above the Ham and Macaroni Toss that is today's special dish.

I ended up turning to the @Campbells cookbook because I had some leftover ham and needed a way to disguise it from Hubby, who may not know when I'm experimenting on him but definitely knows (and rebels) when I serve him the same dish two times in a row. Ingredients:

Didn't include action shots of pasta boiling because water boiling is about as exciting as watching paint dry. But I can't cook with soup without including the SCHWOOMP moment. #SchwoompThereItIs

In go the celery and onions. No green pepper though because I didn't have any. (Didn't seem to miss it in the end.)

Next in with the ham. Note the creamy goodness on grandma's old wood spoon, attesting to the ease of mixing the condensed soup with the freshly-boiled pasta.

I had forgotten to add salt to the pasta water until the last minute, so the pasta was a wee bit bland. But it was mixed with undiluted, regular-sodium condensed soup and ham so there was plenty of salt in the final dish.

Now to add the remaining "seasoning:" a bit of mustard, a dash of hot sauce (Frank's, of course, because every good Buffalonean always has some Frank's around for making wings), and some black pepper.

It was about at this point that I read the bit about chilling the salad. Reader, we were hungry, and Hubby hadn't seen the recipe so he wouldn't know if I served it "wrong." I served it warm, with the recommended tomato wedges.

The verdict? Hubby polished off his plate and pronounced it good. He also ate half the remaining salad the next day for lunch. He was offered cold or warm, he voted to reheat it.

I liked it warm the first day and I liked it cold the next day. The celery softened a little from sitting in the fridge but was still correctly crunchy. The onion softened a bit more and lost some of its intense edge (the raw onions were aggressively "HI I'M HERE" day 1).

And yes, basically the dish replaces mayo with Cream of Chicken soup... and it was a terrific substitute. It gave the salad a deeper, mellower, more savory taste as opposed to mayo's tang. Excellent idea, would totally do again. *fin*

Want to read more #yeoldentimecooking? Here's the last dish I did, an egg-and-soup thing.