Oh Gina, Gina, Gina, surely you were jesting about eating tuna noodle casserole.

Nope, not making fun of anyone for what they like to eat, just more of it for them and thankful I don't have to eat what I don't like. And sometimes I like what's in the blue box and an ocassional can of cream of ______ put into a dish, and I don't care if someone makes fun of me for it.

I haven't made it in a long while, but I do like tuna noodle casserole made with canned soup. I cover my portion in Tabasco sauce - bwa-ha-ha! It's the only dish I ever use a canned soup for.

Blue box Mac 'n cheese? Nope. I know how to make grown-up homemade cheesy pasta now!

LOL Beverly, I love tuna noodle casserole, and green bean casserole and blue box. I don't eat any of them very often, at least in adulthood, but I do like them. None of it's that great for you but either are a lot of things, but I'm still going to enjoy them now and then.

I will say in all events that while pretty much anything made with C of M soup gets roundly panned on this forum, it's all in good fun and it would never occur to me to be offended by that. I'm still going to make it and eat it once in a while and will to my dying day. Nothing will ever change that!

I'm not cooking any meal this year, or I'd be doubling back to my list right now to make sure mini marshmallows are on there too for the sweet potatoes! :-)

I admit it, I'm the GBC lover in the household. Somehow it's just not a holiday meal without that little bit of oniony goodness.

HOWEVER...

I can't make it the standard way. I'm allergic to mushrooms. Just the smell of cream of mushroom soup makes me ill. *shudders* Our family has always used cream of chicken in the mix, though I've done some amount of tweaking over the years to play around with it.

After playing around with the beans a while, I pretty much only use Del Monte Fresh Cut GBs - somehow fresh or frozen just doesn't seem to work as well with the other highly processed ingredients. :P And I prefer the regular cut to frenched. I've tried various other cream soups and while CrO celery was the closest non-mushroom vegetable match, it works much better with CrO chicken, CrO chicken w/herbs or CrO turkey if you can ever find it.

And although I have digestive issues with onions now *sob* NOTHING can replace those french fried onion rings!!! I'm slightly obsessed. I have to buy an extra can of them - one for the recipe and one to snack on!

I try to eat a lot healthier now. I use brown rice and whole wheat products, I use fresh GBs and veggies all the time and I've cut out most of the high sodium highly processed foods out of my everyday diet... but I have to sneak in one small GBC just for that dash of holiday nostalgia. Hmmmm... come to think of it, I don't think I have any fried onions in the house... *dashes off to the grocery store*

All I can say is yuck... Doesn't anyone eat plain veggies any more... How can you taste the green beans with all that other stuff in there... Make mine plain, that'll leave more for ya'll.... lol

Jessy, that's a good reason to eat Kosher, is there such a thing as semi Kosher? LOL

Rita
P. S. Barb, believe me, if anyone here were trying to put you down for eating GBC ( or anything else for that matter ) the entire post would have been deleted before there were 5 replies...

Personally, I do not like the GBC, but Dad has asked for it, so I will make it.

Now, don't any one pick on my brussel sprouts!! I adore those little cabbage heads. Steam them, roast them, saute them or pickle 'em...I love them. I even eat them cold for breakfast.

As for the C of M, there are worse things in life. When one is hungry enough, anything is good. We are very spoiled, never having known true hunger.

So be thankful there is GBC on the menu.

We manage to put on a spread with everyone's favorites, no matter what. If you don't like it, just pass it on. We've picked up a lot of favorites that some won't touch like GBC, gourmet potatoes, green salad, cranberry sauce, ham, turkey, pumpkin pie, apple pie, dressing cooked inside, dressing not cooked inside. Everyone looks forward to TG day with all their favorites. How about that? Everyone finds more than enough to eat of their favorites and they all go home happy.

About once a year, I get a craving for blue box. Soon as I have some, I don't want to see it again for another year. Flashbacks to college years, maybe. Gina, the tuna casarole is all yours. I love tuna and I love egg noodles, but if they are in the same dish, the texture gets to me. But I still think you're terrific. LOL!

Alton Brown might be the only person who could get me to eat green beans with diary on them. But only if he came over and cooked it for me.

PK? Pickled brussels sprouts? I'd go there. Never heard of them, but I'm intrigued.

Guess what I just made to have for my family to eat after they travel down here from CT. Tuna Noodle casserole!! For us it is comfood food of the first order. This one has homemade white sauce and fresh mushroons in it but I also added a can of Mushroom soup for the extra flavor. I'm going to make that beautiful red cabbage recipe I saw on this forum to go with it too!

It's funny: Cook's Illustrated tried to recreate a recipe for GBC, and I think they ended up using the crispy fried onions cause they just could not replicate it (if my memory serves me right).
OK, now NO BRUSSEL SPROUTS BASHING! LOL. That's what I had for supper last night. I don't do them often, cause DH doesn't like them, but I had a hankerin' for them. And my DH, well, he ate them and took seconds. He said they weren't as bad as he thought. I suspect he always said he didn't like them but never actually ate them.
GBC? Well, I always used to make it, but haven't made it in years. However, I love those crunchy onions, but won't buy them. Too many calories, and I could eat the whole can.
Cute thread May, and I also love your title. And the comment about not taking food preferences seriously, well, as you know, I need to work on that.
Sherry

Sands! LOL! Can you really tell us how you feel about brussel sprouts? Don't hold back now!

I was just lurking. I have made the green bean casserole in the past. I would enjoy the one Lowspark posted much better though.

Brussel sprouts are an interesting cruciferous vegetable. My 7th grade son said they did an experiment in his science class - they tasted a strip that had some chemical on it that only those with a certain gene could taste. Half the class went 'YUCK'. Apparently its the same chemical in brussel sprouts. Unfortunately my son could taste it.

Cook's Illustrated, long ago, also recommended braising them in a bit of water for about seven minutes. FWIW. I am a veggie girl, so I love 'em!

Count me in as a brussels sprouts lover. I like them best fresh, tossed with olive oil, salt pepper and garlic and roasted. If I have them when my girls are both here, I have to watch or they'll eat them all and leave none for me. Elery loves them too, so we'll have to buy BIG packages for family dinners!

Now, don't take that to mean that I won't eat the frozen ones, because I will. My office staff complains loudly when I take a frozen box of sprouts and heat them in the microwave for lunch. "Stinky food", they call it. LOL Too bad I'm the boss. (grin) Of course I do remind them that if I have to smell their reheated pizza that I detest, they can shut up and smell the brussels sprouts!

Annie

This thread had me hankering for Tuna Noodle Casserole...Weight Watchers of course. I just finished prepping all the ingredients and will throw it together later this evening for dinner. This recipe calls for the COM soup but I make a seasoned roux with mushrooms in it instead of the COM soup. I'm really not scared of the dreaded COM soup, I just prefer the taste of a seasoned roux made with olive oil and flour ;-) This really is a good recipe even if your not watching your fat intake.

Tuna Noodle Casserole-Weight Watchers

4 1/2 ounces medium egg noodles

1 cup chopped onions

1 cup chopped celery

1 cup chopped bell peppers (green, red and yellow)

1 cup sliced mushrooms

1/2 cup frozen sweet corn, thawed

One 10.5-ounce can reduced-calorie undiluted mushroom soup (70 calories per can)

8 ounces drained canned chunk light tuna packed in water, flaked

1/2 cup skim milk

Few drops hot pepper sauce

2 tablespoons minced parsley

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 slices reduced-calorie fresh whole-wheat bread, made into crumbs

1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon grated Parmesan cheese

2 medium tomatoes, sliced

Preheat oven to 350º. Spray shallow 2-quart casserole with nonstick cooking spray. In large pot of boiling water, cook noodles 8 minutes, until tender. Drain; keep warm. Meanwhile, spray a large saucepan with nonstick cooking spray. Add onions and celery; cook, stirring frequently, about 2 minutes, until tender-crisp. Add bell peppers, mushrooms and corn. Continue cooking and stirring, 5 minutes longer, until tender. Stir in soup, tuna, milk, hot pepper sauce, parsley and pepper. Remove from heat; stir in noodles. Transfer to prepared casserole. Sprinkle with bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese; bake 15-20 minutes, until crumbs are golden brown and crisp. Top with fresh tomato slices. Serve hot.

Makes 4 Servings

EACH SERVING (1 1/2 CUPS): 342 Calories, 27 g Protein, 5 g Fat, 50 g Carbohydrate, 597 mg Sodium, 56 mg Cholesterol, 6 g Dietary Fiber

Hi ya'll. That GBC looks good with the fresh onions, but
I can't see all of the recipe. Please would you print it so I can see it. I can eat GBC,

"it's a bean casserole, It's not your little sister or your chubby best friend- you don't need to protect it. "

Good God, that cracked me up. I love Mr. Bean's one-two punch reply.

May, I remember the last time this subject came up and I teased Michaelmaxp about it. Gee, I hope he's still talking to me.

Anyhow, as much as I avoid the infamous (or in this case, famous, to the masses) Green Bean Casserole at family gatherings, the GBC pictured above doesn't remotely resemble the ones I've come across at such events.

The one I had looked like yellowish-opaque-matter-leftover-from-a-liposuction-topped-with-crunchy-golden-brown-cockroaches pond scum.

No sir, don't like it.

Brussel Sprouts, that, I'm learning to like.

Sol

Oh, god, thank you Sol. If I ever could be tempted to eat it before, that observant and concise description pretty much clinched it that I won't. ROFL! So...I see you've attended functions at which my mother has brought the dish under discussion. :D

Brussels sprouts = yummy!

Riverrat, thanks for posting that tuna noodle casserole recipe. DH doesn't like noodle casseroles with COM--too bland. But I think the peppers and corn (not to mention the hot sauce) will pass the taste test. Just to be safe, I'll make it with the olive oil roux instead of COM.

Sue

I can take or leave GBC, I grew up with it being served at family dinners. But I loved the marshmallows on the sweet potatoes. Not having either this year and haven't had for quite a few years now. We are having fresh green beans though. Just steamed.

I get a craving for the blue box a couple of times a year, with lots of salt. Bad.....

Nancy

Let me tell you; from a self-professed, life-long Brussel Sprout hater, this is the ONLY way to cook those little monsters:

Creamy Braised Brussel Sprouts
Recipe Source: All About Braising

1 lb brussel sprouts
3 T of unsalted butter
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 lemon
Coarse salt and freshly ground white pepper

Trim the base of each sprout and peel off any ragged outer leaves. Cut the sprouts into halves; if they are large, cut them into thirds or quarters. Ultimately, you want little wedges that are no more that 1/2 inch across.

Melt the butter in a large skillet over med-high heat. When the foaming stops, add the sprouts and season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook stirring occasionally, until the sprouts begin to brown in spots, about 5 minutes.

Pour in the cream, stir, cover, and reduce temperature to low for a slow simmer. Braise over low heat until the sprouts are tender enough to pierce with a sharp knife or fork, about 30-35 minutes. The cream will have reduced some and turned a fawn color.

Remove the cover, stir in a generous squeeze of lemon juice, and taste for seasoning. Let simmer, uncovered, for just a few more minutes to thicken the cream to a glaze. Serve hot or warm, try not to each the entire pan in one sitting. :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: Visit my Blog!

Stacy3 posted this one for me last month, when I asked for an updated version I could make for a party. (She said she didn't know who the original poster was.) It was very good and I'm planning to make it for TD again. Instead of poultry seasoning, though, I used 1/4 teaspoon each of sage and thyme and also used half and half instead of evap milk.

Check out the article in today's Washington Post Style section, about French's French-Fried Onions. (It's probably more than anyone ever needs to know.)

Green Bean Casserole Servings 12
16 ounces frozen cut green beans
1 medium onion -- chopped
1 clove garlic -- minced
1 teaspoon butter
1/2 pound fresh mushrooms -- chopped
1 can evaporated milk -- (12 ounces) (NOT the sweet kind)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1/8 teaspoon pepper
Topping
2 cups sliced onions
1 teaspoon butter
1/2 cup soft bread crumbs
Place beans in a microwave-safe dish. cover and cook on high for 7-9 minutes or until tender. Drain. In a nonstick skillet, cook onion and garlic in butter over medium heat until tender, about 4 minutes. Add mushrooms. Cook until softened. Reduce heat to medium-low. Gradually stir in evaporated milk. combine flour and milk until smooth. Stir into mushroom mixture. Add soy sauce, salt, poultry seasoning and pepper. Bring to boil. Cook and stir for 2 minutes or until thickened. Stir in beans. Transfer to a 2 quart baking dish coated with nonstick cooking spray. Bake, uncovered, at 375: for 15 minutes. For topping: In a large nonstick skillet, cook onions in butter over medium-low heat until golden brown. Add the bread crumbs. Cook until dry and golden brown. sprinkle over casserole. Bake 7-10 minutes longer or until heated through and topping is browned. Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Here is a link that might be useful: Washington Post article Nov. 20

Brussels sprouts? Halve them, toss them with EVOO, S&P, and roast the suckers. Yummo! The little leaves get crispy and come off like little green chips.

My DH likes the GBC so I used to make it. But, when my son was in first grade he asked me to quit ruining the green beans and cook them the way the school does. So I asked the cafeteria ladies how they cooked them. They said just open a can of the cheapest brand I can find and heat them without adding any salt or other seasonings! My son still loves this better than any other greenbeans. I hate them all, but I can eat a whole can of those Durkee onions.

I was planning to make Alton's recipe after I saw him make it the other day .... but my youngest got home from college last night and when I mentioned it to her, she was really disappointed, she wants the "real thing" LOL. So I'll make my old standby, which is to make my own mushroom cream sauce and use the canned onions. I was also surprised to hear that she likes the candied sweet potatoes. I was going to try a new variation on them because I thought that I was the only one that cared .... apparently once again, I can't change a thing!

Cindy

Kathy,
I will try your brussel sprouts recipe. It really sounds good. BTW, loved your BLOG.
Sherry

No green bean casserole here either. Don't you think it's in part what you grew up with? My Mom never made it and it's just never appealed to me. I do like brussel sprouts though and that will be one of the veggies on my table tomorrow. I will also admit to be getting ready to make that lime green jello/cream salad that I never realized was a jello salad until I was an adult and started making it on my own - -- it wouldn't be a holiday "at home" without it, even if I'm the only person at my Thanksgiving table eating it....

Sherry, thank you! Do try the recipe; it's delish!

It's like the quarterly potfiller thread on the kitchen forum!! Always a controversary, but you gotta love it!

So, YES, we make that crazy casserole every year and LOVE it. I even bought an extra large bag of those onion ring thingies!

Does it ever feel like there are too many dishes on the table? (Silly question, I know) Some of it tradition (GBC) and some new things you want to try? Two years ago, my husband made a dish from one of Patrick O'Connell's Inn at Little Washington cookbooks. It's basically a layered carrot and parsnip dish with a nutmeg bechamel sauce. It's really wonderful and now my daughters ask for it each year, so we're having that, in addition to many other sides. My girls can't live without the jellied canned cranberry, while I make a conserve based on real cranberries and some sort of citrus concoction, usually from a Bon Appetit or Gourmet inspiration.

Today I'm baking pies and listening to "An American Journey - Bound For The Promised Land" performed by the Waverly Consort. My husband asked if I was listening to Thanksgiving Carols, and the answer is yes!!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all and enjoy the day, whatever is served!!

Oh and Sherry, my husband made brussell sprouts last night. He sliced them and sauteed with sliced shallots, pine nuts and lemon. Served with a walnut parsley encrusted halibut. Wonderul! Actually, I think both recipes came from Bon Appetit's October issue.

Donna- everything goes with bourbon! But especially sweet potatos.

I've never had green bean casserole. Not once I don't ever recall even being at a table where it was present. I had no idea it was so traditional and/or reviled. I still don't want to try it, mind you.

I have tried tuna casserole. There's just something about warm, canned tuna that just sends me screaming and trying to go to my quiet place. Add any sort of cheese to that (ie tuna melt) and I may need to be revived.

Now brussels sprouts don't go with bourbon but they certainly go with bacon! I love the little beasties anyway but my all time favorite, even gets my 3 year old to eat them is to steam them, halve them, sautee some bacon in a pan until crisp and then toss in the brussel sprouts for a few trips around the pot. It makes them crispy, even more delicious, bacon-y and decidedly unhealthy. mmmm.

Nina

Maybe that's what GBC needs - bacon!

Please, please some one post the green bean casserole recipe from the Nov. issue of Better Homes and Gardens. I can't see it in the picture. I t was posted by lowspark.

This is not the exact recipe but you maybe able to find it on their site with some digging.

Hopefully, lowspark can repost the entire recipe for you/us.

Here is a link that might be useful: Green Bean Bake Revisted

From May's (lowsparks) picture...

2 lb green beans
1 large onion
1 red pepper
6 oz mushrooms
6 oz cream and/or goat cheese

Cook beans in small amount of boiling water for 3 minutes
Combine with button mushrooms and sliced red pepper
Toss with olive oil and soy sauce of balsamic vinegar to coat
Roast at 375 degrees for 15 minutes
Sweeten onion wedges by sautéing in olive oil and brown sugar just until tender
Toss cooked onions with dry breadcrumbs to coat for classic onion ring crispness
For a note of tanginess, blend softened cream cheese with goat cheese
Toss with warm vegetables and place in baking dish
Top with onions
Bake at 400 degrees for 5 to 8 minutes until heated through
Scatter parsley on top

I love this yearly thread!

I don't love or hate GBC. I do make it with my own modifications. My brother and son like it so I make it. I'll also make Sol's cauliflower gratin and plain steamed broccoli for my daughter. She likes her veggies naked.

I love brussels sprouts especially roasted. They're my favorite vegetable.

I can't do sweet potatoes at all.

Tracey

Thank you thank you!!!!!

May, What you originally posted does look good. When we discussed GBC last year at this time, the convenient canned GBC had just hit the supermarket. I challenged anyone to try it and report back.

Love BS, and I appreciate the new ways to serve...what did Sands call them...devils dingle berries? Being a cat parent, that's disgusting! LOL

Nina, it appears we have the same reaction to the tuna caserole and tuna melts. If you put $20 on the table and said all I had to do was eat a serving to get the $20, I probably could not do it. I know other people love it, and that's fine with me. We'll have the opposite going on tomorrow. I like sweet potatoes, my dinner companion hates them. I'm having sweet potaotes. Guess who isn't. :)

I don't know...a splash of bourbon in some shredded stir fried brussels sprouts and walnuts might be ok. I'd try it once.

I love my version of GBC. I use fresh baby green beans cooked crisp tender, fried leeks, sauteed sliced baby portabella mushrooms, a bit of Vache Qui Rit aka Laughing Cow cheese and just a splash of milk.

As for Brussels sprouts, have you tried using them to make Lazy Man's Golomkis. Make your meat filling as you would for Golomkis but roll them into meatballs the same size as the Brussel Sprouts. Brown the meatballs then add to tomato sauce with the uncooked Brussel Sprouts and simmer until the sprouts are done.

I like canned albacore tuna in a tuna salad. Note: I LIKE it. Don't LOVE it. I prefer my tuna seared or as sushi but that's another thread... I can't eat tuna noodle casserole. Okay, I'd eat it rather than starve but I'd have to give it some thought. ;) I could eat that recipe, I suppose but I'd have to use shredded chicken or something else and then it would cease to be tuna noodles casserole wouldn't it. All the better!

I like Brussels sprouts. They don't like me... Though, one year I ate them at my sister's house and I survived. They were very thoroughly cooked and I like them a little crunchy.

Some of these alternative recipes sound really good. I'm not cooking for the holiday and even so don't have anybody here to where I need to worry about traditions, so I'm free to deviate.

Yep, it's Thanksgiving. GBC, How to cook the perfect turkey, Pies, Brussel Sprouts- Folks, we are living the good life!

Sol, being teased by you is a rite of passage, and I am honored by your attentions!

Everyone, Happy Thanksgiving.

Michael

Another GBC story.

My mother NEVER used frozen or canned veggies. Always fresh.

One thanksgiving my MIL (RIP, she died in 2000) brought a green bean dish to Thanksgiving at my folks house. My sister complimented my MIL on her 'carefully cutting up each green bean to be the identical exact size and shape' of what looked like 1.5 inches, diagonal cut.

She replied quietly, thank you.

How I wish I would have leaned over and said to my sister 'In the valley of the jolly (ho ho ho) green giant' but neither of us at the time could conceive of someone buying much less using such a thing!

It wouldn't be TG without this thread showing up on the forum. Yes, we have it every year and I like/eat it.

David

Jessy, The converse of your story...I picked up DD from SIL's house; she was 12. DD got in the car and said "Aunt Dana made fried chicken for dinner!" How nice, I said. "No mom, she fried the fried chicken." DD didn't know that you could actually fry chicken at home; she thought you could only get it from KF or Popeye's.

It's not the taste of the casserole I mind. It's seeing those green beans swimming in that slimey looking stuff.

When my sweet DIL found out I was not going to be able to cook Thanksgiving dinner this year she cooked a complete meal and brought it here. So what do you think she put on my table. The infamous green bean casserole! I just said thank you very much and told her how sweet she was.

Several people mentioned Alton Brown's recipe, so I was wondering if anybody made it. That's the one I wanted to try, but the other folks at the dinner really wanted the traditional version. If anyone made Alton's, how was it?

I was eager to make AB's last year and remember being underwhelmed. I didn't even keep the recipe, of course the problem could have been the cook!

Mustangs, That's good to know. If I did make it, I was thinking about still using the canned fried onions for the topping and just using AB's recipe for the veggies and sauce.

Well, GBC or at least some version of it was served at dinner at my friend's house on Thursday. There were only six of us, and it was a very nice afternoon/evening, and there it was. I wanted to laugh only because of this thread, but held back. It was made by one of the other guests and I took some. But it was definitely NOT the traditional recipe -- I think there was some velveeta in there. I had a few bites to be polite. I think if you're going to do the frozen/canned beans & COM & fried onion recipe, it should be done AS IS with no embelishments of velveeta or whatever. It's either got to be exactly the recipe or else completely different as in the idea of the original post. My opinion, anyway! However, in the end, a good time WAS had by all.