Nothing is fresh in my latest cheapie recipe, and I'm proud of it! Yeah, that's right, The 99 Cent Chef's dish is 1960's Betty Crocker Cookbook can opener cuisine.
And this recipe involves the same amount of cooking skill as defrosting a Swanson Frozen TV Dinner. This is classic casserole comfort food that will fit perfectly on your Norman Rockwell Christmas table -- an heirloom recipe to continue handing down.
You can read about the creation of this recipe from the Campbell's Soup archives, just click here.
All you need is a warm oven and a baking dish. And it's so easy to make, you could do it blindfolded while nursing a martini.
Serve my French Fried Onions & Green Bean Casserole flanked by sliced turkey with stuffing and cool cranberry sauce. This creamy, soul-soothing veggie side is over the top in tastiness.
And all the ingredients are on sale for the holidays at any grocery store. French-fried onions are a decadent topping -- while canned green beans are boring until you mix in a can of Campbell's Mushroom Soup.
For a 21st-century version, use fresh green beans that are on sale for a dollar per pound from now until Christmas.
I look forward to a French Fried Onions & Green Bean Casserole every November and December. I first had it at my in-laws' Christmas table, and now my mother-in-law, Annette, is generous enough to share her recipe (from a brittle, yellowing magazine clip). I hand it over to you, my special holiday visitors, for safekeeping. Enjoy.
2 cans of green beans, drained - I used "French Cut", any type will do.
1 can of mushroom soup - or any "cream" soup you like, including vegan.
1/2 "soup can" of water - Directions call for a full can of water, but I found it gets too watery.
1 package of French Fried Onions - or from a can.
Pepper to taste - I find there is plenty of salt in the packaged ingredients.
Directions In a casserole dish combine green beans*, mushroom soup, 1/2 can of water, and half a package of French-fried onions. Don't fill the dish all the way to the top, as it may bubble over when hot. Mix well, cover, and place in a 350-degree oven.
Bake for 20 - 30 minutes; since everything is already cooked, you are just heating it all up. Uncover and top with the rest of the French-fried onions, and bake another 10-15 minutes.
This is a great dish to bring to any Thanksgiving gathering (best to bring a half package of crunchy fried onions to add at the last minute -- it will be too soggy otherwise).
Hindsight * Okay to use a package of fresh frozen green beans. Allow to defrost and drain extra liquid, then add to the baking dish with other ingredients.
For a fresh green bean version (about a pound), remove any stem pieces. Chop green beans in half if they are too long. Blanch beans in boiling water for about 5 minutes (or to the desired tenderness).
Remove beans and add to the casserole dish. In this case, you can salt to taste, then follow the rest of my directions.
Check back for a weekly dose of Thanksgiving recipes all this month - it's a digital happy hour at the Cheap$kate Chateau!
Hey, if you can put bacon on cupcakes, why not Stuffing Cupcakes with Sausage and Cranberry Frosting? This is the good stuff(ing) -- just ask my skeptical wife, and she has patiently been the recipient of some of my more outlandish culinary creations, like Pita Pizzas topped with Clams and Artichoke Hearts.
This is a fun party appetizer. Too much stuffing for the big bird? Make a few cupcakes with the extra and bring a bowlful to the Christmas table.
Doesn't that look delicious? Stuffing Cupcakes need just a little binder - one egg and 1/4 cup of flour to hold it all together. The frosting is regular canned cranberry sauce heated until soft like jelly.
Make your favorite chicken or turkey gravy for a dipping sauce (I found a jar of turkey gravy at The 99c Only Store), or, more formally, serve each cupcake in a pool of gravy.
You can use your favorite holiday stuffing recipe; I used 99-cent packaged cornbread stuffing mix. And you can add anything to stuffing: from sausage to chestnuts and dried fruit, or saute aromatics like onion, bell pepper, celery, garlic, and any fresh herbs you have in your garden.
My recipe is adaptable for my vegetarian friends.
What's nice about stuffing as a cupcake is you get more crunchy crust than with typical stuffing from a turkey, and you still get a moist, soft center.
Why have cranberry sauce on the side when you can slather it on the cupcake like jam? As for the gravy, it makes a great dipping sauce.
All my ingredients come cheap this time of year. Bags of stuffing, cranberry sauce, and breakfast sausage are on sale. Your kids may balk at a Stuffing Cupcake, but the adults will like it. Hey, pile on enough cranberry frosting, and the kids may come around. Pull this recipe out for Christmas, too!
How about a behind-the-scenes video? It's actually a lot of fun so just hit the play button and enjoy! (And my dear late wife, Amy, makes an appearance at about 1 minute, 44 seconds.)
Ingredients (about 6 cupcakes)
3 cups of stuffing from the package (about 6 oz.) - cornbread or your favorite.
1 teaspoon dried or fresh chopped herbs - parsley, sage, oregano, or your favorites
8 oz. of cranberry sauce, from the can, for frosting. Whole cranberry sauce works well.
Directions for Frosting Heat cranberry sauce in a pot for 5-10 minutes. Break it apart as it heats - it will become like soft jelly. Remove from heat, allow to cool, and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Directions for Stuffing Cupcakes Prepare 3 cups of stuffing according to package directions. Usually, add one cup of hot water to the stuffing in a large bowl. Mix until the stuffing is spongy and soft.
Add meat, veggies, and a 1/4 cup of flour to the stuffing. In a small bowl, whisk together 1/4 cup of milk and one egg. Add it to the stuffing and mix well.
Grease a cupcake pan with butter or oil spray. Scoop in enough dressing to fill each one.
Bake in a 350-degree preheated oven for about 45 minutes. When the cupcakes are done, you may need a knife to cut around the top edge of each cupcake to keep them from tearing when removed.
While cupcakes cook, make your favorite chicken or turkey gravy (it's okay to use packaged or from a can or jar). I have a few gravy recipes, including a delicious mushroom gravy recipe. Just click here.
Top cupcakes with cranberry frosting, and warm gravy underneath (or, gravy on the side as a dipping sauce.)
Thanksgiving is right around the corner, so you have time to make my Mom's Pumpkin Pie. I was back in Gonzales, Louisiana, a few years ago, around Thanksgiving, and got her to cook it on camera. Boy, was it good -- so good that a lot of my Cajun cousins swung by. It was a fun and noisy day, as you will see, where everyone lined up for a slice after the pies had cooled down.
Mom made a wheat crust from scratch, but for the filling, she went with the convenience of canned pumpkin. I know you are disappointed that we didn't find a free pumpkin in the wild like we did for Mom's last dessert recipe of Mini Pecan Pies -- where we went pecan picking out in a field of pecan trees (click here for that video).
Even with canned pumpkin, Mom's extra ingredients of spices, eggs, and evaporated milk make a luscious filling with a creamy flavored kick of cinnamon, ginger, vanilla, and clove.
The rest of the pie filling was made with cheap ingredients. This week, I went searching for a cheap can of pumpkin and found out how expensive it is. Almost $3 a can!
Now, for this recipe, I am following Mom's lead and would not have her change a family recipe handed down to her, but I can offer a $1.25 substitution: canned sweet yams. They are the same color, and by the time you add sugar and all the spices to Mom's pumpkin filling, it almost tastes the same.
I've had Sweet Potato Pie (probably made with canned yams or sweet potatoes) at my local Soul Food restaurant, and it's dang good. The consistency is similar to pumpkin, and the flavor is sweeter. Usually, canned yams are cooked chunks floating in liquid. So if you want to make a cheaper pie using yams, you should drain the can and mash the cooked yams' flesh. And, I would use half the sugar that Mom uses for her Pumpkin Pie.
The best substitution would be to fork mash the orange flesh of fresh-baked and peeled sweet potatoes -- they are almost as cheap as russet potatoes. See, dear reader, I am always thinking of you, and how to make a cheaper, but still tasty twist on a typical expensive dessert!
For the heck of it, I priced premade pumpkin pies at my local grocery chain store and found them on sale for $6.99 each. That's way too One Percent for The 99 Percenter Chef!
You could also buy an inexpensive pre-made pie crust -- but if you have time, do give Mom's homemade version a try. The whole pie came together quickly and easily. It's a two-for-one recipe. The video recipe is for 2 pies. Of course, it's easy to cut the ingredient amounts in half to bake one pie.
I have to give a big 99 thanks to all my Cajun relatives -- I didn't have to twist their arms to give Mom's Pumpkin Pie a try -- and an extra 99 thanks to Mom for sharing her recipe with all my readers. And Happy Holidays to all!
Directions for Pie Crusts Add flour and salt to a large bowl for mixing. Scoop in a cup of shortening. Mix in with a fork until the flour becomes pea-sized lumps. Pour in a cup of cold water. Now you have to get your hands dirty. Mix the dough by hand for about 3 minutes until it all comes together. Sprinkle flour over a work surface. Plop dough on it and form it into a ball. Divide the ball in half.
With a rolling pin, roll out each dough ball until it is large enough to fit over your baking pie pan. Press dough into the pan and press together any cracks that split during the transfer. You can pinch dough ridges around the top if you want to.
Ingredients for Pumpkin Pie Filling
2 cups of canned pumpkin - okay to use cheaper canned sweet potatoes or yams (drain then mash with a fork or potato masher to smooth.
1 cup of sugar - use half a cup if you are using sweet potatoes or yams. Of course, best to use baked and peeled fresh orange-colored yams - about 2-4, depending on the size.
1 teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon of ground cloves
1 teaspoon of ground ginger
4 eggs
2 cups of evaporated milk
Directions for Pumpkin Pie Filling In a large bowl, mix in dry ingredients and spices, including sugar, salt, ground cinnamon, cloves, and ginger.
In another small bowl, add 4 eggs and lightly whisk the egg yolks and whites together for a minute. Pour blended eggs into the bowl of dry ingredients. Mix it all together for a minute.
Spoon in 2 cups of canned pumpkin into the spices and egg mixture. Next, pour in 2 cups of evaporated milk. Whisk it all together for a minute or two until well blended.
Okay to substitute cheaper sweet potatoes or yams, but first, drain and mash with a fork or potato masher. They're usually canned in liquid with large pieces.
Now it all comes together. Just pour the pie filling into both pie shells until the pie shells are almost full.
Add the pies to a 425-degree heated oven for 15 minutes. Then reduce the heat to 350 degrees and finish baking for 40 minutes.
Mom uses a toothpick test to see if a pie is cooked through. She inserts a toothpick into the center of the pie, then removes the pick to see if it's wet. If it comes out clean, it's ready. If it is still wet, she puts it back in the oven for another 5 - 10 minutes. I think if the toothpick is slightly damp, you can just leave the pie out to cool, as it will continue cooking anyway.
Pie is ready to serve when it reaches room temperature (after an hour of cooling on the counter).
Of course, you could easily halve all the ingredients to make just one pie.
You can also speed up the cooling by putting the pies in the refrigerator. Since the pie plates are hot, you must first allow them to cool for 10 minutes. Then place potholders, or a kitchen towel, on the refrigerator surface and place the pies on it. Pies are stored well in the refrigerator, so you can make them a couple of days beforehand -- just cover them with plastic wrap after they cool down.
Pie slices are delicious on their own, but you may want to top them with whipped cream.
Hindsight Of course, you can just buy a premade crust at the market for cheap. I thought it was fun to show how Mom makes hers. As mentioned earlier, it is easy to cut the ingredients in half to make one pie. You could shave off 10 minutes of baking or so for a creamier pudding-like filling, which is still enough time to cook the crust.
And I owe it all to her, at least where I get my cooking chops (and any good sense I have.) Just check out our cooking videos to see what I mean.
My Mom liked my annual cute animal birthday card for her 91st.
She grew up in Texas on the Gulf Coast in a small shrimping town called Port O'Connor. There, I learned to love seafood.
Port O'Connor Slideshow
Her father was a shrimp boat captain. So, while we couldn't afford steak, we had all the fresh-caught seafood Big Daddy would bring home, including shrimp that fell off the big boat's conveyor belt while unloading his catch.
Big Daddy & Big Mama
Mom had movie-star looks (like a young Elizabeth Taylor), smarts, and a scholarship to college if she wanted it, but had no extra help from her parents.
Mom's 90th Birthday Video
So after high school graduation, she was soon married, and I arrived on the scene, followed by my brother and sister.
Billy, Berry, and Brenda
My Dad was in the military, so we moved around. Mom and we kids eventually settled back in Port O'Connor after a divorce.
Dad was quite a character and the life of the party, but he was also a little too profligate in the alcohol consumption department.
Billy Doyle Robinson
Mom went back to work as a waitress, so I learned how to literally pinch pennies when she poured handfuls of customer tips on the kitchen table for us kids to separate and count.
Mom got back on her feet and found love again with this shuffleboard-playing fellow below, Ken.
Click on any photo to see larger.
After a couple of years, Mom remarried, and a final sister, Denise, was born (catch up with my youngest sister Denise's Eggplant Recipe, video here.)
Denise & Radish
We moved to neighboring Louisiana the year I enrolled in Junior High School. There, she picked up a whole other way of cooking, Cajun-style.
My high school daze were spent in Gonzales, Louisiana, the self-professed Jambalaya Capital of the World. So you know this town is serious about chow. Click here to see a culinary video tour of some local Cajun cuisine at the weekend Flea Market, including Crawfish Pie, Boudin Balls, and, of course, Jambalaya.
And, here's our first video we made together in my Los Angeles kitchen - and even my dear late wife Amy makes an appearance at the very end of the video. You'll get a kick out of Mom rockin' the cast-iron kettle. I make her Cajun Jambalaya more than any other recipe - it's simply delicious!
Here is a link to her Jambalaya recipe with text and yummy photos.
And our latest video together is a gut-bomb Breakfast Taco with Curly Fries! Her cooking always incorporates ingredients suggested by the family, this time from her grandkids Zak & Matt (I first had frozen fries, but not Curly Fries, in an egg taco cooked by Zak).
Mom was always popular with my high school buddies...especially during lunch or dinner time. She brought herTex-Mex Enchiladas to Cajun Country, and my Louisiana friend Marvin ate them up!
Me, Marvin & Dennis
On a recent visit to Louisiana, I had him over when I filmed Mom makingTex-Mex Enchiladas. Marvin liked the Enchiladas so much that he had a flashback to our high school daze.
Make sure to watch my wacky recipe video to the end, that's when our flashback hijinx really gets to smoking (wink, nudge.)
It's a traditional Southern dish, and it's cheap, too. Just chicken, sausage, and the Cajun veggie trinity of bell pepper, celery, and onion. What gives Gumbo its unique taste is a dark brown roux, which is flour cooked in oil until chocolate brown.
Just check out the video below - Mom will take you through the steps. And, as an added bonus, my oldest sister Brenda makes a nagging appearance a few minutes in.
Click here to read all about making Mom's homemade Gumbo, from roux to rice!
My Mom'sCajun Potato Saladis the perfect side to her Gumbo and Jambalaya. When she visited me in Los Angeles, I got her to do it on camera. I couldn't help but give her a hard time with the recipe. I called it Cajun Mashed Potatoes, and she called itCajun Potato Salad - well, I guess you'll have to watch the video below to see who wins that argument!
I satiate my sweet tooth during visits with Mom. And the best of her pastry delights areMini-Pecan Pies. If I couldn't make it for the Christmas holiday, then she would send a shoe-box-sized package with a dozen of these tasty pies.
In the video below, Mom attracts a kitchen full of hungry relatives when these pies come hot out of the oven. And it's a miracle they were done right because this Chef de Shutterbug was shoving a camera in her face (and a hot oven) during the whole procedure. We butted heads a few times, but fortunately, it all turned out fine.
I even came up with a way to dodge the high prices for pecans - so check out the video below to learn my budget secrets.
Now, Mom is no angel -- hey, who is? Recently, my brother from another daddy, the Swamp Chef, made an appearance with his Spanish moss and all.
When I asked Mom, "Who's the Swamp Chef's daddy?" Her reply was: "That's a very good question!" I guess Mom will spill the beans one day, until then, check out the video below for a dessert good enough to cajole the Swamp Chefout of the bayou!
Cherry Pie - Recipe Video
In Louisiana, there are fast-food drive-thrus serving slushy Daiquiris. I don't know how the heck they get away with it. Every time I go back to visit my Mom and Sis, I am reminded about this quirky Cajun roadside icy, thirst-quenching to-go cup.
Now, there are rules to this. Louisiana has an open container liquor law. So, when you get your Daiquiri, as both Mom and Sis reminded me several times, "Do not put the straw in!" That is a DUI violation if you are stopped. However parched you are, resist plunging the straw through the drink top -- until you get home. Fortunately, Mom's house was less than 5 minutes away.
Check out my last video below, and ride along with my sister Brenda and Mom for a cool beverage on a hot Louisiana summer day.
