Day 18, Celery Fish Sticks**
Hello Dears! Ok, I know what you are thinking: how in all that is grand in cooking can you turn a traditional kid-type meal into a full dinner to make and enjoy? Fish Sticks? Are you sure she said fish sticks? I know you are incredulous let me tell you fish sticks are great in a pinch when you have a meal to prepare. As I said before, these meals are seemingly designed to be fast, delicious and easy. The only easier thing would be a TV dinner, but we really do not want that. Those potatoes in those dinners always come out watery, and the cobbler...I know cobbler and that is not a cobbler.
This is a great dinner I think every high schooler and college student learn to put together. It really does turn out well for a bachelor type meal or a group meal that is more than those quick noodles with pretend flavor packages, or the microwave mac and cheese. This has also become a favorite of my children and truth be told of me as well. It really is fairly easy.
I know what you’re thinking even easy I make mistakes. You’re right I do make a few mistakes from time to time. These are not gourmet and they probably do not fit any special perfect diet plan. I know there are some saying all of this is processed, canned, etc. That is true, and the more adventurous of chefs out there could probably whip up some homemade soups, etc to really pull these off less processed. I am not good at things like that. I would love to have them share the ways they modified it to fit a more natural from scratch meals. Maybe as time goes on I will be able to have greater confidence in the meals to make some changes here and there. That is part of my goals here. It is also one of my plans to revive some of these meals from a really great writer and bring back a sense of humor to all of this.
We need a little humor, right? Cooking for those of us that lack talent or hate to cook saps our humor and zing for life like our cell phone batteries running low and we are unable to recharge. You desperately attempt to get that last text out, or that last great picture or the last few seconds of that streaming cat video hoping the phone does not die RIGHT NOW and you have to find a way to recharge. When you hate to cook there is little recharging. So the less draining that takes place the happier a person you will be.
Many of the world’s problems could be made more bearable with a little sense of humor and just enjoy food. Stop making it a war. And with that here it is Celery Fish Sticks:
Celery Fish Sticks
Ingredients 4 Servings
1 package of frozen fish sticks
1 can condensed cream of celery soup
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 tablespoons greens onions or chives chopped
1 tablespoon lemon juice
3 tablespoons grated Cheddar
paprika
Directions
Taking a shallow baking dish lay the fish sticks in the pan. Mix the soup and milk together and measure out a cup. Add the chives, lemon juice, and cheese to the soup then pour it over the fish sticks. Now sprinkle the paprika over the fish sticks and bake the whole thing at 425F for 20 minutes.
NOTE: Use a slightly more pricey name brand fish-sticks, as it seems the cheaper stuff makes a soggy mess. I would of course suggest using coupons and sales where possible and stock up.
And there you have it. Now if you do not know what to serve with it, a coleslaw, salad some hushpuppies and some buttered peas and carrots with a little pepper goes well the dinner. Some garlic breadsticks or toast is a nice touch or if you can get them on sale, some buns or dinner rolls.
Stay tuned for the next installment of Misadventures in cooking where we wonder if our heroine has finally lost her mind. She can’t really be serious, can she? Can she truly revive these old meals, is there a point? All this we may or may not ponder, but we do come back.
Please let me know what you think of this? Did you try it? What changes did you come up with? Please comment, rate, share. Have fun and remember this, be a Flamingo stand tall, be flamboyant
**Bracken, P. (1960). The I hate to cook book. (pg. 19). New York: Harcourt, Brace & World.
