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When I crave Green Bean Casserole and am in a hurry, I mix up the drained canned beans, canned soup, sour cream and drained canned mushrooms in a glass bowl, cover it with plastic wrap, nuke it on 70% power till it's hot all the way through, dump French fried onions on it ... and serve! My kids love the good stuff too, but this way the "casserole" even makes for a decent snack.

My BF's mom does the same thing Robincat!

I guess my kitschy recipe is to use boxed brownie mix (I found one recently with reduced sugar, which I was really excited about!) and then jazz it up a bit by adding some cinnamon, chocolate chunks and a bit of cocoa powder. I feel bad using the real boxed mix, so I do anything to make it just a bit different and hopefully better.

Oh, I once really enjoyed a dip made from velveeta, rotel, and refried beans. The refried beans were what made it novel to me.

Brownie chocolate trifle:
1 pkg brownie mix prepared
1 tub cool whip
1 packet chocolate mousse mix prepared
Heath bars crushed

Layer, refrigerate 8-24 hours and watch it disappear (it's too sweet for me but the crowds always like it)

@sadiepix, i think we had that dessert growing up! one i was addicted to when other people made but have never remembered to make for myself was "muddy buddies" - chex cereal rolled in peanut butter and melted chocolate and dusted with powdered sugar. super messy to eat but when i was in high school it was amaaaazing.

I acquired this recipe in a high school cooking class. It's one bag of fresh cranberries (chopped in a food processor), one 8 oz tub of cool whip, one bag of mini marshmallows, one can of drained crushed pineapple all mixed together. It's actually not too bad. It's quite good.

In these parts, the Brownie Chocolate Trifle recipe is known as Death by Chocolate and often includes dousing the brownie component with Kahlua.

Does anyone remember/have the recipe for those cookie things that had fried Chow Mein noodles in them?

Dirt...ground up Oreos with chocolate pudding and Cool Whip. Sprinkle with gummy worms.

For many years, there was a mock apple pie recipe on the Ritz cracker box. I made it once when I was in college for my stoner college friends. They ate it all, but they probably would have eaten styrofoam.

I made pigs in a blanket for a cocktail party, kind of as joke, with real hot dogs and soy not dogs, wrapped up in Pillsbury poppin fresh crescent rolls. It was done as a joke, but my friends (many of the college friends) ate them all. They were the first item to disappear.

I remember during my early childhood there was a popular salad made with green peas and chunks of orange cheese. Sometimes it was made with ham. Clearly, it was all about the colors.

I still like chicken a la king, either on toast or a pastry shell.

Ran across an old favorite: chicken bathed in apricot preserves, Russian dressing and dried onion soup mix!!!!

@robincat- are those haystacks? I think I have a recipe at home, will look tonight. Try Googling haystack cookies, maybe you'll find one online!

@LearP- oooh, I love Dirt Pudding! My MIL makes the best with cream cheese, oreos and cool whip.

I think anything made with Jello can be considered kitschy! I've been craving jello salads, and really ANY salad lately. We gathered with my parents on Sunday and there were salads galore- 7 layer (how's THAT for kitsch!), taco and macaroni. All 3 were divine but now I want something fruity and jello-y....time to call mom!

hmm chocolate lovers cake. Modified cake mix with sour cream and chocolate almond bars chopped up in the batter. Then you put cherry goo, whipped cream and more chopped chocolate on top. Definately need to make it.

Ever had the Jello-strawberry-cream cheese thing with the pretzel crust? I love it. I told my mother in law I was going to make some for some event several years ago and she said that she would not eat it if I did. Well, I made it, she ate it and said the nuts that the crust was made of made it really great. Ahhhh.....

And what about Watergate salad and Watergate cake?

I always wanted to make a chocolate cake w/ white frosting~ all from scratch~~> hmmm I never did :( But I always make the rice krispie treats ~ a huge double batch cuz they go soooo fast :)

I was born in 1974 so I had to Google Watergate cake--hilarious! I found it on this blog:
http://melecotte.blogspot.com/2007/11/watergate-cake.html

I hate coconut, pistachios, and Republicans, though so I'd never make it!

Made me want to put on some burnt sienna and orange rompers and eat some mini-weenies in Pillsbury crescent rolls like I used to as a tot, though!

OOOH Brownie - I love Hello Dollies. I've made them a million times, but I swear my mother's always taste better. The only thing I now do differently is I add a bit of extra salt to the graham cracker crust... salty-sweet heaven...

Tater tot casserole

1lb ground beef, browned
1 bag frozen tater tots
1 can cream of chicken or mushroom soup
Shredded cheddar cheese

Bake the whole mess in a casserole dish at 350 til hot and bubbly.

Heehee, makes me laugh thinking about it.

Tuna noodle casserole. DH mentioned it the other day, in a sort of nostalgic way. Made with canned tuna, cream of mushroom soup, extra canned mushrooms, and frozen peas. Usually topped with some kind of cheese and baked. Oh, and I thought I was soooooo creative and fancy because I took mom's recipe, but then added canned water chestnuts as well. The crunch was sort of nice, actually.

And even weirder, I can remember eating this stuff cold for lunch once in a while. And I recall a couple times that DH made sandwiches out of it.

I think I'll have to make some again one of these days. In a way, I sort of hope I hate it, but I know I'll like it.

Mine has to be what my former sister in law affectionately calls "apple crapple"--it is extremely popular here in the deep south. Take a box of your favorite white or yellow cake mix, 2 cans of apple pie filling, 2 stix of real butter. Dump the pie filling into an 11 x 13 pyrex dish, sprinkle the cake mix over the top, melt the butter in the microwave and drizzle it over the cake mix then bake in a 375 degree oven until the crust is browned, bubbly and awesome looking. Best hot with gobs of vanilla ice cream-- or nuked up the next morning, covered in whipped cream...

I make "Buick Skylark" cupcakes, in honor of my first car.

It was an '85 model, had a red interior and white exterior. The thing looked like a red velvet cake on wheels. Granted, the "Buick Skylark" cupcakes are red velvet cake frosted with buttercream or cream cheese frosting. Very nostalgic.

when i was working as a therapist in a rehab unit, one of my patients wanted to make family recipe for a congealed salad that consisted of lime jello, cottage cheese, mayonaise, canned pineapple, and walnuts, all whirled together in the blender and then allowed to set. ordinarily, with the exception of the walnuts, i would never even consider consuming any of those things. i was surprised at how yummy it was -- in a trashy way, of course!

WOW! Reading this thread has certainly showed me a side of american cuisine which, to be frank, is a little scary!!!
Is that congealed salad (even the name makes me shudder a little in horror) for real? Jelly, mayo, pineapple, cottage cheese, walnuts ALL BLENDED TOGETHER?? Does it look the same coming back up as it does going in? ;)

The only Australian kitsch dish I can think of to contribute is my Grandmother's cold rice salad with capsicum and peas which she made every Christmas because she (quite wrongly) thought that we all loved it.

Velveeta nachos! Made and consumed at least once a year.
http://nujoikitchendiary.blogspot.com/2008/02/super-nachosode-to-processed-food.html

there are variations of this above, but i feel like it has to be called a "hotdish" to truly capture its kitchy glory.....which is minnesotan for something akin to casserole and yet so much more in that it requires both tater tots and cream of mushroom soup. here's the one we had at least once a month growing up, which is something like glorified green bean casserole:
layer of ground beef
layer of canned green beans (french cut, if you want to be fancy:)
layer of tater tots
a can of cream of mushroom mixed with some milk to thin, poured over the whole pan
layer of durkee french fried onions
bake at 350 for about 40 min or until bubbly and delicious....
don't knock it until you try it!

@robincat: Chinese Chews/Haystacks
2 (12 oz. packages Semi-sweet choc chips
1 (12 oz. package butterscotch chips
1 large can Chow Mein noodles
Spanish peanuts,marshmallows,cashews,etc..

Melt all the chips together in a large pan over low heat,stirring constantly. Add
noodles and stir to coat. Add whatever else you may desire, stirring to coat.
Place on wax paper by spoonful and cool until set.
These are addictive !! Stacey.

@Vegemite: I'm sure you've seen a can or tube of dough some time in your life. Not sure if Pillsbury or van den Bergh products are available in your area, but that's their niche: unbaked dough.

Chow mein noodles are crunchy fried noodles. They can be found in a cannister, similar to potato crisps and french fried onions (ok, maybe that is funky). Because they can withstand some jostling, you'll typically see them in plastic bags. They just don't keep as well in plastic. I don't care for them, my husband loves them.

I'm sure there are a few people who find vegemite and marmite heinous, just like Velveeta. :P

@ Cassaendra. Thanks for the info. Seriously though I don't think we have dough in a can (maybe I'm just not looking hard enough in the supermarket). Also I think I confused myself, because what I know as a biscuit, I think you call a cookie......
Fair call on the vegemite thing - although I'll have to stand my ground and defend to the death one of my country's "cultural icons" ; )

rice krispie treats. still delicious!