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Salmon cakes, and the salisbury steak sounds really really good!!

i will admit that on occasion we have eaten hamburger helper.

there, i said it.

@ french tart
My roommate made that the other night! My parents refused to make that sort of thing for me when I was little, so I jumped at the chance to try it. I took one bite and decided that it would make for excellent "eat while drunk" food. Not bad at all.

@Markbb -- Hubby loves salmon. I'd like your recipe if you'd part with it.

Feel no shame, you did a fine thing, JBmama. Your family certainly is not suffering, in fact they are happy. It's the poor saps who never bothered to learn to cook who will be suffering now that they can't afford to eat out all time or pick up expensive pre-cooked dinners from the gourmet store. I predict economic conditions are going to get a whole lot of folks into their expensive Viking kitchens which have barely seen a spot of grease other than in the microwave real soon. Let them learn from trial and error how to feed themselves. We've got a jump on them all.

Nothing wrong with Salisbury Steak or the pinto beans and ham hocks my grandfather raised me on or his fried chicken with milk gravy. I learned the simple basics from him--and how to survive. He had a hot plate and an electric skillet and turned out honest good food at all times. While I can now make Paella if I want to with seafood and imported smoked paprika and saffron--I don't need that sort of thing most of the time. It can wait for special occasions.

@juliebugsmama This is from a can
Cocktail Shrimp puree'd and add mayo with dry mustard powder,egg,chopped scallions or red onion and Old bay for seasoning.
Mix all the above with a can of salmon and form into pattis and refrigerate...when ready to fry dredge the pattis in panko and frie until golden brown..don't overhandle cause they will fall apart, and don't walk away when frying they'll burn quickly. Sorry for the crappy format on the recipe

What's to scoff? You made a delicious and nourishing meal for your family that was enjoyed by all. Isn't that what's important? coincidentally I have leftover homemade French onion soup and a pound of ground beef in my freezer. I now have inspiration for those items.

Last night I came home so very late and hubby is having oral surgery on Monday, so our dinner was cream cheese omelets with buttered toast, vicodin for hubby (poor baby), hot tea for me and off to bed.

My mom used to make this dish she called "chinese hot dish" ... even though there was pretty much nothing even remotely asian about it. It had Liption chicken noodle soup (the dehydrated stuff I think) sausage, pimentos ... I want to make it again but need to get the recipe from my mom. Weirdest thing though, one of my roommates in college who was perpetually making things on that level or far below (like a lot of hamburger/tuna helper things that looked BEYOND nasty) saw me eating it and noted how disgusting it looked ... even though it actually was on par with or a small step up from the quality of most of the food she ate.

I boil a chicken. I used to do this when I was young, single and saving for my first house (early 90s).
1 small chicken
8 cups of water
2 envelopes of onion soup mix
1 large chopped onion
1 bay leaf
2 lbs of slived potatoes
1 cup of veggies mixed, string beans
some not so pretty tomatoes
10 cloves of garlic

Clean up the bird and wash it then boil the water then add everything to the pot, bring it down to simmer and leave it alone for a hour or so.
Everyone used to fight over this it had great gravy.
We used to grab a baguette and just stuff our faces.
The crowd got so big, I had to make 3 chickens. Which still at 2 bucks and change were still a bargain.

Frozen pizza! Sometimes it's not bad, and sometimes it is just worth it.

all i have to say is aint no shame -- we are all on serious eats because we love food. but it doesn't have to be all truffles all the time!

plus -- the salisbury steak sounds like you put a lot of work and love into it, and clearly it was delicious!

French Onion chicken...go ahead, gourmands, scoff! :)

Hillary
Chew on That

@Jbugsmama - definitely nothing to be ashamed of. Everyone is feeling the strain on the pocketbook strings these days. Your dish sounds flavorful and economical so I say "kudos".

On the subject, my stepmom used to make a dish that consisted of cambells cream of mushroom, sliced mushrooms and chicken breasts over white rice when I was growing up and I remember ALWAYS looking forward to having it for dinner and eating the leftovers all weekend...

I like ramen noodles. Made according to package directions. (I'm going to hide now.)

I do mac & cheese out of the blue box with cooked ground beef, green chiles, chopped canned tomatoes, possibly sweated onions, garlic & celery, cumin and chile powder. Chili mac?

I too love tuna casserole *hangs head in shame* but I squeeze in some fresh lemon juice, add a little sour cream to the cream of chicken soup, and put in lots of the frozen mixed veggies (not just peas). Somehow it makes me feel less ashamed.

The salisbury steak sounds delicious. I do swiss steaks from time to time (yum) but I'll have to try that one.

When I first moved back to NYC I passed through a rough patch financially, and one of my favourites dishes combined meat ravioli or tortellini from Balducci, combined with (wait for it) a tin of seasoned Goya beans, of which I had a constant supply on hand.
I'd still eat that any day, if I could get hold of either ingredient here (although for some reason Goya has changed their seasoning to include 'smoke' flavour, which is not an improvement).

The salisbury steak actually sounds good, and you put a lot of effort to make it so.

I think that people who genuinely care about and are interested in food do not reflexively turn up their noses (or look down them) at at ANY dish for being 'too humble'. Plenty of the dishes that self-styled gourmets coo over arose from dire poverty. What counts is the attitude of care involved in the preparation (which is pretty relative, in itself; e.g. on some days, someone with a newborn may be going all out if they do anything more elaborate than a peanut butter and jelly sandwich).

grilled cheese with a bowl of oodles .

@fatitalianbroad--first of all, love the screen name! Second, I love Jim Gaffigan's Hot Pocket bit!!

I just made tuna casserole last night, it's definitely a comfort food for me.
My Mom made something that sounds an awful like the Chinese Hot Dish mentioned above, but we just called it sausage noodle casserole.

Goodness but your Salisbury steak sounds delicious! A triumph of time and attention and technique.

I worry that many of us (and I think I've done this to an extent and need to get over it) have conflated a great many things into one group of "food to be embarrassed about." Making Salisbury steak from scratch is no different in kind than making duck confit from scratch. Making a tuna noodle casserole from good ingredients isn't something to be embarrassed about because it doesn't seem like something that would end up on the menu at a $100 a head restaurant. The basic elements of the dish might well end up on the menu at such a restaurant after all.

Even many of the foods we feel we have to _admit_ to liking or eating just don't seem that bad to me. Sure, we all know (or I hope we do) that a steady diet of Hot Pockets isn't going to help increase your chances of being really healthy all the time.....but is it really all that different than the pepperoni roll that's been under a heat lamp at the corner pizza shop all day?

I think we should all try to cut each other a lot of slack about preferences and likes and encourage people to explore where they feel comfortable and to cook more, whatever it is.

I invented a Chili Enchilada dish out of hamburger, taco seasoning, canned no-bean chili, and Velveeta wrapped up in tortillas. We have it every few months, we love it and my DH welcomes the leftovers which is unusual for him. Once when my husband told some friends about this yummy Mexican recipe I knew and they asked me for the recipe, I revealed the ingredients and gave them all a good laugh. So I made it into a "Mexican Dip" in the crockpot for our next get-together and they ALL loved it!

If I make blue box, I tend to add either more melted cheese or, get this: soy sauce. It has a flavor other than salt, and it makes it tasty. No, it isn't healthy, but when you want something quick and easy it doesn't have to be.

One thing that bugs me that maybe shouldn't though, is people who buy stuff like Prego or Ragu spaghetti sauce. You know what's in those jars? Tomato puree, a few herbs, and a few preservatives. If you have time to heat up Ragu, you have time to mix a can of crushed tomatoes with some oregano, garlic powder, and black pepper. I know this isn't the thread to rant, but I just made a simple tomato sauce for dinner and it made me think.

Things like blue box or packaged rice mixes are different to me, because the interaction between the ingredients is not something one can easily recreate at home. That said, when I make something from a box (or heat up some Campbells' soup, uh huh I said it) I will read the ingredient list and add some more of whatever herbs are listed, since they tend to lose their flavor some sitting in the box.

I try to keep a frozen Stouffers Lasagna (the newer one that has lots of real ricotta in it) on hand as one of our "there's no time to cook and/or the cupboard is bare" staples. Always good with a salad and bread.

My other staple is a box of chicken Rice a Roni mixed with a can of white meat chicken and some frozen peas, with a bit of curry powder thrown in. Not bad at all for quasi-ethnic.

Then, if we're REALLY out of everything . . . grilled cheese sandwiches with Campbell's tomato soup hits the spot! The soup is better with a dollop of creme fraiche (my guilty pleasure) on top ; )

I used to make a meal from leftover roasted chicken, some green and black olives, butter, leftover pasta and some parm cheese. It was great. At some point I'm going to make it for my daughter.

Honestly, just because you enjoy good food doesn't mean that it must be gourmet all of the time. My wife thinks that I spend too much time making fancy foods, she doesn't seem to understand that most dinners I make take less then 30 mins from start to table during the week.

I have found that the Bertolli Marinara with Burgundy is quite nice. I always keep a couple of jars in the house. Recently I used it as a base for a quick puttanesca style sauce which everyone in the house devoured.

Convenience foods are just that.

Alan

That chicken, cream of mushroom soup and rice dinner was the first thing my roommate and I ever made. We were freshmen (in 1974 so Riunite wine was the wine of choice with this) and our boyfriends were coming for dinner. Oh, did we think we were fancy-dancy. I think the rice was Uncle Ben's. I still have fond memories of that night.

machellebelle, was The Cheese Shop in Ithaca NY by any chance?