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07:16:00 o'clock BST
Feeling Happy
Mmmm Mmmmm Good
Ok, I confess...I've always been a Campbells Soup kid. As a child there was nothing better to come home to on a cold Manitoban winter's day than a hot steaming bowl of Campbells Tomato Soup and a grilled cheese sandwich. Most of the time my mother made homemade soups...Turkey, Beef, Chicken...all chock full of vegetables, but yes... even my mother got stressed out and sometimes offered us something out of a can. Tomato was our favorite, and of course Chicken Noodle. I remember once she dared to venture out of the norm for us and offered us Cream of Mushroom.....I think I was 5 or 6 at the time. She set the bowl in front of me...and... like a dog that has just discovered something very suspicious, I very cautiously sniffed around it and studied it for a few minutes before I declared I wasn't eating that!
The commercials on the television were always very homey...representing family, home and hearth and mom's apple pie. One time, when I was about 8 or 9 they were advertising Campell's Soup Kid Dolls. If you saved up so many soup can labels and added a small sum of money, for shipping and handling of course, you could get a Campell's Soup Kid doll! (see picture) My mom saved all the labels for me and I saved all my pennies and sent off for one. Patience, never being my virtue....I pounced on the mailman every day for weeks.....always turning away, dissappointed that it hadn't come....until finally one day, upon arriving home from school, I discovered it had. MY excitement couldn't be contained. I tore open the plain brown wrappings and danced in joy at my acquisition! It was lovely.....but it was a boy....I had wanted the girl....nevermind....like a pregnant mother who desires a boy all through her pregnancy and ends up with a girl....my dissappointment was short-lived...I was just glad it had arrived and had all it's fingers and toes!
When I was about 10 the family took a holiday down into the American States. The first relatives we visited was my mother's cousin Polly, in the mountains of Vermont. They lived in a big rambling Farmhouse up on a hillside and they had more kids than you could shake a stick at. The eldest, and only daughter, Martha, had a huge doll collection and it covered a whole wall in her bedroom. Her dad, Red, worked for a tire company and travelled all over the world , bringing her back dolls from all his travels. I was fascinated. Then there was the shower in the bathroom....complete with a curtain that pulled all the way around, and the piano in the downstairs hallway...I think we drove the grownups mad with that discovery. That night we sat down at the picnic tables outside for an epicurean feast...there was fried chicken and mashed potatoes and this beautifully delicious casserole with a wonderful sauce and greenbeans in it. We all smacked our lips and licked our chops...it was one of the best things we had ever tasted! "Whatever was the secret to this delicious sauce?", my mother wanted to know, as we kids looked on in anticipation of finding out just what this marvelous secret ingredient that carried green beans from plain to the sublime was....."Why it's just canned green beans, french fried onions....a few seasonings....and.........Campbells Cream Of Mushroom Soup!" Polly replied. Our upturned childish faces dropped and filled with horror....tummies trying hard not to regurgitate what had only moments before been one of the most delicious things we had ever eaten....we had eaten Mushroom soup...and liked it! Oh the pain...oh the shock of it all........would we ever recover.......
Yes, I confess...I'm still a Campbell Soup kid. I use it in all kinds of casseroles and yes, I use it in the old standby...Green Bean Casserole. I'm not an epicurean snob that turns my nose up at such things...good food is good food and it doesn't matter what's in it...just so long as it is delicious and pleases the people sitting around my table. And yes...I still get all warm inside at the thoughts of a steaming cup of Campbells Tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich...it's still...after all these years...mmmm...mmmm...good.
*Green Bean Casserole*
Serves 6
It just wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without one of these on the table!
1 can (10 3/4 oz.) Campbell's® Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup OR Campbell's® Condensed 98% Fat Free Cream of Mushroom Soup
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp. soy sauce
Dash ground black pepper
4 cups cooked cut green beans
1 1/3 cups French's FrenchFried Onions (you can get these at www.SKYCO.uk.com or just subsitute with butter fried onions. Mix the ones you garnish the top with buttered bread crumbs for crunch)
Mix soup, milk, soy, black pepper, beans and 2/3 cup of the fried onions in 1 1/2-qt. casserole.
Bake at 350°F. for 25 min. or until hot and bubbly.
Stir , then sprinkle with remaining onions and bake 5 minutes longer. (If using fried onions and bread crumbs put these on at the beginning so that you get the crunchy result that is needed for the topping)
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I have always been a soup person as well. I never remember those Campbell dolls being available over here. You write a very interesting journal.
http://journals.aol.co.uk/jeanno43/JeannettesJottings/ -
Ooops! I forgot to add that your doll is worth alot of money now!
susie -
Oh yes! This green bean casserole is a definite staple of the holidays! I've just found the french fried onions over here.
My favourite soup was tomato soup and even though we have it over here, it doesn't have the same taste to it. The Campbells Tomato Soup over here is sweeter and very light in colour. My mum always served it will grilled cheese too. Funny ol' world!
Susie
05/10/06 11:53
Kate.
http://journals.aol.co.uk/bob