Do you really want this recipe? Really? Well, if you still do after seeing that photo, just google it. Dik Browne (of Hagar the Horrible and Hi & Lois fame) claimed his wife invented this dish in the early 40s while trying to make chicken-a-la-king on a budget, but it seems to be a pretty well-known recipe (often served over toast). Basically, it's an unbaked tuna casserole, with the sauce poured over the noodles instead of mixed in. I used fresh ingredients instead of canned, but even so....I think baking might have improved it. It was edible, at least (although Emily said it was disgusting and picked at the noodles). But I'm not sure I can believe that his family still was eating this regularly after he became successful!
He did offer up a menu that doesn't include Tuna Fish Wiggle:
Cocktails with Miniature Meat Balls in Jelly Sauce Boeuf Bourguignon Green Noodles Tossed Salad Fruit Bombe Coffee |
But the recipes included were either nixed in our vote (green noodles) or too complicated for a small family dinner. I wish I'd overruled them and gone for the green noodles! Next cartoonist, please!
The Cartoonist Cookbook is a book put together in 1966 by the Newspaper Comics Council, featuring 45 popular strip cartoonists of the 60s, with bios, art and recipes. It's a fun thing to have if you like cartooning, but I somehow never got around to actually cooking from it. This year, I decided to work my way through it and try and do at least one recipe from each artist!
Minus what appears to be a hardboiled egg, this was our dinner almost every single Friday night. Can of mushroom soup, can of tuna, can of peas, macaroni. I hated it 8-) I didn't even know tuna casserole was usually baked until I was an adult.
ReplyDeleteI have to be honest here and say that this picture makes my stomach turn. Perhaps it's the word tuna here. I don't know. I am not a fan of fish overall, and not fish out of a can. You know I love your work and usually drool over your cooking, but not today. LOL
ReplyDeleteOoh. Yuck. Two thoughts- when you're impoverished, you will eat just about anything and pretend it is good. Then when you aren't horribly poor anymore you still like it for some unknown reason. For example, when I was a starving university student, I liked to put ranch dressing over white rice. I know, its nasty. My husband tells me so every time I surreptitiously make it for myself in these days of middle class comfort.
ReplyDeleteSecond thought- I do a tuna noodle bake, and it is really easy and yummy and healthy. Big can of nice tuna (generally the tuna in olive oil. if not in oil, I drain the water and add oil later.), cut up a pile of carrots, mushrooms, spinach, whatever I have around. I put in some garlic and chives and parsley flakes, mix the veggies with the tuna and the oil and some cooked pasta in a casserole dish. I mince up some onions, mix them with a little cheddar and some breadcrumbs and throw it on top for the last ten minutes of cooking. I just cook it til the vegetables are softened and the top is golden brown.