that is the recipe from someone that has given up on life
Holy crap. Just when I think the Flying Jacob can’t get any stranger, I find this comment on a blog post:
I don’t even know what to say to that.
Hmm…maybe tomorrow will be the day I try the Flying Jacob. Won’t go for the filet version, though. 
I recommend wet dog food au gratin, warmed with a little boxed red wine sauce, with some chives on top for presentation. Served at your local Bowles & Simpson diner.
zoid gets me, I thought more people would. It’s gratuitous use of fat, salt, and artificial flavorings. It’s not cooking, it’s assembling. And it doesn’t sound good to me at all, no. Mostly though it’s funny because so many recipes pull from the same predictable list of ingredients OVER and OVER and OVER again.
-Pillsbury crescent rolls
-Cream cheese
-Condensed cream soup
-Onion soup powder
-Taco seasoning
-Gratuitous combination of multiple baked goods and candy, like the chocolate chip cookie-brownie-Oreo-peanut butter cup stack.
I am totally sending that link to my Swedish friend and asking him if it’s real or a prank on the rest of the world.
If that’s asshole-ish, I guess I’m an asshole too. That recipe embodies all that is sad about American cooking. It’s low-quality food foisted on us with the idea that “real” cooking is difficult and time-consuming and something you have to study in order to learn how to do. Throw a freakin’ chicken in the oven - it takes less time, is healthier, and tastes better.
So far as I can tell, it really is an actual dish that is eaten in Sweden. I do vaguely recall asking one of my Swedish friends about it, and he said that it’s more of a kid’s dish. If you Google its Swedish name (flygande jakob), you will find a lot of hits on it, and some Youtube video in Swedish on making it. I
I’m dying to make this now. My husband would kill me.
On the other hand, I think he’s still planning on going out of town next month…
That’s the most disgusting mess I’ve ever seen.
I would submit my sister’s “famous” turkey chili. She’s actually a good cook, but people who spend their entire lives yo-yo dieting get strange ideas, and sometimes equate lack of taste to weight loss or something. She served this to me once, and I managed to get through about a half bowl of this gruel-like substance. I asked her what was in it and she told me “Oh, you know: ground turkey, some cans of beans, onion, tomatoes. . .” How much chili spice, I queried. “Oh, about a teaspoon.” For the entire pot? No peppers? No garlic? No. . .nothing? Nope.
I’ve had lousy chili in my life, but this stuff was really tasteless and watery. I had to wonder if she meant “infamous”. I gently hinted that it was okay to make dishes taste good when one is dieting and that she might want to ramp up the chili spices by a factor of ten.
shrug While I very rarely reach for the cream-of-whatevers, don’t understand why pancake mix needs to exist, and cook 95% of the time from scratch, there’s a special place in my heart for some of these dishes. One of my favorite “clam chowders” is one my father (who also primarily cooks from scratch) used to make when I was a kid. It was something like fry up a bunch of bacon and onions, add two cans of cream of potato, two cans of cream of celery, two cans of New England clam chowder, a can or two of corn. And some more cans of clams. Add six cans of milk. There may have been additional clam juice in there, too. Love that soup.
Now, I can, and do, usually make clam chowder from scratch. But every once in awhile, I just want the canned stuff. Or Kraft macaroni & cheese with a can of tuna and some peas dumped in. I wouldn’t and couldn’t eat this stuff every day, but once every couple weeks or months, I’m game for it.
But, yeah, overall, I agree with you that this is low-quality food, and that home cooking without reliance on a lot of pre-made/processed foods, even if you’re in a hurry, isn’t difficult. But there is a learning curve, and it does take the desire to learn how to do it, which a lot of people seem to not have. Roasting a chicken seems like the easiest thing to me now. What can be simpler? But I remember when I was learning, fucking up, overcooking, undercooking, etc., and it took me a couple times to get just right and know what to look for to determine doneness and things like that. I remember when cooking meat was scary to me.
Oh my God. I remember seeing that years ago. I have absolutely no defense for it. That may just be the worst.
Ok, you win. That one is definitely scary.
Urgh, the “every meatless dish must have sugar or vinegar and ideally both” school of thought. My mother-in-law is of that school. I don’t understand it.
The idea of adding a bucketful of sugar to CONDENSED MILK is just repulsive to me. And then a jar of mayonnaise! Holy crap. If I had to dress that salad with that unholy concoction, I would probably use 1/10 or less of the amount she is using, and I am not kidding.
Me too. Just goop covered in Doritos.
I posted the link to my friend’s Facebook page, asking about it, and my husband saw it and said he thought it looked good in a “Hawaiian pizza” fashion. So I might, in fact, end up making it just to see what it’s like. But I’m really glad to be a vegetarian right now.
The recipe in the OP is functionally no different than lasagna. Tomato sauce, cheese, and carbs. Big whoop.
Yeah, a lot of recipes call for cream of soups and pillsbury dinner rolls. Speaking as someone who has made the campbells enchiladas and a roast chicken, the enchiladas are a fuckton less work and are more appealing to picky children who refuse to eat anything they think has mushrooms or onions in it. Serve it up with a side of veggies and it’s a perfectly serviceable meal.
Yep. Exactly. I CAN make a perfectly wonderful green bean casserole with homemade mushroom sauce, etc. worthy of the Food Network OR I can make the one with the cream of mushroom soup, Durkee onions, that my son and husband will EAT. I can also make all KINDS of things like tuna casserole, chicken divan, and on and on without using canned ingredients including cream of soups. It won’t get eaten, not by my bunch, but I can make them. So what’s the point if they won’t like them?
These things are comfort foods for them - and you just don’t mess with comfort food.
Ding ding! I’ve also found a nasty little tip: if you do make something from scratch for people who generally like processed foods, a little bit of Accent (MSG) usually puts it into a more familiar territory for them.