Food In The Fort

Somewhere, perhaps deep in a mountain lair or maybe hidden away in an abandoned missile silo, there are scientists who speculate that should Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup disappear from store shelves tomorrow it will herald the end of civilization as we know it. Oh, I didn’t say they were the sort of scientists you’d want running the Large Hadron Collider or even tinkering underneath the hood of your Ford. I’m sure they exist though simply because no matter how ridiculous a proposition someone makes, you can always find somebody who will support it. Witness Scientology.

Whether you believe that Condensed Cream of Mushroom Soup was the foundation of modern civilization, you have to admit that it’s pretty handy to have around. How else do you explain almost 80,000 recipes using it on Google? Today I have an un-recipe for a yummy pasta sauce taking advantage of that mushroomy miracle in a can.

It’s an un-recipe because I’m a little light on the measurements. The truth is, I wanted pasta with a meat sauce for dinner and I didn’t have any tomato sauce in the cupboard. So I just made this up on the spot with what I had lying about. My suggestion to you is just that… take this un-recipe and any measurements as only a suggestion of what you might want to do. Everybody’s tastes are different and who knows what you have in your pantry. Besides, it’s not like I wrote anything down. I was hungry! Read the rest of this entry »

This past January Leo and I were in Chicago for a conference and had lunch at the Parthenon. That’s not a very creative name for a Greek restaurant, but the food wasn’t as cliched. In fact, it rocked. Or actually, it flamed in the case of the saganaki – opa! While we don’t want to go into a detailed review here, the Parthenon is excellent and should be on your itinerary the next time you’re in Chicago. The pastitsio there, Greek for “macaroni and cheese,” made such an impression on us that we wanted to try and duplicate the experience at home. We failed. But it was a glorious, cheesy failure which kept the dog in pots to lick for close to an hour. It also made an excellent breakfast. So here’s the recipe with some caveats: add salt, add hot sauce or red pepper and, by all means, add garlic!

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