Well, I have been looking at Spam recipes in the archives recently, so I thought I would bust this one out for you guys this week. Mostly because it has Spam AND Kraft Mac & Cheese Dinner in it. Talk about perfect! This post originally ran in May of 2012, back when our cat Midnight still lived with us, and not with Sara in AZ. I miss that cat, though I have heard she is much, much happier in her new home!
In any case, enjoy!
Did you know that it has been over a year since I made a SPAM dish for this blog??
I know, I know. Shameful.
But that is all behind us now, because not only have I made it all good by making a dinner with SPAM, I’ve upped the ante by making a dinner that includes both our favorite canned luncheon meat AND Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Dinner.
And I managed to make a checkerboard on top of said concoction with the aforementioned luncheon meat.
How’s that for retro?
I have to admit, it’s pretty good.
This week’s recipe comes from Kraft’s Main Dish cookbook, which was published in 1970 and has the distinction as being my favorite cookbook right now. Seriously. Not only is it filled with references to extinct Kraft products (Kraft Mexican Style Macaroni Dinner, anyone?), but it also has about 30 or so recipes for what do to with Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Dinner besides just mixing it up and eating it straight out of the pot. Highlights include adding copious amounts of sour cream, chilling it and mixing it into salads, stuffing it into pie plates filled with meat and, of course, adding ridiculous amounts of cream of something soups to it.
- 1 box Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Dinner
- 2 cups cooked peas
- 1 can condensed cream of celery soup
- ½ cup milk
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 12 oz can luncheon meat, cut in half lengthwise and sliced
- Pimiento strips
- Prepare dinner as directed on package.
- Add peas, soup, milk and salt. Mix well.
- Pour into 12x8 inch baking dish. Arrange luncheon meat slices in a checkerboard pattern; garnish with pimiento.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
The checkerboard of luncheon meat makes it hearty and elegant!
I know it doesn’t look like much from this angle, but there is a whole can of cream of celery soup in here.
There. Now you can see it.
As a side note, I drastically undercooked my Kraft Dinner before I covered it with slices of SPAM. As I have previously ranted in the past, I hate overcooked Kraft Dinner. Then I pretended that by mixing frozen peas into this mess I was actually cooking.
Remember: Hearty and elegant!
But, I have to admit, we had some very happy cats who wanted to share our dinner.
“Please? Please? Please? I am ever-so-good and sitting on your lap so patiently. And it looks hearty and elegant!”
No dice, cat. No matter how cute you are.
“It tastes like soup.’
“Really? I was kind of hoping it was going to turn into some sort of magical glorious version of Kraft Dinner.”
“Nope. Just soup. Celery soup.”
“Good thing you like soup.”
“I don’t think anyone likes cream of celery soup this much.”
“You are probably right.”
The Verdict: Fine. It tasted like Cream of Celery soup with noodles and peas in it. The taste of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese Dinner was sadly and completely eradicated by the overwhelming taste of celery. In a secondary, but slightly less disappointing, failure, only half of the SPAM slices were brown. The parts that were hidden from the heat didn’t get that lovely fat crust, and stayed slimy.
Yum–slimy soupy casserole, elegant AND hearty. Thanks Tom, for making a great sacrifice so that we don’t have to.
Question: Y’all have a back-up planned?
Nope! We just ate this for dinner. 🙂
Ohhhh. Well…Friday’s coming. Drown your sorrows.
😀
I feel like this would have been better with a different cream-of-something soup instead of the celery one. Isn’t there a cheddar cheese one? That and maybe either pre-cooking the spam a bit or arranging it differently so it all got some browning on it. Other than that, it really doesn’t look that bad. And I agree with you SO MUCH about the importance of not over cooking the mac and cheese. That Kraft pasta just disintegrates when you overcook it even a little.
Obviously, sodium levels were not a concern when this salt bomb was developed.