Lasagna soup anyone? American recipes that just never sound quite right...

[MaryIsA]

www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchen/lasagna-soup-2268968

Partly its all the low sodium chicken broth, half and half, sticks of butter - but very often its the actual recipes. Just a bit off?

take packet mix x and packet mix y,
add a stick of butter and a tin of beans and a cup of half and half...

I love pioneer woman just for the 5 tin soup and other recipes.

Macaroni cheese made with American cheese ( cheese slices ) 🤢 .

Mac’n’cheese I think you’ll find, which Is a fine thing when well made but different to macaroni cheese.

or the tinned cheese spread...

I remember seeing a blog where someone had wrote a MASSIVE post about all the requests she'd had for the recipe for a doughnut stack which she'd posted a picture of the week before. Fucking on and on it went about some unrelated bullshit until you got to the recipe:
Ingredients:

• Cake stand
• 24 Krispy Kreme doughnuts (assorted flavours best) Then about 10 steps complete with more pictures explaining how to arrange them in a stack on the stand.

Or the ones for a cake where it's one box of yellow cake mix and one tub of frosting. THAT'S NOT A RECIPE!

There's a French fry soup on that link as well!

Recipes where they genuinely call for a tin of chicken soup and a tin of cream of mushroom .

To be fair Delia's How to cheat at cooking wasn't any better. Who knew there was such a thing as tinned mince?

I find grits quite odd. Especially when served with steak or shrimps. It looks like porridge and that it should be eaten for breakfast with fruit.

Or the ones for a cake where it's one box of yellow cake mix and one tub of frosting. THAT'S NOT A RECIPE

That always makes me smile, because I can't see 'yellow cake mix' without thinking about yellowcake. which is a chemical form of uranium used in the nuclear fuel industry.

My DP makes lasagne soup, it's bloody lovely. It's not that recipe though.

Yes, all the cake mixes, which appear to be mainly flour and sugar - whoop, huge time saver there.

I love the comments you get in US recipe sites (I'm sure it happens here too but I've noticed it most in allrecipies and places like that), where they say "Disappointing recipe. I substituted and it was very bland".

Taco soup too.

Yank here. That lasagna soup recipe looks interesting, but it calls for no butter and only a quarter cup of half and half. I quite like chicken tortilla soup. Whole Foods sells it premade.

I don't really bake cakes anymore, I just get one from the posh bakery in our town. I do bake my own cookies, brownies, etc.

Grits are very regional to the south. You won't find them anywhere else in the US.

I'm American, born and raised, and I've always found this aspect of our culture really weird. Maybe it's because I'm a first-generation American, but my mum wouldn't have been caught dead making a Dorito-mac and cheese bake or lasagna soup (a new one for me).

I have a friend who grew up with me in California but has spent her adult life in Texas. She'd be all over lasagna soup like a rash. Texans love a soup can and 'hydrogenised tomato-flavour dust' bake (thank you, Coldland- does anyone remember that from Shooting Stars?)

Macaroni cheese made with American cheese ( cheese slices )

Obviously, you haven't been subjected to the abomination that is Kraft macaroni and cheese in a box... macaroni and powdered American cheese. Don't be fooled by the 'sauce mix'. It is just gross. Sauce mix makes it sound palatable. Powdered American cheese mixed with milk... I'd rather eat army rations from the Civil War. Hardtack, any day.
Mind you, today I found myself seriously baffled by my former love of tinned New England clam chowder with oyster crackers. I totally still would!

I remember watching the Pioneer Woman do a cabbage bake thing with cheese from a jar shudders.

I've been trying to find the good lasagne soup recipe for you all but can't. It was a video on fb of the step by steps of making it. It was all from fresh ingredients.

Basically it was a tomatoey soup base with minced or chopped beef in it, and you broke up lasagne sheets and added them near the end, with shredded mozzarella and torn up fresh basil leaves. I'm going to ask him to make it again.

I fucking HATE the measuring system. A tablespoon of melted butter?! A cup of flour?’ WHY DO YOU USE VOLUME FOR WEIGHT AND LIQUID MEASUREMENT FOR SOLID FOODS

I can't see 'yellow cake mix' without thinking about yellowcake. which is a chemical form of uranium used in the nuclear fuel industry.

I can't see 'yellow cake mix' without thinking about Dave Chappelle's Black Bush sketch. Old but gold. It's worth a look on youtube.

And I am sorry to our American friends but I don't get sweet potato and marshmallow . . .

@sleepyhead

Yes, all the cake mixes, which appear to be mainly flour and sugar - whoop, huge time saver there.

I love the comments you get in US recipe sites (I'm sure it happens here too but I've noticed it most in allrecipies and places like that), where they say "Disappointing recipe. I substituted and it was very bland".

Elizabeth David mentioned something like that; they substituted cheap ingredients, and wondered why it didn't taste the same!

I really like the “cup” measuring system, even though a cup can be a technical measurement, it also means you can use any cup and still have the recipe turn out fine because you’ve still used the correct ratios.

DP (inner city Detroit upbringing) loves what’s known as a “Walking taco” as a snack - basically a bag of scrunched up tortilla chips topped with minced meat, onions, jalapeños, cheese, sour cream etc which is eaten with a spoon on the go. I laughed in his face the first time he told me this was a thing because all the other Americans I know eat actual proper home cooked from scratch food rather than strange junk food combinations, but when hiking I am definitely sold on the walking taco 🌮

I have a couple of American recipes I think are really good. I like the cup measuring too. Reminds me a bit of my mother's approach. She measured nothing. But somehow it worked.

@plinkplinkfizzer

Macaroni cheese made with American cheese ( cheese slices ) 🤢 .

I see you your macaroni cheese made with American cheese, and raise you macaroni cheese made with an added teaspoonful of sugar!!

Frito pie gave me this same feeling but I actually really enjoyed it! Ditto Kraft box Mac and Cheese