Chicken Spaghetti and Clean Nice Quiet

I'd never heard of chicken spaghetti until I started visiting Matt's family in Arkansas. Depending on how long you're there, and how many functions take place at a church, you will be served it a minimum of once. This last week-long trip it was on offer 3 times, 3 different recipes but all clearly from the same general conceit. It isn't just red sauce spaghetti with chicken in it, that much is for certain.  It is a creamy (usually Velveeta and Cream of Mushroom/Chicken soup based) spaghetti with some mixture of tomatoes and or peppers, maybe mushrooms. Usually it's a casserole with cheese melted on top, good for freezing or taking to a church potluck. Definitely a throwback to the height of convenience foods, which are not exactly in vogue anymore. And I love some convenience foods and think people can be obnoxious in their opposition them and that's not usually based on the taste but rather on pure classism. Velveeta, while mild in taste, melts beautifully and makes things creamy af and has its place. I happened to be watching Guy's Grocery Games as I write this and the whole show revolves around chefs cooking weird shit in a grocery store and when someone went to use the cheese from a Kraft mac and cheese mix one of the judges goes "oh no that neon cheese!" It's dye. Cheddar is dyed orange, too. All cheese is "processed;" it's a man made product.  Get over it.

But I'll be honest, I am no fan of condensed soups, or really canned soup of any kind. Something about the way they are thickened up and take the shape of the can squicks me out and that is only more evident in a condensed soups. But they are so vital in the classic recipes for chicken spaghetti that it would kind of be sacrilege not to include them. And I had presumably eaten chicken spaghettis made with Cream of ____ soups but I was choosing not to think about it too much. So I decided to make a "classic" one and a version without any soups.  I did use Velveeta in both but instead of condensed soup, I found a recipe that used cream cheese. I also decided to use fresh vegetables (tomatoes, jalapeno, onion, and mushrooms) in the soupless option as opposed to the the canned Rotel tomatoes and chilis in the traditional version. Also, the classic version I used just chicken breast but for the soupless I used a mix of dark and white meat chicken.

Our lovely friends Dan and Julie just had a baby and chicken spaghetti is a classic "freezes well" casserole that people bring new parents so it was a perfect opportunity to introduce them to the dish (they also had never heard of it) and for us to meet their adorable new addition. While all of us were fine with both, the consensus was that the "soupless" version was better. But that wasn't really a huge surprise; it had more of a spicy kick from the jalapeno, the vegetables lacked the canned taste of Rotel, and the secret snob inside me still blames the condensed soups. Velveeta and cream cheese kept things plenty creamy; fuck those soups!

We didn't listen to one record this time but rather a bunch of stuff that Matt was thinking about featuring on his podcast, Clean Nice Quiet. One artist Matt's been playing a lot is Dan Mason. The genre is "vaporwave" which sounds absurd but it's like re-imagined Miami Vice incidental music and it's actually very groovy. Another standout song was a catchy bubblegum ditty "Mercy" by Ohio Express. It's weird that I didn't get more into bubblegum pop in the heyday of my deep Monkees fandom but I was so protective of the Monkees as a "real" band that I couldn't just embrace the sugary pop. For example, I've always resented the fact that they were offered the song "Sugar, Sugar" before the Archies recorded it. How DARE they be considered in the same league as a cartoon band?! But of course, who cares? It's a catchy song! Luckily, Matt introduced me to more bubblegum, the finest example of the genre being Goody Goody Gumdrops by The 1910 Fruitgum Company. Watch the video below if you dare; be forewarned, you will probably find yourself on the rooftops yelling "goody goody gumdrops". Also check the host's sideburns! And the tambourine guy's dance moves!




"Classic" Chicken Spaghetti
(Inspired by a bunch of different recipes, this one, this one, an array of All Recipes options)

Olive oil for sauteing (enough to saute the onions, who really measures that?)
1 onion, chopped
2 cups Chicken broth
1 can Cream of Mushroom
1 can Cream of Chicken
1 can Rotel
8 oz spaghetti
4 oz Velveeta
3 cooked, cubed chicken breasts (I salt and peppered them and cooked them in the oven)
2 cups shredded cheddar

Prepare spaghetti as usual.

Saute onions in olive oil. Add chicken broth, bring to a boil. Add the soups (try not to be too disgusted by their appearance) and Rotel, let simmer for 15 minutes. Add chicken, spaghetti and Velveeta and stir until cheese melts. Spoon it into a casserole dish, top with shredded cheese. Bake on 350 for 30-40 mins.

No "Cream of " Soups Chicken Spaghetti

1 onion, sliced into chunks
1 cup of cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
1 cup of sliced mushrooms
2 jalapenos, split (remove some/all seeds depending on spice desires)
8 oz Velveeta
8 oz cream cheese
2 cups chicken broth
8 oz spaghetti
2 cups shredded cheese (I used sharp cheddar and this "habanero jack" I happened to have)
2 cups of chicken (in this case a pre-seasoned half chicken from Whole Foods cooked in the oven.)

Prepare spaghetti as usual.

Spread veggies out on a baking sheet and cook them in a 350 degree oven until they start getting soft (also would be good under the broiler but our broiler is messed up.) Chop them all together.

Bring chicken broth to a boil and add Velveeta and cream cheese, turn down heat and stir while it melts. Add chicken, veggies, and spaghetti. Stir until well mixed, transfer to baking dish, top with shredded cheese, bake on 350 for 30-40 minutes.

Both recipes can be prepared ahead of time (just don't bake it yet) and refrigerated or frozen and then heated up at the time of casserole need.



A bonus Arkansas food item new to me was "hot water cornbread." Someone had picked up food from a local homecooking place and there was a giant container of these delicious looking fried blobs and I was like "what are those?" and someone said "hot water cornbread." And no one offered any further detail, people just kept repeating "hot water cornbread" like those words mean something together! And apparently they do, according to the Internet. It's literally just cornmeal and salt, mixed with hot water, and quickly fried. I only had white cornmeal, for some reason, so they didn't get as browned but they did taste quite good!

Beef Stroganoff and James Newton Howard

Sorry loyal readers, we've been busy and R&R has suffered. But we decided that I would write this and then we could get back on track. So...beef stroganoff! It's something we both like but have only ever made from Hamburger Helper type kits. We used this recipe which appealed to me because it was very straight forward and claimed to be "authentic." Authenticity isn't our goal necessarily but in looking at recipes this one seemed focused on simplicity and seemed rooted in the writer's Russian heritage and that sounded nice. It was also new to me that it's traditionally served with mashed potatoes so we also made those from scratch (embarrassingly, I usually make instant potatoes!)  

First off, the recipe is not explicit about what kind of steak to use and so I looked around online and thought I found a recommendation but I think by the time I made it to the store, I'd gotten mixed up and whatever I bought (I can't remember!) was pretty tough. I also didn't cook it quite right- I know I didn't have the temp high enough and I crowded the pan. Lesson learned!

The rest of the recipe is easy but the sauce does come out really thin and ours was just not especially flavorful. Perhaps a different meat cooked better would have lent more flavor to the sauce but it really just tasted like vaguely meaty mushroom milk. Not a bad taste but nothing I'd want to recreate. The mashed potatoes were good though! I just boiled 'em up, mashed them with 2 forks, put in butter and cream until they felt right. I left the skin on because who's got the time to also peel potatoes? My dad always says potato skins are good for you but I'm pretty sure that's been disproved.

We listened to a record Matt picked up based on the unusual cover and the sticker labeling it as "weird rock" by James Newton Howard, who we had never heard of. Once again, this artist's lack of fame makes sense once you listen to their music. Or rather, his solo music, which was the dullest, least rocking shit you've ever heard. All instrumental, the worst being a 12 minutes song called "Margaret, I'm Home." But the guy went on to score like every movie you've ever seen (Waterworld, Space Jam, The Dark Knight, Hunger Games, etc.) So that was interesting to discover but we will never be jamming out to it again. We also listened to a record by German band Kuken which was very basic, albeit pleasant garage punk rock which was very welcome after the boring-bordering-on-unpleasant James Newton Howard.



Beef Stroganoff - C
Edward James Newton - F
Kuken - B-

Potato Gratin and Son Volt

After the Great Paella Failure of 2016, I wanted to do something that was pretty hard to fuck up. Potatoes and cheese are a pretty safe bet so instead of our usual main course recipe, Matt grilled steaks (just salt and pepper and those individually packed ribeyes from Trader Joe's) and we used a recipe for our side dish. In my hunt for a cheesey potato recipe took me to the embarrassingly-named Delushious site, the domain of famous-person-I'm-only-vaguely-aware of Chrissy Teigan. I think her deal is that she's a very babely swimsuit model but also likes to eat bacon, or something. And while I think everyone should do whatever makes them happy, I am suspicious of this trope of super hot women who are like "I can slam a cheeseburger nbd; I don't count calories and eat salads!" I don't want to go on a feminist rant but let's just say I think that sets up some unrealistic expectations and kind of pits women against each other. BUT I did see the below video of her balancing a plate of chicken wings on her butt and then booty bouncing it away from her husband (John Legend, apparently, who is bland but also handsome) and I was a little charmed. 

Her recipes overall look pretty good and there is a more realistic balance of super fatty food and less decadent options than I expected. Her writing makes me roll my eyes (more 'I'm just a regular gal like you' posturing, again she is a very successful swimsuit model married to a very successful musician and I'm just not buying it) but I must admit that these potatoes were actually quite delicious...or dare I say deLUSHious? It's no shocker that a bunch of cream and cheese and carbs are going to taste pretty good but I really gotta give it to her; the mix of sweet potato and regular potato was a really tasty change. If it had been just sweet potatoes, it would have been too sweet and gotten too mushy but if it had just been all regular potatoes, it would have been pretty dull.  Aside from slicing up a bunch of potatoes and some garlic, it isn't too labor intensive. You could easily not deal with the 3 different fresh herbs (I never can use them all up before they go bad) and just go with the thyme because that's the only one I could distinctly taste anyway. It actually came out of the oven looking just like the picture from the recipe which is always exciting (especially when it doesn't just look good but actually tastes good, too!)

Our record was Son Volt's first album Trace. This is perhaps my favorite album of all time and one of the few true "perfect albums" I've ever heard. Every song belongs, every song is perfect. I could go on - go on about how much I love each of these songs, go on about how I still can't really appreciate Wilco because I feel like I have to be true to Jay Farrar in their Uncle Tupelo beef (no Uncle Tupelo album is perfect because approx. 50% of them are by Jeff Tweedy with his whiney voice.)  Supposedly, Jeff Tweedy was always drunkenly crying to women to make them pity him (and subsequently sex him) and this was generally annoying and pathetic to Jay but it reached the breaking point when he tried to pull this routine on Jay's long-time girlfriend. There's that hot, 20 year old T for you. While I enjoy all other Son Volt albums, they do start to bring diminishing returns after Trace, not much can live up to it. Below you can hear them perform Loose String from the album but I'll warn you: he is one of the least charismatic performers I've ever seen. Son Volt has come to town many times but I can't quite bring myself to go see them because according to live videos (the video below is no exception) he really does not put on much of show. But will forgive him his lack of charisma because his voice is super hot (even if he has that butt-cut hair-do...he STILL has that haircut!)