Jana Duggar 15: Paying her court fine on Duggar time

[Someone Out There]

Where I live Shepherd's pie, Lasagna, and Enchiladas aren't considered as Casseroles. They would be Pie, Lasagna and Enchiladas. Looking at the recipe I have from my mum for Prune Casserole, there is no "Cream of ____" in it at all, the closest would be the "tin of concentrated tomato soup (or equivalent)", it is a mixture of meat and vegetables.  I can also guarantee that it is not a layered dish at all.  It is cooked in a covered dish in the oven.

 

[AussieKrissy]

Dutch oven = farting under the covers of the bed and wafting it on your bed partner or holding them under the blanket stuck inside with the fart ba ha ha ha yes I’m five 

[fluffernutter]

Some of our favorite casseroles are chicken and caralmized onion enchiladas. Pioneer woman recipe, but I tweaked it.  Another is baked ravioli which couldn't be easier. Frozen ravioli, meatballs, a jar of marinara, and mozzarella cheese. Bake until hot. A breakfast one we make when the grown kids are in town is a crusty bread, torn up, sautéed sausage and veggies (I usually do green pepper and onion), then shredded cheese. Pour whisked eggs and milk over the whole thing and stick it in the oven the next morning. I make all of these in my trusty pyrex 13x9. Now in my dutch oven, I'll make soups on the stove or braise a roast on the stove top first and finish baking in the oven, or I'll roast a chicken in it. 

[Mrs Ms]

In NZ we call those ____bake. Really imaginative like “pasta bake” “rice bake” “veggie bake” (you get the idea) and they are baked in the rectangle metal or glass dish.

[Cheetah]

3 hours ago, backyard sylph said:

I suppose what makes a stew and a baked casserole similar is that they are one pot meals containing several food groups, and they're both usually cooked slowly, though they don't have to be. 

When I was a kid I assumed I hated all casseroles, which my mother never made, because of the texture combinations, for one thing. Mom also never bought condensed soup except tomato. 

I grew up eating mostly casseroles and almost never make them ... with kids who were really picky when they were little I got out of the habit of dishes that were mixed textures like that (plus I wasn't the biggest fan of them in the first place so there's that).  And now my husband tries to eat low carb most of the time so most meals are meat, veg, and sometimes a side starch for some of us (most often that would be penne pasta with butter and parmesan cheese).  

[Dominionatrix]

2 hours ago, Mrs Ms said:

In NZ we call those ____bake. Really imaginative like “pasta bake” “rice bake” “veggie bake” (you get the idea) and they are baked in the rectangle metal or glass dish.

Just to keep things confusing, we have those in the U.S., too, and they’re typically indistinguishable from what we’d consider a casserole. 

[AprilQuilt]

10 hours ago, Mrs Ms said:

In NZ we call those ____bake. Really imaginative like “pasta bake” “rice bake” “veggie bake” (you get the idea) and they are baked in the rectangle metal or glass dish.

ah yes we have pasta bake etc! Also gratin which is more of a specific dish in France but here has increasingly become a means of making a bake sound fancy. 

Thinking what else we would do in those pyrex dishes besides lasagne and shepherd's pie - potatoes dauphinoise, bread and butter pudding, toad in the hole (sausage in batter), baked oats, cheese and potato pie which is just mashed potato with cheese, onion and beaten egg through it. I guess they're all sort of casserole-y in the American sense.

[JermajestyDuggar]

11 hours ago, AussieKrissy said:

Dutch oven = farting under the covers of the bed and wafting it on your bed partner or holding them under the blanket stuck inside with the fart ba ha ha ha yes I’m five 

I never do this to my husband because I’m terrified of retribution. His farts smell so much worse than mine. I might die from the smell. 

[FiveAcres]

22 hours ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

Yes, and while there are wonderful foster parents out there who provide loving and safe homes for kids, there are also a lot of very abusive foster homes.  Sadly, it's very possible that the Duggars are safer option than some.

Growing up Campbell's soups always had recipes on the cans for these kind of one pot/dish meals.  The very American version of chicken tetrazzini from my childhood was from the back of a cream of mushroom can.  I make my own cream of mushroom soup now so I always make a condensed version to use as the base for my tetrazini, but it's still the same recipe minus the processed soup.

My family's Mulligan stew recipe still uses tomato soup as does another one dish meal called cremettes and steak which is Duggar like in simplicity but the ultimate comfort food.  I've tried using homemade and unprocessed soups for that but nope, needs to be the basic stuff from the can to bring the happiness.  

But that's how it took hold here, Campbell's marketing.  Every church cookbook I've ever seen is filled with such recipes.  

Could you provide your recipe for cream of mushroom soup? I hate canned cream of anything soup. I once had cream of mushroom soup at a high end restaurant as an appetizer and it was one of the best things I had ever tasted. 

[gustava]

18 hours ago, karenb4729 said:

I use a sharp cheddar.  It's super easy to make and tastes great.  I normally serve with rice.

I agree with using cheddar.  I love gruyere but don't think it's strong enough for this dish.

[HerNameIsBuffy]

2 hours ago, FiveAcres said:

Could you provide your recipe for cream of mushroom soup? I hate canned cream of anything soup. I once had cream of mushroom soup at a high end restaurant as an appetizer and it was one of the best things I had ever tasted. 

Sure!  I took Ina Garten's version and made it more economical because I am a cheap woman who can't taste the difference between types of mushrooms.

https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/cream-of-wild-mushroom-soup-recipe-1950237

I only use one kind of mushroom, the inexpensive kind.  I also almost always forget to add the thyme and never add parsley.  Idk what dry wine is so I just use whatever is cheapest.  Instead of half and half I use all heavy cream and if I'm too lazy to chop and clean the leaks I use shallots.  

The soup is really good, then I take some and reduce it down until it's thick like sauce and save that as a base for chicken tetrazzini instead of canned cream of mushroom soup.

[arareyeah]

Okay reading the explanations here, my country definitely doesn't have anything traditional similar to casserole. Our main cooking methods are frying, grilling, roasting, dry roasting, sautéing, boiling and steaming. Possibly our tropical climate has something to do with this.

Maybe I should look up some recipes online and try to make it myself. 

[just_ordinary]

18 hours ago, Bastet said:

This is the casserole dish my family used. I remember having only tuna noodle casserole in it, and yes, it contained canned cream of mushroom soup.

And that looks very much like the mentioned German Auflauf. We don’t use cans of soup as liquid though- because it just doesn’t exist in the thickness you would need. You can either use a powdered mix that you stir with water/cream (was big in the late 80/90s, today it’s mostly eye brow raising) or you mix your own spices with whatever liquid you want, boil it down till it has the right thickness. Almost always topped with cheese and therefore not covered in the oven. And our dishes are a bit flatter. 
They have fallen out of favour. Partly due to the realisation that those sauces are anything but healthy but mostly contain sugar and salt. But as people have also realised you can actually do it from scratch and put tons of healthy stuff in it, they are still around. And of course everyone deviates to utterly unhealthy but oh so comforting “traditional” dishes from time to time. But I think they are definitely not something we would put on the table for fine dining if we want to make an effort. They are definitely great to use up all the scraps. (Like the vegetable lasagna in our university cafeteria on Fridays….). 
I wouldn’t call lasagna or enchiladas a casserole. A casserole has no visible compartments/sections but would be just one big mix. 

[AnywhereButHere]

Now I’m hungry and have decided to make a (not a casserole) lasagna for dinner tonight. My family thanks you all for the motivation. 😂

[SweetLaurel]

On 1/14/2022 at 12:05 PM, Alisamer said:

But now the littles are not so little. It might be time for her to spread her wings if she wants, in a few years. Or she might stay and care for JB and M hoping to inherit as much as possible. Who knows?

Umm  - they are only in their mid fifties.  She would have thirty some years, if they stay in decent health, to wait to take care of them.  My mom is 82, driving, on about 6 committes in town, plays piano at church every week, goes to the casino to gamble...that's a long time to hang out at the house and wait for them to become decrepit.  

[Manda]

35 minutes ago, SweetLaurel said:

Umm  - they are only in their mid fifties.  She would have thirty some years, if they stay in decent health, to wait to take care of them.  My mom is 82, driving, on about 6 committes in town, plays piano at church every week, goes to the casino to gamble...that's a long time to hang out at the house and wait for them to become decrepit.  

You and your mother are very fortunate.  As you say if they stay in decent health.  That's far from a guarantee and they could start needing help much earlier.  Watching my husband's family his grandmother was very active into her late 80s.  His uncle in his late 60s is in and out of the hospital and keeps his wife busy taking care of him and taking him to doctors.   His father died in his 60s after a long illness.  Both the Duggars have potential issues.

I don't think that's what's holding Jana at home though.  

[SassyPants]

Combined average adult US life expectancy fell in 2021 to 78 years.

In terms of US State life expectancy rank, AR comes in third from the very bottom-

[EmCatlyn]

6 hours ago, SweetLaurel said:

Umm  - they are only in their mid fifties.  She would have thirty some years, if they stay in decent health, to wait to take care of them.  My mom is 82, driving, on about 6 committes in town, plays piano at church every week, goes to the casino to gamble...that's a long time to hang out at the house and wait for them to become decrepit.  

Michelle might not make it past 65.  Her body has been battered by all those pregnancies and their diet is not the best.  JB, on the other hand, may live to 80 or 90.  Wouldn’t it be ironic if he remarried and Jana had to move in with one of her siblings to make room for the bride?   Or would she just stay there to help a step mom that might be her age or younger?In any case, I agree that if Jana is “planning” to stick around to care for her parents and then get the house, it is a pretty unrealistic “plan.”  

Personally, I doubt that Jana has any long-term plans.  The whole point of “leave it in God’s hands,” is that you shouldn’t plan.  Of course, there is a lot of planning going on, but women in particular are not encourage to plan anything more complicated than the week’s menu.  

Jana probably hasn’t decided or planned anything about her future. She surely plans on day-to-day matters and projects, but we have no reason to think that she has deliberately “planned” to be unmarried at 30+ nor do we know that she has given much thought to what she may be doing 10 years from now.

Jana may have expected to “find the right man,” yet at the same time been afraid of marriage and/or change and not found any man who attracted her enough to make the change from SAHD to wife.  Her current single status may reflect sexual fears or a reluctance to be like her mother and sisters, or a number of other things which combined to make her “very picky.”  This wasn’t “deliberate” or “planned.”  Yet she has made choices that led to her being unmarried after all these years.

In the same way, I expect Jana will “drift on” with her life as a SAHD.  I don’t see her “planning” to stay to care for her parents.  It may be what she ends up doing, but I don’t think it will be a specific choice.

[Mlissmartin]

On 1/14/2022 at 5:16 PM, AussieKrissy said:

Lordy, I had a dream Jana was in a courtship last night to some guy named Peter W something he was a friend of stephens and I was like ohhh that explains Steven being around and I was like omg got to get to fj! It’s gunna be hot. I forgot the dream until I did indeed open fj and was like what Jana isn’t in a courtship.  Really tacky courtship proposal too Peter needs to lift his game.

Lol, these weird dreams occur when reading on freejinger right before going to sleep

[Cam]

14 hours ago, SweetLaurel said:

Umm  - they are only in their mid fifties.  She would have thirty some years, if they stay in decent health, to wait to take care of them.  My mom is 82, driving, on about 6 committes in town, plays piano at church every week, goes to the casino to gamble...that's a long time to hang out at the house and wait for them to become decrepit.  

Good on your mom! My line dance class instructor is 82. She will dance circles around anyone. Her class starts at 10 am with the newbies and gradually morphs in to dancing with the more seasoned dancers until 1 pm. Three hours on her feet, dancing and teaching. More stamina than me who’s a generation younger than she! Woman’s in great shape, dresses nicely and got the moves, too! She’s well organized,  continuously teaches us new dances and attends seminars to learn the latest dance trends.

Anyone thinking people in their 50s are on death’s door needs a reality check! I know countless people in their 70s still going strong! I’m related to some of them! 

Edited January 16, 2022 by Cam

[Someone Out There]

35 minutes ago, Cam said:

Anyone thinking people in their 50s are on death’s door needs a reality check! I know countless people in their 70s still going strong! I’m related to some of them! 

Definitely not! That being said, often the division health wise starts showing up at around 50, and I like to say there are old 70 year olds, and there are young 70 year olds (and then there are those who don't make it to 70). The line dance instructor would have been a young 70 year old I'm sure.

[HerNameIsBuffy]

3 hours ago, Cam said:

Good on your mom! My line dance class instructor is 82. She will dance circles around anyone. Her class starts at 10 am with the newbies and gradually morphs in to dancing with the more seasoned dancers until 1 pm. Three hours on her feet, dancing and teaching. More stamina than me who’s a generation younger than she! Woman’s in great shape, dresses nicely and got the moves, too! She’s well organized,  continuously teaches us new dances and attends seminars to learn the latest dance trends.

Anyone thinking people in their 50s are on death’s door needs a reality check! I know countless people in their 70s still going strong! I’m related to some of them! 

Thank you.  Ngl the posts about how JB and Michelle are so old that care will be needed just around the corner were kind of getting to me before I decided to ignore them.

I'm not much younger than Michelle and the idea that we're minutes away from being relegated to a recliner with an afghan because we'll be incapacitated by age any minute is ridiculous.  I've read posts (not here, I don't think) that wonder if Josh gets 8-12 years if JB and M will still be alive when he gets out, due to their advanced age.

{Yes, I know anything can happen, my mom died of cancer in her 50s, but barring a medical issue we can still fully function.)

[gustava]

11 hours ago, EmCatlyn said:

Michelle might not make it past 65.  Her body has been battered by all those pregnancies and their diet is not the best.

My great grandmother died at age 75, after birthing 17 babies (all singles), all of whom survived to adulthood except one.  Her mother lived to be 100.  Hard scrabble mountain farm with no electricity or running water.  Meech is a wuss by comparison.

Edited January 16, 2022 by gustava
correction

[Mama Mia]

On 1/14/2022 at 9:59 AM, karenb4729 said:

I have a quick and easy chicken divan recipe that I cook all the time.  I use fresh broccoli put on the bottom of the pan, chopped chicken (I use precooked chicken strips cut up), mix up 1 can cream of chicken and about 1/2 cup sour cream and shredded cheese.  I also like to add some curry powder and lemon juice to the mix.  Pour over the top of the chicken and broccoli and then top with either panko or bread crumbs that have been mixed with a bit of melted butter.  Bake until the top is browned.  

That recipe to me would fit the definition of a casserole, but the enchiladas and lasagna would not. 

To me a casserole is mixed up cut vegetables, meat, maybe a starch like rice or noodles, with some sort of minimal sauce or liquid, and possibly topped with cheese or breadcrumbs and baked, or cooked in a slow cooker. The sauce could be cream of something soup, but doesn’t need to be. 

A stew is mostly the same thing, but no cheese or toppings, usually just broth for liquid, and cooked on a stove top - or slow cooker. Usually eaten with a fork, but maybe a spoon. 

A soup has the most liquid and smaller pieces of meat/vegetable.

If it’s a thick cut up mix of these cooked quickly in a frying pan - I’d probably call it a stir fry or by the ingredients “ beef and vegetables” if asked. 

When I had kids at home I’d mostly call any of these “dinner” and “ make yourself a quesadilla if you don’t like it” 

I’ve recently started using jarred bone broth as the liquid, and it’s really good, and easy, just put a small amount in a cup with hot water, add a bunch of spices and pour it in with your casserole/stew/soup.

As far as poor frail, elderly Michelle and Jim Bob, sure they might start experiencing health problems as they age - but the likelihood they are going to need full time care givers before Jana is in her fifties or sixties - is  slim.  And they have 4 billion built in kids and grandkids for the more common help needed  — shopping, heavy cleaning, laundry, trips to the doctor if they don’t drive. Even if one gets an extremely serious medical problem like cancer or Alzheimer’s  — having kids/spouses/grown grandkids set up a care schedule should be pretty easy when you have 30 people within 10 miles.

[ModestisHottest]

On 1/14/2022 at 4:16 PM, AussieKrissy said:

Lordy, I had a dream Jana was in a courtship last night to some guy named Peter W something he was a friend of stephens and I was like ohhh that explains Steven being around and I was like omg got to get to fj! It’s gunna be hot. I forgot the dream until I did indeed open fj and was like what Jana isn’t in a courtship.  Really tacky courtship proposal too Peter needs to lift his game.

Ok, my brother is named Peter W. Something and has a new girlfriend who I haven't met yet whose name rhymes with Jana...