Tuna P. Wiggle

I'm writing a paper right now, but I had to stop and talk about something here.

No body ever eats sauce on toast anymore. No, no wait. Hear me out. When I was kid, I feel like people ate Welsh Rarebit and chipped beef all the time and nobody batted an eye. Maybe it was reaganomics. Everyone for whom the money wasn't "trickling down" was like, "well, I have sauce. I have toast. This works." And now celebrity chefs are all, "rrrrmmm, there aren't enough complicated steps in that. Can I used braised brioche loaf and a bechamel with leeks?"

Obviously, I like fancy cooking too. Last night I made a New York strip with creamy goat cheese polenta and rosemary grilled zucchini (and Tim ate the zucchini! Yes, I'm bragging.). But sometimes you just have to eat sauce on toast, damnit.

I "remember" this recipe from when I was a little kid, sitting around at my Grandma Karen's house in the 80's while all my aunts and uncles, who were still in high school, ran around and did their thing on a Saturday afternoon. I can tell this an amalgamation of memories, because they weren't all in high school throughout the duration of the 80's and not every day was a sunny Saturday--but I did spend a lot of time at that table in the house on Tenino eating delicious things.

No one ever told me how to make this, so I could be totally off base, but this is what my memory tastes like because I've been making it for myself this way for years.

This is comfort food. This is fast and easy and probably not very nutritious and I doubt anyone would ever, ever in their right mind serve it at a dinner party, but I love it.

Tune P. Wiggle (the "P." stands for "pea")

Ingredients:
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/3 cup milk
1 can tuna drained
1 half cup frozen peas
salt
pepper
bread to make toast, preferable *good* white bread like potato bread or english muffin bread. Not that wonder bread crap.

For the ambitious:
1/4 to 1/2 cup shredded colby or chedder cheese.
dash garlic salt
2-3 diced white mushrooms

Destructions:
In a small sauce pan combine soup, milk, tuna and peas. Over medium heat, stir together well and then add a generous amount of pepper; salt to taste. If you're adding mushrooms and garlic, add them at this stage. If you're adding cheese, wait until sauce is smooth and bubbly, stir it in and reduce heat to very low.

Cook sauce about five minutes after it bubbles to let everything meld together and the peas heat through.

Toast the bread to your liking. I usually have two slices of toast. Please for the love of God don't be tempted to butter the toast before putting sauce on it. This is coming from me--the Butter Idiot. Doing so will make you want to roll on the floor in a gluttonous semi-coma.

Test the sauce to make sure it's got enough seasoning, cheese, what have you, before putting it on your warm toasty bread. Then spoon a generous amount onto each slice of toast and eat with a fork.

This recipe serves about three people, or just me if I'm being ridiculous.

There's just something about eating what your family eats. My grandma's no slouch. She can make some amazing from-scratch meals that would knock Giada de Lauretiis off her butt, but this one just happens to come out of cans and I like it.