Found Clippings

While cataloging a stack of old cookbooks yesterday, I came across a small group of recipe clippings laid in between the pages of one of the books.

It turned out to be only two recipes, both cut from one of those coupon circulars that come in the Sunday newspaper (circa 2004).

One of recipes was cut out neatly along the dotted lines and attached by a paper clip to several squares of paper. Looking closer, I saw that the squares all contained the same recipe as the clipping, only the recipe had been entered into one of those recipe software programs.

She (or maybe it was a he) might have done this so they could share the recipe with others at work or at some church or family pot-luck gathering. I wondered if it was done in advance, so that when asked, she could whip a copy right out of her purse, right there on the spot.

The recipe clipping is for Campbell's Creamy Chicken Enchiladas that are made with (surprise) a can of condensed soup. I looked around through my cookbooks and found this nearly identical recipe in Favorite All Time Recipes - Celebrations (1998, 94 pages). It's called Creamy Chicken & Cheese Enchiladas in the cookbook and because of slight modifications to the tortilla requirements, the cookbook version serves six, while the clipping version only serves five. The cookbook also shows a photograph of the prepared dish.

Here's the recipe from the clipping:

CAMPBELL'S CREAMY CHICKEN ENCHILADAS

Prep Time: 20 min.
Cook Time: 40 min.

1 can (10-3/4 oz.) Campbell's Cream of Chicken or 98% Fat Free Cream of Chicken Soup
1 container (8 oz.) sour cream
1 cup Pace Picante Sauce
2 tsp. chili powder
2 cups chopped cooked chicken
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack Cheese
10 Mission Soft Taco Size Flour tortillas, warmed
1 medium tomato, chopped
1 green onion, sliced

Mix soup, sour cream, picante sauce and chili powder.

Mix 1 cup picante sauce mixture, chicken and cheese.

Spread about 1/4 cup chicken mixture down center of each tortilla. Roll up and place seam side down in 3-qt. shallow baking dish. Pour remaining picante sauce mixture over enchiladas. Cover.

Bake at 350°F. for 40 min. or until hot. Top with tomato and onions. Serves 5.

On the computer-generated recipe she added "Generous Servings" after the serving amount. Perhaps the portions in the cookbook were not so generous as that recipe called for 12 6-inch flour tortillas instead of ten. The clipping recipe must have been adapted (perhaps for marketing purposes) to call for the particular brand of tortillas and adjustments made because of their size. I also noticed that she left the "Campbell's" off of the recipe title.

I wonder, did people like the recipe? Were these copies left over or never given out?

I've never been that confident of one of my own pot-luck offerings, printing the recipe up in advance like that, in anticipation of requests. What if nobody asked for the recipe? Then I might feel bad. I'd rather wait.

The reason for the copies is all in my imagination of course. Who really knows why they were in there? I like speculating about it though.

The other recipe clipping? It's a recipe that has recently graced the Bisquick boxes, leaving no room for the old Dumplings recipe, and seems so vile, both in appearance and in my imagination, that I'm not even going to say the name of it.

I threw that one away.