Skeletons in the Pantry

When I was a little girl, my mother would make Creamed Tuna on Toast, which is canned tuna cooked in a white sauce with peas. Slop, if you will. Slop on toast.

Slop that I love and crave on a regular basis.

It's one of those things... those concoctions that, if you've grown up with it, bears food memories that cannot be replicated with anything else. Comfort. Innocence. A warm lunch at the kitchen table watching the snow falling outside.

The fact is this dish is my family legacy, having been in my family for three generations that I'm aware of. My paternal grandmother enjoyed it (out of depression-era desperation, perhaps?), and later fed it to my father, who asked my mother to cook it for him... then she fed it to us when we were little.

So this is my secret... and my entry for the "Skeletons in the Pantry" event hosted by Katie of Thyme for Cooking. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I have no photo to share of this messy concoction. Just imagine slop. Slop on toast.

There is no true recipe--just a method.


Creamed Tuna on Toast
serves as many as you like

Butter
Flour
Milk
Frozen Peas
Canned Tuna, drained
Toast

In a saucepan, make a roux from butter and flour; cook for 1-2 minutes. Add milk to make a white sauce. Add frozen peas (or any other veg you fancy--green beans are good here) and cook until heated through. Stir in tuna and serve over hot toast.