Posted by CookinDad May 19, 2001

Dear Vitaille Friends,

I've been doing a lot of cooking these past few days. That coupled with the fact that I took my kids out and played hide-and-seek with them for a couple of hours this afternoon didn't leave me much time or energy to cook anything fancy.

I decided at the last minute to make this casserole as an experiment of sorts. It actually turned out really well. I think you'll really like it too. Please do not feel intimidated by the lack of exact measurements in this recipe. As long as you remotely follow the directions, you can't possibly go wrong--trust me! Enjoy!

Regards, Cookin' Dad

1 (6 ounce) can salmon
About 2 cups cooked elbow macaroni noodles
1 can cream mushroom soup
About 3/4 cup LOW SODIUM chicken broth
1 cup celery, diced
1/2 medium bell pepper, diced
1/2 large onion, minced
5 good sized garlic cloves, minced (I used garlic press)
1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese (maybe a little less)
2 tablespoons parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon dry dill (maybe a bit more)
1/4 teaspoon white pepper
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
At least 1 cup crushed FLAVORED Ruffles

Preheat oven to 360 degrees F.

Cook your noodles until slightly-crisp-done.

Next, heat up a little oil in a skillet and add to oil the equivalent of about 3 cloves of your minced garlic. After frying about 15 seconds or so, add the celery and bell peppers and saut?for about 3 min. before adding the onions. Saut?mixture until onions start to turn light yellow. Remove from heat and set aside.

By this time, your noodles should be close to being done. Mix the condensed cream of mushroom soup and chicken broth together with wire whisk. Add all of the spices, leftover minced garlic and parmesan cheese. Next add saut?d vegetable mixture to soup mixture along with the salmon (drained and broken up with fork) and cheddar cheese. After you have done this, gently mix in the cooked and drained elbow macaroni noodles.

After everything has been mixed, spoon into lightly greased 9" x 9" Pyrex casserole dish The last step involves sprinkling crumbled FLAVORED potato chips over the casserole. Make sure that there is a good, THICK cover - no bald spots. I used seafood-flavor Ruffles potato chips. These may only be manufactured here in Taiwan. If that is the case, I'm sure there are other good flavored RUFFLES potato chips out there. Bake for about 30 minutes or casserole is bubbly, whichever comes first.

NOTE: The flavored Ruffles, raw minced garlic, dill and Parmesan cheese add a very unique and tasty touch to this dish.