More cheese, please!

I apologize for the cliche, but if you are looking for a gift that keeps on giving, consider the gift of Costco membership for all the hungry people in your life. I bought one for Keizo's birthday last summer, and it was probably the best thing I could have gotten him. In fact, trying to think of something to top it in terms of novelty and usefulness is pretty much impossible, which is why he only got some chocolate for Christmas.

Anyway, Costco is great for many things. Keizo likes to buy dried seaweed and instant ramen in bulk; I like to stockpile pasta and eat American bagels for breakfast. But the best thing Costco in Japan has to offer is large quantities of real cheese at reasonable prices, relatively speaking. On our last visit, not wanting to commit to five pounds of cheddar, we picked up a "party" tray with four varieties of sliced cheese.

And "party" it up we have! All by ourselves, with a myriad of cheesy recipes. First up, tuna casserole from Kay Kellog's Creative Cookery, copyright 1971! I snatched up this book when my mom was cleaning out her cookbook collection. While it's not quite as entertaining to read as the Betty Crocker home entertaining book from the same era (What? You don't have a tea trolley to serve dessert from?) the 7 cent coupons still stuck inside give it some historical flair.

The recipe said it served 6, so I cut it in half when preparing the sauce, but then doubled the amount of canned tuna and added some extra pasta when the two seemed dwarfed by the bucket of sauce. If I had followed the original recipe the result would have been a lot more like cheese soup! After 15 minutes in the oven, we were ready to eat.

Mmmmm cheesy!

Another acquisition from our last Costco adventure was an 8-can pack of diced tomatoes, since we seem to be buying them fairly regularly at the grocery store. When combined with a can of refried beans (another Costco acquistion from a previous trip) and some chicken broth, they make a deliciously simple "tortilla soup." The soup is edible on its own, but is greatly enhanced and turns into a full meal by adding a generous topping of tortilla chips with melted cheese, avocado slices and tiny dollop of sour cream.

Just for fun, let me wrap up with another cliche. Just as every cloud has a silver lining, hot cheesy casserole and steamy soup with a bit of spice wouldn't taste nearly as good without the frigid temperatures outside (or in the hallway, which as become like a second refrigerator for storing beer and root vegetables.)