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Says peripateticpolarbear:

Normally, when someone's sick, at least in my midwestern world, you bring them dinner, right? A casserole, a sheet cake, a salad made of iceberg lettuce and a tiny amount of carrots (I'm SO midwestern). And you know some nice lady from the church (meeting house, shul, etc.) organizes it all so the family gets food every night for a couple weeks? You know that lady, right--her name is always gladys and she wears cardigans?

Anyway, what would it be like if we spread a campaign for a virtual casserole campaign, and try to get families to contribute an amount roughly equivalent to what it would take for them to deliver a dinner to Annika (which would of course, include chocolate cake.) That way folks could give what is within their family's means to do....most families that can afford internet can afford to bring a sick neighbor a casserole and a cake---how fancy those items would be would depend on how fancy your budget is. I don't know. It could be a fun way to be a virtual community.

Maybe your thing is chicken noodle soup, or chocolate chip cookies, or pound cake, or homemade bread. It doesn't matter: the idea is to figure out what it would cost to make and bring a good comfort food item to a friend's or neighbour's house, and then donate the sum instead.

1. Pick a recipe

2. Determine the cost of the ingredients (you can assume you have to buy completely new, or not; it's up to you)

3. Donate the sum total of the ingredients. Voila! You have participated in the Virtual Casserole Campaign.

Here is peripateticpolarbear's example:

Turkey Tetrazzini
2 T chopped onion
1 T margarine
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 c. water
1/2 c. shredded sharp cheddar
1 c. diced cooked turkey
3 c. cooked spaghetti
2 T chopped parsley
2 T chopped pimento

In saucepan, cook onion in margarine until tender. Blend in soup, water, cheese. Heat until cheese melts, stir often. Add remaining ingredients. Heat and stir now and again.
Serve right away or refrigerate and reheat at 350.

Healthy Salad
iceberg lettuce
shredded carrots
Thousand Island salad dressing (lots)

Chocolate Cake

2 sticks butter
2 c. sugar
1/3 cup cocoa
4 eggs
1 1/2 c. flour
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1 c. chopped pecans
1 pt. Marshmallow cream

Frosting:
1 stick butter
1/3 cup cocoa
5 T cream
1 t. vanilla
1 box powdered sugar.
Cream butter, sugar and cocoa; add eggs one at a time, beating well. Sift flour and baking powder. Add to creamed mixture. Add pecans. Bake in a 9x12 inch pan for 350 degrees for 40-60 minutes. When still hot, spread with marshmallow cream. Let cool in pan. Frost (because that marshmallow cream wasn’t sweet enough without frosting, too.)

If she were to make this and bring it to a neighbour, assuming no eggs or flour in the house, it would cost $53.78, so that is the amount she will donate when the account is set up. Her entire post on the subject is linked to from the del.icio.us page if you would like to read all the details.

From Kathy A:

my virtual dinner comes out to around $50, if i buy everything. here are the recipes:

Lasagne [A nice lasagne is filling, easy to heat, easy to freeze, and will hopefully produce leftovers.]

lasagne noodles [cooked, or the no-cook kind]
1 lb. ricotta cheese
2 eggs, beaten
Parmesan cheese, grated
½ lb. mozzarella cheese, grated
spaghetti sauce of choice [homemade, or jarred; may need more than 1 jar]
1 lb. Italian sausage, cooked. [mild or spicy] [can substitute ½ with hamburger]
onion, chopped
1 tbsp. garlic powder [or to taste] [fresh is even better]
1 pkg. chopped spinach [thawed; squeezed dry] [fresh is better, lightly cooked]
salt and pepper

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Find a 9x13 pan, or use a disposable foil one.

c Cook sausage [or sausage/burger] with some onion, salt, pepper, maybe garlic. If using fresh spinach, cook separately [briefly] with a little onion, garlic, salt, pepper. If using noodles that need cooking, boil, drain, separate [a little olive oil can help keep them from sticking]. If making sauce from scratch, do that ahead of assembling the lasagne, too.

Mix ricotta cheese, beaten eggs, some parmesan cheese, salt & pepper in smallish bowl.

Put 1/4-1/2 cup of sauce in the bottom of pan.
Place a layer of noodles on top of the sauce.
Layer the noodles with more sauce, meat, globs of the ricotta mixture, dabs of spinach, and mozarella.
Repeat, topping with mozarella.

Cover with foil and bake about an hour. [Or freeze until needed, wrapping well for freezer -- a frozen lasagne might take longer to bake.] Uncover the last few minutes, so the top browns. Let sit 10-15 minutes before serving.

Salad
bagged, washed, ready-to-eat salad mix
bits of chopped green onions
some grated cheese
Italian dressing

Chocolate Chip Cookies
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
2 sticks softened butter
½ cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 ½ tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
1 package chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Sift dry stuff [flour, baking soda, salt].

Mix butter, eggs, sugars, vanilla well. Stir in the dry stuff. Add chips.

Drop the batter by spoonful onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 9-11 minutes. Let the cookies cool a couple minutes before taking them off the sheets; then let them cool some more. [Wire racks are ideal, but paper towels work.]

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