TIN CAN COOKING
Submitted by: G.E. McIntyre

Use cans to bake individual apple-nut bread or poppyseed loaves. (Don't fill cans more than 2/3 full). Larger cans once filled with juice, shortening, or coffee bake a big meatloaf or loaf of bread, restaurant-size cans can make an even larger loaf, casserole, or stew. Use small cans to heat small amounts of sauce or syrup. Place hard-to-heat leftovers, such as mashed potatoes, in clean cans. Place in boiling water, cover, and steam until heated.

Pheasant a L'Orange

Clean, 2-pound coffee can
Nonstick spray
2 tablespoons butter
4 pieces skinless pheasant breast
Flour, salt, pepper
1 teaspoon granular chicken bouillon
2 oranges, peeled and finely diced
2 heaping tablespoons orange marmalade
2 tablespoons Triple Sec
½ cup water

Spray the coffee can. Melt the butter in a non-stick skillet it over very low flame. Put flour, salt, pepper, and the bouillon on a paper plate and dredge the pheasant on both sides. Brown the pheasant both sides, place it in the coffee can, and wipe out the skillet with a paper towel. Your cleanup is completed. Use any clean can to stir together the orange bits and their juice, the marmalade, Triple Sec, and water. Pour into the can over the pheasant, cover with foil, and bake 30-40 minutes, or until the pheasant is done through, at 325 degrees. Serve the pheasant and sauce over rice.

Canny Tips

The easiest way to handle a hot or cold can is to clamp a can opener on the rim and use it as a
handle. For larger cans, use oven mitts. Save a can from sliced pineapple can to use as a
biscuit cutter. The rim is just the right size for "grands". Cut strips of corrugated cardboard and coil tightly around a piece of string (to serve as a wick) to fit into a tuna can. Melt candle stubs and saturate the cardboard until it won't hold any more. Light the wick, pile wood or charcoal around the can, and it will burn long enough to light the most stubborn fire. To heat canned vegetables on the grill or burner, remove some of the juice to prevent boil-overs, but leave enough liquid so the vegetables don't burn. To heat canned beans, chili, stew, or ready-to-eat soup, take off labels and place opened tins in a pot with an inch of boiling water. Cover, heat, and eat from the can.

To serve cranberry sauce and other firm ingredients, open both ends of the
can and push the contents through from the bottom. Use clean tin cans to
mold Jello, aspics, cheese logs, or patés, then remove the bottom and push
the contents out.

* Observing, of course, local rules for burying, packing out, recycling, or disposal..