Mom Snyders Bread Filling Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Tear bread into bite sized pieces.
• Slice bacon into small bite size pieces about 1/2-inch wide (Tip: partially freezing bacon makes cutting easier, or you can fry bacon and rip into small pieces after it cools).
• Cook bacon over medium heat until done. Remove bacon and add to bread. Reserve bacon fat and return pan to stove.
• Add celery to pan-sauté until no longer firm (you may cover pan to speed up cooking time-just check routinely). Add onions and cook until tender (you may do celery and onion separate if you're afraid you may overcook celery).
• Add salt, pepper, and onion & garlic powders to celery to taste (go easy on salt--just because other ingredients already contain salt).
• Add celery/onions to bread/bacon.
• Add mashed potatoes (2-3 cups--I think I use about three, but it may be two--I just "scoop" potatoes into mix. (Tip-if using fresh and still hot wait until they cool to add egg to mix).
• Add three cans condensed chicken and star or chicken noodle soup (Note: if using chicken noodle, you'll want to break up noodle fine while mixing by hand)--just soup as is--NO WATER.
• Add three eggs.
• Okay-here's the part not for the squeamish: MIX BY HAND--(yep-get your hands in and squish all the ingredients together--it's not an attractive looking mix, unbut wait til ya bake it--).
• Place in a greased (I use butter or margarine) 9x13-inch baking pan about an inch and a half thick. Press mix into pan--you may have more than pan--I get about a 9x13 and a pie pan's worth. Do not make too thick--this increases cooking time and doesn't seem to taste as good.
• Bake at 350°F for about 30-45 minutes. Time depends on how fast your oven actually cooks. I don't really look at the clock so much as the browning of the filling. You want a golden brown top (GOLDEN!). Just check for doneness if you layered thickly in pan.
• Remove from oven when golden brown and cooked through (Note: glass dishes cook faster and brown bottom-aluminum will not brown bottom. Your filling may be done faster if you use Pyrex).
• Set pan on cooling rack. Let pan sit and slightly cool before cutting into servings (if filling cools completely before you actually serve, just reheat in microwave first).
• You may bake this a day in advance an reheat (my hubby and I even snack on it cold).