My bologna has a first name, and it's not D-I-E-T-Z. Its last name isn't W-A-T-S-O-N, either. For many of us, bologna has a wonderful, child-like charm to it. It elicits memories of the school cafeteria, where a bologna sandwich was paired with a cardboard milk carton or, better yet, slow Sunday mornings when your mom would fry up the sliced sausage to serve at the breakfast table.
By the 1950s, pre-sliced and packaged deli meat was hailed as a time-saving invention for "homemakers," and bologna sandwiches were packed into millions of lunch boxes and bags. Then, in 1970s, Oscar Mayer had success with its vacuum sealed-packaging, and it began selling as much bologna as it did hot dogs with its famous jingle. At the same time, Oscar Meyer introduced a line of various deli meats - one of which was olive loaf: a bologna-like sausage studded with sliced pimento-stuffed olives.
Our favorite way to use up extra deli meat is to make a rich and creamy chicken cordon bleu soup. While this recipe typically calls for raw chicken and ham that you need to cook, you already have both on hand, pre-cooked. This means it will be even faster and easier to make a flavorful soup. Along with your extra deli chicken and ham, you'll also need chicken stock, onion, cream cheese, heavy cream, and cheddar cheese.
