Mom Snyder'S Bread Filling - cooking recipe

Ingredients

6 slices bacon
4 -5 stalks celery, finely diced
1 loaf bread, bread may be few days old (white, potato or half loaf white, half multi grain)
2 medium onions, medium to finely diced
3 (10 1/2 ounce) cans condensed chicken and stars soup or (10 1/2 ounce) cans chicken noodle soup
3 large eggs
2 -3 cups mashed potatoes (fresh or prepared flakes)
salt
pepper
onion powder (may add garlic powder also)

Preparation

Preheat oven to 350\u00b0F.
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-saute 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\u00b0F 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).