I took a chance on a sale and bought a jar of Barilla Formaggi Italian Cheese tomato sauce. (I’d link to the site but it has annoying flash-based navigation.) It was definitely more orange than other jarred pasta sauces, and I have to say that the first thing I thought after my first taste was ‘Spaghetti-O’s’. The second taste said, “Hmmm – a bit tangy?” And the third taste insisted, “Salty! Way too salty!” It was an extremely weird combination when you were expecting a reasonable tomato-based pasta sauce but you couldn’t really taste any tomato directly. In the ingredients, it lists hard grating cheese, and cheddar cheese, and Italian style pasteurized process cheese, and as the last cheese – romano. I think I must have bought this sauce in a alternate dimension where there are Italian products that have never heard of parmesan, ricotta, or other delicious cheeses and where 620 mg of salt per serving is ‘normal’. To sum up… the other Barilla pasta sauces we’ve tried have been fine, but this one was just way out in left field.
Fortune Cookie!
Fortune Cookies Net Winning Mega Numbers. “It’s the first time eating Chinese has paid off to that extent, according to a Virginia Lottery spokesman.”
A Salute
Julia Child Dies – Age 91. Apparently, she didn’t start cooking until she was 32! And she wanted her last meal to be “Red meat and a bottle of gin.” – I hope she got her wish.
Another Reason To Love Carbs
This is a TAD offtopic here, but I think it still relates: Promising Thai fuel cell converts carbohydrates to generate electricity – “Cellennium Thailand, a small research and development company, has successfully developed and commercialised a sugar fuel cell that uses carbohydrates from sugar or tapioca to generate electricity. The vanadium-based fuel cell works by electrochemically converting the chemical energy bound in carbohydrates into electricity. Cellennium chairman Krisada Kampanatsanyakorn said the fuel cell, which has already been patented in Sweden, was able to store electricity for up to 15 to 20 years, or up to five times the life cycle of normal batteries….”
The Good and The Bad
There are some restaurants which seem to do things really well, but other things really poorly, so you only end up going there if you’re in the mood for the ‘good’ things. For instance, there’s a local diner-type place that makes what they call the ‘colossal burger’ – it’s a huge hand-made burger that’s fire-seared and just completely tasty. And their natural cut fries are just plain GOOD. This same place serves breakfasts (all day) as well, but most of what we’ve had there has been disappointing. Flat, thin, and tasteless scrambled eggs, pancake syrup that’s bland and runny… all the breakfast foods just seem to have no flavor at all. Before we stopped trying that place for the occasional breakfast out, we’d always leave feeling like none of the food actually made physical contact with our taste buds.
There’s also another local eatery within a store that we’ve dropped by a few times. They, too, had good burgers and fries, so we thought we’d go back and order their burritos. (It’s a limited menu kind of place.) I’ve never HAD such a horrible meal in my life. The chicken was on the edge of being either spoiled or doused in so much MSG that it tasted like salt gone bad – if that’s even possible. There was no cheese at all, the drop of sour cream had been placed inside the burrito and you couldn’t tell it was there.
Is it who’s cooking? What the cook knows how to do? What the cook LIKES themselves? Do cooks generally TASTE their own food? I guess I’m suspicious that the food that doesn’t taste good was made by those who consider cooking just another job and who don’t really have passion or joy for it. I guess those who aren’t in it for the taste tend to judge it by other critera, such as what the full plate looks like when ‘dressed’, etc. (John had a fellow cook tell him one day that if the food LOOKED good, the customer’s imaginations would fill in the rest. Both of us wondered, why not just make the food taste good in the first place? You don’t eat food with your EYES, right?) Anyway – that’s my rant for today – LOL.
Subway…. Eat Smelly?
“Please Don’t Eat Smelly Foods!” Salami, sausages, hams…. smelly? Maybe they should have gone with a ‘cheese’ theme instead, but then you’d risk offending the French instead of the Italian. Better luck next time!
I Donut Believe It…
Just be quiet and drink your doughnut!
Pink & Purple – The New White?
John and I went to a local, inexpensive eatery today to get some Italian pasta dinners – manicotti and lasagna, specifically. We quickly discovered that they had purchased some new (and cheaper, plasticky, reusable) plates to replace the old, white, ceramic ramekins that they used to use. We certainly liked the old ramekins better overall, but the new dishes would have been at least tolerable, except that they were trimmed with a large border of purple and pink flowers. Have you ever SEEN red-orange colored tomato sauce next to pink and purple? Of course, it may just be me, as I tend to be very attentive to colors in the first place, but let’s just say that this particular combination doesn’t necessarily ENCOURAGE the appetite. (All they were missing was a unicorn in the middle that you discovered upon clearing the plate.)
I AM hoping these cheap plates are just a stop-gap measure before they get new ramekins. I’m guessing they aren’t meant to last very long with commercial use. Hmmmm – maybe the pink and purple border will scrub off in the dishwashers! Well, one can HOPE!
Revenge is a Dish Best Served with Cheese
Revenge is the name we have given our version of Loaded Nachos. Why Revenge? Many moons ago Kristen’s sister made us a recipe called Southwest Fiesta, lots of it. By the 3rd or 4th day of leftovers we started calling it “Fiesta, The Revenge” like it was a movie sequel. From there it just became Revenge, and even though we changed many of the ingredients the name just stuck.
This is one of those recipes you can’t do wrong. You can vary any of the ingredients to suit your own tastes but this is our favorite.
Revenge (or Loaded Nachos) Recipe
1lb lean ground beef
1lb monterey jack cheese
1lb extra sharp cheddar cheese
1 can black kidney beans
1 can corn niblets
1 can diced tomatoes
1 jar salsa
1 medium onion
A smidgeon of vegetable oil
salt
pepper
chili powder
Large bag of sturdy tortilla chips
Sour cream
Dice up the onion. Add the smidgeon of oil to a large frying pan and heat under a medum flame. Add the onion and saute for several minutes until soft and translucent.
Add ground beef to pan, chopping into smaller chunks with the spatula and stirring as it cooks. Cook until done, when no ‘pink’ remains. Drain the excess fat if necessary.
Open beans and rinse away icky bean juice, add to meat. Open and drain corn niblets, add them as well. Add diced tomatoes, then add salsa, salt, pepper and chili powder to taste. (You can also add more spice with things like Cayenne pepper, hot sauce, etc.) Let the whole meat mixture cook together for a little while. (If it’s a little liquidy, this will reduce the amount of moisture.)
Shred cheeses onto a plate and mix together lightly.
Line a large, microwave safe plate with a layer of chips. Use a slotted spoon to sprinkle some of the mixture on top of the chips (don’t overload too much!), then sprinkle a good amount of cheese on top. Microwave for about 1 minute until the cheese is melted. Add sour cream liberally to chips as desired.
I’d like my hair on the side, please…
The less hair you have, the less you pay at Gary’s Uptown Restaurant and Bar on Wednesdays, and you’re also privy to a special menu which includes flat iron steak, filet of snapper, and chicken fettucine. No hair? 100% off! No kidding! 😉 (I wonder who decides what percentage of ‘bald’ someone is?)