the moderate epicurean

a quest for measured pleasure...

Friday, August 15, 2008

Hey, this is my 575th moderate epicurean post! Crazow! Who knew how much I'd be willing to write when I don't have to? I'll have to keep that in mind, if I ever go back to school, since I apparently just need to write about what I'm eating/cooking, and voila, assignment complete. I realize this speaks (potentially unflattering) volumes about my food-exhibitionist self, but there (here) it is...x 575. Wow.

Gosh, now I'm feeling a little pressure to post a landmark uber-yummy-healthy recipe. But...all I had for dinner was a couple of Ortega corn tostada shells topped with black bean spread and a bit of shredded Monterey Jack cheese, toasted until crisp-and-melty. Not one bit home-made or fresh, sorry. (Although I had some delicious locally grown blueberries for dessert - from my CSA veggie share - kapow the flavor!) OK then. A rather unimpressive and uninteresting, albeit tasty, 575th entry.

Pressure = fffffft.

Moderate it: I tend to use corn tostadas instead of tortilla chips - at 40 cals/each, you get a measured crunch without crazy cals - very good in tortilla soup and for taco-y, nacho-y type things. And yes, I'm still clearly craving Mexican food...

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3 Comments:

At 9:36 AM, Blogger Suz said...

all I know is that it's a relief to know that sometimes you eat Ortega taco shells...or Velveeta Mac and Cheese, for that matter...;-)

 
At 2:24 PM, Blogger Stephanie said...

Hahahaha, oh yeah, I've made my peace with several packaged foods - Morningstar Farms black bean burgers, French Meadow Sprouted Grain Tortillas, Ortega Corn Tostada Shells, Eggo Blueberry Nutrigrain Waffles, potato chips of any sort (!), Jeni's Smoked Almond ice cream and basically any flavor of Tate's cookies (links under "for foodies," both are to die for), Notorious Nuts peanuts.

On the flip side, things I (we) loathe and now consider food-like objects (per our discussion at lunch this week); granted, I thought I loved all of these as a kid, mostly due to effective, pervasive advertising and because I wasn't allowed to have them: Kraft Mac & Cheese; Poptarts; Lucky Charms & Coco Puffs; Pillsbury blueberry muffins, cinnamon rolls, & crescent rolls (I was a bit obsessed with the bang-and-snap-open-tube); Wonder Bread & bologna sandwiches (uber-ick); Shake-n-Bake (egads, in effect a soggy, baked MSG coating); microwave popcorn (it's so easy to make the real deal in a pan with a bit of olive oil, and it's 1 million times better), Chips Ahoy cookies (what are they MADE from?).

I'll stop there. Hey, I'm not opposed to something in a package if it's semi-real (Velveeta Shells & Cheese excluded), but most of what I listed above is DISGUSTING. How did we get to this point where we think these are real food items? Sigh. Industrial food is often, well, kinda gross. Eeek.

With completely random, absolutely personal, obviously hypocritical exceptions, as noted (uh, potato chip? Ha, right). Serve it Forth (MFK Fisher).

 
At 7:38 PM, Blogger Stephanie said...

Oh, I forgot to say that as you mentioned, the test is often what packaged things taste like cold - that's when all the chemical flavors/textures come out. I keep laughing about the slice-n-bake cookies, which are passable warm (warm cookies!), but when they cool to room temp, OMG, so horrible.

 

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