Food Critic = My Dream Job

I’ve decided that it would be my absolute dream to review restaurants for a living.  I love to travel and I love to eat.  So, if someone could put those two things together for me, I’d have it made. 

And they wouldn’t have to all be fancy restaurants by any means.  I’ve loved watching “Man v. Food” and one of the things I love most about it is that he goes to family eateries, cheap joints mostly.  “Pig out spots”, I believe he calls them.  I wouldn’t necessarily have to go to “pig out spots” (and I’m definitely not up for the eating challenges).  But I wouldn’t be adverse to them either.  I would be “on a quest” for good food, no matter what or where.

I’m a foodie, but I’m not a sophisticated gourmet, necessarily.  (But I like that kind of food too!)  So I’d use regular language and have a regular palette. 

I think lots of people out there are looking for a regular someone to tell them what restaurants they should try.  This is why people ask friends for their suggestions more often than looking up restaurant reviews online or in the paper!  (Anecdotal evidence, yes.)  So now all I have to do is make about a billion friends and have someone pay me to “advertise” my suggestions to all those friends.  Easy enough, I’m sure.

McDonald’s Coke

About 8 years ago, I first encountered the idea that McDonald’s Coke was singularly delicious at a church women’s Bible study in northern Kentucky.  Thank you, Rolling Hills Church of Christ.  You were a hot mess of a church, but I will be eternally grateful to you for this sweet morsel of information.

I don’t know what it is about McDonald’s Coke that sets it apart from other Coke.  (And yes, I’m using “Coke” as a reference to actual Coca-Cola Classic soda, not as a generic southern term for all soda.)  Somehow it tastes much better than other restaurant fountain Cokes.  And I don’t know why it took me so long to discover that fact for myself.  Though I’m not normally a huge fan of fountain pop.  Its very nature is much sweeter & syrupy than other soda.  And the ratio of ice to soda is way too high in favor of ice.  Which then just melts & waters the soda down to an unpleasant degree.

But McDonald’s Coke is different.  It’s delightful & bubbly.  Sometimes Coke is a bit too acidic, but McDonald’s has somehow mastered the combination of fizz and sweet to create the perfect beverage.  I think McDonald’s website says it best: “Your McDonald’s meal’s BFF.”  Too true.

Even better, the past few summers has brought us the $1 large Coke deal.  Savor the savings, people!

Gift Mixes

How many layered jars of brownie & soup mixes do you currently have in your pantry or on your counter?  Why is it that we save those mixes “for a special occasion” rather than using them like the gifter intended, just to enjoy?!  Sometimes it’s because making what the mix is for is still a lot of work, even with the addition of the mix to help out.  Sometimes you still have to add a lot of ingredients that you may or may not already have on hand.  Sometimes it’s just that the jars are so pretty, all layered up, and you don’t want to ruin it by using it! 

Our church gives out a special “welcome bag” gift to new visitors each Sunday and a special one on Christmas Eve.  We are a part of the group that helps put those gifts together.  Usually it’s a food mix of some kind.  We’ve done layered brownie & cookie mixes in jars, dip mixes, beverage mixes, etc.  A lot of times we do a little something special for the Christmas Eve welcome bags since we have an abundance of visitors for those services especially.  One year for Christmas Eve we gave out apple crisp mixes that you could make in a mug, along with a church mug & an apple to make the mix. 

One of the reasons people like to give out gift mixes is that they’re meant to be an inexpensive but homemade, thoughtful gift.  However, sometimes with the cost of ingredients (like expensive M&M’s) and the jars and the tags, it can add up to be not so cheap. 

Recently I saw this gift mix & thought it would be simple & inexpensive as well:

 

http://moneysavingmom.com/2010/12/do-it-yourself-smores-in-a-jar.html

 

Capture the yumminess of s’mores in a jar to be made at the recipient’s leisure!
In a Mason jar, layer in this order:

• 1/3 cup graham crackers, crushed (on the bottom)
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cups of Holiday M & M’s
• top is off with mini marshmallows

On the tag, it should read:

S’mores in a Jar

Combine ingredients of the jar with 1/2 cup of melted butter and 1 tsp. vanilla.

Press mixture into 9-inch square baking pan.

Place the marshmallows on top.

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes. Cool completely.

Cut into bars and enjoy!

The jars, ingredients and decor were less than $5 each.

**Cari’s Note: Even easier, you can buy graham cracker crumbs already crushed for you!

This year we gave out gift mixes to friends, neighbors & co-workers.  A couple years ago we moved into our first house & I was overcome with Christmas cookie baking energy, so I took plates of Christmas cookies to several of our new neighbors.  Last year I was lacking that same energy, but several of our neighbors blessed us with small gifts of cookies, candy, etc.  This year I didn’t want to have to count on extra energy and we’re still on a pretty tight budget, so I decided to make beer bread mixes for everyone on our list.  The list is fairly long, but these mixes are pretty inexpensive to make, so it still stayed within budget.  And it didn’t take a lot of energy or time, so that was a bonus!

Beer Bread Mix

In a quart Ziploc bag, add ½ C sugar and 3 C self-rising flour.  Label bag “Beer Bread Mix”.  Put in pretty paper bag or leave plan & attach a Direction label.  (I used Christmas scrapbook paper & printed the directions on the backside.  Approximately 12 labels per sheet.  Then I used a holepunch and some brads to attach to the paper bag; you could easily attach to the Ziploc bag instead, though.)

Direction label:

1.  Add 12 oz beer / soda & mix well.                                           

2.  Spread into a greased loaf pan.                                               

3.  Brush 1 T melted butter over top, if desired.                                   

4.  Bake at 375 degrees for 50-55 min. 

**This bread is easy, inexpensive & delicious!! (Yes, you read that right.  I actually like beer bread okay since it’s more dense & moist than normal bread, with a mild sweet flavor.  Great for dipping in soups.)

Gum: The Miracle Fix

Ever since I was a young kid, I’ve loved gum.  I like bubble gum, mint gum, fruity gum.  Who doesn’t remember Big League Chew or Fruit Stripes gum?  How about Hubba Bubba?  Or finding gum in the middle of a lollipop?  That was always preferable than the tootsie roll centers for me.

As an adult, I still like gum.  My young nephew’s favorite thing about me for awhile was the fact that I always had a plethora of gum choices for him to seek out in my purse. 

A few years back I discovered that chewing gum after a meal helped to curb my dessert cravings.  Mint is actually an appetite suppressant, afterall.  But usually I just “need” a little something sweet after a meal, so a stick of sugar-free gum is just the ticket! 

I used to chew Extra Cool Green Apple gum.  But then I discovered that after chewing it, my husband always told me I had bad breath.  Come to find out, he just didn’t like the smell of that gum, but until I linked the two, I was pretty concerned for awhile.

Recently a friend introduced me to the new Extra Dessert Delights gums.  My favorite is the key lime pie, which is surprisingly similar to actual key lime pie.  I’m not a huge fan of the mint chocolate chip since it has a fake chocolate taste to me – similar to the fake chocolate in candles & chapsticks – but others seemed to really like it.  I have yet to try the strawberry shortcake version but I’ve heard that’s good.

One of my favorite gum finds of all time is the Orbit pina colada.  For awhile Trident had a similar flavor too but I’ve had trouble locating that recently. 

Like many things, my husband doesn’t share my love of gum.  I have no idea why.  But I guess this, like cheese, is just one more thing I get to keep all to myself. 

Merry Christmas, friends!!  I hope you find tasty, delicious gum in your stocking.

Weeknight Winter Weather Soup

I’ve written about my go-to foods before. One I left out is a treasure for winter-weather time.  It’s fast & delicious.  It’s easy to have on hand.  What could be better?!  For those of you out there that don’t like clams, you’re missing out.  I’ve never had fresh clams in the shell and sometimes clams can be a bit too chewy, but that’s usually from over-heating.  I like mine minced up good in a pasta sauce or soup.  And with the added benefit of corn and cream, you can’t go wrong.  If absolutely necessary, you could substitute a can of chicken for the clams.

Corny Clam Chowder

1 can cream-style corn

1 can cream of potato condensed soup

1 can minced or chopped clams, drained

1 ½ C half & half

In a medium saucepan, mix corn, soup and half & half.  Heat through.  Add clams and heat through. 

Garnish with bacon bits, if desired.  (We love it with Tastefully Simple’s Bacon Bacon sprinkled on top!)

Serve with corn muffins for a quick & delicious weeknight meal in under 10 minutes!! (Not counting the time it takes to make the corn muffins, of course.)

Note:  I did substitute 2% milk for the half & half recently and it was decent, but not nearly as good as the cream.

Food Callings

A few years back I knew no one that had what I like to call “food issues”.  Now I am related to 3 ½ vegetarians (yes, someone is just a half!), two gluten-free dieters, and I have two milk-free persons as well as some other fun stuff.  Not to mention my other friends who are eating “clean” and/or completely organic.  I like to call this “holistic”.  In fact, I have a friend that believes quite strongly in providing completely organic and whole foods for her kids.  Though this might have changed now, when I visited her last year and her kids were toddlers, neither of them had ever ingested anything that wasn’t organic or homegrown. 

Let’s start with the family vegetarians.  It all started when my sister-in-law read a novel that contained some material about the treatment of animals at a chicken farm, I believe.  This so captured her attention that she read up on this issue.  And she came to the conclusion that the best thing for her to do was to protest this inhumane treatment by becoming a vegetarian.  I respect this decision, as I do others who have made a similar resolution for the same, and different, reasons.  Though I have not personally been convicted of this myself yet.

So, onto the organic guru.  She is a wonder to me.  When I met her, she burned soup out of a can.  Now she cooks everything from scratch, and I do mean SCRATCH.  I think she’d plant her own wheat & grind it if she could.  She is definitely willing to spend money to get the best food for her family.  And she’s willing to spend time researching food.  She’s the one that told me that pickled or fermented foods are very good for you in moderation.  Important, in fact.  And that foods like corned beef are fermented.  But she didn’t want to buy already corned beef.  She wanted to buy organic, farm raised brisket at a local co-op and do the work of fermenting it herself.  Amazing!  Would never have occurred to me, I can assure you.

Food issues are becoming more & more common.  Some people are forced into making these life-altering changes.  But some people are called to it out of a conviction they have about their food & where it comes from.  (I recently read a book called "Everyday Justice" that gives a lot of insight into where our food comes from, what's in it, and how our food affects other countries.)  Most people who have food issues have to pay a higher price because of them.  So it intrigues me when someone is more than willing to pay this price. 

What price are you willing to pay?  Have you been convicted of any food “callings”?

Emotional Eating (or not)

It’s been pretty well documented that a lot of people are emotional eaters.  In fact, I just got an email devotion about that very topic today.  People try to fill the gap of sadness with food.  Or the gap of boredom, being lonely, etc.  And I probably fit into that more often than not, though I think I’m somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. 

But there are others who are emotional non-eaters.  Those, who because of some strong emotion, are simply not hungry.  The thought of food sounds repulsive and the taste is like ash in their mouths.

Normally I do not fall into this category.  Even when my mom passed away, this was not really the case for me.  My husband is the one that has a tendency toward this kind of reaction with emotions & food.  Often when he’s very stressed out (like having to drive a huge moving truck towing a car across several states), he will pass on meals until the stressful situation is over.

Again, this does not normally happen to me.  But it did recently.  I like to think I’m a fairly rational person, not given to such dramatic emotions at this point in my life.  Apparently that’s not as much the case as I’d hoped.

Anyway, it’s a weird, awful feeling and I hope I don’t experience it regularly from here on out.  And I’m sorry for those of you who do react this way on a continual basis.  I will never again joke about how I’d rather have that reaction than the opposite, making it seem like you’d want to somehow feel this way in order to lose weight!  It’s like constant butterflies, and not in a good way. 

Oh, well.  Just something new I experienced recently in the realm of food that I thought I’d share all my greatest fans out there.  

What kind of emotional eater are you?