Wednesday Ramblings: Random Things About Food

 

I thought it would be fun this week to just share my opinions (and they are mine, they do not have to be yours!) about certain foods.  I mean, I did share my opinion about Jello/Pudding 'salads' last week.  And one of you rightly pointed out that there are Jello salads with vegetables in them.   Well, yes, there are and I suppose I might have eaten some of those at some point. 

 I understand the original purpose of gelatin salads was to provide a cool balance to the heat in summer.   A nice cold salad served with cold sliced chicken or deli sliced meats and hot rolls would make a rather nice meal when it was 100F outdoors and you had no AC.

 I do like Jello with fruit in it for a salad.  There's a pineapple and Lime gelatin salad that I like rather well that has cottage cheese in it.   And at Thanksgiving each year, I make a knock off recipe for Bess that is Cranberry sauce, raspberry gelatin, pineapple and nuts that I do consider a sort of salad.

The 'salads' I objected to in that last Ramblings post were specifically ones that contain whipped topping and blueberry pie filling with a box of flavored gelatin; Strawberry Pretzel salad; Watergate salad (whipped topping and pudding), etc., those sorts of things that truly are so very sweet that they are more dessert in my opinion than 'salad'.

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Grandmother always made an unusual salad for holidays. She simply called it Congealed Salad.  It consisted of gelatin, pineapple, grated cheddar cheese, mayonnaise and pimentos.  It wasn't flavored gelatin but plain gelatin. Sounds horrid, doesn't it?  It looked a bit awful, too.  But it actually tasted pretty good.   Perhaps because I was accustomed to it, and it just seemed right to have it when we were having a holiday meal with Grandmother.  She only made it for holidays and never at any other time of the year.  Somewhere I have the recipe for it.  I can't for one minute imagine making it for my family or my husband, though.   

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You know how trends come and go and some seem to linger overlong?  Bacon in everything is one of those trends that is just due a halt if you ask me.   I keep hoping, I do truly, as Bacon continues to increase in cost that people will put it back on the breakfast plate and occasional baked potato or salad where it belongs.  But no.

Bacon milkshakes.  Bacon Brownies.  Bacon wrapped asparagus.  Bacon Chocolate Chip cookies...JUST STOP!

I like Bacon.  Even though I no longer eat pork, I searched high and low to find a really good turkey bacon and paid a premium price for it.  Where did we eat it?  On the breakfast plate.  Occasionally as a topping for a salad.  On a baked potato, or a good old-fashioned BLT.  I didn't add it to every other casserole I made nor upon my hamburgers except on rare occasions.  I liked a bacon and peanut butter sandwich (with finely minced celery it is heavenly).   But not in my sweets.

One recipe we used to make with bacon was Fake Mignons. We'd take a thick ground sirloin patty and wrap the outside with bacon and broil it.  That was darned good eating and a fancy meal for company with a lovely butter sauce to pour over it.  

There was one chicken dish I made when I was a newlywed that consisted of a boneless skinless chicken breast, which we boned and skinned ourselves because 45 years ago you didn't buy them that way,  dried beef slices that had been soaked to remove the extra salt and bacon.  You rolled a slice of the soaked dried beef in the chicken breast, wrapped the outside of the breast roll with bacon, and put in a slow cooker and dumped mushroom sauce over it.  It was lovely.  In fact, I was thinking I'd love to make that once again.   That was considered a fancy company dinner in the late 1970's, too.

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Just for fun, I went to look up Dried Beef.  The first image that came up was Hormel  brand (I bought another name brand) and said it was $2.66 for 2.5ounces, sold at Walmart, so I clicked on the link and I nearly died of shock.  Not $2.66, but $51.10 and NOPE that is not for a case as I was certain it must be.  A bit further on I found the brand I used to buy on the search page and that image stated it was sold on eBay for $56 a jar...Sheesh!  That at least was a 5-pack.  Wow.  

Now you know I've got to check prices at the grocery stores round about and just see what this is all about!

later: While proofreading this post, I went back to find a photo of the brand dried beef I used to use, Armour.  Turns out that at Walmart it is $2.72 a jar.  Not bad.  However, this is the only dish I ever made with dried beef.  I never had creamed chipped beef.  Do any of you keep this on hand?

On thinking about it I wonder why one couldn't use thin sliced ham or even that Carl Buddig  thin luncheon beef to make the same dish.  Those are still cheap as chips!

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Speaking of turkey bacon, the brand I really like a lot is called Godshall's.   Katie had picked it up for us one night when she was shopping and called to ask if I wanted anything.  I said I'd like some turkey bacon.  I'd never seen or heard of the brand but we liked it a lot and vowed we'd make that our go to turkey bacon.

It only cost about twice or three times what I was used to paying for turkey bacon, but rather than turning into jerky once heated through, this bacon was made up of enough fat and dark meat turkey that it was actually crispy and perfectly smoked.  It was worth it to use to buy two packs every couple of months.  Now I cannot find it anywhere.  

The next best brand in my opinion is Applegate farms but it's higher than Godshall's and currently as scarce.  

We'd decided a long time ago that rather than buy cheap turkey bacon, we'd just as soon take a can of turkey Spam, cut it super thin, crisp it lightly in a nonstick pan and have that as our 'bacon'.  The downfall is the sodium in the stuff.  So we limited ourselves to opening only one can per month and stretching it over a two week period.  Cost-wise it's cheaper than Godshall and more expensive than the cheaper brands. Only now I can't find turkey Spam either.

So, for the time being we'll just get the Aldi Fit and Active turkey bacon when I can find it or go without.  Either one will be just fine.  I like being picky but I'm not that picky!  

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One last note on bacon.  I used to watch a really lovely vlog, that I can't think of the name at all.  The girl did things so beautifully, all soft music, pretty flowers, sunshiny days, lovely spreads of food,  lovely tiny garden, etc.  One video included her setting out breakfast and I was shocked as could be when she opened a packet of turkey bacon and laid it right on the platter to serve cold.  I ran to look at my own package of turkey bacon in the fridge and sure enough right there on the package it said "Fully cooked".  

I have never given it a try.  I figured even if it was fully cooked, we always put hams in the oven for 20 minutes per pound anyway and with the bacon, I just follow the cooking instructions on the back of the package.

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Another trend I am over.  'Cracked Out' recipes that include bacon, ranch dressing powder, and cheddar cheese.   

One recipe website I follow makes mostly chicken recipes.  Each week she shares her menu plan and she must serve a 'cracked out' something or other recipe at least three times a week.  

Call me a prude, tell me I'm taking things too seriously, but I hate the idea of calling anything 'Crack' because of the negative connotations.    I realize it's meant to be funny, and to indicate an obsession with something you can't stop but it's not funny to me.  That's just my opinion.

I hate the name...not the result.

I have had the bacon, ranch and cheddar combination in a pasta salad and that was really good.  I've also had it in a chicken and broccoli casserole dish that was exceptionally good. I'd make it again if I could find good quality cheaper turkey bacon.  

And there's another point with these recipes.  Bacon is getting pricey...Do we really want to just toss it into everything and increase the costs of the food we're making?

I don't make these recipes because it's simply not cost-effective.  I might make them a rare occasion sort of dish, but I refuse to make any recipe that costs me more than a steak simply because I tossed bacon into it.   That's just my personal view on the state of my own economy, ok?  But do I really want it on my chicken, in my tater tot casserole, in my chicken pot pie, in a cooked pasta dish, in a dip, etc.?  No, not really.  

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Does anyone remember the 'Better than Sex' round of recipes from the 1990's?  Everything was better than sex: cake, casseroles, pudding desserts, probably a Jello salad, as well.  I hated that trend. 

If you've labored over a recipe, give it a name people can use without alluding to sex (or crack).  I can't tell you how often I attended some church dinner and someone would say, "Jenny what is this?!  It's so good!"  And little old Jenny would lean across the table and whisper "It's called 'Better than S-E-X cake" and everyone would cackle like hens laying eggs.  Oh for goodness sake!  Grow up.   

Well that trend did finally die out though you can still come across various recipes with the name in some of the older electric cooperative cookbooks in my area.  I found two just the other day.  I rolled my eyes both times.

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Do you like to watch grocery hauls?  I do...and I don't.  

 I find myself going all virtuous and judge-y when I do.  "I wouldn't buy that if I were her, I would get so and such and save money on that."   "Sheesh, she calls that a bargain?"  

I have to bring myself up short and remind myself that there's a pretty darned good reason why I've never bothered to share a grocery haul for this house.  Someone is bound to tell me why what I buy is unhealthy, costly, labor intensive, etc.  I used to buy a 12-pack of soda every single week and sometimes 2 of them.  John drank Coke at least twice a day.  I gradually weaned him down to one a day and then he's practically given them up in the past year.

 Now I'll buy soda on sale in 12-ounce bottles, and I usually buy four at a time (best price).  Never mind that they last us two or three months or that the grown children will often get one or two of them to take home for themselves.  What you'd see is those four 8-packs of soda in my haul and someone would be sure to tell me that we didn't need it, they stopped drinking it and felt worlds better, I could buy brand x and save a lot more, etc.  Here's the deal. I like Coke.  I'm going to buy Coke.  I generally drink less than 1 bottle a week. And then there's another whole thing.  It's none of their business.  Just as it's none of mine if I'm watching what someone else has bought in their grocery haul.  

I remind myself sternly that not everyone likes the same sorts of foods.  I buy a lot of 'ingredients' and not a lot of processed foods, but now and then I'll pick up a few processed things because (a) I happen to want it, (b) it was on sale, (c) I thought I'd just try it.  All are valid reasons to make that purchase.  It's not costing anyone but myself and John a single penny. 

If a woman happens to have 6, 7, 8, 9 kids at home to feed and she wants to purchase individual yogurts and applesauce for them it's not coming out of my pocket.  It's probably a whole lot easier than having five children around the ages of my five youngest grandchildren all clamoring at once for a serving of something.  Give 'em a cup and hush 'em up!  I get plum flustered when I've got a 5-year old earnestly rubbing his tummy telling me "I'm hungy" and two two-year-olds screeching because they saw me touch a piece of food and can't wait three seconds for me to peel and slice it, let alone the absolute mental anguish to be got through it if it also needs cooking.  

Another reason why I don't like to watch those sorts of hauls is because I can't help but comparison what I was buying with 7 at home to feed on a very limited budget and what someone else on a far less restricted budget is buying to feed the same number of folks.  Granted there's an almost 30-year gap in prices but even so, there's a very long stretch between $30 a week and $350 a week even with figuring in inflation.  Frankly that's just jealousy on my part that needs to be stamped upon good and hard and eradicated. 

I do like to watch them because I'm nosy about how others feed their families.  Often, they share quick meal ideas or recipes they mean to make as they show what they've bought and I get good ideas or my memory is jogged thinking of something I used to make using a particular ingredient.  

I'd forgotten for instance how very often we ate graham crackers and applesauce or peaches as a dessert after a meal.  The kids loved it.  It was a nice little sweet something without the expense of baking. The kids were getting a serving of fruit in them, without anyone reminding them it was good for them.  I went out and bought grahams and applesauce for us the next time I shopped, and we've had it at least once a week.   I introduced Caleb to a graham cracker, and he LOVES them.  They were a whole 89c a box at Aldi.  I haven't bought any in a month or three though, so they've probably gone up a little.

And last, I like watching them because it reminds me that I can trim my grocery budget right now and we'd still be able to eat fairly well because I have experience under my belt that taught me how to do so. Now and then as I'm being critical, I'm also examining why I might buy something.  Sure it's nice to have canned spaghetti sauce on hand.  Aldi has a perfectly lovely Marinara that's been 85c a jar for as long as I've shopped there.  It's delicious.  But in a pinch?  A 59c can of tomatoes, a bit of lemon juice, garlic and oregano can make a good Marinara  and come in under that 85c price point by about 25c.

Then, too, I watch because my mind will suggest ever so gently that I ought to be looking to cut out some things in my own budget and worry less about what someone might cut out of theirs...I have loads of time on my hands after all, compared to a woman with a household of 11!

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Finally, I'll finish with this.  I alluded to it earlier about the excessive use of bacon.  It's pricey, it's expensive and if you're watching your budget then you probably shouldn't really be using it all of the time and then sit about complaining about how much food costs.  

But then you know my philosophy.  Make things special.  Keep a certain recipe that is a bit more costly to make for a special occasion, or a Sunday dinner or company meal and not for your everyday ones.  It allows the anticipation of that food to keep it as a special thing.  

Does that make sense to anyone?  Just me?

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