Raisinets and Popcorn

There is something about a salty-sweet combination that is so satisfying.  I love sitting in a dark movie theater enjoying a bag/box/tub of hot buttered popcorn mixed with Raisinets.  Some prefer adding M&Ms or Milk Duds, but whatever the combo of chocolate and salt it is always a home run for me.  Like a lot of children, I was introduced to dipping my McDonald’s french fries into my vanilla milkshake.  I don’t frequent the golden arches that much anymore but I recently relived my childhood with that exact order and it still provided me with a guilty pleasure.

A couple other combinations I’ve been known to indulge: Chicken salad on a cinnamon raisin bagel and I found this southwestern chunky salsa that I really love and used it over pasta when I realized I didn’t have any tomato sauce.  It was rather tasty.  A friend of mine mentioned putting cranberry sauce instead of jelly on biscuits, which I never thought of but I imagine would be yummy. 

What unconventional food combinations do you enjoy?  I’ve never crushed potato chips and put them on a hoagie like Dr. Huxtable on The Cosby Show, but I have taken a cue from another popular sitcom with this food combo:

Peter Brady’s pork chops and applesauce bit is legendary.  But maybe you prefer the “pixie stick-Cap’n Crunch” sandwich from The Breakfast Club:

Here’s one last delicacy to chomp on.  This scene from the movie Elf will give you a cavity just from viewing it.  I will leave you with Will Farrell’s character Buddy creating the concoction of spaghetti with maple syrup, chocolate syrup, pop tarts, mints, M&M’s, and sprinkles.  Mangia!

Role Play

We all have roles in our family.  I am the youngest of three.  I am the baby sister.  I am also the little cousin to my maternal first cousin Andréa.  I am two years younger than Andréa and when we were kids we’d like to play ”restaurant.”  We’d go around and take food orders and attempt to create meals for our family members.  Our culinary skills were limited.  I recall we primarily made scrambled eggs and fried hot dogs, and maybe BLT sandwiches.  I found it funny though that it took the two of us to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  My aunt still likes to tell the story that the art of spreading the jelly was my forte and the role of applying the creamy peanut butter to the Wonder Bread went to my cousin.   In honor of today being National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day, I wanted to pay homage to this sweet little memory.    

   

 

Rounded Perfection

When I lived in New York I worked for Oxygen Media inside Chelsea Market, which is built in the former National Biscuit Company factory where the Oreo cookie was invented and produced.  Chelsea Market is a great place to go for food and shopping, plus around every corner there is a window into the past.  Traces of the old Nabisco factory are on display, which gives the two-block complex such a cool historical feel.  I often wondered if there had been studies on what it says about you based on your method for eating an Oreo cookie.  I know I’ve enjoyed them:

• whole
• dipped in milk
• pulled apart so the cream could be licked
• pulled apart so the cream could be scraped off either with your teeth or with the un-creamed cookie
• crumbled on top of other sweet treats
• as the cookies for ice cream sandwiches

I think that makes me an average Oreo eater.  I have yet to have one deep-fried.  I need to add that to my to-do list along with trying out the Oreo creations at The Donut Pub and the Hill Country Chicken.  These two Manhattan hot spots were featured on CBS Sunday Morning by one of my favorite comedians/political satirists Mo Rocca. This weekend he had the best assignment to explore the world of the Oreo as it celebrates it centennial.  Not a bad day’s work paying homage to Nabisco’s little darling of a cookie.  The Oreo is still yummy, going strong and looking good for 100.  Now if I could just get a couple Double Stuf and a cold glass of milk I’d be a happy camper.

Run to You

Lyrics to songs constantly run through my head.  I can easily break out into song if certain phrases pop up during conversations with friends.  This week Whitney Houston’s music dominated the airwaves and played in our hearts and minds.  Her song “Run to You” came into my consciousness today.  I didn’t have the amorous “Won’t you hold me in your arms, and keep me safe from harm” thoughts in my head.  Instead I had applied the words of the title against the concept of what I needed to run to in my time of need.

We all have creature comforts.  Where would Linus be without his baby blue blanket?  As a caregiver for a mother living with severe dementia, there are a couple of things that I run to for support to soothe an outburst, a crying spell or an on coming glimpse of mood change.  My go-to tricks may not always work, but recently a good old fashion treat has been my savior.  Mommy always loved the candy Butterfinger.  They didn’t trademark the phrase “crispety, crunchy, peanut-buttery” for nothing.  To see the expression on my mother’s face after her first bite change from confusion into the I need to close my eyes-toss my head back due to pure delight along with moans of “ummmm” is priceless.  To silently sing “I want to run to you (oooh)” to a bag of Butterfingers may seem silly, but it’s music to my ears when Mommy is satisfied.

Chocolate Rush

Chocolate is my kryptonite.  If it were a food group it would be my favorite.  It’s rare that a day goes by that I don’t think about indulging in a piece or something drizzled with it.  Maybe that is one reason why Gene Wilder’s 1971 Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory will always appeal to my senses.  Envisioning the joy of running to the candy shop after school and having the merchant throw sweet treats at you — and on top of that he doesn’t ask you to pay for them would be a dream come true.  I will never understand why Charlie didn’t run into the store to capitalize on the free loot.

The marketing genius behind finding a Golden Ticket inside a Wonka bar created a mad frenzy around the globe.  Imagine the revenue generated for Mr. Wonka and his chocolate factory.  Hopefully the Oompa Loompas received raises.

Opening the door to the chocolate room was like entering Munchkinland.  The sight of a chocolate river running through The World of Pure Imagination truly is my kind of paradise.  Although seeing everyone viciously attack and eat the landscape was somewhat nauseating, it was still thrilling all the same.

With all shenanigans and odd moments in the movie the moral of the story unfolds at the end when Charlie turns over his Everlasting Gobstopper to Mr. Wonka, and the wacky chocolatier says:

So shines a good deed in a weary world.

I’ll take it one step further by saying that sharing a little chocolate when the world gets weary seems like a nice way to provide a pick me up.  Happy Chocolate Day!

Side bar: I still find it odd that the grandparents hadn’t gotten out of bed for 20 years. How did they go to bathroom? And how could Grandpa Joe find so much pep in his step for this classic song and dance number?

Real Simple Tips: 11 Ways to Save On Groceries

I am always looking for tricks to save some coin.  Real Simple always provides great tips, so let’s head to the market:

1. Pick products on the top and bottom shelves.  Bigger sizes of items, which tend to offer a lower price per unit, are usually placed on the highest and lowest shelves.  Smaller sizes, with a higher price per unit, are often given prime placement at eye level.
2. Purchase oranges, onions, and potatoes in bags rather than individually.  You’ll pay roughly half the price.
3. Buy store brands instead of name brands.  Store brands are usually close to the market leader in quality yet less costly.  In fact, the same manufacturer that makes the branded product often manufactures the house brand.
4. Buy ground beef and chicken breasts in bulk or family sized packages and you’ll save big: 20 percent on ground beef and 50 percent on chicken.
5. Opt for frozen seafood over fresh.  Vacuum-packaged salmon, flounder, tilapia fillets and bags of frozen shrimp cost 20 to 40 percent less than their counterparts at the fish counter.
6. Avoid buying prepared and packaged goods.  You’ll pay a premium for convenience.  Consumer Reports once found that two pounds of carrots cost $1.29, compared with $7.16 for the same amount of precut sticks.
7. Don’t buy non-grocery items at the supermarket.  Health and beauty goods are usually cheaper at mass-market retailers like Target.  And you’ll find the best deals on paper products at warehouse clubs.
8. Find out an item’s cost per unit (CPU). It’s listed on the shelf sticker next to the price. It will tell you what an item’s cost per pound or ounce is, which can keep you from getting hoodwinked by packaging.
9. Join grocery savings clubs at local supermarkets.  These free programs entitle cardholders to members-only savings on selected products, a benefit that could shave about 18 percent off your total grocery bill.
10. Download coupons.  Check couponcart.com or coolsavings.com for deals on frequently purchased items and shop on double-coupon days if your grocer has them.
11. Join a warehouse club.  Bulk retailers, such as BJ’s Wholesale Club and Costco, can be 20 to 50 percent cheaper than regular grocery stores when it comes to products like condiments, coffee, bottled water, and canned beans and vegetables.  Visit the websites of clubs like BJ’s ($45 annual fee), Costco ($50 annual fee) and Sam’s Club ($40 annual fee) to determine which has the best location and product mix for you and join online.

Rewind: Here’s The Scoop

Unless you’re lactose intolerant, I bet a scoop of ice cream would be really tasty right now.  In order to get a round mound of the frozen treat an ice cream scooper is needed.  Thanks to Alfred L. Cralle we all have one.  While serving as a porter in a Pittsburgh drug store, Cralle noticed that ice cream was hard to dispense with the ease of one hand.  It would stick to spoons and ladles, and become a tedious process to place in bowls.  He set out to change this and invented a mechanical device originally called an “Ice Cream Mold and Disher,” which we all now know as the ice cream scoop.  On February 2, 1897, 30-year old Alfred L. Cralle was granted U.S. Patent #576395.  Instead of giving him a shout out for today’s Black History Month fact, I will offer up a scream.

Recipes from Grandma

Handwriting has become a lost art form.  The feeling of a writing utensil nestled between the thumb and the tip of the middle finger pressing along a sheet of paper is a sensation that I enjoy, but I know is not the primary method for sharing thoughts today.  Pecking away at a keyboard or tapping on a small mobile device has now become commonplace.   I think it would be fascinating to gather a group of people aged 10 – 60 and ask them to sign their John Hancock on paper and see the results.

I have saved the majority of the cards and letters that have been written to me over the years.  I have also inherited the numerous cards and letters that my mother had as well.  While searching through the boxes of my mother’s keepsakes I came across recipe cards that belonged to her mother – my grandmother Amaza Reid.  Seeing her penmanship scrolled on stained and tattered paper is such a sweet treat.  Ironically, the majority of her recipes were about sweet treats:

George Tillman wrote, produced and directed one of my favorite films Soul Food.  It’s all about the tradition of bringing family together around a Sunday dinner of classic southern delicacies.  I didn’t come from a large family, and this tradition was not present in my household.  I wish it had been.  The thought of my grandmother in the kitchen cooking and baking makes me long for a simpler time when sitting down for family dinners was as routine as brushing your teeth everyday.   Maybe it’s time for me to start my own tradition of getting friends together and we can all share our own retro recipes.  And regardless of what Paula Deen has sold us, I think it will be wise to substitute the Crisco shortening from grandma’s recipes.