Food.

So all of a sudden I am having a really strong craving for Tayto crisps. I haven’t had these in a very long time and when I did enjoy these delightful crisps, it was only on one occasion at a convenience station somewhere near Limerick.

So now I am on a mission to find a case of Taytoes (or is it Taytos?) here in the United States. Unless a gentle reader from Ireland would like to help a fine lad out.

One ironic thing about this sudden craving is that apparently the Tayto people recently announced a Tayto chocolate bar!

I am very intrigued by this and am eager to try it. Even if we have to fly to Ireland to do so. (That might get a bit pricey, though).

We had polished off what was left of the cookies. The box of Reduced Fat Wheat Thins? Yeah, that was history. There wasn’t a bag of Doritos or pretzels or even a vat of Heluva Good French Onion Dip to be found in the house. This is what happens when you skip a week of grocery shopping. However, all of this being said, I was still in the mood for a treat. More specifically, I was in the mood for scent of a treat, I didn’t know if I’d eat it or not, but I needed to be stimulated in a culinary way.

Looking through the cupboards I found a bottle of Beer Bread Mix I had picked up on a whim at a local card shop a while back. Now that I think about it, I don’t know why the Hallmark shop was carrying Beer Bread Mix (maybe the clerks needed an occasional pick me up) but nevertheless it had caught my eye so I had bought it and then stored it for a special occasion.

Last night was that special occasion.

Finding the beer to go into the beer bread was not an issue. I like beer. I swore off alcohol for quite a while a few years ago, mainly because I was getting drunk on some really cheap swill and doing things like making an ass of myself in public (or grabbing ass inappropriately, but that’s a different story), but I have been responsibly trying some better beers for a little while now and we have a good selection to choose from in the fridge.

We may be out of groceries but we are not out of beer.

I decided to go with the Lake Placid IPA (India Pale Ale) as my beer of choice for this little beer bread mix I had. The instructions were simple, mix the beer with the mix and bake it for 60 minutes at 350F.

Done.

The need to smell something cooking was easily satisfied, the bread tasted delicious. I had a small piece before bed last night (and I shared some with my husband, who commented that it was good). I just had a slice with some tunafish for my lunch.

It might not be the healthiest bread in the world, and after all, what bread is really healthy, but I rode the bike this morning and all of my clothes are too big so I feel comfortable risking the beer bread at lunch time.

And who knows, maybe that’ll give my afternoon just a touch of the kick it needs.

So I have been eating more yogurt. This is an attempt to get a little healthier in my eating ways and for the most part I think it’s helping.

Now, I’m not eating that stuff that Jamie Lee Curtis talks about incessantly on those ads because quite frankly, that stuff comes very, very close to the unfortunate incident I had with a tree on the Thruway due to eating some fat-free concoction called “Olestra” back in 1995. I’m sure Jamie Lee Curtis is a very nice woman but that is some very evil stuff she’s always saying is so great.

My yogurt of choice is made by Chobani.

Chobani is Greek yogurt and it comes in a variety of flavors and low-fat and non-fat varieties. I always opt for the non-fat variety and I try to vary the flavor selection as much as possible. Today I tried the “Blood Orange” flavor for the first time and I have to admit that it’s not my favorite. It’s not awful but I don’t know that I’ll go out of my way to enjoy another serving of this particular variety. I tend to like the vanilla flavor the best. Perhaps my tastes are bland.

The last time I was in North Carolina I noticed that there was a wider variety of flavors of Chobani available down there versus what we have here in Central New York. Honestly, I find this kind of odd, because Chobani is made not that far from here. The founder of Chobani, Hamdi Ulukaya, bought an old Kraft plant in New Berlin, New York back in 2007 and started producing Chobani. I’ve been by the plant on numerous occasions both by car and by bike. It’s growing by leaps and bounds and is kind of in the middle of nowhere. I think that’s neat. So I feel good about supporting the local economy by choosing Chobani.

I just have to prioritize my flavor selection better.

I had a grilled cheese sandwich and some tomato soup for supper tonight. Some may roll their eyes and think to themselves, “oh god, his blog has hit a new low, he’s writing about grilled cheese sandwiches”, but the truth of the matter is, I’m kind of proud that I went to the effort of making a grilled cheese sandwich tonight.

You see, both Earl and Jamie are out of town tonight and scott has returned to his home base of Boston, so I was here to fend for myself for supper. In these circumstances I would normally go out to get something to eat or I’d take the easy route and pop some corn for supper and call it a night.

Now, all I did was butter two slices of lite bread, throw some shredded cheese between the unbuttered sides and throw it in a frying pan for a bit. Piece of cake, well, not really cake as much as it was a grilled cheese sandwich, but it took effort and I ate something other than popcorn this evening. The soup was a no brainer, after all, if you’re going to have a grilled cheese sandwich you have to have soup. That’s a written rule or something.

So, while what I did for supper was no big deal in the grand scheme of things, the truth of the matter is, it was a Big Deal for me because I made a simple effort and ended up with glorious results.

Maybe the next time I’ll go crazy and grill a burger or something.

Here is a recipe I made for the first time this evening. Earl and Jamie really liked the end result, as did I. The recipe is from my friend Susan at work. She’s a really good cook.

Pizza Casserole
1 (16 ounce) package uncooked rotini pasta
1 lb ground Italian sausage
1 (24 ounce) jar pasta sauce
1 (16 ounce) container cottage cheese
1 (2 1/4 ounce) can sliced black olives, drained (optional)
1 (4 ounce) can mushrooms, drained
12 ounces shredded mozzarella cheese
2 (3 ounce) packages sliced pepperoni

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9X13 casserole dish.

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Place pasta in the pot, cook for 8 to 10 minutes, until al dente, and drain.

In a skillet over medium heat, cook the sausage until evenly brown, drain grease. Mix in the cooked pasta and pasta sauce. Pour into prepared casserole dish.

In a bowl, mix the cottage cheese, olives, mushrooms and mozzarella cheese.

Spoon the cheese mixture over the sausage and pasta mixture. Top with pepperoni slices.

Bake 25 minutes in the preheated oven, until bubbly and lightly browned.

So tonight Earl and I decided to treat ourselves to a nice dinner. We always complain that there aren’t enough good restaurant choices in the area and quite frankly it’s because we’re lazy and don’t look hard enough.

Tonight we went to The Tailor and The Cook in historic Baggs Square West in Downtown Utica.  

What a wonderful experience. I believe all of their food is derived locally whenever possible. The draft beer of choice tonight was the Solstice Oat Stout from Good Nature Brewing in nearby Hamilton (home of Colgate University). Earl and I had a wonderful meal with excellent service from the knowledgeable and very professional Sara. We both “ordered adventurously”; I enjoyed a Moroccan chicken dish and Earl had Veal Saltimbocca.

The ambience is perfect for what we enjoy (brick walls housing a smaller space) with an intimate bar and the food was absolutely delicious. I am going to sleep well tonight.

Highly recommended.

 

So I was looking for something that was like a chip but didn’t come loaded with the calories and fat content of a chip or crisp. Since we won’t talk about that experiment with Olestra again, I decided to do some research in the local market and picked myself up a bag of PopChips. I decided to go with the Barbecue flavor for my initial outing.

Oh. My. God.

PopChips are like potato chips (or crisps) except that they’re cooked via hot air instead of being baked or fried. There’s hardly any fat in them and they’re only 100 calories per bag.

They are perfection with my lunch!

Since I always do things to extremes, I purchased a case of PopChips in a variety of flavors and had them delivered via Amazon. Earl doesn’t care for them that much (“don’t be finicky my husband, it’s PopChips!”) which is fine by me because that means they’ll be ready and waiting when I want them.

I mention them today because I thought that the case I bought had three flavors in it: Original, Barbecue and Sour Cream ‘n Onion. I was wrong. There are SIX flavors in this case and the back row includes: Cheddar Potato, Salt ‘n Pepper and Sea Salt and Vinegar.

Can I hear a “w00t!” Da hell with that can I hear an “Amen!”

I think the Amazon purchase has followed its natural progression to an Amazon subscription where I automatically get a case delivered once a month. How I love that subscription service. We just need to add a warehouse onto the back of the house to store all our goodies.

If you’re looking for a moderately healthy snack to satisfy that potato chip (or crisp) craving, I highly recommend PopChips.

So I have been craving chocolate milk lately. I don’t know why I have been having this craving because it’s been a long time since I have craved chocolate milk. It’s just something that I’ve been wanting to have and this need is without explanation. I’m pretty sure I’m not pregnant, so that can’t be it. Besides, if I was pregnant, I’d probably do the chop-suey-in-the-purse thing. And I don’t even carry a purse.

I’m digressing.

We have some Nestlé Quik in the house. Actually, I think it’s called Nesquik these days. Back in my day we called it Tang. Maybe we didn’t. I tried the Nesquik and it did nothing for me. It tasted a little too syrupy and didn’t satisfy my craving. I think I might have licked the ceiling a few times after drinking it, though, because it seemed really sweet. No, I had to have chocolate milk from the Byrne Dairy, a dairy corporation native to Central New York. I grew up on milk from the Byrne Dairy at school (our milk at home first came from a milkman, then it came from pails from the farm down the street, then it came from wherever Mom stopped that night for groceries, but usually the Byrne Dairy and it was in a glass bottle.) I was always given the extra 8¢ on a daily basis so I could by an extra chocolate milk. Sometimes I bought one chocolate and one white. Each was a half pint and Mrs. Spath always charged me extra for the cheaper of the two. She was nice like that.

Since I dropped a few hints on Facebook I thought that there might be some chocolate milk at home when I arrived from work, but alas, Earl is not feeling well today and as I did my employment duties Jamie made sure that he was okay (he is). Chocolate milk was not high on the priority list. I hid my slight disappointment.

Jamie ran out to pick up supper and on his way home, low and behold he stopped at the really expensive Fastrac and picked up a half gallon of chocolate milk. I just had some after noticing that it wasn’t from the Byrne Dairy but rather from Upstate Farms. I have been told via Facebook that Upstate Farms is a Western New York based dairy corporation. Their chocolate milk is quite tasty and much closer to what I expected versus the Nesquik stuff I had. My craving has been met for the time being, but I think the two glass bottles pictured above will be replaced by two new bottles on Tuesday: a half gallon of skim milk (for cereal!) and and half gallon of chocolate milk (because it tastes so good!)

In the meantime I thank Jamie for his efforts on my behalf and I will enjoy this real chocolate milk import from Buffalo.