Don't knock it 'til you've tried it

First off, I am a fiend when it comes to mixing leftovers up to make new dishes. Basically I hate to waste food. So that extra broccoli from two nights ago gets added to last night’s pot roast and potatoes and all of them get diced up and added into an omelet. Pretty normal stuff. Not terribly original but it works.

The second thing you should know is I’m not really an ice cream person. Sensitive teeth. So I like to make ice cream sundaes sans the ice cream. Most of the time I use a bowl of cereal as my base, usually Honey Nut Cheerios, and then pile on the toppings: banana, chocolate syrup, strawberries, nuts, and lots of whipped cream. And NO CHERRY! Those things are nasty. My husband pounds down cereal by the truckload each week so oftentimes I find my pantry out of stock of my regular sweet tooth fix. Enter spaghetti. Actually it was macaroni elbows but pasta is pasta. I had leftover noodles in the fridge, but none of my usual ingredients. I did however have some real maple syrup, a jar of pumpkin butter that was about to expire and whipped cream. 

Taking my cue from Buddy the Elf, I poured on the syrup but instead of M&M’s and marshmallows I added a couple of dollops of pumpkin butter, sprinkled it with chocolate chips, pecans and topped it off with LOTS of whipped cream. And then for good measure I added a bit of cinnamon. It was amazing! And I’ll explain why it makes so much sense.

Plain pasta is amazingly versatile. It’s basically just starch and has no preference in the battle of savory versus sweet. Rice, another simple starch, is a great example. Rice pudding is an internationally well-loved dessert and chicken and rice soup makes a nice change from typical chicken noodle. Or just think of the versatility of bread. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are just as popular as grilled cheese. (Actually I prefer almond butter and Nutella but that's besides the point.)

Then there is maple syrup. I’m not talking about the brown colored corn syrup Mrs. Butterworth calls syrup. I’m talking real Grade A maple syrup preferably from Canada. In my humble opinion maple syrup is the best product we can obtain from trees. (I mean who really needs shelter and oxygen?) And what do we usually put maple syrup on? Waffles. Pancakes. In other words starches. I will ignore for now the joy of maple bacon. (If you’ve never tried maple syrup on bacon or sausage you are not living a full life.)

Pumpkin butter is a truly amazing thing. Sweet and spicy and so holiday! My sister and mom actually sent me some from my favorite store in San Diego last year for my birthday. It’s smooth and sticky and spreads easily. It forms a wonderful “sauce base” for the noodles, getting into all the elbows.

Whipped cream. Need I say more? Well I’ll just say that the dairy fat helps balance out all the sugar so far adding some richness. And chocolate chips and pecans added a much needed textural component to all the soft ingredients. The judges on Chopped would be pleased. Finally, the dash of cinnamon just looks damn pretty. And of course it complements the spicy pumpkin butter very well.

By breaking this dish, which I will dub “Ode to Buddy”, down to its components, it makes so much sense why this works so well. I really don’t know how I never tried this before. But I urge you to head to the grocery store and get everything you need right now! You won’t be disappointed. I promise.

You a broke college student? I got the meal for you!

The best food combo is spam, rice, and ramen. Yeah, I know, typical Asian ingredients, but this is the best poor man’s meal out there. I mean, you buy a can of spam for two dollars, a bag of Korean Shin Ramen noodles for like 68 cents at H-mart, and a bag of rice for twenty dollars that lasts a month or so. In total the meal would really be less than five dollars if the rice were bought in a single serving. This may sound fattening and salty, but it is delicious. The best thing ever invented since sliced bread. I mean like it’s spicy, meaty, and has rice/noodles. That includes all the essentials to make it through a day. Protein in the spam, sodium from the ramen soup base, and carbs from the rice/noodles; that’s three of the essential nutrients that nutritionists say are necessary for a body’s daily intake. It’s a perfect meal for anyone and everyone who likes to live off of five-dollar meals a day, but wait, there’s more. If you buy everything in bulk, as in a 20 pack of noodles and a whole case of spam, the cost by dollars and will last you for weeks. This is the best food combo ever. I mean like nothing will top this because it is beneficial in every way, except if you’re trying to eat healthy. But come on, like as if college students can afford expensive groceries like raw, free-range, drug-free, organic chicken. That junk is just too pricey for a poor college student. Plus even if the student could afford it, who would pick that over spam. SPAM. It has just as much protein per serving as chicken, but tastes so much better and can be prepared in a wide variety of recipes. It’s even precooked so you could eat it cold.

            Not only is this meal affordable and delicious, it is also non-time consuming. Unlike other meals where you have to pull out the whole nine yards of cutting boards, knives, saucers, and dishes, this meal requires a knife to cut the spam and a pot to boil it all together and even eat out of. You use three things in total to make this and it takes not even five minutes. It takes less time to cook than eat. What isn’t there to love about that? It saves time, is delicious, and is cheap. Who likes waiting an hour for food when it only takes ten minutes to eat? Take five minutes to make this and ten minutes to enjoy eating it.

            This recipe can also be improved upon if you feel fancy that day. I mean add an egg and BOOM a whole other world of flavor. Cooking dinner for a date? Just add an egg, chop up some fresh green onions, add a little bit of garlic, and BAM done. The girl will be all over you like white on rice. She’ll be so mesmerized by your “technique” of cooking this that her mouth will be constantly at work eating all the food. It doesn’t take a genius to realize the potential of this meal. This is by far THE best combo ever. 

KING COMBO

What's your favorite meal. Is it normal, because I know mine can get a little out of hand according to some people. Still, that's not always a bad thing. Some people get tired of normal and want a little change. Like everyone else a guy loves his food but if you want the best combination of weird meals possible, I'm your guy. Growing up in a house that loves going to golden corral I have come up with a meal combo that beats out all others in my opinion making it a just a MUST TRY.

First we have to get our plates situated. You start with what I like to call the pig out plate. On this plate I usually have popcorn shrimp, macaroni and cheese, a slice of pepperoni pizza, boneless pork ribs, and if any room is left on the plate then you can add on anything you desire . For me it may be extra shrimp or even some creamed corn, depends on how i'm feeling at the time. Then you move on to the plate I like to call Fruit Frenzy. I usually throw my favorite fruits on this plate, which would be a full plate of pineapples, tangerines, grapes, and sometimes peaches. Healthy, and delicious two words that some up my Fruit Frenzy plate very nicely. And what's a meal without dessert right? For I call the dessert page sweet childhood, because for the most part I still get the same dessert as I did when I was a child. I get a plate on rice crispies, marshmallows, and strawberries and drown them all in the chocolate fountain. Then I get a bowl of vanilla ice cream and fill it with  gummy bears and m&m's. My mouth is watering just thinking about the taste. Now I know many might look at these plates and think to themselves "what the hell is this guy thinking. But you have to take into consideration how good these different foods are when you eat them together. Pizza is usually eaten alone, and it's so good by itself, this is true. But what if you add the equally delicious popcorn shrimp to your taste buds. Take a bite of your pork rib and then follow it with a scoop full of macaroni and cheese. Top it out by taking a bite of whatever the last item you picked at this point your taste buds are already in heaven. Mix up the order you eat your food and surprise your mouth with the unmatched goodness of some of your favorite foods. Enjoy the different juices coming from the fruits that fill up your second plate. What could be better? I know, how about topping everything off with chocolate sweets and custom made ice cream. Give your sweet tooth something to yell about. Your already having a party in your mouth, why not invite more guess. If you try these combinations, I assure you you will be satisfied when you're finished chowing down. That's guaranteed or your money back.

Weird Food Combo "mango and peppered seasoning"

                My favorite weird food combo is moderately ripened mango dipped into a blend of seasonings because it satisfies every taste bud in your mouth, it fills you up and it is also a healthy snack. The seasonings comprise of Maggie cubes, which are a salty mixture of hydrated shrimp, beef or chicken, mono-sodium glutamate, and paprika cubed together, sugar, lemon juice and cayenne pepper.

                Firstly, the mango has to be moderately ripened to perfection. It should not be over ripened so it does not have a soft feel to it and should also not be too raw. The mango should be a hard ripe so that when it’s peeled, it still maintains its oval shape, since the slices must be a soft crisp. The mixture of seasonings should be done in a separate bowl and it takes a professional seasoning mixer like me to get the right amount of each ingredient.

                Mango dipped into this perfect blend of seasonings is the best weird food combo because as soon as you dip the freshly peeled and sliced mango into the seasoning mixture, the process of enjoyment begins. You start to salivate in anticipation of the taste. As you take your first bite, the tartness of the lemon slaps your taste buds and before you can respond to that, the sweetness of the sugar takes over the sweet buds and again, before you try to acknowledge the sweetness, the saltiness of the Maggie cube kicks in just in time for you to experience the tongue licking hotness of the cayenne pepper. At this point, you give up trying to evaluate what taste sensation you are experiencing and move on to enjoying the fresh fruit. Your mouth is now happy with you because all your taste buds have been satisfied, and even your teeth appreciates the tender bite into the fruit and your cheeks are watering in excitement for the next bite. The next bites are awaited because like the first, the anticipation starts from the dipping process and continues until the last bite.

                Mango dipped in this special blend of seasoning is also the best weird food combo because it is actually a very filling snack. The combination of tastes send signals to your brain that you have satisfied all your buds and therefore assumes you are filled up.

It is also a healthy snack choice because mango is a tropical fruit that is known to help prevent cancer as the antioxidant compounds in it protect against colon, breast, leukemia and prostate cancers. Mango also helps lower cholesterol because of its high levels of fiber, clears the skin, helps in diabetes as it helps normalize insulin levels in the blood and last but not least, mangoes are a great source of vitamin E which help improves sex.

In the end, I believe that you will agree with me that mango and my special blend of seasonings is the best weird food combo ever as it benefits you in many ways while satisfying your hunger generously.

What is “Weird” can also be AWESOME!

  

               Food is meant to be experimented with in my eyes, so if it tastes amazing solo, it just might taste just as incredible together. For instance, I absolutely love chips AND sandwiches. Now, I don’t know if I was just a lazy kid but taking a bite out of your sandwich and then stuffing your mouth with chips seemed like a lot of work. So, I decided to just put chip (any kind) on my sandwiches. I still do this today. I go to subway, get a foot-long with herbs and cheese bread, ham and pepper jack cheese, bacon of course, toasted, with lettuces, cucumbers, tomatoes, spinach, mayo, and sweet onion sauce. Then to top the Awesomeness I have to get a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos. It is seriously heaven in your mouth.

 

             For my next combination I just recently discovered a new favorite. Like most people (I hope) I am addicted to Jamaican Beef Patties. However they come in so many different “stuffing’s”. For chicken patties I love to add cheese and alfredo sauce. Gross right??  No. When it comes to beef patties, first they HAVE to be spicy regular patties just seem way too bland for me no matter what you add, then I open them up and add regular American cheese and sour cream. I just tried this over the weekend and it is really good. Sometimes you can get overwhelmed by the spiciness of the beef, but the sour cream calms it down just enough so that you taste all the flavors. It might look weird and freaky while your spreading the sour cream but it is completely worth it.

 

                   As you can see in the picture,next on our awesome list is pickles, ham and cream cheese. Absolutely delicious, little ham-wrapped, cream-cheese-blanketed, pickle morsels look gross but surprisingly good. I've been eating these pickle roll-ups for most of my life, and I'm not sure if they're just a “Weird person”  thing or if everyone already knows about them, but I just can't keep the recipe to myself. Not that there's really a recipe involved -- it's just a pickle, wrapped in cream cheese, wrapped in ham. That's it. I honestly don’t know what it is but no matter is they are regular pickles or the sweet ones (my favorite)  it still works. So since I prefer sweet pickles, I’ll go buy a small jar of sweet pickles, hit the deli and get honey black forest ham thinly sliced, and regular cream cheese. Go home and take the pieces of ham and spread them with a generous amount of cheese, stick the pickle at the corner and roll like an egg roll. Pop them in the refrigerator only if you don’t plan on devouring them right then. The only bad thing about them, I guess, is that they're dangerously, deliciously addictive.

 

Food is really what you make it. Have food try new things and be open to new flavor matchings.

 

 

Burgers and Fries: Immortal Food Combo

Hamburgers and fries. One of America’s staples. This combination seems timeless and has been around for who knows how long and stood the test of time. These two dishes are the trademark of many restaurants and have many different styles. First off, the hamburger. The actual patty itself can come in many different sizes and shapes with some places having pound variants. The meat can be prepared rare or well-done. There are a wide assortment of other foods you can put on a burger such as cheese, bacon, onions or whatever your heart may desire. There are also a variety of condiments you could throw on a burger with people like mayonnaise or ketchup or mustard. One could also season the burger just about any way you wanted to. You can cook burgers on many different appliances. You can grill them on a barbecue grill or bake them in an oven or cook them on a stovetop. With so many different restaurants have their own burger recipe, it should be easy to see why burgers are one of the best foods out there. The Krabby Patty recipe is one of the most heavily guarded secrets in the deep blue sea! Fries just go so well with burgers. I’m not sure how or why this the case, but when these two come together, you’re in for a great meal. Fries might not come in so many different ways as burgers, but they can vary in many different ways also. There are many different cuts of fries like steak fries, wedges, and shoestring fries. You can also use different kinds of potatoes with some establishments having sweet potato fries. You can bake or fry fries, but the seasonings are important. Checkers has fries that stick out from the crowd because of the seasonings and simply because they look so different. Fries go well with many sauces like ketchup or barbecue sauce so the combinations are almost endless. Now if you combine both of these foods that have seemingly never ending possibilities, you can almost never have the same burger and fries. These are things that aren’t even that complicated. You can get the ingredients and your favorite herbs and spices for burgers and fries and make them at home if you were so inclined. Perhaps you can’t cook. Well there’s a solution for that too! You can go to a five star restaurant and probably get a burger similar to one Zeus himself would feast on. However, if you needed something fast, there are so many fast food restaurants that you could just go through the drive through window and get yourself a burger and enjoy the great food combination that embodies everything America stands for.

Remember the Titans... Overrated?

A Washington Post critic, Stephen Hunter argues that Remember the Titans, isn't as great a movie as people tend to claim.  The movie makes no compelling case because it's so formulaic and predictable.  He goes as far as to say you would not even need to watch the movie to understand what happens in it, because it has been done so many times before in so many better ways. There is also a lack in political correctness that he says takes away from quality of the film.  Hunter finally concludes with the reason why he especially did not enjoy the film was because of the simplicity of the message that it tries to teach the viewers.  He in fact believes that the film is in a way smug and so proud of itself, and that you can tell that everybody involved conceives of it as a civics lesson instead of a story.  Hunter is right when he talks about the lack of political correctness that Remember the Titans shows.  For it to be based off of a true story, and yet be so off tangent with the reality of what happened in history leaves somewhat of a bad taste in my mouth.  However, I do not think that just because the writers exercised their creative freedom to the fullest this resulted in a bad movie.  Though the situations depicted in the film may have been embellished, the issues that the characters in the movie were dealing with, were ones that were actually faced in that time period.  The message of the movie although simple is still a beautiful one, and one that the movie should be praised for teaching.  Brotherhood and love should have no conditions, and hate is obviously destructive. This is preached throughout the movie and as the team learned these things, they began winning and changing the community.  The film had a great message and they taught it to everyone who viewed it on their own terms.  If it was not a great movie because it was too simple, then that means times have actually begun changing for the better, meaning movies like Remember the Titans will soon become less relevant.  This is also why Remember the Titans should be heralded as one of the great sport drama films that has been created.  It took us back to the time where something as insignificant as having a black head coach and a white assistant coach was the cause for a lot of hate, violence and stress for all parties, and I enjoyed watching how the history changed for the better.  Although it was simple, the movie was based on a true story, and there was a lot of hate back in the times where the movie was set.  It is because of this  message that people began learning over time that Hunter can even afford to say that Remember the Titans is a simple movie.