Let’s Have a Moment of Silence… for the Low Carb Diet
Tuscan Food As It Was Meant to Be
I think we can officially declare the end of the low carb diet trend. With the recent promotion of Pizza Hut’s Tuscani Pasta Pairs, there can be very little breath left in the poor, passed low carb diet. Now you can get a 3 pound tray of pasta (two types if you’d like) and five breadsticks as part of the current Pizza Hut promotion. With varieties such as Premium Bacon Mac ‘N Cheese Tuscani Pasta and Creamy Chicken Alfredo Baked Tuscani Pasta, may we also have a moment for the Low Fat Diet? Those poor, defamed Tuscans must be rolling over in their graves.
Dippin’ Dots – A Great Study in How Food = Fun
I don’t know how many of you have tried Dippin’ Dots ice cream, but if you have kids, it’s likely you’ve succumbed to buying them a pricey cup full of the “ice cream of the future” as they call themselves. The first time we did was on our trip to Disney, and we watched as half of Annie’s cup rolled away after an accidental spill of the $5 treat.
At first this product seems like a scary science experiment, but on closer inspection, the only science involved is the freezing, not the ingredients. Microbiologist and inventor Curt Jones decided to create the product after he found ice cream was a little too icey for his taste. He developed a process to cryogenically freeze ice cream with the result being little crunchy, tongue tingling ice cream pellets.
The product has instant kid appeal, as I can personally attest. There’s the lure of the colorful dots. The variety of flavors. The mixability of more than one flavor. The crunch that turns into a melt in your mouth. And the sheer fun of fooling with a cup full of ice cream pellets.
The company has run into tough times lately. At $5 or $6 per cup, you can see why parents would hesitate to make a serving of Dippin’ Dots more than an occasional treat, especially in this economy. Plus, they didn’t properly file for a patent so competitors have recently entered the picture. To counter these problems, the company is developing new products to appeal more to adults.
They’re coming out with ice cream cakes, regular ice cream with the dots mixed in, and, the item that caught my attention, coffee dots that can serve as the foundation for a cup of coffee if you just add water. Imagine, all that fun for what will probably cost more than the already outrageous price of Starbucks. But who can put a price on fun food? I wish Mr. Jones good luck, and I’ll probably try the coffee when it comes on the market. Because fun and coffee are definitely a winning combination in my book.
Freezer Diving
Diving In and Bringing Up Mystery Containers
Lately I’ve been on a huge spring cleaning rampage. I’m not sure what has inspired me since cooking is much more my thing, than cleaning. But going with this unusual cleaning impulse isn’t the worst thing for our lives or our house, except for those displaced dust bunnies that now reside in the trash.
As part of my cleaning effort, I’ve been trying to use up food that’s been tucked away in my freezer for that proverbial rainy day. Unfortunately, since I usually cook a fresh meal for our dinner, the appearance of leftovers is always met with long faces. That feedback has created a loop that’s self-defeating. I don’t want to see the long faces, so I don’t pull out the leftovers very often, and when I do they are greeted with long faces.
For the past several weeks I’ve decided to brace myself against the negative reaction, and have made a point of “freezer diving” once a week. Sometimes I find uncooked ingredients that I attempt to toss into an impromptu dish, other times I find a frozen soup, stew, or sauce. Sadly, I’ve found frozen tubs that I can’t quite identify, especially through the thick layer of frost, or some that have been marked with a date that has long since gone past a viable dinner.
How long do you think frozen leftovers are still palatable? I don’t think three year old stew would taste very good, do you?