I’m in mourning.  Today I had to throw out an entire package of cheese – unopened.  That is dreadfully wrong, it should never happen.

I love the Extra Sharp New York Cheddar by Applegate Farms.  It’s one of my most favorite cheeses ever.  It’s sliced so it’s easy to use to make a grilled cheese sandwich. It’s easy to break into pieces and eat with crackers.  For that matter, it’s easy to break it into pieces and eat all by itself while sipping a glass of wine. It’s white – no food coloring to make it look yellow.  It’s on the creamier side for texture (I’m sure they make it that way on purpose to be able to slice it)  but it has that lovely extra sharp bite to it.  Delightful.  It’s also on the expensive side – there are only about 8 slices in a package.

I buy it from Whole Foods which seems to be the only store where I regularly shop to carry it (well I did find it in one other store, but that’s about 10 miles in the opposite direction of anyplace else I go).  WF doesn’t always have it.  So after several weeks of no cheese to be found, leaving the store every week with that desolate feeling of having only mediocre cheese to eat… I was delighted to find it back in stock last Sunday when I did my weekly shopping.  I bought 2 packages.  I would have bought more if I could find a way to keep it fresh without having to freeze it.  As it stands, even 5 days was a little too much this time.

Naturally I opened one package immediately and proceeded to polish it off this week.  It was lovely.  Today I went to open the second package… Somehow from the time I picked it up in the store and got it into my refrigerator, the seal had broken on the packaging, it was no longer airtight.  I looked at all the lovely cheese… all the lovely blue/green colored cheese.  Yes, it had mold all over it.  There was air and condensation in the package. My heart sank.

I wanted to cry.  All my lovely cheese – all the wrong color.  For about 20 seconds I considered the possibility of salvaging some of it, but decided the probable intestinal complications were not worth the effort.  I put it into the freezer (where all the “old” food goes before being taken out in the trash at the end of the week) .

*sigh*  I guess I have to wait until Sunday and hope for the best.  I will be carefully checking any other packages I find.  I can’t deal with the trauma of having to get rid of any more of my favorite cheese.  We shall hope for the best.

If you have gmail and you are at a loss for something to cook, just go to your spam folder…

Since you have to go to all the trouble of looking through the junk mail to be sure gmail didn’t grab a “real” email, Google has decided to make it a two for one stop.  They very helpfully serve up spam recipes in addition to the spam email.

For instance google currently believes I might like to make Spam Breakfast Burritos. Yes they give you a link and everything.

I find that so very thoughtful. Google not wanting me to go hungry…

Of course I’m sure if I didn’t have “ad bloc plus” running on my browser, there would also be ads to help me lose all the weight I’d gain by eating so much spam…

Interesting business they have going on.

Ran across this story. It’s from Kentucky, but it’s one we see several times over the course of the year all around the country.

Local petition seeks to make Corbin schools serve healthier lunches

It always reminds me that back in the day, my grandmother cooked lunch at the local K-8 school in her town.  Every day she’d be there at 5am doing the prep work and putting together hot lunches for the kids. Of course this was many many years ago.

Doesn’t it seem as if the move to pre-cooked food being brought in to schools has paralleled the complaints of children becoming fatter?

Hmmm… could it be that simple?  Just get real food to them. Food that has been cooked that day, not just reheated.

I guess not.  Everyone is all for convenience now (no matter what the drawbacks are healthwise) and I’m betting most women or men who might work at this type of job don’t have the vaguest idea of how to cook real food.

Too bad. Kids today miss so much in the name of convenience.  And there appear to be few benefits except the facts that the “meals” are cheap and fast.

Lovely.

Just stopping by to check things and I saw the number 666 on the visitor counter.  Hmmm… Run away! Run away!

I saw this article today on my USA Today feed:

Your Health: When does not wasting food sacrifice safety?

Oh I can nearly write that one myself, but decided to check it out anyway.

Of course, most people understand why they shouldn’t eat potato salad that has been left in the sun for six hours. That’s a well-known recipe for food poisoning. But some remain shockingly unsure of certain threats. Alonso says she has been asked if it’s safe to eat roasted turkey kept in the refrigerator for three months.

I have to wonder, if someone really did call to ask that question AND they were serious… how in the world did they live long enough to learn to dial the phone much less get to a point in their lives where they could cook turkey?  For that matter why would they bother cooking the turkey as they seem to be ready to eat just about anything.

Then again…

Susan Reef, president of US Food Safety Corp., which runs a commercial website (usfoodsafety.com), says one frugal reader asked if it would be OK to finish the gourmet coffee drink left on her desk overnight.

The fact that they’ve survived this long must put them into the “super digestive” category.

Digestive systems able to leap bad food in a single bound.  It’s Super Stomach!

Good Grief!

Bomb Squad Detonates Suspicious Item, Discovers Fruit

It’s only been a short while since Flight 447 was lost.  I think that might have the TSA a bit jumpy (or it could be they are like that all the time).

The X-ray equipment used by TSA airport security in Columbus could not detect what was inside a sealed canister in a bag being inspected around 7 p.m. Tuesday. The container was labeled “baby food,” but authorities said security personnel became suspicious when the woman who owned the suitcase claimed the canister held pickles.

The fire department bomb squad removed the item from the airport and detonated it, discovering the mangoes.

Pickles, mangoes, baby food…it’s all mush now.

If you haven’t heard, there’s a new movie out. I stumbled across it when browsing the news feeds looking for blog fodder. (apparently I have found some fodder as I’m blogging it). This movie is called “Food, Inc”,  the latest effort to gross out the American Public and try to convince them that the food they eat is going to kill them. The critics (all well fed and happy little campers I’m sure) are raving about the wonderfulness of this message. The claim is you won’t be able to eat anything from supermarket shelves after watching this.

Right. Whatever.

(no I’m not linking to it directly – you can find it with little effort so I see no reason to publicize it more)

I was sufficiently amused to discover the do-gooders are out there with keyboards blazing telling us we should heed the “central message” of this thought provoking piece of celluloid.  After all, Hollywood knows best!

Here is one example:

more…

I came across this story tonight:

Public health group announces annual Xtreme Eating Awards

Scoops of macaroni and cheese, deep-fried, topped with more cheese and sitting in plate of marinara sauce. Little bacon-cheeseburgers tucked inside quesadillas. A steak served up with a half racks of ribs on the side.

While it all may sound tasty to some, the Center for Science in the Public Interest wants people to steer clear of these and other dishes noted as the worst of the worst in its 2009 Xtreme Eating Awards.

Go back and reread the first paragraph again…  if you still don’t get it, read it a 3rd or 4th time.

I want a show of hands – Who thinks this food is GOOD for you?  C’mon… Anyone?

I didn’t think so.  These people want to be your mother. They know best! They want to shame you into eating the foods They approve of, in the quantities They think are best, and cooked the way They believe is proper.  Thus:

The annual awards are part of the public health group’s push for a national law to require restaurant chains with more than 20 locations to post calories on menu boards and list calories, saturated fat, trans fat, carbohydrates and sodium on printed menus, the statement said.

Like I said – shame.  It’s all about making you look bad to the rest of the world if you do not conform in your eating habits.

It doesn’t matter that the people who eat these things already know it is not healthy.  Heaven forbid any of us actually enjoy a treat once in a while – that would cut into the sackcloth and ashes we should all be wearing 24/7/365  to appease these grim nannies.   Knowing the food is bad  has nothing at all to do with it.  If the numbers are posted then people who might be self conscious will possibly be coerced into ordering food they don’t want or like because of how it looks.  Oh good – they have now scared the 10% of the population who would be cowed just by reading the article alone.

Right.  Way to go.  Aren’t you all just real hot stuff with your rules and regulations.

At least put it in the name of the group:  Center for Science in Public Shaming.

Would I eat any of these things?  Very likely not, it’s not the kind of food I like.  Also I have issues with most food at these restaurants giving me migraines.  However, I am not putting my self up on a pedestal as ultimate judge of what people should eat.  I don’t even tell my kids what they should eat anymore.  Adults can decide for themselves.  Even if someone else doesn’t like the decision.  Last time I checked this food was legal.  It is served in restaurants where people pay to eat it.  That is an adult decision.  This is not kindergarten where the all wise and knowing teacher is needed.  This is the real world where people make choices – even bad choices.

It’s called freedom and it’s definitely called American.  And guess what… just guess… not a single person eating these horrid things is standing up to call for the nannies at the Center for Science in Public Shaming to change their diet to include more fried mac and cheese.  Not a single one is getting stories in the paper about the irritability of people who eat very restricted meals because they think it’s “healthy”.   No.  Because they all assume that an adult can figure out how to keep themselves fed without some stranger butting in to tell them they are doing it all wrong.

Maybe they should start butting in before their favorite foods do become illegal.   If you like to eat a diet of your own choosing, you may want to consider…  Stand up for your right to eat whatever food  you want.

I’m just sayin’…