Official Food Thread

LiveLife

Active member
Wife loves spaghetti. Made the meat sauce with Cento Italian whole canned tomatoes (No paste) with lots of mushrooms and Italian herbs. Stirred in Linguine and sprinkled with Pecorino Romano and grilled German sausages made locally.

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str8_forward

Well-known member
Wife loves spaghetti. Made the meat sauce with Cento Italian whole canned tomatoes (No paste) with lots of mushrooms and Italian herbs. Stirred in Linguine and sprinkled with Pecorino Romano and grilled German sausages made locally.

View attachment 1648
looks fantastic, sitting here with my second cup of coffee and was thinking about eating breakfast, but this could easily change my mind and "prepare" for lunch. With some good garlic toast..................
 

LiveLife

Active member
Quick dinner. When wife's sister visited, she wanted to comparison test different pasta sauces (Of course, she liked my made from scratch version the best). Well, when she left, most of the jars were unopened.

So made dinner inspired by this Michelin starred chef recipe (with extra fresh minced garlic sauteed in olive oil) ... Shrimp Victoria Arrabbiata spicy spaghetti and Garlic Jalapeno stuffed olives ... Actually pretty good - https://news.yahoo.com/made-michelin-starred-chefs-easy-110100263.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall

And these Greek stuffed olives from Costco are pretty good as well and I ate at Glen Allen Village Market olive bar.

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Olon

Active member
I got an "Asian style beef" MRE I might make for lunch if I'm feeling adventurous. Will report back.
 

LiveLife

Active member
I got an "Asian style beef" MRE I might make for lunch if I'm feeling adventurous. Will report back.
My experience eating first generation MRE in the Army in the 80s was not pleasant, particularly the "pork patty" that tasted worse than cardboard. (Don't ask me how I know what cardboard tastes like :D). Glad to see MRE entrees have improved over the decades.

Here's my lunch at a local Mexican place - Molcajete with bacon wrapped shrimp and sizzling beef, chicken, cactus all bubbling in rich broth with melted cheese, grilled jalapeno pepper and whole green onion along with veggies served with side of rice, beans, pico degallo, guacamole and even more cheese. Yummmmm, I couldn't finish it.

MJ.jpg
 

Reloadron

Member
Never thought to make spam with rice. That looks really good. About a month ago I bought a few cans of spam and can't recall the last time I did that. I fried one and made a few sandwiches and still have one. Going have to give that a shot.

Ron
 

LiveLife

Active member
Never thought to make spam with rice.
Key is caramelizing onion and cutting Spam pieces larger than 1/4" cubes and browning as many sides.

During Covid of last year, we went through our 3-6 month pantry stock and did taste tests and wife will now only allow "best tasting" pantry items, especially canned food with longer shelf life.

I like Spam but find it too salty. I won't do anything with mechanically separated chicken/turkey so no Low Salt Spam which did not taste all that great. During taste test, we found Walmart/Great Value Low Sodium Luncheon Meat was made 100% from pork and tasted better. So now, that's all I buy.

BTW, Great Value Chili with Beans tasted better with thicker texture for me than Texas Wolf and several other brands including Hormel.

Best tasting sardines were Season Brand skinless & boneless that did not taste fishy at all (Yeah, it beat out Prince and other premium brands). I also learned that Great Value sardines are packed in the same Vietnamese plant and looks and tastes the same (slightly fishy from skin) but in different oil.

We live at the coast and Great Value Clam Chowder made with cream beat out all the other canned clam chowders and actually taste better than most local seafood restaurants (For reals, no joke). For extra wow, sprinkle with crispy bacon bits (Want easy tip? Microwave real bacon salad topping bits)

Great Value Spaghetti & Meatball beat out Campbells and Chef Boyardee but only marginally better than MRE version I ate in the Army so that's not saying much. It's my last ditch late night snack that I have to add extra cheese and hot sauce to make it palatible.

And hot dog comparison test went to Costco Kirkland Beef for the juicy "snap" and tied with Hebrew National (For me, Nathans is too mushy). If I am fresh out of cheese, I found canned cheese (Great Value Cheese Wow or Kraft Easy Cheese) or Tostitos Salsa Con Queso makes easy decent cheese topping for hot dog (I love chili cheese dogs).

If you like Nachos, Ricos Gourmet Nacho Cheddar Cheese Sauce came out on top for cheesy flavor (Not the Ricos Premium Cheddar Cheese Sauce which has way less cheese in the ingredients).

There is no substitute for canned tomato and tomato products and it's imported from Italy Cento Plum whole canned tomato and other Italian grown products (Check the back label to be sure) at comparable price or lower than other premium products so it's no brainer. Costco just started carrying Cento San Marzano whole tomatoes and crushed tomatoes both imported from Italy. Sauce made with Cento whole tomatoes (Plum, not even San Marzano) beat out RAO marinara sauce hands down and I didn't even needed to add tomato paste or sugar (Yes, they are canned ripe and sweet).
 
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LiveLife

Active member
Driving to Alabama to pick up a puppy. Breakfast at Pine Country Restaurant in Williams, AZ. "Hearty Breakfast" is two sausage patties topped with corn cakes, Chili Verde green sauce gravy, eggs, tomatoes served with potatoes and side of sour cream. Drizzle salsa and hot sauce and YUMMY. Great coffee.

WDiner.jpg


Dinner at Texas Roadhouse in Oklahoma City. Juicy ribeye with tender ribs with baked potatoes swimming in butter.

TRRR.jpg
 

Reloadron

Member
Driving to Alabama to pick up a puppy. Breakfast at Pine Country Restaurant in Williams, AZ. "Hearty Breakfast" is two sausage patties topped with corn cakes, Chili Verde green sauce gravy, eggs, tomatoes served with potatoes and side of sour cream. Drizzle salsa and hot sauce and YUMMY. Great coffee.

View attachment 1681

Dinner at Texas Roadhouse in Oklahoma City. Juicy ribeye with tender ribs with baked potatoes swimming in butter.

View attachment 1683
The food is nice so where is the puppy? :)

Since we have food covered maybe we need a Pets of Tyranny thread?

Ron

Ron
 

LiveLife

Active member
Dinner at Hometown Grill in West Memphis (Opened May of this year). I ordered the 4 piece fish at the recommendation of counter lady and chose beans, cole slaw and corn cakes. Nice crispy and juicy fried fish which was excellent (And I live at the coast and salt water fish for ling cod, rock cod, etc.) and sides were great.

Probably the best fried fish I had ... wow, really!

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Selena

Active member
Key is caramelizing onion and cutting Spam pieces larger than 1/4" cubes and browning as many sides.

During Covid of last year, we went through our 3-6 month pantry stock and did taste tests and wife will now only allow "best tasting" pantry items, especially canned food with longer shelf life.

I like Spam but find it too salty. I won't do anything with mechanically separated chicken/turkey so no Low Salt Spam which did not taste all that great. During taste test, we found Walmart/Great Value Low Sodium Luncheon Meat was made 100% from pork and tasted better. So now, that's all I buy.

BTW, Great Value Chili with Beans tasted better with thicker texture for me than Texas Wolf and several other brands including Hormel.

Best tasting sardines were Season Brand skinless & boneless that did not taste fishy at all (Yeah, it beat out Prince and other premium brands). I also learned that Great Value sardines are packed in the same Vietnamese plant and looks and tastes the same (slightly fishy from skin) but in different oil.

We live at the coast and Great Value Clam Chowder made with cream beat out all the other canned clam chowders and actually taste better than most local seafood restaurants (For reals, no joke). For extra wow, sprinkle with crispy bacon bits (Want easy tip? Microwave real bacon salad topping bits)

Great Value Spaghetti & Meatball beat out Campbells and Chef Boyardee but only marginally better than MRE version I ate in the Army so that's not saying much. It's my last ditch late night snack that I have to add extra cheese and hot sauce to make it palatible.

And hot dog comparison test went to Costco Kirkland Beef for the juicy "snap" and tied with Hebrew National (For me, Nathans is too mushy). If I am fresh out of cheese, I found canned cheese (Great Value Cheese Wow or Kraft Easy Cheese) or Tostitos Salsa Con Queso makes easy decent cheese topping for hot dog (I love chili cheese dogs).

If you like Nachos, Ricos Gourmet Nacho Cheddar Cheese Sauce came out on top for cheesy flavor (Not the Ricos Premium Cheddar Cheese Sauce which has way less cheese in the ingredients).

There is no substitute for canned tomato and tomato products and it's imported from Italy Cento Plum whole canned tomato and other Italian grown products (Check the back label to be sure) at comparable price or lower than other premium products so it's no brainer. Costco just started carrying Cento San Marzano whole tomatoes and crushed tomatoes both imported from Italy. Sauce made with Cento whole tomatoes (Plum, not even San Marzano) beat out RAO marinara sauce hands down and I didn't even needed to add tomato paste or sugar (Yes, they are canned ripe and sweet).

If I used commercially canned soup of any brand my Grams would come back and haunt me. As far as cheese goes... my sister in law make cheese with the milk from her Guernsey.
 

LiveLife

Active member
Chicken fried steak at Huddle House west of Birmingham. Wish we could get fried Okra like these. And CHEESY mac & cheese.

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Here's the silver lab puppy and puppy #4 for us this year.

p1.jpg


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