Cheese Soup

The most interesting thing in the cafeteria today (served twice, both at lunch and dinner, I don't know about breakfast), was called "Canadian Cheese Soup." I had never heard of anything like cheese soup, but when I saw the sign it made me wonder just enough to try some.  Mostly I wondered how similar it would be to queso. I wasn't sure if I wanted to eat a bowl of queso, so I took half of a little bowl, just for a taste.  It was surprisingly wonderful.  It was much thinner than queso, so the title of soup did apply, as I was afraid it wouldn't.  I also really enjoyed the taste. It wasn't very spicy, like queso sometimes is, of course I wouldn't expect too much spice to come from Canada.  I don't really know how Canadian this dish was, but at dinner I took a whole bowl of it and found it quite enjoyable the second time.  I believe that it had carrots and celery in it.  Like queso, the soup did get a thin film on the top of it, but that has never bothered me very much.  Cheese soup was a very new eating experience for me, but it gave me a very pleasant surprise. 

Underground sensation

I've been tracking my corn intake this weekend - so far I think I've been doing reasonably...

Breakfast
Sprouted wheat cereal (very crunchy)
Soymilk (uh oh)
Unsweetened peanut butter (please don't tell me there's corn in that)
Peach

Lunch
Tuna fish
Whole wheat noodles
Milk
Butter
Steamed vegetables: broccoli, carrots, bell peppers, asparagus

Dinner forecast
Mixed (cornless!) veggie burrito
Sweet potato fries

Discovery: Mr. Natural's down on Lamar has the most amazing sweet potato empanadas! (According to the world wide wild web, some of the original empanadas were stuffed with cod fish.) Anyways, I love this pastry- fun to say and fun to eat. I really liked the sweet potato one because I love versatile this tuber is. It delivers a high performance - sweet or savory.

Granted, the casseroles bedecked with marshmallows have never really enticed me. However, this empanada was not overpoweringly sugary and fake. Mr. Natural's uses whole wheat flour and sweetens their bakery items with honey - which seems to help give their hearty pastries a distinct yet not overpowering flavor. (It's also kind of a funny way to get a little bit of your vegetable quota in...) I am infatuated with the sweet potato's potential - empanadas, waffles, pancakes, pies, biscuits - the list goes on. Plus it gives all of your baked goods such a nice orangey tint!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsARXtPbY4c&feature=related
(I like the part where he saws the pie.)

Delicious corn and fish gelatin bar

Yuck. My breakfast in a bar most certainly did not deliver on its claim to be a "caramel nut blast," nor, as far as I can tell did it fill some need for a "NUTRITION ENERGY BAR with High Protein." It is, alas, a bar of corn, with just a passing association with nuts, and none whatsoever with caramel." I don't even want to know what "blast" is a euphemism for. The first ingredient is apparently their proprietary 4 protein blend, consisting of casein, whey protein isolate, partially hydrogenated casein and whey, and soy protein isolate." Mouthwatering, no? And here we go, the next three ingredients are as bad as they get: corn syrup, sugar, and glycerin. Then follows a snappy medley of all manner of corny and unctuous concoctions: palm kernel oil, high maltose corn syrup, maltodextrin, fructose, soy lecithin, and a dusting of peanut flour and cocoa. The bar's "caramel nut blast" is powered by "less than 2%peanut butter," and absolutely no caramel at all; what looks caramel-like is the annatto added for color. The whole polysyllabic mess concludes with the slightest nod toward heavy cream and butter (much less than 2%, presumably), a pinch of salt, and some "mixed tocopherols," to "help protect flavor," we are told, and finally, the sine qua non of industrial hand-held food: fish gelatin. I don't even know what to say about that.

CORN TRACKER 8.0!!!

DAY ONE:

I ATE CORN

Beets

I tried plain beets for the first time last week. I'd made beet chocolate cake before - something I highly recommend - but I'd never straight up swallowed a beet, unadorned and on its own. I have to admit, these beets might not have been the best advertisement for their kind. The texture was kind of mushy - it was not a very pleasant eating experience. For me, the way food feels in my mouth is sometimes just as important as the flavor.

However, I love their color and their dyeing potential:
http://pbetouffee.blogspot.com/2006/07/retro-recipe-challenge-pickled-beets_12.html

Sandvich

So I wanted ice cream. But I also wanted a cookie. What to do, what to do....ah yes.

Mix the two.

I grabbed two chocolate chip cookies and hurried to the soft serve machine. After learning that the chocolate and swirl machines dispensed some sort of ice-cream soup, I placed the perfect amount of vanilla on the bottom cookie, annnnnnnd......

Ice cream sandvich.

I enjoyed my dessert that night.

Slime... I mean food.

Ever since this blog thing has been happening, I've been pretty brave about trying new things. I've just been sure to have a coke or something to wash a terrible taste down. The funny thing is, what I've tried has always seemed to be interesting at the least; most of my expenditures are actually quite tasty. That trend ends now.

Eggplant Parmesan found its way on my plate the other night. I speak in such a term because it must have tricked me into trying to eat it. The first bite told me everything. It was like I was eating a mint conditioned, never before seen, super rare action figure (Note: I don't actually own anything of the sort, just cringe with my in this nerdy analogy). By this, I mean it not only tasted like cardboard, plastic, and paint, but I also had that sinking feeling in my stomach. I probably would have thrown up on my plate, but the meal already looked like vomit, so I got confused and decided it was better not to throw up at all rather than throw up twice.

I think my adventures might be a little more timid from now on...