Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Food for Thought

by Susan Seyfarth

I've got food on the brain. Couple reasons there. First, I gave up sweets for Lent. All sweets. Which means no chocolate. No ice cream. No doughnuts. (Somebody please revive Kirsten. I'm sure she's passed out cold at the idea of a doughnut-free existence.) In case anybody's wondering, life without refined white sugar is indeed a barren, empty place. Not recommended. But boy, it makes Easter really pop for me. Nobody's chocolate bunny is safe. :-)

Second, I'm brain storming a new book, & my heroine is a wedding cake baker. So, while I'm not eating any sweets, I'm devouring books devoted to the glossy photography of enormous, glorious cakes. Big ol' shrines to butter, eggs & yes, refined white sugar.

All this deprivation got me thinking about one of my favorite questions to ask people when I need to get a spirited conversation started:

If you could eat only three foods for the REST OF YOUR LIFE, what would they be?

Some people (mostly men for some reason) are baffled by this question. They've honestly never considered it. But most of us know our three without even thinking. I know I do. You ready?

#1) Ice cream. Any flavor but chocolate. Don't misunderstand now. I like chocolate IN my ice cream. The more the better. But I don't like chocolate flavored ice cream. Is that weird? I can't explain it but feel very strongly about it. Ice cream is hands-down my favorite food in the universe, but if somebody presented me with a bowl of chocolate ice cream on Easter morning & said, "Vanilla will be available at noon," even after the six dark weeks of Lent, I'd hold out for the vanilla.

#2) Pizza--whole grain, deep dish crust. Marinara sauce. Mozzarella, parmesan, & goat cheese on top. If pressed, I'd allow some fresh basil & a few kalamata olives. Perfection.

#3) This third slot is always harder. Over the years, I've gone back & forth. For a long time it was stir fry in brown sauce over brown rice. Heavy on the broccoli & fresh red peppers. Throw in some deep fried tofus cubes, the kind that only Asian restaurants can produce & I'm a happy girl. But then I became a mom & began to resent stir fries for all the time consuming chopping & mincing. I embraced the zen perfection of a bowl of cereal with milk. And I do love me a good bowl of cereal, any time of the day or night. But I already have cold & sweet covered with the ice cream choice. The pizza gives me all the gooey, fat-ladened carbs I could want. So really, I needed something that would satisfy the primal desire for something crunchy, veggie-based & filling that comes over me after a steady diet of pizza & ice cream. So I'm back to the stir fry. For now.


How about you? Are there any foods you could eat forever & never get sick of? Any odd-ball appetites you want to fess up to? You're among friends--share!

95 comments:

Fedora said...

Rice! Sushi! Ice cream!!

Fedora said...

Ooh... might have to swap rice for pizza though--that's an awfully good one! Mmmm....

Susan, now you've got me thinking about food--maybe I'd better go find me and the GR a snack!

jo robertson said...

Yay, flchen1. But on the sushi, sorry I have to say GAG!

Great topic, Susan. And now I'm hungry, so I'm going to eat my Ben and Jerry's Peach Cobbler Ice Cream while I try to type a comment. I will be sure NOT to let the typing interfere with the ice-cream eating.

I have to qualify. If I could only eat THREE things for the rest of my life, I'd probably do the healthy -- ugh -- route. After all, I would like to live a little longer.

But, man if it were the LAST three foods, or even for a year, that's another story.

1. Pepsi -- sorry, it IS a food and I mainline it.

2. Doughnuts, always hot, always Krispy Kremes -- I'd make them go BACK in business.

3. Pizza -- Round Table, best ever! I pretend the cheese is my daily protein, the crust my carb, and the sauce my veggie.

Sigh! I could never do Lent. I'm a flat-out junk food junkie.

Nancy said...

Yay, Flchen1, on grabbing the rooster! I hear he likes rice. And ice cream. Let us know how he does with the sushi.

Susan, what a fun post! I love food. Chocolate ice cream rates right up there. For sustenance, spaghetti. It's what I always made for dinner when I was single and came home tired and not wanting to think about what to fix. Or drive to Wendy's.

Jo, my dad used to make peach ice cream. It was great, but as he got older, I think his sense of taste dulled because the ice cream grew sweeter every year! We were a Coke family, so I'd have that instead of Pepsi.

Loucinda McGary aka Aunty Cindy said...

A FOOD POST! Oh YUM! Susan, I shouldn't be eating this late at night.

Only 3? But there are sooo many I LURVE!
1. Okay, definitely ice cream and preferably with something chocolate in it, but chocolate flavor is okay too.

2. Bread, fresh baked and still warm and yeasty. Or fresh baked sour dough. AH!!!

3. I LURVE steak! Or shrimp. Or a crispy Cesar salad... No, wait fresh fruit! Strawberries, no fresh pineapple, no fresh picked peaches or apricots, no...

I give up! Pass the hot buttered popcorn.

AC

Amy Andrews said...

3 foods??? Man!
Okay.
Mango - it would be a dull old world without this fruit. It's like oral sex for my taste buds.
Caramel - like chocolate, don't mind ice-cream but caramel still wins hands down.
Seafood - prawns, bugs, lobsters or crab. Not fussy ;-)

And wine. It's not a food. It's a beverage. So can I have it? Huh? Huh?

Keira Soleore said...

w00t, flchen1!

Susan, I LOVE vanilla ice cream. Given a choice between one of those complicated Ben Jerry's concoction and a generic no-brand vanilla ice cream, I'd take the latter.

However, as a first food of choice, mine would be....drum roll.... Nutella, mais oui.

Next comes caesar salad with a garlicky dressing, fresh ground pepper, and strips of fresh parmesan (not the canned fake variety).

Tillamook pepper-jack cheese

Crunchy salty Blue Diamond almonds

Thick juicy black raisins

Italian hard salami

Well-roasted whole chicken

Hawaiian strawberry papaya

Mineola seedless oranges

OK, so that was way more than three items. :)

AC, please pass the hot buttered popcorn and one of the margaritas on that table next to you. kthx.

Helen said...

Congrats flchen1 on the GR he will need a rest after the excitment last night.

Loved the post Susan I love food and only 3 things I couldn't live without

1. Pasta any type I love it
2. Bread all types
3. Chocolate or chips to hard to choose
I don't think there is anything odd that I eat but a couple of things I don't like is mango and sushi.

Have Fun
Helen

Anna Campbell said...

Susan, I think you're going to write with real passion about your heroine's creations if you're off the sugar! Wow, what willpower!

Fedora, congratulations on the rooster. It's a while since he visited you, isn't it? Have you noticed he's avoiding P226 since the drop in the forest and find your way home incident?

Oh, man, Susan, three foods? As Jo said, if it truly was three foods for the rest of my life, I think I would go fairly plain like steak and mashed potato and broccoli. But in fantasy land, let's see...

Smith's Barbecue Chips. Yumbo, yumbo!

Smoked Salmon and oysters and fried calamari. And French Fries. They're all seafood so they count as one choice and the FFs are just a garnish ;-)

Cherries. I just love a really nice cherry. Or wait, a mandarin. I love mandarin season. I eat them by the gallon.

Or wait...

Three is just too tough!!!

Gillian Layne said...

I had a deer-in-headlights paralysis for five minutes after I read this. Only three? Course my kids would say, yeah, mom, that's our dinner menu every week, the same three boring things :)

But if I had to:
1- Steak/potato--if they come separately, I don't wanna know.
2- strawberry shortcake, homemade (ditto)
3- homemade vanilla ice cream, custard based. Hubby makes it. Successful marriages have been based on much less ;)

But on any given day I could have about ten different lists....I do love my food.

Jane said...

I'll never tire of New York style pizza, Carvel ice cream cake and pan fried noodles with gravy. I also love Krispy Kreme glazed doughnuts. Are they out of business? I know they were having financial trouble, but I thought they were still around. Please don't tell me that they don't exist anymore.

hrdwrkdmom aka Dianna said...

Congrats Flchen1, I think if I could only have three it would be steak, potatoes, and broccoli.

Amy Andrews said...

Ooooh Jane. Gravy.
I do love gravy.

Christie Kelley said...

I'm sitting at Panera Bread, drinking my coffee and eating a carrot walnut muffin. Now I have to talk about food? And I only have three choices?

So not fair.

1. Chocolate (it is a food group)

2. Pizza

I'm assuming coffee and wine doesn't fall into the food category. If not, I'm in big trouble

3. Muffins (totally addicted to them)

Now if that was all I was allowed to eat, I'd hate to think how big I'd be.

Fun post, Susan!

Beth Andrews said...

Susan, I totally agree with you on the no chocoloate ice cream *g* I do love me some vanilla ice cream though, especially if it's homemade :-)

Foods I never get tired of include (but are not limited to):

Pizza

Chinese take-out (Lo mein! Seafood! Stir Fry! Dumplings! Spring Rolls! Love them all *g*)

Salads (any and all)

Garlic sauteed green beans

Banana w/ peanut butter

General foods Vanilla coffee

Great post, Susan! Good luck making it sweets-free until Easter ;-)

brownone said...

ONLY THREE??! AHH!! Okay, here goes:

Shrimp Panang with white rice, hot. Ooohh, the coconut milk and curry just saturating the rice. Mmmm....I LOVE Thai food.

Jerk chicken with peas and rice from Sango's in Miami.

Now, the third choice is hard as I am a chocoholic but I think I'd have to chose the fried bananas with cocount ice cream from Ayuttaya, the Thai restaurant in town. They take stuff the wonton with banana and then fry them. When they are hot they sprinkle sesame seeds and drizzle honey all over. Then they add a nice scoop of fresh coconut ice cream. Oooh...it's heaven.

Okay, and we won't go into beverges because my husband and I go through 3 12-packs of Coca Cola in a week. (YIKES!)

Now I'm off to bribe my husband into taking me out this weekend for some dinner and a movie...

Eva S said...

Hi everyone, it's nice to be home again! Fun post, although I'm not hungry and can't think of anything but chocolate, I could live on that!
Perhaps I later could find something else...

It will be fun reading a little here,(I haven't fully got my sight back, yet).Don't go to surgery, it's not a nice place!

Susan Sey said...

Flchen1--I'm with you on the rice & ice cream, but I don't think I can get on board with sushi. Any sea food really. I think that's one of those love it/hate it kind of things. And I'm on the wrong side of the fence. But I totally respect other people's right to love it. But I will concede that sushi is beautiful to look at. Really art-like & gorgeous.

And congrats on the GR! Is he a sushi fan?

Susan Sey said...

Oh, Jomama! Why must you torture me with the Ben & Jerry's??? You want to know the big ice cream related torture that hits me every Lent? Girl Scout Cookie ice cream. That's right. The Samosa flavored one & the Tagalong flavored one. They come out in limited quantities right smack in the middle of Lent. As do actual girl scout cookies. Which forces me to buy them up & STICK THEM IN THE FREEZER WHERE THEY TAUNT ME FOR A MONTH.

sigh.

I fully respect Pepsi as a food choice, though. I broke the Diet Coke habit years ago, but fall off the wagon every now & then. Find myself sucking down a couple two-liters a week & realize I am just not able to enjoy it in moderation. I'm a junkie & behave accordingly.

Pizza is, indeed, a perfect food. :-) But I'm sad to report the last Krispy Kreme in MN just closed a few months back. Is the whole chain out of business, or did they just pull out of the north?

Susan Sey said...

Oh, Nancy, spaghetti is still my emergency dinner of choice. Followed closely by any variety of breakfast-for-dinner (pancakes, eggs, or a yummy bowl of cereal.)

Susan Sey said...

AC! Hot buttered theatre popcorn! It doesn't make my top three list, but it has a very special place on the List of Things I Sometimes Like to Eat as a Meal But Don't Because My Children Are Watching & I Should Be an Example. I have a baby sitter lined up for this weekend though & am taking my husband to the movies for his birthday. (What can I say? We're simple folk.) And I have a feeling there's going to be some Popcorn For Lunch happening. :-)

doglady said...

Congrats on the GR, fichen1! Oooh, food! What a great idea for a post. Only three? EEEK

Okay, here goes.

1) Pizza, definitely - all kinds, but
no vegetables on pizza. YUCK!

2) Chocolate - again all kinds.

3) Bangers and mash with Bisto
Gravy.

And to drink - tea, hot (Earl Gray)
cold (MIlo's)

Susan Sey said...

Amy--wine definitely doesn't count as a food. Have as much as you like! And I'm totally with you on the caramel thing. I'd take caramel over chocolate any old day.

But I haven't had a really good mango. I must not have. Because if a really good one is like oral sex for your taste buds, I have not had that experience. And I want it. :-)

Susan Sey said...

Keira--Tillamook pepper jack cheese! Yes!! The merits of the smooth-but-with-a-nice-little-bite category cannot be overstated. And Tillamook pepper jack is RIGHT THERE. Mmmmm. Hand over a few salty crackers & yes, one of those margaritas....

Susan Sey said...

Helen--your list was elegant in its perfect simplicity. Bread. Pasta. Chocolate. Chips. What more is there to say? :-)

But I'm with you on the sushi business. It's beautiful to look at, but to put in my mouth? I don't think so.

Hellie Sinclair said...

Dude, I'm so there with the fried tofu that only Asian restaurants can do. *swoons*

Okay, okay.

1.) Ice cream--though this might be tossed with Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. (Maybe a combo of the two?)

2.) Mexican cheese dip w/ chips. The white kind of cheese with the jalapeños. OMG, yummy.

3.) Chinese food. If I had to specify: Ginger Chicken from the Mandarin House. No one else does Ginger Chicken like them.

Susan Sey said...

Anna--a really tasty, thick-cut BBQ chip is one of life's fine pleasures, is it not? I'm not much of a potato chip person (I really love tortilla chips, though), but when the urge overtakes me, it must be a thick-cut, kettle-cooked BBQ or salt-n-vingegar chip.

I feel a craving coming on.

I think this may be why I never lose weight during Lent. My sugar needs go unmet, but I seem to over compensate with the salty snicky snacks. :-)

Susan Sey said...

Gillian-- Can you send your husband to my house (after Easter, of course) to make that custard based ice cream? I don't want to keep him--I understand he's yours--but can I just borrow him for the ice cream making talent? Just for an afternoon? :-) I'll keep my hands glued to my ice cream bowl & spoon. Promise.

Maureen said...

If calories and health concerns were not an issue I could definitely eat doughnuts for the rest of my life and pizza too.

Susan Sey said...

Jane--pizza, ice cream & noodles. Another list of simple perfection. And I don't know the fate of Krisy Kreme. They really tried to invade the market up here in the Northern Midwest, but only lasted a year or two. They're long gone from here, but I don't know about everywhere. Maybe some of your southerners could let us know?

Susan Sey said...

Dianna--Steak, potatoes & broccoli. Yep. I can see how that would sustain a girl through the years. Now the big question, though, & this is for all your steak & potatoes girls: What KIND of potato? Are we talking straight up baked, twice baked? Home fries? Waffle fries? Hash browns? Let's hear from specifics...

Anonymous said...

lalalalalala...I hear nothing about donuts...nothing...

Okay, Krispy Kreme is still open in the NW, as far as I know! Haven't had one for months, but I still see 'em every now and again. I found a new place on my way to work--total hole in the wall, they make everything fresh right there and it's amazing. Just brought a dozen to my Staff meeting Moday! :-)

But Susan, my dear, I actually wouldn't put donuts in the top three. They're an amazing treat, fully life giving and healing, but I wouldn't want to eat them all the time. Even my occasional binge of one (urp..or two) at a time gives me a stomach ache.

The funny thing for me is that I can't eat many of my favorite foods because of my migraines--no chocolate, no pizza, no nuts...very sad.

So my FANTASY list would be:

1) Pizza FOR SURE. I can't tell you how much I miss it. Sob!

2) Latte. Ya'll can keep your soda (which I can't have either). Bring me my skinny latte and I'm a happy woman.

3) Lots of good answers so far for number three. I do love steak, seafood, FRESH BREAD, Carvel ice cream cake (oooo, Jane!! that's my childhood! every birthday I had a Carvel cake with the chocolate crunchies between the layers!), bran muffins, all Chinese take out...Okay, I'm going to be totally boring here and say APPLES.

Apples. Love them. Eat at least one, often two a day. They would round out my meals perfectly.

Thanks for the smiles guys!

Susan Sey said...

Christie said: If that (muffins, pizza & chocolate) was all I was allowed to eat, I'd hate to think how big I'd be.

~~But you'd be happy, wouldn't you? :-) I know I would be. I had this muffin at a breakfast place the other day--big, fat lemon poppyseed. And I was happily munching away when I discovered...drum roll please...a lemony custard filling! Quelle surprise! Happy, happy day.

Susan Sey said...

Beth--I'm so happy to hear somebody else agree that chocolate ice cream just isn't...right. I don't know how to explain it. It doesn't taste like actual chocolate, which I enjoy quite a bit. But it doesn't taste like ice cream either. It's just...off.

And I don't know what they put in Chinese take-out, but I agree is totally addictive. Maybe I just like MSG. I don't know, but mmmm....

Susan Sey said...

Brownone--I think I'm in love with your banana wontons with coconut ice cream. Just reading about it made me drool a little. Oh my goodness. I'm going to have to try a homemade version of that. Every year about halfway through Lent I conceive of some fabulous dessert I *absolutely must have* on Easter morning. Last year it was graham cracker/PB/vanilla ice cream sandwiches dipped in chocolate & frozen solid. Better in theory than in actual practice. They were too tall & too hard for comfortable eating. But mashed in a bowl? Heaven.

This year, however? I'm thinking it's going to be fried banana wontons drizzled with honey cozied up to a big ol' scoop of coconut ice cream. Thank you, Brownone. :-)

Susan Sey said...

Eva S--So good to have you back! And don't worry about adding to your list. Chocolate is well-known to be a perfect food all by itself. :-)

Hope you're continuing to recover!

Susan Sey said...

Doglady--I'm with you on minimal vegetables on pizza. They're just too....I don't know...wet or something. Wet foods don't belong on melted cheese. It's just wrong. Ruins a perfectly good pizza. My husband likes fresh tomatoes on pizza, & I'm continually putting the nix on him. I don't want wet, slimy, warm tomatoes on my gorgeous slab of melted cheese.

Susan Sey said...

mshellion--soul sister!! NOBODY likes tofu cubes! Nobody but us! And we can have them ALLLLL! Ahhhhhhahahahah! And thank you for bringing up the chips & dip category. That holds a very special place on my list of Things I Like To Occasionally Eat for Dinner But Can't Due to the Presence of Impressionable Children In My House. :-)

Susan Sey said...

Maureen--I'll agree that doughnuts could potentially be a health hazard, but pizza? It's bread, sauce & cheese. I firmly believe an argument can be made for the healthful properties of all three ingredients. :-) I'm sticking by that, too. Nobody can sway me. Pizza is a perfectly healthy, well-balanced trip through the food pyramid & that's final. :-)

Susan Sey said...

Kirsten--thanks for the update on the fate of Krispy Kremes. There were some extremely worried ladies on the loop. :-)

And I totally respect the apple choice. There is very little more satisfying than a really crisp, really tart apple right off the tree. (I grew up in an orchard town.) My favorite was hands-down the Northern Spy but it was a Michigan variety. Now that I live in Minnesota, I love me a good Harleson for that eye-watering tang. But we're also the proud creators of the Honey Crisp--straight of out the U of MN ag dept, baby! That nice, crisp crunch for chewing, but a really sweet flavor more associated with mealier apples. What variety do you eat up there in the NW??

Anonymous said...

Oh you have got to see this site. Total fun.

http://blog.pinkcakebox.com/

It just makes me smile.

Susan Sey said...

Tina--Oh my cupcakes-o-plenty-goodness. I LOVE that site! I particularly liked the pregnant lady sitting on the tower of cupcakes. I felt like that when I was preggers. :-)

I book marked it so I can use it for inspiration for my wedding cake baker heroine. Thanks!

Terri Osburn said...

Oh, I've never thought about this. But after some thought (very little actually) I know exactly what they would be.

1) Pizze - Thick crust and lots of cheese.
2) Steak & Shrimp - Juicy sirloin and deep fried butterfly shrimp.
3) Cracker Barrel Chicken & Dumplins - with corn and cole slaw

I won't live long just eating these three but I'll be happy while it lasts. LOL!

FilmPhan said...

This is hard but I'm going to go with ice cream, pasta, and seafood. Popcorn is a close fourth though.

Terri Osburn said...

For the Krispy Kreme question, they are alive and well here in the Virginia Beach area. There's one right on the Boulevard that turns on that HOT neon sign and you can get them right off the coneyer belt.

I can't believe I didn't put chocolate and peanut butter on my list. I need to do a revision. LOL! Remove Chicken & Dumplins and add chocolate & peanut butter. Have to have it.

jo robertson said...

I stand corrected on Krispy Kremes. They closed the west coast stores and I thought I'd read the company went OOB. Hmmm, it might be worth flying to Virginia to get one!

Amy, still ROTFLOL about mango being oral sex for the taste buds!

Susan, THEY HAVE GIRL SCOUT COOKIES ICE CREAM!!??? How'd I miss that?

Ya'll are freaking me out with all this delish food -- gotta go check the fridge!

Cassondra said...

Hmmmm.

This is SO not fair.

Three foods. Okay, we're NOT counting coffee (a beverage) and wine( life giving nectar beverage) so...

1) Steak, grilled the way I grill it, and a big fat California Cabernet.

2)Sushi. Anywhere, anytime. I could eat it three times a day for the rest of my life.

3)My grandmother's German Chocolate Cake (It's capitalized for a reason).

4) Pasta with seafood.

I could not stick to three. Sorry.

I gave up refined sugar on lent also Smoov! Not FOR lent, but I realized, the day AFTER I'd started back on the diet from hell, I'd done so on Ash Wednesday.

No refined sugar, no bread. No bread in disguise like---cereal or crackers. I CAN have carbs. I can have pasta and rice now and then. No preservatives (this one's hard) and no processed meats like deli meats, polish sausages or hot dogs (cuz of the preservatives) You get the picture. As close to the way God made it as possible.

I feel better, but dang. I write at freakin' PANERA, and I can't have BREAD!

I can have raw honey and raw sugar. Those are my salvation.

Cassondra said...

Oh, and I just realized from your post Smoov, isn't it girl scout cookie time?

That means here right away, the cute little demons will be swarming all over with their boxes of SIN shoved in our faces, tempting us to the fall.

MUST....RESIST....MUST...RESIST.

Cassondra said...

Jo, the Krispy Kreme in my Kentucky town shut down too. IT's now a barbecue place....not nearly as sinfully tempting.

Loucinda McGary aka Aunty Cindy said...

WELCOME BACK EVA!!!

We all missed you and were sending positive thoughts and prayers your way. So glad to have you back in the Lair!

ROFLOL Amy! I AGREE about mango. (very evil grin) and papaya is a close second.

As for sushi... people People PEOPLE! It does NOT have to be raw fish. Try a piece of California roll, no raw fish in it, I promise!

AC

Nancy said...

Susan, one of the nice things about spaghetti is that you can mix the leftovers with the sauce, heat it up, and lunch on it for a couple of days. We fix it in a big, white pot, which our dog seems to think belongs to Strega Nona. If the pot is out, she expects it to contain spaghetti--for her!

We were going to have breakfast for supper last night. Though the dh makes great waffles, we were going to go to a pancake house after my critique group finished, which turned out to be 8:45. I called the family and told them to get in the car, wandered around the bookstore for a while, and strolled over to the pancake house at 9:00. Which is its closing time. Oh, well. We ended up having Chinese, which was great.

Doglady, you and Capt. Jean-Luc Picard like the same tea, "Earl Grey, hot," as he says to the food processor. It's my default tea. We always have it in the house. Every once in a while, I splurge and have it with a scone. Yum! And if I'm really feeling indulgent, I go down to our "green" grocer and buy Devon clotted cream to go on it!

Brownone, fried bananas with coconut ice cream? Wow! Sounds fabulous.

Amy, my mom made the best gravy to go with her roast beef. It wasn't extremely thick, and it had a lot of beef flavor. I just loved it.

Hellie Sinclair said...

God, how did I forget STEAK? Still, fried tofu is the bomb. Especially if you have stirfried bok choy on the side.

I do adore Krispy Kremes. I can only hope Ben & Jerry pools with them someday and there is an ice cream with Krispy Kreme goodness within...yum. Or maybe I'll swap my ice cream for the KK.

The tofu stays.

Susan Sey said...

Terrio--Nice save with the peanut butter & chocolate. Not that chicken & dumplings aren't perfectly worthy, but let's face it. They aren't peanut butter & chocolate. :-)

My mom is from Ireland, came to the states when she was maybe ten or so, & to this day, she hates peanut butter. She insists it's an acquired American taste. That you have to start eating it when you're an infant to enjoy it. I don't know. What's not to love about peanuts & sugar??

Susan Sey said...

Filmphan--pasta & ice cream, I'm there. You seafood lovers, though. I don't know. Even vegetarian sushi (thanks AC for reminding us of this option) is wrapped up in seaweed paper, & the smell of that alone is too much for seafoodophobic me. But count me in on the popcorn! Microwave popcorn is getting me through lent!

Susan Sey said...

Cassondra--your new diets sounds as awful as mine. Only mine's done on Easter morning. Like 12:01 a.m. Easter morning. Do you have a timeline in mind, or is this bread deprivation...gulp... permanent?

And yes, it is girl scout cookie season. Watch out for the little crack pushers. They're out there. And they look soooo innocent.

Speaking of nectar of the gods, I know you're a wine afficiando, so I wanted your opinion on this: What do you think of wine in a box? I'm a nursing mom, so I drink my beloved wine in small, infrequent quantities. I was hoping the wine in a box promise of fresh wine for up to six weeks would be true so I wouldn't have to pour out a whole bottle of wine after my one measly glass. Thoughts???

Susan Sey said...

Nancy--how disappointing about having to go with Chinese when your heart was set on breakfast for dinner. In my opinion, any place that serves breakfast beyond the traditional breakfast hours ought to be open 24 hours. It's just one of those things that SHOULD be. It's the rules.

Glad you weren't overly disappointed, though. Any dinner I don't cook is okay by me, mostly. :-)

Susan Sey said...

Mshellion--good for you for sticking by our humble tofu! But if Ben & Jerry's ever do team up with Krispy Kreme, you'll have to elbow me aside & trample me down because I *will* be attempting to buy out the entire supply. :-)

Susan Sey said...

AC--I'll agree that sushi is gorgeous to look at, & the stuff without raw fish is less offensive than the stuff with raw fish. But the smell of those seaweed wrappers they put everything in tickles my gag reflex. I don't even have to put it in my mouth. I can't explain this crazy aversion to all things seafood except to refer to one of my first blogs as a bandita about my irrational fears, one of which was The Ocean. Maybe, deep down, I don't dislike sushi. Maybe I'm afraid of it. Hmmmm. I'll have to ponder...

p226 said...

My two favorite foods are probably shrimp and bluefish. Now, when I say that, I mean very fresh shrimp and bluefish. I grew up on the beach. My cousin and I had a summer routine. We'd fish on the pier until about 4 or 5PM when we'd start to see the shrimp boats headed into the jetties for the Cape Fear river. Then we'd toss out king-lines, and leave our poles unattended while we spent two and a half hours or so riding our bicycles the five or so miles to the docks. We'd get a pound of shrimp each. A half pound for bait, a half pound to eat. We'd just hand a few dollars over the boat's deck-rail directly to the deck hands, and they'd scoop us out a bag. Still wiggling and pinching.

And the best days, were when we got back with still-wiggling shrimp, and caught a blue-fish or five running down the sand-bars as night approached. So when we got home, we had "caught three hours ago" shrimp and bluefish to slap on the grill or skillet.

Now, as for oddball appetites... My wife thinks I'm insane because I like banana sandwiches. With mayo.

Esri Rose said...

Okay, if I'm sticking with reality and not dreaming of an allergy-free me, then it would be sushi (you gaggers must not know how much ground this covers), bacon, and Braeburn apples.

If I had no food issues whatsoever, it would be sushi, pizza and chocolate. And Pepsi is NOT a food. Nuh-uh. The beverage issue is a entirely different question. My top three beverages would be soy-milk-coffee drinks, tea (that includes all kinds, thanks) and wine (ditto).

Esri Rose said...

You know, p226, I should really try the banana/mayo thing, because I am a fiend for mayo. That just sounds good. How 'bout some thinly sliced celery in there, for crunch? This is sounding like a 1950s salad.

p226 said...

Hey AC.... who says he's avoiding me? Just because he hasn't come to hang out for a while doesn't mean we're not in touch...

Has anyone swept him for unusual EMF emissions? Hmmmmmm? I mean... er... uh... You're right, I haven't seen or heard from him. Kinda miss the lil guy.

yeah.

Terri Osburn said...

After the banana/mayo comment, I'm afraid to ask what EMF stands for....

Kim Castillo said...

Ahoy Banditas! It seems like its been forevah since I got to play in the lair. I missed you gals.

Food, my favorite topic!

1. No lie, I eat sweet and sour chicken with fried rice, egg roll and egg drop soup at least 3 times a week. I loves it.

2. Pie. I have to have pie.

3. Chocolate from this little shop by my house. Her turtles are too die for. I just picked up a box today. Anna--yummmmm! ;)

Terri--quite taunting me about those chocolate peanut butter treasures. I still haven't found any!

Terri Osburn said...

Whose taunting? I would never taunt.

Someone put those Dove chocolates with caramel in my candy dish in my office today. These people are evil. E.V.I.L.

p226 said...

Electro Magnetic Frequency

er...

I mean, Extra Mayo For me! Yeah, that's it.

Cassondra said...

Susan, the diet is, unfortunately, ongoing...no end in sight.

I will say that on this diet, four years ago, I dropped three sizes in six months and felt GREAT--had energy, was in excellent health--didn't get sick once the entire time I was on it.

So......here we go again Heavy Sigh.

And there are some decent boxed wines out there. But if you want a bottle, invest $12 in a bottle vaccuum and some of the rubber vacuum stoppers. Each evening when you pour your glass of wine, vacuum that bottle out. It keeps long enough for me to drink the entire bottle, and I often have only one glass per evening. Sometimes I have two. But I'm the only wine drinker in the house, so without this system I'd waste a LOT of wine. Can't afford that. I'll get you some names of decent boxed wines if you want.

hrdwrkdmom aka Dianna said...

Susan, I never met a potato I didn't like. I will eat them just about anyway you fix them, have even been known to eat them raw while peeling them.
To go with the steak though I love the garlic mashed potatoes with the skins included.

hrdwrkdmom aka Dianna said...

Krispy Kreme is still here in WV too, in fact I passed one on the way to the store this evening. Had I known I was going to have a donut attack after reading Kirsten's post I would have stopped.

Christine Wells said...

Hmm, what a great post, Susan! You certainly know how to get someone's stomach rumbling. I'd say Fettucine Calabrese from my local Italian pizzeria, Mongolian Lamb stir-fry and pecan danish.

I would say chocolate, because I love the stuff, but having gorged on it before, I know I do get sick of it if I eat too much.

Congrats, Fedora! I hope we don't need to put the GR on a diet when he gets back from your house;)

Suzanne Ferrell said...

Susan, sweets for lent?!?!?! How could you? Me, I gave up adverbs one year, but then y'all know that already.

Hmmm...three foods

1. Chocolate...Godiva, Hershey's kisses, chocolate covered carmels, chocolate covered pretzels....yep, gotta have me some chocolate, even on the diet from hell!

2. Popcorn or chips with salt. Yes, the second main food group. Salt! I prefer popcorn with just a little butter.

3. Cheeseburger. Home grilled preferably, nice piece of cheese, (American, swiss or Colby jack)...thinly sliced tomatos and onions and some mayo or mustard. Ahhhhhhh...heaven.

And if I couldn't have any of the above, then homemade mashed potatoes...not the kind from a box, but mine. Nice russets, peeled and boiled, butter melted over top, smashed, heavy cream and a little parmesean or garlic. mmmmm Perfection!

Suzanne Ferrell said...

Oh, and JO....in Texas they have two Krispy Kreme shops near my house!!

Deb Marlowe said...

Ack! I used up all my Weight Watchers points just reading the blog today!

catslady said...

Pizza - any and all kinds - especially anchovies!!!

Surf and turf - Lobster and rare steak.

Doughnuts!

Joan said...

Late chiming in and probably won't get to finish reading everyone till tomorrow night but my vote is:

Chicken and Dumplings.
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Bread of any and all kinds..with butter.

Also I consider gravy my favorite beverage and applaud your appreciation of Chocolate Bunnies. (MUST be hollow though)

Gillian Layne said...

You know, Suzanne, if you whip the potatoes with butter and cream cheese, they will "hold" really well until the rest of the meal is ready.

I didn't know potatoes came in a box til I went to college, and then I about died laughing at the thought. I made some for my Dad once when he and my Mom came to visit. He fed them to my cat. :)

Susan Sey said...

P226--I love fishing. I just don't like catching fish. Or eating them. I'm in it for the boat ride & the frosty beverages, mostly. Plus, you mentioned that of the pound of shrimp you'd buy, half was for eating, & the other half for bait. Now I'm probably being fussy, but are you sure you want to give away a spot on your Top Three Favorite Foods list to something that can simultaneously be both food AND bait? :-)

Just asking. It's your list, though. Bait, Blue Fish, Banana Mayo sammies. Mmmmm.... :-)

Susan Sey said...

Esri Rose--of course we're in fantasy land here. Pizza is a perfectly balanced, legitimately nutrious food here. Chocolate owns a hallowed spot of honor on the food pyramid. I'll even give you sushi folks a corner of your own. :-) But you can bring along the Braeburn apples. I've been digging those lately.

And yes, all the coffee, tea & wine you could possibly want. I've never been much of a coffee fan, but in college I worked at (surprise!) an ice cream parlor. I learned that, when one is desperate for a hot beverage & coffee is the only one available, a spoonful of ice cream stirred into hot coffee goes a looooong way toward making it taste as good as it smells.

Susan Sey said...

Ahoy, bandita Kim! Wonderful to have you back! And I'm loving your favorite foods list. My kingdom for a chocolate shop around the block! And one with fantastic turtles? Heaven!

And out of curiosity--any particular kind of pie? Are we talking fruit pie, cream pie, pumpkin/nut pies? Any crust preferences? I'll admit, I'm kind of a crust snob. I like 'em hand made. I put just a touch of almond extract in mine, especially with sweet fruit pies. mmmmmm...

Susan Sey said...

Terrio--I am sad just thinking about all the Dove chocolates with caramel that I am not eating right now. My kids are finally in bed & I'm sitting at the computer with a cup of tea & a couple PB crackers as a little treat. How sad is that? If my husband knows what good for him, there will be a solid pound of those caramelly Dove thingies in my Easter basket. :-)

Susan Sey said...

Hey, Cassondra--thanks for the info on wines! I'll have to look into that little vacuum pump deal. But I'm more on the glass a week rather than the glass a night plan, so boxed wines might still be more my speed. Any suggestions would be wonderful.

Susan Sey said...

Dianna--Mmmmm, smashed taters with garlic & the skins on. I just happen to have a couple of potatoes sitting on the counter doing nothing. They'll be mashed up with some garlic by this time tomorrow. :-)

Susan Sey said...

Christine--Wow, your list is very gourmet. But I think I could live quite happily there. As long as I could have ice cream, too. A nice, big scoop right on top of that pecan danish. Now you're talking...

Susan Sey said...

Suzanne--very nicely rounded list! You've got your sweet, your salty & your greasy. Yummy. And I don't care how far from MN you live, next time you make those potatoes, I'm coming over!

Susan Sey said...

Deb, who used up all her WW points just reading today--I KNOW! I've been hungry all day with all this food talk. And for some reason, I've been craving a hot, fresh, greasy doughnut. The kind they used to make at the cider mill near my house when I was a kid, not the Krispy Kreme kind. Hot out of the oil, covered in cinnamon & sugar, chock full of apple chunks. *sigh*

Susan Sey said...

Catslady--you're in good company around here. Pizza, surf & turf, & doughnuts. I haven't heard anybody mention anchovies yet. Anybody want in on Catslady's anchovie pizza?

Susan Sey said...

Joan, I laughed out loud at the gravy-as-beverage concept. :-) And you are officially the first cookie girl to chime in, which surprises me because cookies are soooooo goooooooood. I love nothing more than a bowl of ice cream with cookies smashed into it, preferably chocolate chip. But if pressed, if I HAD to choose? I go with the ice cream every time. Have I mentioned that there is such as thing as GIRL SCOUT COOKIE ICE CREAM available? Limited edition--comes & goes in the stores like lightning.

Susan Sey said...

Gillian--I know what you mean about potatoes in a box. When pressed & desperate, I'll use them to make pot pies. But they're always gluey & disappointing. Which leaves me to ignore the filling & fill up on pastry, which isn't so bad because I do love me some pastry. It's like having pie for dinner. Yum.

Suzanne Ferrell said...

Oooooooo Gillian, I never tried cream cheese. May have to next time! Thanks for the tip.

Funny thing was my son-in-law didn't know mashed potatoes DIDN'T come from a box until the first time I made them. Now he loves them!

Anna Campbell said...

Eva, lovely to see you back in the lair!

doglady said...

A late night post to say anyone who has NOT tried a banana sammich with mayo does NOT know what they are missing! It is the absolute best. Right p226?

Kim Castillo said...

aww man, I popped in hoping to steal the GR! LOL

Fedora said...

Just to say that I'm still drooling over everyone's lists of could-eat-forever foods...

And the GR seems pretty happy so far--sushi isn't terribly fattening, unless you go exclusively for the deep-fried varieties :)

Kate Carlisle said...

Hey, Blogger kicked me out last night so I'm trying again this morning...

Susan and Beth, I feel the same way about chocolate ice cream! I just can't eat it, but I do love vanilla ice cream with hot fudge. And every other kind of chocolate. But choc. ice cream, nope. Weird, huh?!

I think my three would have to be...

Pasta, but not angel hair, too wimpy. I like linguini or penne, and I like a rich red sauce and lots of freshly grated parmesan.

Sushi, but I'm picky there, too. I like tuna and yellowtail and certain rolls, but not California roll. I don't like the imitation crab they use in some places. Lots of ginger and tamari, not soy sauce. Jeez, I really am picky. LOL

For third place, it's a real contest between Potato Chips--the thick, crunchy, ripply, salty kind ... and Chocolate--especially Milky Ways and Three Muskateers and almond roca. I'm a Sees Candy fan, too.

Now I'm hungry and it's time for breakfast. My fave breakfast would be donuts, of course. :-)

Congrats, flchen1! Hope you and the GR had a fine day!

Welcome back, Eva!! Great to see you here again!

Keira Soleore said...

Kirsten wrote, "Okay, Krispy Kreme is still open in the NW, as far as I know! Haven't had one for months, but I still see 'em every now and again."

Hah! And I'm the Queen of England. You with that donut for an icon??? You with donuts in all your five food groups??

Keira-who's-eyes-are-as-round-as-dounuts-in-astonishment