I love Kraft Dinner. I'll admit it right now. I know, I know, it's fake, it's plastic food, it's a mean fist of carbs, but I can't help it. I love the stuff. (You Americans call it "Mac and Cheese". One time I was in a house full of people including a bunch of kids, and the mum was making KD for the kids to have before the grownup food was put on for supper later. I took one look at that huge pot of glowing orangey-goodness and begged to have some. Yes, I'll take food out of the mouths of children as long as it's KD.
I also love tinned Campbell's chicken noodle soup. So many happy memories of a bowl of that lovely salty stuff, slurping up the noodles with a grilled cheese (cheddar, of course) sandwich on the side.
What are some awful packaged fake-food you like?
(Oh man, I'm so hungry!)
~
Dinty Moore Beef Stew doctored with Worcestershire Sauce, Tabasco, peppercorn medley, and Dijon mustard. Friends or B&M Baked Beans. Hormel Hot Chili With Beans. Lipton Parmesan Cheese noodles& sauce when I don't feel like making true Straw & Hay. Campbell's Cream of Chicken Soup served with either Bisquik dumplings or diced chicken breast. Bird's Custard ( and thank you for your suggestions on improving it). Campbell's Cheddar Cheese soup with shredded cheddar, Parmesan, butter, Worcestershire, Tabasco, peppercorn medley, Dijon, and a pinch of nutmeg as Welsh Rarebit over EMuffs. Probably a few other things my cardiologist would severely reprove me for.
ReplyDeleteYes! The Kraft mac and cheese out of the blue box! That brings back memories of childhood for me too... to this day, it's the ONLY kind of mac and cheese I like.
ReplyDeleteI didn't discover it until uni. It's exactly the kind of "food" my mother would have had fits over if I'd asked for it as a kid.
ReplyDeleteHeinz beans and sausage. Tinned corned beef. As a kid I my friend's mum made Heinz spaghetti bolognese pie. Line a dish with shortcrust pastry fill the middle with the bolognese and pop it in the oven. I was horrified but it tasted gorgeous. How about buttered weatabix dipped in tea? You have to be pretty dexterous to stop the weatabix dropping into the tea and turning it into mush.
ReplyDeleteOh---the buttered weatabix sounds so good!
ReplyDeleteMy best comfort foods are Lipton's tea with sugar and canned milk, accompanied by white toast with butter. My second favorite, I think, would be a bologna sandwich on white bread with butter and French's mustard. Delicious!
I always liked Kraft dinner (M and C some 300 miles south of your hometown...) which I also didn't discover until college days. My mother would not have given us Mac and cheese. But she did give us tea and toast when we were home from school on a sick day. It can cure anything!
Mary Kay, if you're going to try the buttered weatabix you need to dip it in for a very short time then up end it quickly but gently so the tea runs down the inside. Some will end up in the tea and, (revolting of me I know) makes the tea taste gorgeous. My sister invented this. Hats off to her!
ReplyDeleteNot exactly the post I was expecting after a week spent in truffle and cinghiale heaven, Hilary!
ReplyDeleteBut I hear you. Last month Tesco had 1/2 off a big family-size box of Kraft mac-n-cheese in the American section. I jumped at it.
I also cannot resist Cheetos, cherry Pop Tarts, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Reeses Peanut Butter Puffs cereals.
BTW, how was Norcia. I will be in Perugia for a couple days next week on my way down to Rome, and I'm thinking of struggling over there on a bus to get a taste of the place. Thank God for them---I often pray Vespers along with their daily podcast recording. It so much beats reading silently!
When our daughter was a student in Russia, she asked us to send her "just the cheese packets" from about 20 boxes. We dodn't have to buy macaroni for quite a while!
ReplyDeleteOreos.
ReplyDeleteJames,
ReplyDeletedefinitely get down to Norcia if you can. If you are already in Perugia, you're certainly going to be within easy shouting distance. I don't know if there is a direct bus from Perugia, but there is one from Spoleto, and there's a train from P. to Sp.
The bus to Norcia goes several times a day, costs 9 euros and takes an hour to wind through the mountain roads, giving a truly spectacularly gorgeous ride. Once you're in Norcia, you will be able to find the monks easily. THey're on the main piazza and their gift shop is open in the mornings til one, and again in the afternoons from 3 or 3:30 to 7 pm.
Thanks, Hilary. I wanted to see Spoleto anyway, so I'm convinced. I plan to go on a retreat there next year and take my ex-Catholic father with me. Novusordoism drove him out of the Church in the 1970s, and I am hoping the monks show him that the Asteroid hasn't destroyed everything.
ReplyDeleteI like Spaghetti-Os. Straight out of the can they're gross (although I loved them as a kid), but if you sprinkle it with black pepper and Parmesan cheese it ain't too shabby.
ReplyDeleteCampbells Tomato Soup. The reason it's so good is that it's made with (New) Jersey tomatoes. You can't get tomatoes better than that.
ReplyDeleteI've only recently discovered the joys of cooking with Campbells condensed soups.
Snack Pack tapioca pudding. Kraft Mac & Cheese (Yes, I from the U.S.) with hot dogs sliced up and mixed in, or (delicious Catholic Friday meal) with breaded frozen fish-sticks!
ReplyDeleteMy father was in the Navy and when he was out to sea, my mother used to feed us children Kraft Dinner two or three times a week. We loved it, and all grew up healthy!
ReplyDeleteCan't really get into Kraft Dinner, myself. But really, I just lerv almost any junk food there is. It's so nice to just say that!
ReplyDeleteLouise L
I really never tried any processed foods as a kid; my mom cooked everything from scratch. Once I got married, however, my husband introduced me to the Great American Menu of Good Bad Foods, and I realized that I LOVED Mac&Cheese and Hamburger Helper (Beef Stroganoff with added mushrooms and paprika). I have to eat low-carb for various reasons, so I don't get to have either dish very often, but what a treat!
ReplyDeleteLorena