Taste Test French Survival Ration from 1996 (Rare**)

Here I'm opening a French survival ration from 1996. What a cool and fun ration to get to see and open. This particular ration set me back about $30 US. So I hope you all enjoyed checking this one out as much as I did. I really enjoy finding these cool hard to find things and even the everyday things and sharing them with you.

MRE Pizza Tasting

Yep, another MRE video. I can't seem to get enough of these. I love cold pizza, but not sure this cold MRE pizza would make the grade.

Ok everyone this is the review of the first real MRE pizza on YouTube. This was such a cool item to get to check out. I hope you all enjoyed watching as much as did making the video. Thank you again Shawker71 and Sniip3r for hooking me up. So I had my son try it out he said it taste like pizza, a little sweet, and it needs more bacon he said. Overall he liked it though, and said he'd be happy to have that to eat in a ration. We also heated it up and it really brought the flavors out. it made the sauce taste better and the cheese had more flavor after heating also.- Oldsmokey

Eating Rudolph - Norwegian Reindeer Sausage

Santa doesn't waste anything. When his reindeer become too old, he makes them into delicious Christmas presents...

Thanksgiving MRE Review | Turkey Breast with Gravy and Potatoes Menu #18 From 2001

Awesome frozen for 15 years MRE Menu #18 Turkey Breast with Gravy and Potatoes. This was just like opening a true time capsule from 2001.

I stumbled on these MRE review videos quite by accident, sort of how I stumble on everything. There seem to be lots of YouTube channels dedicated to these, the best actually being Steve1989MREInfo. That guy reviews EVERYTHING, I mean, we're talking rations from World War II even. And he'll often even eat the "food" out of those ancient "MREs". I'll review Steve in detail soon (though that's soon in Skeptical Eye time, which might mean by next Thanksgiving).

Pork Chili Recipe

Chili ingredients:
1 yellow onion
2 bulbs, garlic
Avocado oil
4 oz. fresh basil
15 Serrano peppers
3 lbs. cubed pork, ~ 1 cm sides
30 oz. canned whole tomatoes
12 oz. sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil
29 oz. frijoles pintos
29 oz. frijoles negros

 Purée peeled garlic & peeled onion in "processor".
Pour from processor into sauce pan & sauté them in avocado oil until onion starts to caramelize.
Don't clean processor.
Shred basil from stems into processor; add tomatoes and liquefy.
Add to sauce.
Divide pork into halves:
Brown half on gas grille; other half sauté in (another) pan.
Steam peppers on grille, drenched in olive oil, until skin bursts.
Slice open to expose seeds.
Fold both, all meat & peppers, into sauce, bring to simmer.
Add pinto beans; bring to simmer.
Add black beans, bring to simmer.
Simmer all night.

24 Hour French MRE Menu 9 Beans w/ Sausage & Duck (Complete MRE Review of all 3 Meals)

3 in 1 Thanksgiving Pie

With rows of caramel apple, maple walnut and chocolate crumb on a brown sugar base.

Triple Topping Slab Pie Recipe

Better Burgers for Britian!

The rise of the burger from a scapegoat for the obesity crisis to the symbol of a dining revolution was fuelled by a combination of social media and recession-era economics, and it established a whole new class of restaurant: inspired by simple street food, led by untrained chefs and advertised via Twitter. The gourmet burger has certainly dented the dominance of the old fast-food giants. But it has also disrupted the entire restaurant food chain.- Ten years of posh burgers – how they changed Britain's dining habits

$4.99 Big Box Warehouse Rotisserie Chicken

I used to buy these all the time from my local Costco. Now, since I moved over a year ago, I have no Costco. A good thing? It would appear that perhaps these "chickens" are not so healthy after all. I mean, if it's true that the warehouse giant sells 60 million of these mass produced, factory farmed birds a year, there's got to be something unhealthy with them. Below, a comment on the video:

Wow. If ever there was a visual indication that something has gone wrong with the world, selling a cooked, bloated, chemically enhanced chicken for $5 is it. It's ridiculous to suggest this thing is healthy - with or without skin. They have to coat and inject these things with massive amounts of salt because the breeding process removes all actual taste from the meat. If you want to enjoy the delicious flavor of real meat, do NOT buy this crap.

I would get my Costco chicken home, rip off the legs, put those drums on a paper plate, and make my own coleslaw to go with it. That was my dinner many a night after work. Yeah it was a good deal, just like their $1.50 hot dog and soda, which I also would often buy, though if the stupid winding line at the Costco snack bar (is that what they call it?) was too long, I'd avoid the trouble of waiting and just go through a drive-thru. But price and convenience have proven fatal to our health.

Gobble, gobble, gobble? Isn't that turkey talk? I guess not:

Arby's Cajun Deep Fried Turkey Sandwich

Wendy's North Pacific Cod Fish Sandwich Review

Full disclosure, I own Wendy's stock. I first became aware of the fast food chain back in 1975, when I guess they really started to roll out nationally. I was just a kid at the time, but Wendy's felt new and different (in spite of the "old fashioned" labeling and inside theme of the stores) from other, more familiar fast food "restaurants" such as the (even 40 years ago) ubiquitous McDonald's.

One thing the review in the video fails to mention is that one other thing setting apart this fish sandwich from others is the type of fish, cod rather than pollock (though Alaskan pollack is still a member of the cod family) as used in the Filet-o-Fish and other fast food fried fish-between-buns concoctions.

In spite of this mostly unenthusiastic review, I think I'll try this. It's been available before, but I guess I missed it then. Oh, and it's tartar sauce, not mayo, you dummy!

Sunday Food: Cheese-Stuffed Burgers

Burgers, cheese, what's not to love?

Dairy Queen Disappoints

Disappointment 1: Dairy Queen chicken bacon ranch artisan style sandwich

"The chicken is really tough and chewy and kind of rubbery" Jason's verdict: 5 out of 10.

Wow! Very disappointing. Sounded like it would be a good sandwich. Too bad. Maybe it was just an anomaly, an old batch of chicken or something. Still, I'd be reluctant to try it now.

Disappointment 2: Dairy Queen buffalo chicken snack melt

Jason's verdict: Taste 9 out of 10, value 4 out of 10.

Well, at least this was better than the sandwich, but I agree, the price is too high for what you get. I guess the 5 buck lunch deals seem okay, though. I haven't been to Dairy Queen in a long time. We always used to go for the ice cream anyway.

Goodbye Diet Soda?

Scared ya, didn't I, diet soda addict! You thought the title of my humble post had to do with the very bitter end of diet soda, that perhaps the insane soda companies had finally come to their senses, that the guvment was going to ban artificial sweeteners.

Well, relax, soda guzzlers! Never fear, the end of your bad habit is not near. No, the title is a real question, should you say bye-bye to aspartame?

Why Diet Soda Doesn’t Belong In Your Diet

While there is disagreement about the dangers of artificial sweeteners, I simply don't trust them in terms of long run health risks. Of course, my problem is, I enjoy soda! I avoid HFCS, so I switched to Pepsi's real sugar products (Real Sugar Pepsi, Sierra Mist, Mountain Dew Throwback). Still, it's a lot of sugar, and sugar isn't too good either. For cola, the best I've found is Coke Life, with sugar and stevia and a lot fewer calories (though I don't like the taste as much as Pepsi with sugar, and no, that's not due to Pepsi being "sweeter", because I like "original" Coca-Cola just fine). The best is to switch to unsweetened flavored seltzers and club soda. Still, I tend to let people enjoy their little pleasures. After all, none of us are going to get out of this world alive.

On the health effects of the diet stuff, I tried Shasta diet soda for a time, made with Splenda, which I imagined was better than aspartame. It gave me headaches almost always. Also, Diet-Rite, and also made with Splenda, same thing basically as Shasta. I think Splenda initially got its "healthier" reputation in part because of the early TV commercials touting it as "made from sugar".

On alternatives, I have found that the simple bubbly nature of seltzer waters is quite satisfying. It's your thirst you want to quench, and carbonated water works just fine. Of course, people drink soda for caffeine and sugar and other reasons (or because they feel that plain water is "boring"). You might have noticed that in our modern era, almost everything good is labeled boring, from good liquid to good men.

Doritos Roulette

I'm drawn to Doritos like a pig to slop! Will have to try these if I can find them.

Holiday Chip of the Weekend: Pringles Cinnamon Sugar Tortillas

I really liked those Pringles Pecan Pie ones. Those were so good I never should have opened the package because I ate them all in one sitting. But that was last year...

Buying Sandwiches

The problem I have with buying sandwiches is that too often they're mostly bread. Take the filling out and take a good look. You're probably getting ripped off. Without the cheap bun or roll, what have you got? I bought some of those deli made grocery store sandwiches recently, 3 for $3.99 (though I almost didn't buy them because they recently were being sold for only $2.99). I figured it as a good deal, only $1.33 per sandwich. But when I took a closer look when I brought one to work for my lunch, the filling was just one piece of cheese, one thin slice of ham and a very wilted piece of lettuce. It was all just a big bunch of bread (a thick roll) that cost too much of my hard earned bread, man. (My mom's second husband, Ray, liked to say bread and man a lot, so that's a little tribute).

I say give us the filling first and then give us the bread to make our own sandwich so we can see the reality. Wheat products are cheap, which is why they give you so much of them and call it a deal. Those supermarket sandwiches looked big and impressive, until I lifted the lid. I think I'm going for salads from now on so I can get ripped off that way instead.

Make your own sandwiches at home and save money, or better yet, give up bread altogether.

Sloppy Joe? Sloppy No!

This video starts out great (or should I say Great Value) and then turns, no wait...that's the sloppy Joe, oh well...

They're not gonna screw up a sloppy Joe? Ha!

40-Year-High for Butter Consumption in US

Inside the Tabasco Factory

Cajun Catsup! I like that. I also like that Tabasco is a family company and so far has not sold out to a larger food conglomerate, though there have been offers to buy the company out. It's always a good idea to have some hot sauce on hand, and though there is a lot of competition in the segment now, Tabasco is still holding its own against upstarts and other hot sauces, and I have some on my kitchen shelf right now.