Blog Archives
The Snack Report: Lay’s Do Us a Flavor Finalists Part 2
Last week I reviewed two of the four 2015 Lay’s Do Us a Flavor finalists: Southern Biscuits and Gravy and Greektown Gryo. The Southern Biscuits and Gravy fared fairly well and the Greektown Gyro…did not. But there are still two more flavors to take into consideration before voting! This week I’ll review New York Reuben and West Coast Truffle Fries.
The Snack Report: Lay’s Do Us a Flavor Finalists Part 1
Yes, it’s that time of year again; when Lay’s hands their development department over to the public and lets us decide what their new flavor will be. Something I noticed the other day while in the chip aisle at the store is that the first two winners of the “Do Us a Flavor” contests were largely cheese based. The 2013 winner was Cheesy Garlic Bread and the 2014 winner was Bacon Mac and Cheese. Not that there’s anything wrong with this, but cheese flavored chips have already been around for awhile; sour cream and cheddar is a potato chip staple. Perhaps just out of chance, or perhaps out of conscious effort to not have another cheese chip win, there are no cheese flavored chips in the finals this year. Something that definitely seems like a conscious decision this year was to add location modifiers to the flavor names. This year’s finalists are: Greektown Gyro, West Coast Truffle Fries, Southern Biscuits and Gravy, and New York Reuben. Whether they did this to try and lend some sort of authenticity, to pit places against each other, or just because they thought it sounded good I am unsure.
Since there are 4 chips to review I decided to break this up into two different posts instead of making it one huge one. This week’s post will review the Greektown Gryo and the Southern Biscuits and Gravy.
Cheese Review: Wildspitz
Cheese is probably up there as one of my favorite foods. Fancy cheeses can be expensive, but every now and then Erik and I like to treat ourselves to a new cheese. This time we decided on Wildspitz.
Wildspitz originates near the Swiss Alps and is made up of a mix of cow and goat milk. The most notable feature of this cheese is its smell. Yes, it is a smelly cheese. What makes it kind of nice though is that you can actually kind of control the levels of funk. If you want to really experience all this cheese has to offer, let it sit out at room temperature for a bit before eating and let it get nice and stinky. However if you’re not as much into the funk, you can eat it cold straight from the fridge and it has just a mild bit of smell, not too much more than say a provolone. If you do this you may not get the full depth of flavor but it could be a good way to ease into the funk.
We Can Do it Better: Loaded Fries
As much as we may try to eat healthy, sometimes we all just crave some good old fashioned junk food. If you’re like us that usually occurs sometime around 1 in the morning. But time of day isn’t really that important. The main point I’m trying to make is that when you do have that junk food craving, try to resist the urge to go out and buy the junkiest food from a restaurant or fast food place. Because you can, actually make junk food yourself at home that, while not necessarily healthy, will certainly still be better for you than something you purchase out.
Homer Simpson is sometimes everyone’s spirit animal.
This brings us to loaded fries. I will fully admit that some places have awesome loaded fries. But there are also a lot of less than great loaded fries out there. Between soggy, limp fries and questionable cheese sauces, ordering loaded fries can be very hit or miss. Luckily they’re super easy to make at home. And while they’re never really going to be good for you, when you make them yourself you have control over what all gets added to them, and that’s always a good thing.
Food 101: Basic Guacamole
In my experience guacamole seems to be one of those foods that most people either love or hate. Some people are happy with any guacamole, but others take it much more seriously. There was even a huge social media blow-out (Guacamole-gate) when it was suggested that a guacamole that included peas could be superior to others. Personally I’m more on the traditional side of guacamole things. A good basic guacamole is a culinary multi-tasker. You can set it out as a dip at a party, put it in a burrito, on a sandwich, or use it as a topping for quesadillas, chicken, etc.
Guacamole can range from super basic to super loaded. With this post I’m going to go over how to make a super basic guacamole and then add some suggestions to amp it up a bit if desired. There’s really only 3 ingredients you need for your most basic guacamole: avocado, lemon or lime juice, and salt. Once you have this base you can easily decide on other ingredients to add in to give your guacamole a different taste to fit the occasion. Or just eat it as is. Whatever suits your mood that day.
The line-up
The Poor Couple's Food Guide 
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