Armchair Dining on DP

So, go ahead and post a picture of one of your favorite foods!

 

So, I was reading about the passing of Peter Tork of the Monkees who hit stardom in the late 1960's and one thing led to another and I was surfing foods from that era. Came upon one that I still occasionally get to eat:



It's called Ambrosia around here and it is made of bite-sized sweet fruit like maraschino cherries, pineapple, grapes, peaches, pears, and mini-marshmallows all mixed in a fresh shredded coconut and whipped cream-based (preferably Cool Whip) dressing. It is a truly great sweet dish with some redeeming dietary features (the fruit.)

 

Seeing as you mentioned Peter Tork who was a Monkee, shouldn't you be writing about a banana dish?

 

Fair enough. I have several favorite banana-based dishes. To start, they make a great pancake:



Note that I prefer the bananas mashed and mixed into the pancake batter as opposed to just having slices of bananas in the pancake.

Next, would be banana bread:



Note that my banana bread does not contain nuts and especially do not contain walnuts, which are in a lot of banana breads.

Finally, perhaps my favorite banana dessert would be banana cream pie:



Note that this is a "double" banana cream pie in that not only is the filling flavored with bananas, but there are slices of bananas as a layer above the pie crust.

Sadly, none of these are in the house today and are not on my diet's radar screen for the foreseeable future.

 

The New England weather this winter has been typically unpredictable. We surprisingly had almost no snow in December, January and February (but for a few dustings) but since March began, we have had a couple of feet of snow. The snow banks are high as we head into Spring and more snow is predicted for tomorrow. Crazy. We also fell into a bit of a deep freeze the past week. Woke up this morning and it was 8F/-13C, e.g. So, my thoughts in these situations turn to warming foods and I absolutely love clam chowder, which is a soup made with clams and potatoes in a buttery cream sauce. There is a famous restaurant chain that originated in Boston (it has expanded around the country, including in airports over the years) and their clam chowder is great. It has been used at several Presidential inauguration celebrations, e.g. Here is a pic:



For me, it is essential that a chowder is jam-packed with clams and potatoes and the buttery cream sauce is thick, thick, thick as this chowder obviously is. However, there is a seafood chowder that has a thin, milky broth that is, in fact, my favorite chowder. It comes from the No Name Resataurant which is tucked in between fish processing plants on one of the fishing piers in the Boston seaport district. This is a picture of it:



As you can see, it is stuffed with all types of seafood and is fantastic. Yes, that is grease floating in the broth, but do not let that dissuade you from trying it should you be in the area some time. It is a wonderful chowder that, quite frankly, is incomparable.

 

I hear you but....sometimes the clams become rubbery in the cooking process and one has to chew and chew. I solved this issue by replacing the clams with chicken. Yes the potatoes are a must and seeing as I am partial to corn I go heavy on this. So, chicken chowder with lots of potatoes and gobs of corn kernals does the trick for me.

 

That sounds fantastic! And you reminded me of my love for plain old corn chowder (light on the potatoes.) Adding chicken sounds like a great idea. We have a dish down here that some call "chicken a la king" and it is basically chunks of white chicken in a sauce made with cream of mushroom soup and put over noodles. Not the same, but I can envision a chicken/corn/potato chowder.

I do have to comment on the chewiness of the clams: I kind of like that as it provides something substantial to chew on while savoring the buttery broth.

You know, I just had dinner and now I am hungry all over again.

 

Today is a good day. Not only are we celebrating my daughter's birthday but the trip was made to pick up a custom birthday donut cake from Allie's Donuts, which I have posted about a few times on this thread. Here it is:



Keep in mind, that this is one big glazed donut! Think of a double thick donut with double thick glaze. Have to wait until tonight, but this is going to be good.

 

I hate being a type A perfectionist, I really do. But they made your donut crooked on the bottom right hand side. But I am 100% sure that no one else will notice, and a good time will be had by all.

 

You are very observant. All of their cakes also seem to come out with "less than perfect" shapes and borders. My guess is that has something to do with the difference in making a donut (which I do not think is done in a cake pan or mold) versus making a cake. But, one thing for sure: you are absolutely right about everyone likely enjoying it. The clock ticks down; just a few more hours...

 

What are you, 7?

 

You're just jealous.

 

These days, when I am having pizza I seem to be avoiding tomato sauce, opting instead for a white sauce or a barbeque sauce on the pizza. My son generally does not like pizza but will eat Piezoni's chicken alfredo pizza. Piezoni is a RI pizza shop chain that has expanded a bit into SE Massachusetts next door and has 19 locations and counting. My daughter went to college with the daughter of one of the founders. Anyway, the chicken alfredo pizza is basically pizza dough, alfredo sauce, grilled chicken and cheese:



Having it tonight along with another more traditional pizza. Anybody else like pizza without tomato sauce or is that heresy?

 

@jrbiz, "Anybody else like pizza without tomato sauce"............................... I make this chicken & spinach pizza. I use Swiss cheese, red peppers, Spanish onions, and my secret recipe creamy garlic sauce. People who come over rave about it. No tomato sauce is ever harmed in the making of my pizza, because I don't use it.

 

Sounds great!

 

Saw this blurb a few days ago:

Americans love potato chips, with an average U.S. citizen consuming, on average, 6 pounds of potato chips each year. The flavor most favored by U.S. consumers is plain chips, with 188.29 million preferring these unadorned chips. Barbecue flavor comes in second with sour cream & onion following close behind. Salt & vinegar and cheese, respectfully, round out the top five potato chip flavors in the U.S. The data for the statistics on this topic came from the U.S. Census data and Summins National Consumer Survey.

I am not a big potato chip fan, though my wife and kids are, big time. However, it got me thinking about what might be my favorite flavor of potato chip. I tend to like the Cape Cod Potato Chip brand as they are "Kettle Cooked" in hotter oil than most and, therefore, have a completely different texture than most chips:



Cape Cod, of course, is just about a 1.5 hour ride from my home, so the freshness of the chip may play a role in this preference. But then the question arises as to plain or flavored and I think that I have to vote for an entry that combines two flavors in the above survey: Cheddar and Sour Cream:


I think that I also prefer the wavy chips to the standard ones, too. How about you? What is your favorite chip? Is it even potato-based???

 

For me it's Tostito's corn chips. They come in 4 flavors all in one bag.(red pepper, green pepper, straight corn and a black bean flavored chip. So there are red, green, yellow, and black colored chips all mixed in the bag. I dip them in chunky salsa...yum, yum!

 

My son and daughter love Tostito's. I assume that you only eat one color at a time? LOL, I do that with a bag of M&M's, only eating like colors at the same time.

 

So, the wife picked up a package of these chocolate-dipped, Rice Krispie treats:



I love Rice Krispie treats and I love chocolate, so what is not to like? Well, actually, they were disappointing. The marshmallow flavor did not go that well with a chocolate coating, so I was disappointed. Don't get me wrong: if they were the only sweets in the house, I would happily eat them. But, probably will not buy them again.

 

Used to have some nice noodles, don't remember what brand they were. They were kinda like pot noodles but they were a chilli flavour and they had a sachet that had chilli sauce that could be added. Think they might have possibly been Thai noodles