Showing posts with label Food. Show all posts

To celebrate National Taco Day!

So rush right out and enjoy yourself a taco!  National chains like Taco Bell will want your business, but don't let them be the only ones. I recall that Jack in the Box used to sell tacos by the three-some, and my sister loved Dairy Queen's tacos (though, I think they only happened in the Texas version of the franchise). But there are also some regional favorites like Taco Tico, and Taco Bueno that would like your business too.

Crunchy shell or soft taco, enjoy the Mexican sandwich today! After all, it is "National Taco Day"!

Of course, here's another moment of thankfulness of food, but since today is the day of our church's annual Thanksgiving Fellowship meal (we try to have it early enough to avoid the crush of the holiday itself), I thought I'd be thankful for the potluck dinner.

Box Lunch, Carry-in, Covered Dish, or Pot Luck (add your own version if it didn't make my list), whatever you call it, this tradition is one that has many things for which to be thankful. Most obviously is the best dish that everyone brings from home. The food is delicious. Everyone can find something they like even if they don't like everything they find. Dishes vary from the simple to the gourmet and everyone brings a bit.

So, besides the good food is the offering that is brought on behalf of every family. And cooperation is the name of the game. I am thankful for the food, the cooperation, the fellowship, and the fun that is had by everyone. So this evening and today and always, I am thankful for potluck dinners.

It's National Cheesecake Day. Yes, I said "cheese" cake, not "beef" cake. So the question remains -- did you have a slice of heaven today?

[Note: since I discovered this wonderful idea of posting a daily thank you column during the month of November the day after it started, I've decided to do a catch-up day. I know that I posted a "thanks" this morning, but I'm doing one this evening as well, and then maybe I'll stay caught up.]

#3: I am thankful for food.

I don't know about you, but we pause before meals to thank God for our food. I'm reminded of the old black and white movie in which the farmer sits down to dinner with the family and they pause for a blessing. The farmer says, "Well, Lord, I tilled the ground, I planted it, I fertilized it, I cultivated it . . . as far as I can tell, You didn't really do anything, but thank You anyway. Amen." He missed the point, but then so do we sometimes.

The conversation goes: "Who'll say grace today? Jimmy?" To which Jimmy bows his head and says, "Grace."

Even so, we pause for thanksgiving before our meals. We do it at home, which I'm sure many of you do as well. We also do it in restaurants. I've been privy to conversations where people suggest that there is a pretension among Christians who make it a point to pause for prayer in restaurants. As if it is simply for show. And I guess that there are those among the number of Christians who would like others to see that they are doing their "Christian duty" even when they are out in public. However, to me it is the natural thing to take a moment to thank the Maker and Provider of all things (including the meal) as we sit down to consume the blessings.

After all, I like food (especially pie), and I like to be healthy and well-fed, so why shouldn't I be thankful? I'm thankful because it tastes good. I'm thankful that even when it doesn't taste good, it's still good for me. I'm thankful because I have the wherewithal to have the food supply on the table and the physical acumen to get it from the table to my face. And so I'm thankful. Most likely not always properly thankful--like the time that my older brother and I were having a nice dinner together (he was paying which made it even nicer) and he asked me to give thanks. I prayed (longer than usual at mealtime which is meant to be thanks for the meal, but I hadn't seen my brother for awhile), thanking God for the fellowship with my brother, for family, and for any number of other things. After "closing" my prayer with a hearty "Amen!" I looked at my brother and said, "oops, I forgot the food." To which he replied, "Well, if God doesn't know what to do with it, I'm sure not going to tell Him."

So when you sit down to your meal--any meal, be it breakfast, lunch or supper, meager or feast, baloney sandwiches or rib-eye steak--give thanks. It's okay. You won't embarrass anyone, and your food might taste better. If you need a little help, start with this one: "Bless the meat, bless the skin," now open the mouth and cram it in.

Today is B A D 2011. So, click on over to Loom & Wheel Words and read my post on "Food."

I was intrigued recently by a commercial blitz. It started with the Superbowl ads for Pepsi Max. You know the campaign—targeting real men with this “healthy” version of Pepsi-Cola. The big ad on Superbowl Sunday had men encountering outrageously harsh pain with the age-old statement “I’m all right!” (or some variation thereof). It says a lot about a man’s machismo if he can be hit in the head with a bowling ball and respond with “I’m okay”. My son understands this concept and, whenever he trips and falls, re-echos, “I’m okay! I meant to do that.” He’s been doing that since he was three.

So these ads – I especially like the one which claims that the can houses a nuclear reactor (or some such) and upon crushing it the guy says, “Hey, I just crushed a nuclear reactor.” [For those who have seen the ad more than once, don’t fill the comment section up with corrections to my memory, that’s not the point. I'm posting it here to avoid confusion.]

Now I’ve periodically tried diet sodas. They’re supposed to be better for you and all that. And any time that I have encountered the word “diet” in the title of something that’s not really all that good for me to begin with, I get suspicious. I’ve heard the mantra of the diet soda cult – “You can’t tell the difference!” (repeat four or five hundred times).

And now for the truth: Some of the drinks sold in the category known as “diet soda” do indeed taste worse than others. I recall a swig of Tab from years ago. That seared a memory that will forever be with me. I recall the days of Sugar Free Dr Pepper, and a taste test of Pepsi One (supposedly not a diet drink, but it had the same effect on me as Diet Pepsi, Diet Coke, and Diet Dr Pepper). The bottom line is that if a drink substitutes anything for the sugar or syrup that’s supposed to sweeten it; if the manufacturer tries to sell it with a “sugar free” tag-line – or even a “low sugar” tag line – the product will leave a taste in your mouth.

“You get used to it,” some of my friends argue – but if I have to get used to it, why would I want to drink it? As it is, I don’t drink that much soda anyway. I hear the same arguments about the use of certain artificial sweeteners, and “natural” sweeteners (you can’t tell the difference). But I have discovered that if it ain’t sugar, I can taste the difference. In fact, one popular sugar substitute today is made by changing the refining process for sugar (so it’s made out of sugar). I’m told that you can’t tell the difference when it is used – either by itself or mixed with sugar on the halvsies. But that’s a lie – you can tell the difference!

And so the point: The claim is that Pepsi Max is the kind of diet drink that real men can drink without fear of it being a sissy diet drink. So I had to try this new concoction. Who knows, maybe technology has found a way to make a low sugar drink drinkable. But alas, it has not happened. My advice to you, if you are not of the diet drink cult, and continue to taste the sugar substitute long after the drink is gone, don’t bother tasting this one. Great ad campaigns aside, Pepsi Max is just another in the long line of trying to get us to de-sugar our sugary drinks, and it tastes bad, too.

Here’s to you, Dr Pepper – and if anyone can find a bottle that’s sweetened properly with Imperial Pure Cane, send me some and I’ll be eternally grateful.