I told Christie I would mind the store (Tell Me A Story) this
afternoon to closing. I do this from time to time when she has something
special happening.
I left the house in plenty of time, but...halfway there I realized
I had not planned anything for my supper. I had to stop and buy SOMETHING or
the results would not be pretty. Shop Rite is on the way.
So I run in, only to be right…behind…the…one…woman…in…the…world
WHO IS NOT IN A HURRY! I tried going up, over, around, and through her, but
there just wasn't enough room.
Finally, I got an opening and raced her to the door...that was
beginning to close. Ha! Beat her to it, slithered past her and headed for the
frozen food isle. I haven't had a frozen dinner in years so I just looked for
the sale tags. Not that. Nope. Ugh. Oh, that looks good...Stouffer's
"grandma's chicken & vegetable rice bake in a real cheddar cheese
sauce". What could possibly be wrong with anything that had grandma in its name.
Supper time came around. I read the directions, opened the box,
cut the film, and headed for the microwave in the basement. Punch in the
required 8 min. and went back upstairs. After a while it occurred to me that 8
min. must have elapsed and the microwave probably doesn't have a buzzer to let
you know it has fulfilled its obligation.
Ouch! That's hot! Upstairs I go and lucky for me Christy has a
supply of plastic eating utensils.
First forkful is rice in said cheddar cheese sauce. Not bad. The
rice has a funny texture to it, but, not bad. Second bite is a chicken
chunk. In all fairness I have to tell you the chicken chunks were numerous and
of ample size. But they were so mushy tender my first thought was, "is
this some sort of Franken Chicken?" The more I ate the more I wondered.
More than halfway through, my stomach started to grumble and
rumble and I decided I better not eat any more. Which is a shame, because there
really was a lot of food there.
Now I look at the ingredients...I was in a hurry before. The box
says "no preservatives" (well that's a relief), but there is so much
other stuff that it's no wonder my stomach is making all this noise. My home
cooking doesn't make me growl...but I don’t put all those other things in my
cooking. I don't even have that stuff in my kitchen!
I guess the problem is that I'm used to plain, French Canadian
cooking...minus the fat and the grease.
I won't forget next time...I'll make something at home. As a
matter of fact, next time is the Saturday after Easter. I'll bring my lunch or
grab a Big Mac on the way in.
