11:30am - I awake.
11:35am - I decide I should probably move.
11:45am - No really, time to get up.
11:55am - Dammit eyes. You will open.
12:00pm - Success.
12:01pm - Stumble into living room, plop down on couch, and start the season finale of the Biggest Loser that I missed last night. Inspirational, really.
12:45pm - realize that however wrong it may be, watching all of these people work out is making me super hungry.
12:46pm - decide to do something about it soon.
12:48pm - really, really soon.
12:50pm - remember I have pork chops thawing in the fridge.
12:51pm - happy dance on the way to the kitchen.
Thats pretty much how most of my days begin, with only a few substitutions. Biggest Loser could be any number of shows but most likely Bones, Grey's Anatomy, Glee, Fringe, or whatever I'm currently working my way through on Netflix. I just don't function well for the first hour after I wake up. And then I get hungry. And hunger will beat laziness every time. And instead of pork chops thawing it could be a brand new bag of tater tots and that sweet BBQ sauce I just discovered.
Which brings us to the point of today's blog. I was raised to believe there are two types of food. Prepackaged and Gordon Ramsey Style, and that the two cannot come into contact without contaminating the other. Today is a fabulous example. Don't get me wrong, I love homemade food. I've got some homemade Creamy Southwestern Corn Chowder in my fridge right now and its delightful, and one of my favorite dishes to make. Easy and flavorful. Delicious and healthy. Fabulous. And today was going to be a Culinary day. Spicy Orange Pork Chops with cranberries and sweet potatoes. And it was a success! A beautiful, tasty success. I made 4 servings and only ate one, the rest going into the fridge awaiting my next craving for Pork Masterpiece. And yet, three hours later (and an episode of Glee and an episode of Numbers) I was hungry again, but not for something beautiful and healthy. Nay. I wanted some Tyson frozen chicken nuggets and some instant mashed potatoes and some canned gravy and some applesauce. (Seriously, if you haven't dipped your chicken nuggets in applesauce you need to do it right now and then yell at your parents for depriving you for this long.) I wanted various shades of grey and yellow and brown. And yet to me, those flavor combinations, while more oriented to Kindergarten than Cuisine, are still savory.
So here's my thought. What if we didn't have to choose between Gordon Ramsey and Mac and Cheese because it reminds you of when you used to come home from school and your mom would have it ready cause she knew you got hungry after math class? And I'm not talking about those pretentious people who say "A twist on your classic" that looks and tastes nothing like the classic they just want to look like Martha Stewart's less uptight sister. No one is buying what you're selling. No child would eat that. Ever. No, what if we just embraced it? What if Chicken Nuggets with Mashed Potatoes and Gravy with a side of Applesauce was a culinary combination?
Because really, it is. You've seen what happens why they try to freeze and mass market it. And they mass market it because people really freaking love it. You've seen those frozen meals. They're disgusting. Those aren't mashed potatoes. Thats someone's toe lint. With butter. So rather than choosing between Kindergarten and Culinary Genius... I'm going to treat my Kindergarten favorites like they are culinary genius because really... those meals deserve that treatment. Whose with me?
