Sunday, July 30, 2006

Pheasant McNuggets Contest Ramble Starter

I'm going to kick off this bad food ramble contest with an experience of my own.

When I was a kid my mom frequently had to travel to Washington DC as part of her job. With mom gone we had to fend for ourselves in the food department. Fortunately I'd been helping her in the kitchen for quite some time and was more than able to throw together edible meals. My dad liked to get in on the action once in a while even though I'd never seen the man cook anything other than bologna eggs (disgusting, don't ask).

One evening he got it in his head that we should have enchiladas for dinner. We had some canned enchilada sauce and tortillas and cheese. What we didn't have was any meat. I'm a cheese enchilada gal myself but at this time in his life, my dad liked eating red meat and the hamburger was frozen solid. I suggested putting it in an iron skillet with a little water and a lid. That usually thawed and cooked the meat quite nicely. I'd seen mom do it before.

Nahhhh, we didn't need to mess with that. We had something better. Something ready made and already cooked. We had Spam. Felt a shudder go down your spine, didn't you? Yes, Spam, that wonderful rectangular conglomeration of ham and spices and stuff you just don't want to think about. Dad grew up on Spam and we always had a can or two for whenever he got a craving.

My brother and I weren't too sure about this Spam enchilada idea but dad was insistent so we went with it. I grated the cheese while dad cubed the Spam. We dipped tortillas in the heated enchilada sauce and rolled each one up with a little diced Spam and cheese. We also made some plain cheese enchiladas. We made rice and beans to go with our enchiladas and after they heated in the oven for an appropriate amount of time, pulled everything out to eat.

As you've probably already guessed, our first bite of Spam enchiladas wasn't a good one. Nor was the second. Spam and red enchilada sauce do not go well together. The man who could eat bologna eggs (and Spam) even admitted they weren't that great. Thank goodness for the cheese enchiladas. Without them we would have been fighting over the last bit of rice and beans.

To this day I can make my brother shudder whenever I mention our run in with Spam enchiladas.

Tamara

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