Foodie Sins
I, a lover of food, a foodie, a food daydreamer...have sinned. With the holiday devoted to food just a few days away, it has come time for me to confess my sin. I hate Thanksgiving. It is my least favorite holiday. I like turkey and I love sweet potatoes (minus the marshmallows and extra sweetness added, which is only the kind of sweet potatoes served at my family celebration), but all the other foods just don't hit the spot like foods of other holidays like Christmas, Easter, the 4th of July, or my birthday. So fess up fellow foodies, what foodie sins have you committed?
Also while I'm confessing, a post a little while back ago was talking about pizza and dipping the crust in ranch or whatever else and many believe this ruins the pizza, a pizza sin. So once again I have sinned...I love to dip my pizza crust in spicy ranch or in honey.
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
Start Talking!
Need a question answered? Have advice to share? Start a Talk topic now!
Sign up to get your questions answered and share advice.
47 Comments:
I HATE Christmas ham. I always end up giving my piece to my dog.
meg3j at 10:47PM on 11/25/08
Last Thanksgiving, my husband and I stopped at Coney Island for cheese fries on the way to dinner!
kellyporter at 11:00PM on 11/25/08
One year for Chrstmas, the hubby and I had chicken enchildadas. This year, the cats, dogs, and I will share our turkey. I hope they let me have some.
beth1 at 11:40PM on 11/25/08
I made my mom's broccoli cheese and rice casserole the other day. Ingredients: Minute rice, cheese whiz, cream of mushroom soup, milk and frozen broccoli. It's cooked in the microwave. And I loved it, and wished I had more, and didn't even think about how to make it from scratch (and I doubt it could convert, actually).
Did you know Cheese Whiz has worcestershire sauce in it?
renzata at 1:22AM on 11/26/08
My contribution for family holidays most of the time is my grandma's Jello salad. By far not the most horrible one, but still jello.
Make a box of strawberry jelly according to the instructions, mix in a bag of frozen raspberries. Pour half into a jello mold (we always use a ring one) and let set. Spread a layer of sour cream on top of it once it's set, then carefully pour the rest of the jello on top, and chill until it's set.
cmtigger at 1:49AM on 11/26/08
We once ordered a complete T-day meal from Zehnder's of Frankenmuth. The meal was driven 150 miles almost to Ohio before being reheated and served. Not too shabby actually, but we all felt we'd cheated on the Food God and never did it again.
LunaPierCook at 3:28AM on 11/26/08
Since I don't celebrate any religious holidays except for New Year's, I don't miss or crave any of the holiday foods except for the New Year's celebratory foods like ozoni, nishime, etc. that I don't make.
I haven't put forth the effort to try and it took my mother a week to create all the necessary dishes. An amazing amount of time, when you consider we had no dust in the house any time of the year, and part of the New Year tradition was to scrub the entire house down, ceiling to floor.
This year, I told my husband I didn't want to be put through yet another Thanksgiving torture session. I felt bad after I said it because he works for DAYS on this meal, and I didn't mean that his cooking sucks. I just can't stand poultry, in particular, turkey. So he is only making green bean casserole - for himself. I bought a sweet potato pie last week and ate a slice. I have already had my fill of Thanksgiving flavor. My husband got stuck with the rest of the pie.
So as someone who loves food, I don't love your standard festive food. For this, I do feel...bad.
Cassaendra at 6:53AM on 11/26/08
@cmtigger - that jello mold sounds good! That's my confession....I do love jello (don't tell Jerzee!)......and also my grandmother's potato casserole, which consists of sliced potatoes, tons of butter, and dry french onion soup mix. I have made my addition of shredded cheddar cheese to it. I try to be good and only have it a couple times a year. My husband doesn't like onions, so I have to eat the whole thing myself over the course of a couple of days.
mepolo at 7:49AM on 11/26/08
I add 2 cans of Manwich sauce to my otherwise-totally-homemade chili. It's been my secret ingredient to my contest-winning chili for years. Now you all know it. Now I'm going to have to kill you.
:o)
juliebugsmama at 8:44AM on 11/26/08
My husband and I have been known to cook Thanksgiving tacos and Christmas enchiladas. But then no one comes over! There are Thanksgiving foods I love, but many I hate like creamed onions, turnips, and brussel sprouts; all foods I was practically forced to eat as a child.
mrsadm at 8:59AM on 11/26/08
LOL Juliebugsmama
I'll have to give it a try some time to see what that's like!
The Manwich, not the killing part.
Cassaendra at 9:24AM on 11/26/08
Sin # 1 I absolutely love Taco Bell fire sauce. Whenever I get food to go, always chili cheese burritos I grab as many of the packs as possible.
Sin # 2 I'll go to Wendy's and get the chili and sneak in 5 packs of the fire sauce and dump them in the chili. That makes it so much better.
chazmo at 9:45AM on 11/26/08
Last night the OH and I got a little too intoxicated before dinner time. We had a pound of ground pork and beef left over from making Italian Wedding soup that we needed to eat because we're leaving town for the holiday.
Since we obviously couldn't drive to the grocery store, we got the brilliant idea to walk to the corner shop and buy...Hamburger Helper Cheesy Hashbrowns. It took more work than I thought it would. And we both used half a bottle of hot sauce just to give the mess some flavor. But for 2 bucks, we utliized our leftover meat and I fulfilled some weird need to eat the bad and sinful foods my parents always refused to make.
I now know why that is.
Alyrmc at 10:03AM on 11/26/08
I love bologna. Always have, always will. So I buy myself some from time to time, and eat it on a buttered slice of whole grain bread, topped with Colman's mustard. This is my food sin, and it's pure heaven:-)
brooke29 at 10:14AM on 11/26/08
I am addicted to popcorn. Airpopped and can eat my weight in it every day.
I don't like Thanksgiving, either. I don't mind the turkey, but that's it. So, this year (although I suggested ordering pizza, since it will just be myself and my parents), I am having sushi. And I will enjoy every mouthful.
I have no idea what is in them, but I love Jell-O sugar-free pudding snacks. Especially the mocchiatto one. No idea why.
Grilled cheese sandwiches are only good when made with Velveeta.
I hate frosting. Always have. I will scrape it off of any cake that I eat. Yuck! Glazes are okay, but frosting? Eew.
Traveller at 10:15AM on 11/26/08
Even though we make cranberry sauce from scratch and I like it, I actually really like the jellied canned kind too...Is that a sin? :)
Hillary
Chew on That
Chew on That at 10:31AM on 11/26/08
I don't like potatoes. Actually -- it's not that I don't like them, I just don't like them enough to spend my calories on them. Not fries, not mashed, and defintely not chips. Open a bag and leave it on my desk -- unless I'm starving, I won't feel any compunction to have any. Even my mother thinks it weird. :)
@Traveller -- I am with you on the popcorn! I swear, I could eat through a silo of it all on my own. :)
Last one -- I love my mom's salmon mousse so much, I could eat an entire bowl of it. Ingredients: Canned salmon, red horseradish, mayo, sour cream, plain gelatin, pepper, lemon juice. All go in the blender. Yikes! But it is so fantastically delicious. I actually made "real" salmon mousse in culinary school and it was AWFUL, not even in the same ballpark as mom's. Am I classy or what?
CookiePie at 10:58AM on 11/26/08
I hate to be a 'Debbie Downer,' but I really, really, really hate Thanksgiving. Truthfully, when I was growing up because my mom hated to cook we would go out to eat, which I loved. Hated the turkey, but I could order what I liked and get a complementary dark chocolate turkey lollypop afterward. After my mom and dad divorced, mom and I would go out together to a diner and have a non-traditional meal, to the movies, and then go look at the ocean.
Now my mom passed, I have to go to my dad and stepmother's. I don't speak Greek, and everyone there only speaks Greek, except my dad, who is obviously bilingual. My stepmother makes huge, oily portions of turkey, spinach and cheese pies, lasagna, potatoes, and basically nothing I like to eat. They serve Jell-O and Greek cookies for dessert, not heaven forbid 'American' food like pies and chocolate-based stuff.
and screams at my father that I don't eat enough in Greek in front of me, and then gossips with all of her Greek friends from the local church. I've tried not going, but it's not worth having my father give me the 'silent treatment' for weeks afterward.
It just blows because it's not just a hideous day, it's being fed food I don't like, and a reminder that what I consider my traditional family for the day (my mom) has gone. Oh yeah, and if I bring food, it is 'toxic, non-Greek food, and gets dumped in the trash.
So that is my huge sin--I know T-day is supposed to be foodie paradise, but I loathe it, and count the hours until it is over.
HeartofGlass at 11:14AM on 11/26/08
I dont believe in foodie sins, unless its making something for someone you know they wont like. If eating taco bell gives you pleasure go for it, if blue box mac and cheese is your thing enjoy. cmon ppl its food, fuel for your cells and hopefully enjoyment and some pleasure. lets face it folks it all ends the same way. enjoy what you enjoy and stop feeling guilty.
huneybumper at 11:29AM on 11/26/08
Here are four of my foodie sins:
Cranberry sauce is only good if it comes from a can.
Ketchup and cholula make scrambled eggs delicious.
Hostess apple pies are just as tasty as from-scratch applie pie.
My favorite dips involve cream cheese, ranch dressing, or Rotel.
Junie at 11:36AM on 11/26/08
@Junie
My all time favorite Dip That Will Kill Me involves 2 8oz packages of cream cheese, a thing of bulk spicy sausage and a can of Rotel. That's it. Ambrosia on a tortilla chip.
Alyrmc at 12:11PM on 11/26/08
My favorite dessert is Nutella straight from the jar.
Hands down my favorite.
In fact, in an effort to class up my act, I made some delicious Nutella-Hazelnut Crunch Cookies recently . . .
. . . but, alas, I still prefer to lick the stuff right off the spoon.
makemethod at 12:33PM on 11/26/08
I think the only foodie sin is being a snob about what you eat. And what goes with that is disparaging what other people eat, or trying to change them. Talking about it is fine, if they're interested, but being a twit about it is not.
I've changed my mind multiple times about what's good food and what's bad over the course of my life, and I'm pretty satisfied that what I regularly eat now is good for me (and I knowingly, willingly, and unashamedly indulge in things that are not good for me, too), and I know that it all tastes good to me. I was pretty sure of myself years ago, too, when I ate different things than I do now. Back then, I drank a lot of diet soda. Now, I wouldn't touch the stuff. But if you like it, I'm not gonna get on a high horse about it.
Oh, and occasionally, I like a can of Spaghetti-Os for lunch.
dbcurrie at 12:46PM on 11/26/08
@renzata: ZOMG I thought I was the only one. The only diff is that I bake mine and use store-brand cheddar cheese instead of Whiz, but I hang my head in shame everytime someone on this site trash-talks any dishes made with the condensed soup recipes.
Also...Pillsbury rolled pie crust dough. I'm sorry, but when you have a teeny kitchen and no time, homemade crust is too fussy! And, no one has ever known the difference, really - I make sure the filling is homemade and gets all the attention.
Also, I don't really consider myself a foodie. I was actually hoping that the kid from the NY Times article last week would become an actual Zagat critic, because he's about as selective with food as I am.
savecara at 12:59PM on 11/26/08
Can I just take a second to proclaim that this is the best thread I've ever read? And I'm on board with you, dbcurrie. Being a snootface about what other people eat is definitely a sin.
But to stay on topic. I've been "ewww!"-ed at for this: I like eating LeSeur peas out of the can, refrigerated. And then I drink the pea juice. Yum.
BangieB at 1:01PM on 11/26/08
I eat diced tomatoes out of the can. It's messed up some recipes, where you're supposed to add the whole can, and it seems a little lacking because during cooking I've eaten half the can! I drink the juice they're in as well.
@Junie I haven't tried the Hostess pies, but there's a company called Hubig's that makes fried pies that are similar, and they're quite tasty. I like the apple and the lemon (tastes like lemon doughnut filling), and the boyfriend LOVES the chocolate. I've been known to nuke an apple pie to eat for breakfast as I run out the door.
I love those flavored mashed potato flake mixes. The ones that come in things like "herb and butter" or "four cheese". I can eat a whole pouch in one sitting.
I don't like creamy tomato soup. It has to be very chunky and very spicy.
Fluffernutters are heaven.
nightowl at 1:32PM on 11/26/08
@dbcurrie: I love Spaghetti-O's! I always have a tin of them in my pantry for those times when I just need one.
Traveller at 1:54PM on 11/26/08
I realize it's all the same, but for some odd reason Spaghetti-O's give me horrible indigestion, but Beefaroni doesn't. I love savoring my Beefaroni and sucking the pasta (what would you classify it?) clean. I eat it with white rice at a 2:1 ratio (rice to Beefaroni), so 1 can lasts me 2-3 meals.
Some things can't be duplicated...
Cassaendra at 6:08PM on 11/26/08
After a bit too much to drink, late night hunger for an omelet set in for my husband and I. Out of regular cheese and our usual stuffings, so I substituted cream cheese and pimento stuffed olives and tomatoes. My husband was skeptical until he took a bite. He pigged it down and I only got a few bites. Maybe I'll make that again tonight!
dhorst at 6:27PM on 11/26/08
That sounds like an awesome omelette!
nightowl at 6:38PM on 11/26/08
Is it a sin to detest turkey?
izatryt at 7:00PM on 11/26/08
@mepolo- Jello is a huge weakness of mine. I posted the recipe because it IS yummy. I actually took the leftover stuff that wouldn't fit in the molds and mixed some sour cream into it to eat today.
cmtigger at 7:08PM on 11/26/08
I don't think it's a sin to hate thanksgiving, or turkey, or any of the other holidays. The amount of build-up that television / magazines / websites pile on us, not to mention the inevitable travel time, get us all keyed up - the stress is just too much. And it usually ends up never being half as good as you hope it'll be. Add to that, the requisite spending of time with family members you'd prefer to avoid. Well, it can all be one huge recipe for disaster.
If you hate thanksgiving and turkey, be thankful that as a grown-up, you don't need to buy into it all if you really don't want to.
DaveFaris at 7:23PM on 11/26/08
Right Dave! That's why I have a huge standing rib roast in the fridge waiting for me in the morning.
izatryt at 7:29PM on 11/26/08
Pepperidge farm stuffing--but I add chestnuts to it. And brownies from a mix--they just are better that way. And Miracle Whip--sorry I love that too
smallblondemom at 7:51PM on 11/26/08
izatryt--I just fell to the floor--does this mean that you're turning on your oven this Thanksgiving? Good for you, btw, taking a proud anti-turkey stance since you don't like the Big Beige Bird!
Oh, as for more foodie sins--sometimes I eat dessert for dinner. Like a big ass muffin or a slice of cake. I don't really drink so that's my reward after a hard day every now and then.
I don't cook enough to be a real foodie, I feel, since I live alone. I get good ingredients, but sometimes a runny sunny-side egg and some plain steel cut oats is a nice meal.
HeartofGlass at 8:08PM on 11/26/08
OK, top this: I took some leftover grilled chicken (on the George, brushed with some nice garlicky, herby aioli), diced it up, mixed it into some leftover mushroom risotto, and THEN I stirred in a can or mushroom soup, some chicken stock, some sour cream, and a handfull of cheese from a bag! If I had had some potato chips I probably would have crushed them on top, but instead I put another handful of cheese and some breadcrumbs. So kill me, I love me a casserole made of leftovers.
I'm still looking forward to my cornish hens tomorrow - a tradition my divorced mom and I started when I was a kid, and that I like to do when it's just me and the hub for Thanksgiving. Anyone ever made soup or stock from the little hens? I'm gonna try it and see if it's noticibly different from other poultry stocks.
lledford at 8:37PM on 11/26/08
@Heart ~ Get off the floor. I am roasting the bad ass prime on my Weber with the smoker...... I don't eat anything BEIGE!! I could go on about beige shit forever!! (I think I will get another glass of wine now)
izatryt at 10:30PM on 11/26/08
I love everything about Thanksgiving but peas. When I was a teen my friend and myself would go after my mother's red wine but in order to not get caught we needed to fill up the bottle up with something to cover the evidence so we poured black cherry kool aid in the bottle. A couple days later my mother had guests over and that same friend stayed for dinner. My mother made her famous yummy red cabbage that she make with red wine.......Well...... Lets just say that my friend and I passed on that dish that night which was sad because we love it when she makes it. Not with kool aid in it though and mom kept asking us girls why we were passing on the red cabbage, it was really hard to keep a straight face trying to come up with an excuse. Never told her what we did.
pjracz10 at 4:05AM on 11/27/08
Canned green peas, warm, drained, and dredged in Green Goddess dressing....now that's livin'
SilverRush at 6:58AM on 11/27/08
@mrsadm - I love fiesta holidays! Sounds great!
My Sin #1 - I HATE HATE HATE bologna and hot dogs (sorry Brooke); especially with ketchup
My Sin #2 - I can drink Gin with anything. Even Water.
My Sin #3 - Frozen Pizza's are by best "lazy-day" friend; I never ever was allowed to have them growing up--so now I get them all the time;
My Sin #4 - Canned Mushrooms STRAIGHT-UP! Nom nom nom
My Sin #5 - I don't like still-water; I prefer sparkling/mineral
My Sin #6 - I eat giant blocks of cheese all by themselves (ie brie, camembert, swiss)
My Sin #7 - I live for dried meats (schenken, jagerwurst and gypsy salami)
My Sin #8 - I don't even eat turkey on Thanksgiving sometimes; I like to switch-up the bird to duck, goose or sometimes rabbit
I'm a big sinner I guess
hungrychristel at 12:12PM on 11/27/08
I can make fresh cranberry sauce, it is one of the easiest things to make ever... but I have, and will continue to eat and love canned cranberry sauce. How many "our fathers" and "hail mary's" is that?
Pavlov at 12:36PM on 11/27/08
maccaroni with ketchup and butter.
dearrie at 3:48PM on 11/27/08
Mickey's Malt Liquor
coolname at 4:41PM on 11/27/08
I have some weird preferences...
I love eggo waffles but I only like them with cheese, a fried egg and sour cream on top.
I like my white rice with butter, soy and black pepper.
I love my mac and cheese, homemade...with ketchup.
I think that people's different genetic makeup has a lot to do with the foods they choose to eat...
mayoxqueen at 4:50PM on 11/27/08
I love white rice with tomato sauce and parm cheese. It looks disgusting, but tastes like heaven.
Schnauzer_Mama at 6:02AM on 11/28/08
Let me see...Here's what I can come up with:
I love the canned, jellied cranberry sauce. I also love the homemade version. I love anything cranberry though.
I just tried (for the first time ever) Stove Top stuffing. I liked it. I've only ever had homemade and I love that (now). Stuffing is something I recently (about 4 years ago) started to like. Outside of the bird only. Inside just creeps me out.
Velveeta Mac and Cheese hits the spot when low on time!
I have to use Cream of Mushroom Soup in Broccoli Casserole.
Please don't hate me...
Butrflygirly at 11:46AM on 11/28/08