Always be concise with your labels

The other night I decided on having enchiladas for tea. I had them previously made and frozen so it was just a case of taking them out of the freezer and sticking them in the oven. Label instructions were "Heat in 375 oven for 30 minutes." Well, it actually took longer than 30 minutes--nearer 45 but all looked well and the food was piping hot. On turning it out onto a plate I thought "Hmmmmm, what happened to the tortillas?" Deciding that the tortillas had obviously disintegrated during the freezing/reheating process I carried on but I did think that it looked a bit regurgitated. (That's a euphemism, by the way)

So we sat down and started eating. Tasted not bad but I was still looking for tell-tale signs of tortilla. Then it dawned on us: What I had put in the freezer was just the filling! I was supposed to thaw it, wrap it in tortillas, sprinkle cheese on top and "voila!" (Or "wallah" as they say here in Amerikay.) Anyway, I scraped the half-eaten regurgitation off the plates, filled a couple of tortillas, sprinkled cheese on top and stuck the whole lot back in the oven to heat it up again and melt the cheese. Now it looks right--and it tasted goooood!

Of course to any good tale there has to be a moral and it is this: When you stick something in the freezer, don't assume you'll remember what it is and don't just say (for example) "Heat in 375 oven for 30 minutes"--label the darned thing with full details and thus avoid surprises!

Banana Epiphany!

The other day I was making a banana piece and had a thought: "What would it taste like with jam on it as well."

(If you don't know what a "piece" is, all will become clear.)

Take your two slices of bread and add a good slather of butter (or margarine if you prefer) then select a softish banana and mash it on top of the butter.

Next add your choice of jam. Mine was ma Mammy's home-made raspberry.

Mmmmmmmm. Buon Appetito!

It was delish! :-)

Once bitten....

I sent a parcel to my brother in Scotland the other day there. Being in a hurry that day and not wanting to go to the post office, I figured I'd drop it off at Postal Annex. Well, it cost me $36 for First Class mail (the cheapest option) which I thought was a bit much but I hadn't checked the likely cost of it on the US Postal Service Web site before I left home. I assumed (big mistake) that that was as cheap as it could be. Well, my brother informed me that the actual postage was $22, so I checked on the USPS site and found that that would be the rate for a 2.5 pound package. Thinking that a serious mistake had been made, I went off to Postal Annex to see if I could find out what went wrong. Turns out nothing was "wrong." Postal Annex charges $14 to handle a 2.5 lb package with a $22 postage. Now off to the UPS Store to see if they are any different. Nope, If I had elected to send a 2.5 lb package by Priority Mail to Scotland using them they would stick me for $59, while the actual postage would be $36--a whopping $23 handling charge! I imagine MailBoxes Etc. and all the other shipping places are the same.

Lesson learned. I'll go to the Post Office in future!

Good ol' Stater Bros!

Made a bunch of hamburger patties yesterday using Stater Bros. ground beef, some Jennie O turkey and a cup o' shredded cheese.  Sadly, the ground beef had a load of totally unchewable bits in it--and I think Wifie got the most of it.  So the whole lot will be getting the heave (no pun intended).  Anyway, went up to Stater Bros. to disseminate my displeasure about the ground beef and of course the ingredients that were ruined.  "No problem," says Ashley B, apologising.  She quickly refunded what I had paid for the ground beef then proceeded to give me another 2 lbs of fresh ground beef, a packet of ground turkey and a new packet of cheese--all gratis.  Thanks, Stater Bros. and Ashley B.  You did good!