Paging an emailer, Canadian Cream Cheese, and Out Cooking

Paging Nurse Emailer… Come in, Nurse Emailer…

If you don’t know who you are, you had left a comment about your weight loss plan and I told you to email me.

You did!

I read your email, was thinking of a response, got sidetracked by homeschooling, saw something shiny, and then somehow I deleted your email.

If you read this, could you please re-send your email?

Canadian Cream Cheese, You Hoser

I love that movie.

A friend from Canada reminded me that Canadian cream cheese in blocks doesn’t include the ounce line markers along the sides.

I’m not sure why Philadelphia didn’t take that extra step for you, unless they felt confident that you folks either don’t need the extra help, or you don’t use your cream cheese to cook or bake with, or one whole block is a Canadian serving, (everything’s bigger in Texas), but you guys seemingly got the shaft on that one.

Of course, you guys have Corner Gas, and we have Becker, so you guys made out better on the hilarious television programming. I’m guessing at right about this time, we’re even.

Nevertheless, I pulled out my ruler this morning and took some measurements for ounce markers, because I want to know where the lines ought to be. You never know when you might be in Vancouver or Manitoba and need an oopsie–and, plus, a friend asked me where the marks are.

If you measure along the side of the package, and assuming the package is (as mine is) 4.5″ long (12 cm) and 2 1/4″ wide (about 5 1/2 cm), then each line/ounce is 13/16″, or every 1.5 cm.

If you’re making one recipe of oopsies with that block, you’re going to measure out 1 3/4″ (4.5 cm). Of course, if you’re doubling the recipe because someone keeps horking your stash, you want to shoot for 3.5″ of the block (or 9 cm).

As an aside, did you know there is whey in Philadelphia Cream Cheese?

No way!

WHEY, Garth! (A little Wayne’s World humor, there)(OK, very little) (BTWhey (*snort*) Whey is fine. I wanted to make the pun, and there wasn’t anything about guar gum in Whey-ne’s World. And why not, I say!).

Superfluous Parentheses Aside, Let’s Talk Cooking!

I’m going to be trying some new recipes today, so if I’m not around, I’m busy trying some things I’ve been thinking about.

A friend told me she liked my recipes because I use easy ingredients. Not that there’s anything wrong with using stabilizers and gums, but I try to keep things simple, because not everyone has access to xanthum (I can’t even spell it) gums, or stores that carry some of the things the more prolific (and experienced) cooks sometimes are using in their recipes.

I’m lazy, and I want to eat easy-to-cook foods. That’s how I end up with things like cauliflower in my pizza crust (if you haven’t tried it yet, OMG! Do it!).

I also try not to incorporate many more than 3-6 ingredients per recipe (base, at least) in my personal recipes for that reason as well.

Ease (I hope), fewer ingredients shopping (I hope), less expensive (I hope), and versatility with the same recipe base (I’ve seen). This is why so many recipes stem from the base recipes. It’s nice to have a little less worry in the world. Lord knows it’s hard enough to find frozen, bagged cauliflower in some of the stores now.

I’ll report back later with some pictures and information about foods you might have been thinking about, but never tried, some expansions on previous themes, and some pictures.

Wish me luck, for if I cook like I lose emails, I might end up with a Ghostbusters slime monster in my kitchen spewing ectoplasm on my 70’s Corelle.

(I’m now back to Rick Moranis, and I just dribbled Diet Coke down the front of my shirt. THIS is the kind of amazingly worldly person I am.)