Overview forfood

UnFreshing Believable

Fast food chain Del Taco is currently celebrating their 50th anniversary.  If you’ve never been, they serve American style Mexican meals like tacos, burritos, and such.  In relation it has a two section menu that is split into a “Mexican kitchen” and an “American kitchen,” so you can order burgers and fries there as well.  I love this place.  In terms of fast food, Del Taco and Jack in the Box are my favorite places to hit up when I need a quick meal.  To celebrate, they have limited edition commemorative cups that show off their history.  With a total of 4 I currently have two of them.

In addition to the cups, their web store has shirts that sport their older logos.  This is perfect timing for me as my wardrobe is starting to look tattered and drab, so I purchased their Naugles shirt to kickstart a new set of t shirts.  To settle the confusion, Naugles was a fast food joint in the ‘70s and ‘80s that was very similar to Del Taco (a guy named Naugle used to work at Del Taco before he started his own place).  Del Taco would eventually buy the chain in the late ‘80s, so they aren’t around anymore, but my dad loved going to Naugles and I remember going there along with him.  Good times.

Rhode Island has good taste

I’m not a coffee drinker.  Don’t really care for hot beverages and the taste of coffee was always too strong.  But the other day I saw a TV show where someone was drinking something called “coffee milk.”  Don’t know why but I had the urge to try it.

Searched the local stores but none carry coffee milk.  Next I searched online and found out the state of Rhode Island has coffee milk as the state’s official beverage, and they use a coffee syrup called Autocrat.  I took the risk and bought a bottle of the stuff.  A risk because it was $17 for 32oz.

The verdict: delicious!  It’s sweet with a slight aftertaste of coffee.  It also helps with giving me a boost of energy in the late morning at work when I stay up way too late the night before.

You make it like you would make chocolate milk.  You pour a glass of milk, squirt some coffee syrup into the milk, stir, and enjoy.  I highly recommend coffee milk.  Consider it my beverage of choice for 2014.

Breakfast served all day

For Christmas I received something I asked for: The Hamilton Beach Breakfast Sandwich Maker.

Now, even though I was impressed by the infomercial I saw that originally caught my attention, I still had some doubts that it would be able to create a sandwich as delicious looking as from the commercial.  I’ve had the device for a few days now and can give you a quick review on the device.

This.is.a.great.product.

Even though the device looks intimidating with its many compartments, stacked vertically onto one another, it is very easy to use.  To create a basic breakfast sandwich, you’ll need:
1 English muffin
1 slice of cheese (I used Kraft American)
1 meat patty (precooked, preferably)
1 egg

First, you’ll plug in the device to warm up its many griddle compartments and wait for the green light labeled “Ready” to turn on.  While it is warming up, precook the patty.  The device will not cook the meat.  It will merely heat it up.  Once the green light is on, you will start by placing the sandwich together into each griddle compartment.  Starting with the bottom, place the small half of the English muffin, then place the cheese on top of it.  Next, place the meat patty on top of the cheese and close the lower compartment.  Now crack open an egg and place it on the next griddle level.  Poach the yolk with a fork.  Finally, place the other half of the English muffin on top of the egg and close the device.  Set the time for five minutes and let it cook.

The result will be a sandwich where the muffin is slightly toasted, the egg is fully cooked, gooey cheese, and a warm patty ready to eat.  The fantastic thing about the device is how the sandwich is already assembled.  When the timer goes off, just slide out the griddle that separates the top compartment from the lower compartment and the sandwich is now complete.  Cleaning is fairly easy too, but I recommend coating the griddles with some cooking oil so nothing sticks to it.

This was a basic sandwich, but the beauty of this sandwich maker is that you can make a sandwich your way.  Don’t want an English muffin?  Replace it with a bagel.  Don’t want to be a pig and eat a ham patty?  Substitute it with a healthier turkey patty.  Add stuff to the egg like diced tomatoes and peppers to give it a bit of zang (oh that’s right, zang).  The possibilities are endless!

I should stop now before this turns into a commercial for Hamilton Beach.  In closing, after making about a dozen sandwiches and having it for a few weeks now, I can recommend this for anyone who is interested in getting one.  Also check out YouTube because there are many videos of people using it and showing what sandwiches they’re making.