Critique: Racconto Conchiglie pasta! Fail!

I recently purchased a one pound bag of Racconto Conchiglie pasta at a local grocery store intending to do a short piece on the nutritional aspects of eating pasta while on a diet. Sadly, I never got much beyond the cooking of the pasta as my first plate, when made according to the directions on the package, was so undercooked that I tossed everything out!

In fairness to the Racconto company that distributes this Italian product, I have emailed them with the details of the package and will post their response. In, the meantime, I think I'll go back to eating proven winners! As for this product, I would give it a 2 on a scale of 10. Epic fail!

Update: A week went by and I heard nothing back from these people. My advice, take a pass on this product.

Critique: Healthy Choice Beef Strips Portabella!

According to the package, this must be some sort of wild West dish: 'Tell your taste buds to saddle up because it’s time to ride. Tender and juicy beef strips covered in a savory portabella mushroom sauce, served with fluffy whipped potatoes and a fresh mix of green beans and carrots. Then finish up with a sweet caramel-apple dessert that’s close to perfection.'

At just 280 calories, I was all ears, er... make that all mouth..as in watering. This creation by the same folks who brought us Weight Watcher meals, has all the things I like in a TV dinner style meal a deal! There's beef, veggies, fungus in the form of mushrooms... And oh my! Is that a heap of mashed pertaters I see on the package. Man-o-man! You get all that AND dessert! There's just got to be a catch.

Well, it wasn't the price! I paid a paltry $2.99 for this and the nutritional panel also indicated it was not going to blow out an aortic gasket when I ate it. So, I figured it'd have to be the taste! If there's one thing I've learned in life, there ain't no such thing as a cheap TV dinner that was good for your body AND tasted good. Nope! Just not in the cards.

I was beginning to suspect that the folks at ConAgra Foods may just have gotten their act together when they decided to come up with this line of products! The instructions were a breeze; just cut away the plastic over the dessert and nuke for about five and a half minutes on high. Man, it don't get no more easy than that! I followed these simple directions and then headed over to the dinner table to dig on in. In the background, I put on an old Roy Rogers number to help set a western mood.

The beef, the sauce and the mashed potatoes were good to excellent. I wasn't as happy about those carrots and green beans, however.. so, I gave them lower marks. I saved the apple dessert for last. Oops, the apple were a tad bit al dente. Good tasting, but they need to work on that some more. Overall a very decent low calorie, low salt meal that is head and shoulders above many similar offerings on the market. I gave this one a sold 7 on a scale of 10.

Critique: The shrinking Smart Ones Salisbury Steak meal!

This must be the sixth or seventh Salisbury Steak  entree offering that I've critiqued over the last few years. Why I missed this one from Smart Ones is beyond my understanding, so today I am making amends!

This meal came with mac and cheese, so it was a shoo-in at $2.79, (in 2016 I got it for $2 on sale). As one of the Weight Watcher's group of meals, I figured I was making a pretty smart choice!

At just 270 calories per meal deal, I was very tempted to add a side or two to sort of 'round out' the total eating experience. [But, then I realized that I'd already been doing that for some time. One look at my expanding waistline was enough to dissuade me.... this time]. Note also, that by 2016, the meal was just 250 calories... hmm.. the portions must have shrunk!

Preparation was actually pretty straightforward. I've found, from experience, that the smaller the box, the more likely it will be to prepare without much mental effort on my part. I like the smaller boxes a lot for that very reason!

The instructions indicated this to be a 'peel back the corner' class of meal. You peel one corner, nuke it for four and a half minutes, pry open that corner even more so you can stir the contents and then nuke again for about another minute and a half! See! Easy! No mental ability required. That was right down my performance envelope alley!

I got through the requested microwave operations, while pouring myself a glass of ice water. In a few minutes I had an appetizing abet small meal sitting invitingly in front of me at the table.

The Salisbury steak tasted a lot like meatloaf, something I've found to be true in other labeled products by the same name. The mac and cheese was also a real savior because who doesn't love mac and cheese! I gave this meal a sold 7 on a scale of ten and hope to enjoy these more often. Now, I only had 14 hours to go before breakfast..... arrgh!

Update: May 2016 - Circa fast forward and now this meal deal is in separate compartments! So, on one side were the noodles and the other was the 'steak'... My initial take - the cheese side +5, the 'steak' -4. The cheese mac tasted like it should have, while that steak think.. I wasn't sure what the fuck it was... a hard version of a meatloaf? OK, at the sale price of only $2 it was still a pretty good deal. and I found that a breaking up a slice of white bread to use as a sop for the leftover gravy made for a most excellent finish!

Is Bull Shoals lake to flood? Even with less than normal rainfall?

Is is even possible to flood a large area when the rainfall for the year is slightly below normal? Has Jesus finally come back down to earth and produced a miracle? One that contained five feet of water spread over the entirety of the Bull Shoals lake system? That's over 45,000 acres of surface? Wow!

Yet, here we are in late April, 2015. A month that is still behind the average for rainfall for the month, region-wide, and guess what? The lake level, which has been rising since the start of the month, continues to rise! Can you say hallelujah and praise the Lord?

I'll make a prediction that is effective beginning April 24. That is that the lake area will flood with popular parks like River Run being closed to the public before we get very far into May. That individual that lease land to grow crops along the lake will, in some cases, get wiped out! Why would this happen? What did the Corps of Engineers do to prevent it? Maybe we should all just ask Jesus!

Mower problem solving!

This short piece is not so much a how to do or fix, as it is a what to also do intellectually, when you have to tackle a problem with a riding mower problem.

It's an autumn day and I was making the last cut of grass for the season. Lots of leaves on the ground with some piled over by a small raised garden. After cutting close to an acre of grass, I make the last minute decision to plow through and much a small pile of leaves next to the bed. Unknown to me, there was a rather large rock smack dab in the middle of the pile. As I drove into it, both blades on the 42 inch deck engaged, and then stuck momentarily... just long enough to strip off the locking teeth of both mandrels. Bummer. Of course, I didn't know that at the time. On that day, I quickly disengaged the blades and drove the mower into the garage, thinking I'd address the problem (whatever it was) next spring. I thought that at worst, I'd bent a blade and it'd be no big deal. Such nativity and innocence...

Fast forward to the next spring. It's late March in SW Missouri! The grass is now growing like crazy and I looked with increasing anxiety at my so not working mower. A call to a man who had cut my grass from time to time bought me some time... at $40 a cut. The thing was, grass has a tendency to grow rather fast in the spring and in short order, I found myself $120 down in less than a month. I resolved to fix that mower and to do it tout suite!

The first major problems arose after I had detached the mower deck and it was lying on the garage floor. I has ascertained, at that time, that upon hitting that rock one mandrel was going to need replacement. In order to accomplish that, I would have to be removed. This involved the removal of three small bolts that held it to the deck and a large 7/8 inch bolt that affixed the top pulley. The small bolts were not much of a problem, but that large one was something made in hell. No amount of pressure I could bring to bear moved it even a smidgen. I had no idea what to do after even heating it with a propane torch proved fruitless. Finally, after a week worth of failure, I decided to visit a local mower repair home operation to see if they would tackle the jog. Alas, we I stopped in, no one was there. Also, calls the service were not returned. I left and headed back down the road. But, as I was driving I saw a small building that advertised Welding and Fencing. Hmm, I thought, and pulled on in. Inside were a couple of young men manhandling large sections of steel pipe. One of them , the owner, told me he was going to be headed my way the next day and would stop by. I gave him my business card and left wondering if he had actually meant what he said....

The next day, sure enough he called and arrived at about 11AM. Out from his truck came an acetylene torch and a small portable impact wrench. Inside of ten minutes both those top nuts were off. And, it turned out that the one I has having a problem with had been cross threaded! Well, that only goes to show that sometimes, you have to think a little outside the box to get a problem resolved. And like the welder told me, 'it amazing what a little heat can do!'

Roger's Welding & Fencing in Forsyth MO!

If you are in need of most any type of job that requires welding, cutting or fencing construction then look no further than Rogers Welding and Fencing located at 13983 US Hwy 160 near Forsyth Missouri. Owned and operated by Dusty Rogers since 2009, I had occasion recently to employ their services to remove a cross threaded bolt on a lawn mower deck. That bolt would have been next to impossible to remove, had not Mr. Rogers arrived and saved the day!

I found this man to be easy going, yet professional and more than fair in what he charged for his services. Their service is open during regular business hours with the admonition that since they arr 'mobile' most the time, it's best to leave a message so they can call you back! They can be reached by calling 417-294-4358! I highly recommend this company for all your jobs that need a highly skilled technician for general welding construction or fencing!

Critique: Wise Food Creamy Pasta

A company known as Wise Company offers a wide selection of freeze dried meals, some of which, they state can be stored for 25 years! This boast has been contested by some other companies, notably the Oregon Freeze Dry in an article published by Denis Korn, also a noted survivalist. Wise is located at 3676 California Avenue, B100 Salt Lake City, UT 84104 and can be reached by calling 1-800-393-2570. This so-called survival food is being purchased more and more often as families prepare for hard(er) times.. imagined or real.

The package I rec'd, as a free sample, arrived in a white foil package that had 51 grams of product inside. In addition to the food, an oxygen absorber packet was present that needs to be removed prior to preparing the 200 calorie meal. Most of their offering comes in plastic buckets with the 'one month' bucket costing about $112 for 112 servings. That's about a buck a serving for those who are poor at math...

The directions were pretty basic, just boil a cup of water in a small pot, add the product to the boiling water, stir, turn off the heat, cover and let stand for about 13 minutes (stirring occasionally). Uncover, let it cool a bit and then eat! Nothing very dramatic and most of their other offerings follow the same path, one would assume. So, let's say I was to also prepare the BBQ Beans which come in at 210 calories – that would make my lunch a 410 calorie deal that cost about $2. Really, not all that bad a deal. And if all I had to eat came from that one bucket and assuming I had water and a source of heat, I'd be sitting pretty until about the thirtieth day. Maybe, I should have considered the two month supply...

As I poured the mixture into boiling water, it assumed the appearance of oatmeal with chunks! I set a time for 12 minutes and then dutifully stirred every 4 minutes.  You can see the progression at right. Towards to end of the prep time, this meal did firm up a bit, but to me the end result was disappointing. The over all feel was 'gummy' and for some reason, it had a hot spicy taste! So, no I didn't finish it, and instead waited to see if it would dry into something that could be possibly used as a cement..... Not a very good start to be sure.

My advice for the average family of four would be to purchase enough to cover everyone for up to two months, but shop around and do your research first. (Remember that in a survival situation, you are merely trying to get from one day to the next - the food doesn't have to taste gourmet)! That amount would see you through most disaster scenarios. A good article to read is 25 Must Have Survival Foods!

Note that in the event of something really major like an asteroid impact or an all out nuclear war, I'd think you'd not have to worry as much about food stores since your life expediency would be both likely brutal and short!