Category Archives: Forking Thoughts

My FORKING Thoughts on Van Leeuwen Honey Cornbread with Strawberry Jam French Ice Cream

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I came across this container of Van Leeuwen Honey Cornbread with Strawberry Jam French Ice Cream today at my local Walmart Grocery and felt compelled to try it. Van Leeuwen is a high quality (usually all natural) really full fattening ice cream. It’s French style so that means that it is made with egg yolks. Their pistachio flavor is awesome and only contains Sicilian pistachios, cream, milk, egg yolks, cane sugar, and salt. I also really liked their hazelnut chocolate mini ice cream bars. But they do some WEIRD flavors….I haven’t tried (as of yet) their Kraft macaroni and cheese flavor or their Grey Poupon mustard and pretzels flavor. But I have tried their pizza flavor. It wasn’t awful……It did taste good but I thought that it was a far cry from tasting like pizza.

Back to the Honey Cornbread with Strawberry Jam French Ice Cream.

I open it up.

Peel it open.

It looks different from what I was expecting. There is hardly any strawberry.

I taste some…….

WOW it’s completely not at all what I expected…….

This one seems light ……….or lighter……but it isn’t…….

It doesn’t have that rich creamy texture like the others did. I would have guessed it to be ice milk………Did it melt in Walmart???????……. or was it mishandled…???????????? Or is this the way it’s suppose to be?????????

It’s milky with what seems like cooked grains of cornbread……..It’s like you spilled cornbread mix that is cooked into vanilla ice milk…..You get very little strawberry. It’s predominantly a cornbread taste. The little bit of strawberry jam taste caramelized…. It’s also not as sweet as it sounds. It’s almost not sweet.

It’s interesting….not sure if I’d buy again but it’s not a throwaway.

Those were my FORKING Thoughts on Van Leeuwen Honey Cornbread with Strawberry Jam French Ice Cream. I do note that YOUR FORKING thoughts may indeed differ.

The Forking Truth

Foreign Chocolate Covered Corn Puff Battle – Gusto VS Bamba

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I like to try foreign snacks once in a while for a taste of something different. Usually it’s weird flavors of potato chips but these chocolate coated corn puffs caught my eye so I decided to give them a try.

In this corner is something called Gusto from Romania.

It was only around $1. at the Asiana Market in Glendale. I can’t read the package and I thought the picture on the package looked like chocolate covered peanut puffs. I should have worn reading glasses because I didn’t even notice the raspberries on the package. ………..These things are Corn Puffs coated in milk chocolate with raspberry flavor. I ate one…These are hard for me to stomach. They are sickeningly sweet and just awful ……..I think that cheap chocolate kind of taste mixed with artificial raspberry is stomach turning…The corn puff has very little or almost no flavor…Its the coating that is unappealing and just packed with YUK.. These are going to hit the trash can after I make my husband try one. Maybe their other flavors are better?????? I read that they make a BOOZY RUM corn snack…..Maybe they make that flavor better????? But this one sucks so bad I doubt I’ll ever feel like trying it.

In the other corner are Bamba Dark Chocolate Dipped Peanut Corn Puff Snacks are marked, “Sold By Trader Joe’s.” Bamba peanut without chocolate are a well known famous snack food from Israel that are sold at nearly every supermarket in little bags. The Bamba dark chocolate dipped peanut flavored corn puffs do cost more than the Gusto chocolate coated corn puffs. They are in a bigger bag but If I recall correctly they were around $2.99 a bag.

I have to admit that I do occasionally enjoy the regular peanut Bamba puffed corn snacks. I read on Amazon that they are made 50% from peanuts….so they are at least 50% healthy….

OMG these Chocolate dipped Bambas are really good……They seem so light and tasty…..they are almost impossible to stop eating. They are not too sweet and not heavy or greasy…..with that indulgent chocolate on that light as air peanut cloud.

DAM You Trader Joe’s! I’m going to have to buy a bag every time I shop in your store until you stop selling them…..Just like you always discontinue my favs……Then I’ll be mad at you again!

Anyways-

……The combination of peanut puff and dark chocolate is very tasty………savory…….They seem light as air…(But I know they are not)……They are very hard to stop eating.

Gusto lost this battle WAY too easily…….I was hoping for a close battle.

Those were my FORKING Thoughts on Foreign Chocolate Covered Corn Puff Battle.

Your opinion may or may not differ.

The Forking Truth

My FORKING Thoughts on Hammond’s White Chocolate Lemon Meringue Bar

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I spotted this White Chocolate Lemon Meringue Bar at my local AJ’s Fine Foods and I had to try it.

I open it up carefully. I attempted to break off one brick….That didn’t work.

These bars have lots of filling and the white chocolate is very delicate and almost soft.

I taste the broken ends. The lemony part is really great and sure does taste like really good lemon meringue filling…Like the right tart and the right sweet……the right amount of lemon……….The white chocolate is pretty good for white chocolate but it does end with a sweet finish like it should like some meringue. (I hate when meringue taste like egg whites…ick)

I think that this flavor is pretty good but they’ve forgotten that lemon meringue is a pie and should have some crumbs for crust. A few slightly salted cookie crumbs on the bottom would have balanced it all really well………But it is still pretty good anyway.

Those were my FORKING Thoughts on Hammond’s Lemon Meringue White Chocolate Bar. Your FORKING Thoughts may indeed differ.

The Forking Truth

Pistachio Pesto Recipe

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I had fresh basil that I had to use today so I’m thinking either basil oil or pesto…..I didn’t have many pine nuts or walnuts or hazelnuts today so I went with pistachios. I usually do one thing that most people don’t do that really makes a difference. I use a small amount of garlic but usually it’s whipped sweet roasted garlic. It never gets too strong tasting and is sweet and delicious. To make whipped sweet roasted garlic use a lot of garlic cloves. Pour a good amount of extra virgin olive oil on them. Put them in a covered pan at 350 or 375 degrees F for one hour and then blend.

Roasted & Whipped Sweet Garlic

It keeps for a while in the refrigerator but I freeze it since I make it in big batches. Back to the pesto….I didn’t measure exactly but it went something like this.

1 cup fresh basil leaves

4 oz parmesan rough chop

1/2 cup pistachios

1 tablespoon whipped sweet garlic

1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 dried Calabrian piri piri dried pepper – crushed (you can substitute any pepper to taste)

Blend…This time I left the pesto slightly chunky so you can taste everything in it a little more.

I do note that this stays for a while but is best to use in a few days…..after a week or so the oil gets very thick and the basil has less fragrance. You can brighten it back up with a little more fresh basil and a little more olive oil.

Pistachio Pesto
The Forking Truth

The FANTABULOUS Dish – The Arugula Salad from REVOLU Modern Taqueria & Bar – WORTH A FORK!

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The FANTABULOUS Dish means – Top of the line, marvelously good, peachy keen, and dynamite! WOW what a great surprise . You just don’t always know when a FANTABULOUS dish will show up. This salad just blew both of us away. It’s only named Arugula salad. I picked it to share as an appetizer instead of chips because it sounded lighter and healthy. I wasn’t expecting jaw dropping fireworks of flavors……

The Arugula Salad from REVOLU Modern Taqueria & Bar in Peoria AZ

This salad is made of avocado, watermelon, red onion (pickled), pico, toasted pepitas, cotija cheese, and this MAGICAL chili-lime vinaigrette.

I need to mention as astonishingly delicious as this salad is ………I must mention that it is spicy HOT. Borderline too hot for me but it was so DAM delicious I had to keep eating it. You get sweet from the watermelon, creamy from the avocado, hot and delicious from the MAGICAL chili-lime vinaigrette, Umami from the cheese, yummy from the pepitas and the right amount of bitter from the arugula. It’s far more delicious than I can describe. You can also add on protein to this dish if desired.

The Arugula Salad from REVOLU Modern Taqueria & Bar is an official FANTABULOUS DISH and is WORTH A FORK!

REVOLU Modern Taqueria & Bar

15703 N 83rd Ave Peoria AZ (a second location is in Phoenix)

623-878-0215

wwwREVOLUTaqueria.com

The Forking Truth

My FORKING Thoughts on Reese’s Potato Chips BIG CUP

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The Reese’s Big Cup with potato chips have been out for a while but today I finally broke down and tried one.

I open it up.

Mine is slightly defective. I don’t want to know what it’s been though.

I cut it in half.

Lets take a closer look.

At first I thought that they left out the chips but I can see some in there……..

I start on the end.

Wow…that is a good amount of Reese’s chocolate….I never had that much before….I kinda like that……..

Now for a bite into the peanut butter. The peanut butter taste good like it normally does….but……

Not what I was expecting…

SUPER CRISP CRUNCHY HARD small pieces of wavy or ridged potato chips that are tasteless but so crunchy that they seem like coated with something like ceramic. I have no idea how they sucked out all the flavor from the chips? I also have no idea how they got them so oddly hard like ceramic. I was almost worried that I could damage my teeth.

I pulled one out of my mouth.

They’re not bad…….I think the best part is the thick chocolate that you wouldn’t normally get with a Reese’s…..For a Big Cup they really aren’t so big and are less than 200 calories (180 to be exact). If you don’t mind super hard crunches in your Reese’s cup they are pretty good…..but the chips are strange and for me too crunchy……..I was afraid I’d damage a filling or chip a tooth. I will go chipless next time.

Those were my FORKING Thoughts on Reese’s Potato Chips Big Cup. Your FORKING Thoughts on Reese’s Potato Chips Big Cup may indeed differ.

The Forking Truth

Sushi Burger from Headquarters Grill Bar Sushi Peoria AZ – A FORKING TASTY DISH – Worth a Fork!

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Headquarters Grill Bar Sushi Restaurant is located in the P83 area of North Peoria that is near to the Peoria Sports Complex. This area is also known as the UpperWestSide in Metro Phoenix Arizona. Everything that Headquarters Grill Bar Sushi restaurant serves is never from frozen. They also offer a full bar, thirty two taps and lots of big screen TVS for watching sports. As for food they offer lots of starters, wings, burgers, pizzas, salads, sandwiches, big plates, sushi, sushi rolls and some fun sushi fusion like the FORKING TASTY Sushi Burger. FORKING Tasty just means FORKING Tasty. It’s unusually good tasting. Recently I had a high quality fish sandwich from somewhere and it didn’t taste nearly as tasty as this Sushi Burger from Headquarters.

The FORKING TASTY Sushi Burger

The FORKING Tasty Sushi Burger is made of really (FORKING) tasty fried rice patties, spicy tuna, shredded krab (faux crab…usually does not contain crab and is usually made from lower costing pollock fish), soft greens, cucumber, avocado, eel sauce (sweetened soy based sauce), and spicy mayo. Somehow this combination is unusually FORKING TASTY. A little dab of of that thick neon green wasabi paste and it’s even a little MORE FORKING Tasty.

The Sushi Burger from Headquarters Grill Bar Sushi Restaurant in Peoria AZ is FORKING Tasty!

Worth a Fork!

Worth a Fork!

Headquarters Grill Bar Sushi

16041 N Arrowhead Fountain Dr Peoria AZ

623-547-5577

www.HeadquartersAZ.com

Everything is subject to change.

The Forking Truth

Some of the other foods I cooked recently

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WOW some prices at the supermarkets are out of sight. Today I saw salmon that was double the price of what I was expecting. I also saw beef ribs that looked like a small amount of beef for $45. Even the cheapest chicken breasts at Walmart gone up from $2 a pound to $3. a pound that is 33% more expensive…….I did notice that beef shanks (smaller sized ones) seemed still very reasonably priced compared to everything else so I picked one pack up. It’s fun to make them osso buco style. I’m not big on beef dishes but this is one of my favorite beefs.

First you brown them up on both sides preferably in beef fat.

Then you get soup type vegetables sort of soft with the dripping from your fry pan. You add white wine and reduce. Add stock and or tomato juice, the vegetables, and the beef shanks to a pan. Cover well and roast at 375 F till falling apart tender. (If you have nice bigger beef shanks you might prefer to tie them up so they stay together.) Depending on the size of the beef shanks this will take at least 3-6 hours (If you have giant ones then maybe more time). But you do need to add water to the pan after a few hours.

The beef shanks came out good. I removed the bay leaves and blended up the liquid and vegetables and used it like a gravy for the beef shank and polenta. I also made a basic gemolata of parsley, celery leaves, and lemon zest.

beef osso buco

The one beef shank was big enough for two dinners.

Got a second meal for two out of the second beef shank. Made Italian flavored tacos. (don’t mean to brag but this came out so good I could get rich selling them)

Used that Italian chili crisp I made recently that adds all kinds of flavors, textures, and heat.

Italian Chili Crisp

Mixed the pulled beef shank meat and mixed it with some Italian chili crisp and the leftover gremolata…….Put them on radish (Korean Radish) slices, topped with some pickled baby bell peppers..

They were really delicious.

Someone was very interested in them.

Earlier in the week recently I made braised and crispy leeks with this tarator sauce ( long story……I made toum sauce (garlic sauce that comes with shawarma…kept adding nuts and other things and turned it into tarator sauce…but it did come out amazing). This dish also came with date brown butter.

Braised and Crispy Leeks with Tarator Sauce & Date Brown Butter

Leftover tarator and datę brown butter also went well with Japanese sweet potatoes with a very thin olive oil crisp.

Those were a few things worth mentioning.

The Forking Truth

My FORKING Thoughts on M&M’s Crunchy Cookie M&M’s

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My husband came across these Crunchy Cookie M&M’s and knew that I would want to try them…and he sure was right I do want to try them.

I wasn’t expecting much because in the corner it reads artificially flavored….BAH!

Well I try them anyway….

They are a weird size for M&M’s.

They are extra tiny.

I eat a few……They don’t taste like cookies….but they seem light and crunchy. They are feel like malt balls in the mouth…but they don’t taste like malt balls……

Not a lot of chocolate here…….They have less chocolate than malt balls.

They’re not bad……..and are easy to eat….They have nice textures to them……a pleasant nice light crunch. They are too light textured to be a cookie inside…….Maybe they are closer to a breakfast cereal type of crunch? They don’t taste bad. Just not a cookie taste.

Not bad.

Not as good as the original or my favorite the almond M&M’s.

That was my FORKING Thoughts on Crunchy Cookie M&M’s.

Your FORKING thoughts on Crunchy M&Ms may indeed differ.

The Forking Truth

This is How it Goes When You Go Out To Eat SOMETIMES

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This is how it goes when you go out to eat SOMETIMES. Today I went to restaurant that I have been to before that was good last time. I went back and things were different. This time I ordered the ensalada fresca salad. It sounded so good. The menu reads watermelon, cucumber, red onion, jicama, aji lemon vinaigrette, panela cheese, pepitas, fresno, tajin, salsa macha, cilantro. This sounds incredible doesn’t it? The salmon was also really great last time so I added salmon to this salad.

Here is what I got.

Lets take a closer look.

At the time I didn’t remember everything I read about the salad and didn’t know at the time that it was missing things.

I soon try the salmon.

It is not fresh tasting. I can’t eat it. I give a small piece to my husband to try. He said that it was very fishy tasting. He said, “get something else.”

I removed the salmon from the salad and put it on a side plate away from me. Soon someone that seems like a manager comes over and asks about the salmon. I told him that the salmon taste spoiled.

The manager said that his salmon is thrown out after four days. He also said that he will taste it. He also asked me if he could make a new one or give me chicken. I went for chicken but I did tell him that I have had salmon here before that was fresh and delicious.

He comes back and says that the salmon isn’t spoiled. He said that it just tastes off from the grill marks………..(whatever the FORK that means?).

Anyways-

Here comes the chicken.

I do have to say that the chicken really is very good and also is an extra generous portion. It’s tender, moist , full of flavors and is delicious.

BUT back to the salad.

Remember that I didn’t know that I was missing a few things.

But at the time I also was a bit bummed because the watermelon, cucumbers, and jicama also didn’t seem so fresh. Here is a closer look. They seem a few days old (look at the melon).

I think that I am missing cilantro, pepitas, aji lemon vinaigrette, tajin, and salsa macha.

My husband wasn’t thrilled with his meal but thought it was ok.

Decided to try dessert to make myself feel better.

I go for this one because our server said it was new and the best dessert.

It reads flambe table side.

Someone drops this off with no flambe.

We look around to find someone.

We find our server and she says that she has to find the manager.

She comes back and says the manager will serve us the dessert.

We wait and wait. (my husband starts to boil while we are waiting and wants to pay and leave)

The manager does come back, uses a portable lighter and we get this.

It wasn’t flaming but it really was a delicious dessert. It was the best thing I ate there today. They didn’t have to but after everything didn’t charge us for the dessert.

This is how it goes when you go out to eat SOMETIMES.

The Forking Truth