What's the last thing you ate or are currently eating?

[Big Frank]

I thought they were all Shepherd's Pie, because I wasn't taught the difference. I bet most of my friends will say shepherd's pie has beef in it. Or venison, but not lamb.

I'm eating loaded baked potato soup. I melted a Tbsp of butter in a saucepan, dumped in a Qt of Panera Bread baked potato soup, and added some leftover scalloped potatoes. Then I stirred in some fresh ground pepper-garlic seasoning, and 2 slices of Muenster cheese. I was going to put one slice in but it looked like a lot of soup and a little cheese. Two slices is twice as good. I didn't think of adding bacon until it was almost done. So I tore up pieces of apple-wood smoke flavor bacon jerky and stirred it into my bowl. I tore up the rest of the bag and stirred it into the pot. I turned baked potato soup into LOADED baked potato soup and it's really good.

[Big Frank]

I still had cartons of soup in the fridge and tried the same thing, but different.   I started off with a tablespoon of butter again, but this time I poured 1 1/2  pints Home Chef broccoli and cheddar soup in the pot, and added leftover Three Cheese Potato Casserole instead of scalloped potatoes. This time I added 2 slices of Gouda cheese instead of Muenster, and gave it 2 shakes of hot hot sauce. Broccoli isn't that great to start with, but it's a lot better when you doctor it up with more ingredients. It's really cheesy, almost too cheesy, but good. I heated it on low stirring almost constantly so the cheese melted good and everything was well mixed. After I added the hot sauce I started wondering if 2 shakes was too much, but it warms my mouth and throat without burning, so I got it right.

[Big Frank]

Hot Ones Spicy Garlic Chicken Strips. I'm glad these are mild and not hot. The hot garlic made my eyes water just a bit, and my nose run bad. The guys who make the Hot Ones hot sauces also have several "mild" hot sauces made with Habaneros and Ghost Peppers.   I had to eat a couple slices of cheese with my chicken to cool my mouth off. I folded square slices of orange rind Muenster into quarters and ate the rind first. Mmm, tasty.

Hot Ones is the hit interview series that challenges celebrities to answer burning questions while eating progressively spicier chicken. Now you can live the show and create your own Hot Ones lineup with our official Hot Ones Spicy Garlic Chicken Strips. These tender, juicy white meat chicken strips pack all the flavor of the Hot Ones The Classic Garlic Fresno Hot Sauce right into the seasoning in the crispy delicious breading. These mild strips are flavorful with just the right amount of heat.

The Classic Garlic Fresno by Hot Ones Hot Sauce. Born from a delicious accident! When a batch of The Classic hot sauce was made with 10x more garlic than usual, a new classic was created. This limited edition, blue label hot sauce is made with organic Fresno chiles straight from Smokin’ Ed’s farm, giving the sauce a beautiful earthy, sweet flavor and mild heat. When balanced with the extra garlic, it makes for a must-have table sauce that adds depth and warmth to any dish. Excellent on eggs! Perfect for pizza! Wonderful on wings (of course). Add it to elote or spice up a shrimp scampi. The possibilities are as endless as the garlic flavor. Like a tangier sriracha with no sugar!

https://www.johnsoulesfoods.com/products/hot-ones-spicy-garlic-chicken-strips/

https://heatonist.com/products/hot-ones-hot-sauce-the-classic-garlic-fresno?_pos=4&_fid=5f21b328f&_ss=c

[Big Frank]

I ate a whole bag of LIMITED EDITION! JALAPENO POPPER flavor Popcorners popped corn snacks. They're like tortilla chips made of air-popped corn. If you can still find the Jalapeno Popper flavor in the store get some. You'll thank me later. When I opened the bag it let out an earthy aroma that some things with chili peppers in them have. Once I was in a store at an outlet mall that had Ass Kickin' Peanuts, Ass Kickin' Salsa, Ass Kickin' Nacho Cheese dip, etc. They had some chips and nacho sauce setting there and I tried it. I was afraid the Habanero would be way to hot for me, but it just tasted like dirt. I don't remember anything else about it except it tasted like dirt. These Popcorners on the hand had an earthy aroma and tasted delicious.

I'm drinking Margaritas too. I figured out that if I take a Cutwater Lime Margarita, featuring their award-winning tequila, lime, and triple sec, I can mix it with a Cayman Jack zero sugar margarita flavor gluten-free malt beverage with zesty lime juice and sweet agave nectar, I can still taste the tequila. This is way better than straight Cayman Jack and still has most of the flavor of the Cutwater margarita that has 160.5% more alcohol, 12.5% vs. 4.8%.

https://www.pepsicoproductfacts.com/Home/Product?formula=LBS000008303&form=RTE&size=6.5&PPF

https://asskickin-giftshop.com/have-an-ass-kickin-day-gift-shop/

https://www.cutwaterspirits.com/canned-cocktails/lime-margarita

https://www.caymanjack.com/flavors/zero-sugar-margarita/

[Big Frank]

Mac & cheese. I topped it with 3 slices of Gouda before I baked it. The plastic tray was a perfect 2 x 1.5 slice rectangle. Store bought mac & cheese rarely has enough cheese. Covering it with slices of any cheese makes it better. There was only one slice left in the package so I ate it.

[Sponsor]

[Big Frank]

Hot Honey BBQ Chicken Bites made with Mike's Hot Honey. There have been several things I don't think I mentioned in the last few weeks, like crispy jalapeno poppers, in wonton wrappers or something like that, and beef empanadas. Those were the first 2 to come to mind.

https://mikeshothoney.com/

https://www.johnsoulesfoods.com/products/

[Big Frank]

Totino's Pizza Rolls. They're made with Imitation Mozzarella Cheese (water, vegetable oil, modified food starch, rennet casein, contains less than 2% of: citric acid, guar gum, potassium chloride, potassium sorbate [preservative], salt, sodium phosphate, titanium dioxide [artificial color]).  That's probably why I haven't had them for awhile, a few years maybe. If I knew and remembered they had fake cheese in them I wouldn't have bought them.

I put 3 slices of Cheddar Gruyere cheese on one tray each of Baked Three Cheese Potato Casserole and Baked Scalloped Potatoes. Here's the before and after shot. I baked them on one of the 2 Nordic Ware Naturals Big Sheet Baking Pans Amazon delivered yesterday. I didn't know they were here and they were really cold after being outside for 18 hours. I think we hit single digit temps last night. The Big Sheet Baking Pans are 21"x15" and fit most standard size ovens. I could have fit 5 of those 20 ounce trays of taters on it if I had that many. The 35% larger surface than half sheets makes them two third sheets. If you never handled commercial-duty bakeware you wouldn't believe how heavy they are, 2.1 pounds apiece. They're pure aluminum with a galvanized steel rod encapsulated reinforcement around the rim for added strength. The mess halls in the army used full sheet cake pans, about twice as long and twice as wide as a standard 13"x9" oblong cake pan, which is only a quarter sheet. Full sheet cake pans are too big to fit in my oven, but the big sheets fit with about an inch of space all the way around.

They have almost all 5* reviews. The worst review was a 3* that said, "Nice and big but not durable. I’ve used this pan once to cook cookies, used parchment paper and hand washed it. The corners are already discolored. For the price I hoped to get years of use." Aluminum discolors and gets a patina over time. That's normal and doesn't mean they're wearing out. These American made pans will last a lifetime. Another person said it's a 5* pan but only gave it a 4* review because it doesn't have a snap-on lid like smaller pans. And another person gave it 4*, asking why it doesn't have a lid. The other 16/19 reviews gave it 5*, which would be the overall rating if you ignore the stupid one and accept that they don't have plastic lids.

https://www.nordicware.com/products/naturals-big-sheet-baking-pan/

Tater Time!

[PegLeg45]

Peach cobbler for brunch.

Later maybe some poppy seed chicken casserole, mac-n-cheese, and green beans leftover from supper.
Back in September we started back cooking Wednesday night supper at church and had taken a two week pause for Christmas and New Year's days....last night was our start up for 2025. We seldom eat when cooking all day (I don't get hungry when cooking LOL) so we bring a plate home for Thursdays.