Most Commented Food Blogs (316)

A memory to send shivers down the back of many US veterans.

Somehow for the past 40 years of my life I have always had a case or two or three of them.

During the Cold War many places I worked in had whole closets stuffed with them. Some LRRPs (Long Range Recon Patrol) & RCW (Ration Cold Weather) too. Early on the C rations had those wooden crates that unfolded into a desk and which were stuffed with C rations. I saw some of those C rat desks get moved out and replaced by MREs. <Those desks are considered prized collector's items BTW by those who collect such military exotica.>

So anyway not very long ago I was issued some new MREs. This led to a decision that the time had come to start rotating out my Vietnam/Cold war stockpile.

NRE content has always been a source of controversy. A natural result of trying to please all the people all of the time.

Back in WW2 the C ration was basically some crackers and spread, a can of apple sauce and some cigarettes and toilet paper and matchs. It was intended to provide a lunch for soldiers on the line. It was not intended for long term sustenance. The meals evolved, becoming more nutritionally complete with each incarnation. A K ration came into being. LRRP meals had more calories and protein. Cold Weather Rations had more calories.

Eventually what we call the MRE emerged. A broad variety of freeze dried meals in an airtight sack stuffed into boxes labeled A or B or C.

There also exists a meal type called Humanitarian Ration. Made without meat (except chicken) so as to not offend some like them, some hate them. Originally in yellow bags, I believe the current color is pink.

Well my MREs were way, way, way past their shelf date and two weeks ago I decided it was time to eat them or dispose of them.

Tang from a vintage 1970s MRE compared to a contemporary MRE bag.



Cold War era MRE vs contemporary MRE



Commercial knock off copies of an MRE usually using a mix of true MRE components and commercial equivalents.



MREs usually come with a heating pouch. Just put the food in the bag and add a half inch of water. A chemical reaction then produces lots of heat to heat the food.



Most MREs come with deserts of one kind or another. They can be bags of fruit cocktail, apple sauce, brownies, cookies, skittles, or (my favorite (no longer issued) oatmeal cookie bars. They usually also come with crackers of one kind or another and a spread. Grape jelly, peanut butter, cheese, jalepeno cheese spread, etc.

As you can imagine there is usually some trading going on with soldiers for the different components. Trade you my jalepeno cheese spread for your peanut butter, etc.



I love the old Oatmeal cookie bars.



Right after Hurricane Katrina some countries donated their own military rations to the folk of New Orleans. Similar to US Aid to Haiti being blocked by Haitian Customs, US Customs seized the shipments of aid to the US. I am happy to report while I was there some of the foreign military MRE equivalents fell off the back of the truck into my hands. The French include wine in theirs! The British meals were so so, but wow, that is some excellent coffee in those little silver packets.

More info on MREs is at


What is your experience with MREs?

Success. It was hot yesterday about 88 F, but I threw on a welding shirt, long pants and boots, strapped on a bear pistol (I have encountered them before picking berries here. They love eating berries too. I leave them alone, and so far they leave me alone, but one should be prepared for bad days. Noting almost every critter on my place loves eating berries, from fox and deer to birds and bears, so it is a race to see who gets to them first, me or them) grabbed a hat, leather gloves, a canteen and a clean 27 ounce coffee can) and I waded into the raspberry bushes.

It truly is one of America's favorite pastimes for many I think. It is just a shame so many get to do it so rarely.

These berries, being of the black raspberry kind, v. the commercially raised ones sold in many stores, are not yet ripe.



These berries are ready and calling you to come get them.



I have it down to a science I think. I taste sample from each new plant. If it isn't sweet, I usually just go to the next plant. Variations in soil and sunlight produce different sugar levels. Also different sizes of berries. I usually just hold the pail under the cluster and lightly stroke the cluster with my thumb. Truly ripe ones virtually leap off into the pail. Yes, sometimes they miss the pail and go to the ground. No matter. A new berry bush will come of that next year. I usually don't actually wear the leather gloves. Rather I just hold one and use it like I would a pot holder on a hot frying pan, to pull back the thorny branches so I can reach the fruit. Some of the older raspberry bushes have thorns almost an inch long. When one thinks they have picked a bush clean, the thing to do is walk around to the back side of that bush. Often you will spy another hundred berries you just couldn't see from the front.

I finished the cluster of bushes I was playing in, then wandered around a while and found another huge cluster. The second cluster was frayed around the edges with obvious indications the deer had found it, but as with the other one, the plants one to five feet inside the cluster of bushes were untouched. So, sheathed in my heavy clothes, I waded in again and ignored the sound of thorns grasping at the thick clothes.

Of course during this process I ate almost as many (if not more than) berries as I picked. That's always a problem here. I have the same problem with the wild asparagus if I can catch it at the young shoot stage. Later on this month I will (now that some areas are mowed) go check out the places where the wild strawberries grow. I find mowing the area so more sunlight reaches them encourages them to grow much sweeter.

Eventually of course, in that heat, my canteen ran out of water, so since I had a good load I returned home. Taking a different route home I saw several other berry clusters and I am expecting to see some fat deer this fall. :)

This can is about half full. I got over a pound of black raspberries before the deer, birds, et al did.



Only after I returned home with my treats did I remember most of the traditional uses for raspberries and the other fruit growing here are now closed to me. No more raspberry pie. No more raspberry wine or raspberry brandy. So I put them in my refrigerator while I pondered this new problem. Truly, old habits die hard, raspberry pie with a good syrup (yum) and a few Mason jars of fresh home distilled raspberry brandy, is what I was thinking about when I went out.

Yes, of course today I threw several handfuls into my Cheerios. The good news for diabetics is according to online sources a full cup of the black raspberries is only 10 grams of carbohydrates. Three guesses as to what I am nibbling on now as I write this..

Big feed of fried cod fish. Mmmmmmmmm



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Okay, I sold my house that had possibly the best mangoes in the land and I didn't have a clause in the contract granting me free mangoes for the next 50 years. Very sad about this, I am.

However, another source came up as someone with a large tree and a commercial duty food dehydrator. I'm getting fresh mangoes and a bag or two of dried fruit strips.

It's mango season!

One of my coworkers from a previous job raved about the Miami mangoes and offered to pay me for some. I refused to accept money. After moving, haven't talked to her in more than a year. I sent a text Mangoes? and she replied "sure" so we met up in the parking lot of a local pharmacy and under the lights I held out a bag of mangoes as she pulled up.
With a Hispanic accent I said: "You got da money?... I got da stuff"



I got home and a few minutes later she texted: "OMG!!! They are so sweet, thank you so much :-)

So I'm told, only in America do adults drink milk. That doesn't happen in other countries/cultures. Okay, I could believe that statement.
I like milk and limit it's intake. Fat free milk is too bland so I drink 2% milk.
There is a sophisticated coffee system in my office that pumps refrigerated milk into a heater for different coffee styles. It uses whole milk... if not, you cannot get the frothy top on cappuccino or whatever exotic selection you choose.
They ran out of milk so I bought some during lunch.
I didn't want hot coffee. Instead of sending my selection to the heater, I poured cold milk to black coffee. Yeah, I like it better.
Whole Milk...

While I am unemployed, I am on government benefits. That means limited spending on things that aren't bills. I make a HUGE batch of a certain dish (this case, sauce for pasta), and then I take 4 scoops of each, and bag it. I then let it cool down and place them in the freezer.

The last time I did that, I had meatballs for a month straight.

Anyway, I try to limit my spending as to not run out of money. Nothing worse than running out of money 5 days before payday, with nothing to eat.. I have avoided that every month by cooking a huge batch and freezing it. This month, it was going well. Until I remembered my family's annual Easter lunch. 15 people will partake in the feast, and we each have to bring an item of food. I am in charge of bringing the most important thing - bread. With the inflation hitting here, everything gets more expensive. From fuel to food. Thanks, Biden.. Anyway.. The price of bread has skyrocketed these past few weeks, so it gets expensive to buy bread for the entire family. I ended up with seven packs of bread, which took a sizeable amount of money. It HAS to be enough. If it isn't, there's a McDonald's right next to where we are having our Easter lunch. But generally, I am pretty good at judging how much bread I need to get in order to make sure everyone are well fed.

Will I spend more money before the end of the month? Well.. It depends.. I have enough food for two weeks, which makes it close.. I have a bunch of chicken wings in the freezer, as well as some one person meals. Even those one person meals have gone up in price. They are usually super cheap, but in these inflation times, everything is expensive.

Puja = Pet Puja ..

There is an old yet evergreen saying in our Indian Tradition ...

Puja (Worship) = Pet (Tummy ) Puja

Means , in every Festival of Worship , the important part is to Worship of Taste !!

Here are few glimpses of our Clebration of Worship !!

Simple Egg Biryani !!
Yummmmm !!!!

Looks easy to prepare at home !!
Should I try it !!
If I try , I would add some Potato in it too !!

For a few years now my preference in baked bread and rolls has been Ciabatta. More expensive than standard bread products, I didn't have an answer of the difference... until I Googled it.
Okay, what is Ciabatta?

It's a style of bread first created in 1982 in Italy using wheat flower, water, salt, yeast and olive oil. A baker in Veneto, Italy created this recipe as a response to the French baguette that had gained popularity in the area and affecting local business.

The bread can be described as having a crisp crust with a soft porous texture and the dough has a much higher water content, cooked with a higher heat setting.



My preference are the Ciabatta rolls from Aldi, approximately 3" x 3" as it's enough for a lunch or afternoon snack when it's filled with slices of chicken and tomato. Of course I'm using sugar-free mayonnaise.