Back in June I posted a recipe for blackberry clafoutis, along with a story about how Philip and I once ordered clafoutis at a fancy restaurant and got our pronunciation corrected (it’s pronounced klah-foo-TEE, by the way).  Clafoutis actually has its roots as French peasant food.  That got us talking about foods that people tend to think are fancy, exotic, or “high class”….but in reality, they started out pretty low-class, or they’re really just simple fare.  Here are some I thought of….

1.  Ratatouille

I’m sure many of you have seen the Disney movie by the same name, right?  If you have, you are probably well aware that ratatouille  (pronounced “ra-ta-TOO-ee”) is pretty much a recipe for stewed vegetables.  I’m not downplaying its deliciousness, but it’s simple food.  I think people have a tendency to assume that if food has a name that they are not sure how to pronounce, it is fancy….but if you don’t speak French, then you may not be sure how to pronounce the words for milk (lait), bread (pain), cheese (fromage), or sugar (sucre).  See what I mean????

2.  Lobster

Okay, so lobster is definitely expensive, even if you cook it yourself at home.  It’s funny, though, because Philip and I watched a travel show once that was set in Maine.  The host was talking to a person who was saying that a couple of centuries ago lobster was fed to prisoners…pretty much exclusively.  Non-criminals didn’t touch the stuff, and even the prisoners would complain if they had to eat it more than once a week.  Huh?  I’d love to know how it reached the status it holds now….by the way, Philip refers to lobsters as cockroaches of the sea.  Not a big shellfish fan.

3.  Escargot

That is, snails.  They come in their little shell, cooked in garlic butter, with special tongs to hold them and a special fork to eat them.  I’ve never tried them, and I don’t know if I ever will (I’m not completely closed to the idea, but it does weird me out a little).  But they’re snails.  And they’re über-expensive.  My internet search taught me that “not all species are equally edible”, but that doesn’t stop me from thinking that perhaps I should start foraging for l’escargots in the woods behind my house….

4.  Couscous

I get it.  The name sounds weird.  I myself used to laugh about the word “couscous” and think that people that ate it must be complete crunchy hippies who probably smelled like patchouli (a smell I still find off-putting even though many people would probably lump me into the crunchy hippy category these days).  You know what couscous is?  It’s tiny pasta.  It takes five minutes to prepare.  You know how you prepare it?  You either steam it, or you pour boiling water over it and cover it for five minute.  See?  Not hard.  And not all that crunchy.  And while we’re at it….

5.  Hummus

For some reason I used to lump hummus and couscous together, like they should always be eaten at the same meal.  I guess it’s the whole Middle-Eastern food thing.  Back then I don’t think I even knew what hummus was.  I’ve been making my own hummus since Philip and I were first married eleven years ago, though, and I’m a believer (not to be confused with a “Belieber”).  My whole family thinks I’m crazy for liking it….but at least they know how to pronounce it.  It’s the people that call it “humus” (which is rich, fertile soil…not something I’d like to dip a pita wedge into!) that make me crazy!

6.  Clafoutis

I mentioned it above.  Apparently you can give anything a French name and it suddenly becomes fancy.  Clafoutis is essentially pancake batter poured over fruit and baked…or at least it’s as simple as that (if not more so).  You can make this at home.  Don’t fall for the hype.

7.  Curry

Powder, that is.  Curry powder’s not even really Indian.  It’s British.  It was created to provide Indian-food obsessed Brits with an easy way to season their food in an “Indian” way.  Not that I don’t like it….I do.  But you’re not likely to find it in India…that’s all I’m saying.

8.  Soufflé

Soufflé is one of those foods that makes people crazy.  They’re so convinced that they just couldn’t possibly make a soufflé.  I wrote about this a while back….I know soufflés seem intimidating, and we’ve all been told how easily they fall.  Truth is, soufflés have a handful of ingredients, take 15 minutes or less to put together, and don’t require tiptoeing around in our house slippers to be successful.  Believe.

9.  Cassoulet

It’s basically a bean and meat casserole.  I’ve never made it (I should!), but I’ve heard it’s delicious.  I know it takes a long time to cook (as do many dishes containing beans) but I’ve read recipes for it and it’s not exotic or fancy.  Beans and meat, people (no, not franks and beans).  Beans and meat.

10.  Wine

Okay, it’s no secret that I am not a wine drinker.  And I mean no offense to those of you who are…or to people who devote their lives to making great wine.  I understand that there are many nuances to making quality wine….kind of like roasting coffee (which is something that I do, of course, appreciate).  I just think it seems ridiculous to stand around with your nose in a glass talking about notes and swishing it around in your mouth or whatever.  I’m not talking about wine-tasting as a special event…I’m talking about people who do that mess at dinner.  Really?

I know I’ve missed a lot of stuff.  I need to start writing these things down as I go.  Can you think of any pretentious or exotic foods to add to my list?

I don’t eat fast food very often, and when I do I’m pretty picky.  I do eat at some of the following restaurants, but sometimes their menu items make me question why I continue to do so.  Here are some of the most disturbing menu items I have found….

1.  McDonald’s: McRib

The McRib has a cult following (I always think of the episode of The Osbournes where Jack gets so excited, saying “McRib is back!”), and I don’t understand.  It’s formed meat.  Formed meat.  Let those words sink in.  It’s FORMED to look like meat with bones in it.  But there are no bones.  They serve something that looks just like McRib in school cafeterias, and I always wonder if they are manufactured at the same facility.  You won’t catch me eating one….

2.  McDonald’s: Chicken McNuggets

Again….formed meat.  And I’m not even sure what the “forms” are.  They look like boots, and hourglasses, and some other weird things.  The texture on the inside is barely meatlike.  I used to eat these things all the time, and now I’m like, WHAT??????  I’m not sure where my head was then.  (By the way, I don’t eat McDonald’s.  Not at all.  I have eaten there once since 2007, at an airport, for breakfast.  My choices were…limited.)

3.  Taco Bell: Doritos Locos Taco

It’s a Taco Bell taco on a taco shell shaped nacho Dorito.  Now, given my Dorito affinity, you might think that this would be appealing to me, but it isn’t.  For one thing, Taco Bell (like most fast food these days) gives me an earache (I suspect MSG or one of its, ahem, glutamic counterparts may be to blame)…but for another, there is just something unsettling to me about a taco shell coated with orange nacho-flavored powder (actually, I’m starting to have this feeling about Doritos.  That’s big, my friends.).  I wonder who came up with this idea.

4.  Taco Bell: Volcano Taco

It’s a taco in a spicy red taco shell.  A spicy RED taco shell.  Since corn isn’t red, I’m going to go ahead and assume that there is artificial coloring involved here.  I am not sure at what point it was decided that if a food was spicy it has to be red.  Pointless.  Just pointless.

5.  Hardee’s: Grilled Cheese Bacon Thickburger

Now, I’m not going to lie.  A lot of things about this sound good.  It’s a burger.  With bacon.  On a grilled cheese.  Three things that I love.  But wait….it’s not on A grilled cheese sandwich.  It’s between two grilled cheese sandwiches.  I’m pretty sure Hardee’s is just trying to see how many heart-stopping items they can put on their menu.  Overkill, I tell you.

6.  Burger King: Memphis BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich

It’s not that there’s anything particularly disturbing about the sandwich itself….it’s pretty much just a barbecue sandwich.  But something about a barbecue sandwich from Burger King I don’t really understand.  Sorry.

7.  Krystal: Scrambler

There are many variations on this, and none of them sound appealing to me.  Breakfast meat (sausage or bacon), scrambled eggs (I do not eat fast food eggs.  In fact, I never have.  Ever.), and various other items (biscuits & gravy, pancakes & syrup, grits, American cheese…).  You “scramble” it all up together in the cup and eat it with a fork.  It’s been around for years, but I’m just not buying it.  Literally.

8.  Wendy’s: Dave’s Hot & Juicy 3/4 lb. Triple

This one blew my mind.  Three quarter pound patties and three slices of American cheese on a buttered bun.  A buttered bun.  Except I honestly wonder if it’s buttered (I don’t know if that term is “regulated”. It would not surprise me to learn that it was more like a margarined bun, but I have no proof of that…).  Oh yeah, there’s some lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickle on there.  Because vegetables are healthy.

9.  Subway: Steak, Egg, and Cheese

Really, anyway Subway item with eggs.  As I mentioned above, I don’t eat fast food eggs.  Subway’s eggs are the most disturbing, though, because you can see them in the table while they’re making your sandwich.  They’re discs.  Discs of eggs.  Philip ordered a sandwich with egg on it one time.  They asked him if he wanted “white or yellow”.  No thanks.  I’ll pass.

10.  Sonic: Cheese Tots

Okay, I’ll admit….it’s not the actual food that’s sooooo disturbing here.  I mean, lots of people love Sonic’s cheese tots or their chili-cheese tots.  I can’t blame them.  I love a good tater tot, and I like cheese on pretty much anything.  My problem with this item is the picture on the Sonic website.  It’s a pile of tots with a square of American cheese (sort of) melted on top.  Very squarely.  Not appetizing.

I have no doubts that there are many items that I missed that are equally frightening, or perhaps more so.  Do you have anything to add?

So, after last week’s list, some of the comments on my post (and further thought on my own part) reminded me that there were a ton of must-have foods that I missed.  I think this completes the list, though.  Combined with last week’s list, this makes up a list of foods that I literally stress over if I don’t have them, and in many cases will actually make a special trip to the grocery store to purchase them.

1. Popcorn

I am not sure how I could forget about popcorn, but thank to my friend Becki, who reminded me of it when she told me that popcorn was one of her “can’t live withouts”.  Popcorn has been my favorite snack since I was a child.  I remember my mom popping it in a pot when I was very young, and when we got a microwave we got a microwave popper (ha!) and then later my mom bought huge flats of Act II.  I once burned the Dickens out of my arm on a metal popper that my grandparents had….you would pour oil in the bottom (my grandmother bought bottles of that awful yellow popcorn oil) and add the kernels to that, cover it with a yellow plastic cover that had a butter container in the top.  I loved using that thing.  Except when I burned myself.  When we got married, I used some store credit I got on a returned wedding gift to buy an air popper….but now I have come full circle.  All of my popcorn gets popped in a pot.  No better way!

2. Cheese

Parmigiano-Reggiano, cheddar, feta, cream, Swiss…I could go on and on.  You will always find cheese in my….cheese drawer.  Sometimes I splurge on the expensive stuff (I always buy real Parmigiano-Reggiano, which is always imported from Italy) but most of the time I buy whatever’s on sale in the dairy case.  I’m not ashamed to admit it.  Why?  Because we eat so much cheese that I’d go broke if I always bought the expensive stuff.  Cheese & crackers, a quick grilled cheese to go with soup or eat by itself for dinner, cheese on a bagel….we like cheese.  A lot.  The exception to that would be processed cheese singles.  I haven’t bought those in probably six years….although I will admit that there are certain applications (like a grilled cheese on white bread) where a plastic-wrapped single is almost necessary.  Neither one of us is a fan of goat cheese,either….I realize that’s another one of those “losing my foodie credibility” things, but I just think it’s an acquired taste….that I have yet to acquire.

3. Olive oil

I buy the gigantic can of organic olive oil at Earth Fare for about $22.00 (it used to be $19.95!).  We use it for cooking, baking, popping popcorn (some “real food” and Paleo proponents contend that heating olive oil makes it an unhealthy fat…I have read research both ways and am not yet convinced-anyone got anything for me?).  I also use it for making salad dressing.  And I really want to make olive oil ice cream….although I’ll admit I’m a little frightened of it.

4.  Coconut oil

Coconut oil is “in vogue” now, after many years of being villainized for its saturated fat.  Of course, I think when most people think of coconut oil, they think of the hydrogenated coconut oil that is used to pop movie theater popcorn.  Well, hydrogenated (trans) fat and saturated fat are two different animals.  Coconut oil is now enjoying a new day in the sun as a healthy oil (although, like all oils should still be used in moderation).  It tastes soooooo good.  It’s my favorite popcorn popping oil.

5.  Eggs

Since we don’t eat a lot of meat at home, eggs are an important staple in our diet.  We buy our eggs either from a guy that lives a few streets over or from a lady that my uncle sells them for….both of them raise the chickens in their backyards.  They are less expensive than the eggs that are available at the farmers market.  Let me tell you, the quality of a super-fresh egg cannot be argued.  It’s aMAHzing.  We used to buy “cage-free” (which essentially means….nothing) or organic (which more or less means that they were fed organic feed) eggs at the grocery store, which were (a) expensive; and (b) not nearly as high-quality as the eggs we buy from the people I mentioned above.  The color of the yolks is pretty much unreal.  By the way, I have to laugh every time I hear that a hen is “vegetarian-fed”.  Did you know that chickens are not vegetarians?  They like to eat bugs & worms too.  I see what manufacturers are getting at….the hens aren’t fed the remains of other animals (bleh!) but I like to know that my chickens actually do get to walk around and peck the ground!

6.  Crackers

Philip takes crackers in his lunch every day.  I take crackers on a lot of days as well.  They’re great as a snack, and sometimes (like last night) we eat them alongside soup.  While I still buy plain old white flour saltines sometimes (they’re definitely a comfort food), our favorites are Triscuits.  I recently bought some Ak Mak crackers and thought they were great….they’ll probably become a regular now.  Also, crackers made with nut flour (like Blue Diamond almond crackers) are super yummy, but an occasional purchase because of the price.

7.  King Arthur White Whole Wheat Flour

Of course.  I’ve been grinding my own flour lately, but I mix my (sifted) home-ground flour 50/50 with KA white whole wheat to help with the texture, although I’ve discovered that if I give the flour a few extra minutes to hydrate it turns out better…

8.  Buttermilk!

No, we don’t drink it.  However, buttermilk is great for baking, so I use it almost universally in baking recipes that call for milk (cornbread, biscuits, breads, etc.).  The tang that it adds is irreplaceable.

9.  Since I mentioned buttermilk, I better mention milk, too…

Of course we always have milk in our fridge.  We go through it somewhat sporadically.  I get a gallon every Wednesday at the farmers market.  Some weeks I end up going to the grocery store to get more, and some weeks I have to find creative ways to use up all the milk before it goes bad.  Philip eats a bowl of cereal almost every morning, and we love our Abuelita (although since it’s been super hot even at night lately we haven’t been drinking too much of it).  Milk is definitely a staple.

10.  Oh yeah….Cereal.

Not for me.  I eat cereal very, very rarely.  Like, maybe a couple of times a year, and then it’s generally as a snack, not breakfast.  I hated cereal as a kid.  Philip loves it, though, and happily eats it every single morning.  It’s just a routine for him….a quick bowl of cereal for breakfast….the same breakfast he’s had since he was a child.  We have to buy healthy, non-sugared cereals these days, but there is always a box of cereal in my pantry…and usually another box on top of my fridge.

So, if you didn’t comment last week, tell me: what are the foods that you can’t live without?

So, it dawned on me that I have written about foods that annoy me, foods I won’t touch, and foods that are “guilty pleasure” foods (which clearly I try to live without most of the time)….but I haven’t told you guys which foods I simply. Can’t. Live. Without.  So, here they are…these are the foods that are in my kitchen at all times.  If they are not in my kitchen….then they are in my shopping basket.  Period.

1.  Whole Bean Coffee

I don’t remember the last time I bought ground coffee, but it’s been at least four years.  Maybe more.  I bought a coffee grinder way back when…just a dinky little blade grinder, but it got the job done, especially since I only ground my coffee maybe once a week (we would drink whole bean coffee on the weekend and I would drink pre-ground through the week, since Philip had his weekday coffee at work).  Now, we drink a pot of freshly ground coffee every morning, and sometimes in the afternoon…and I’ve moved on from the blade grinder to a mamma-jamma burr grinder.  Velo coffee is my favorite, of course.  I know I’ve said this before, but it’s the best coffee I’ve ever had.  If you live in Chattanooga and you haven’t had it….you should.  Seriously.

2.  Bacon

I know, duh, right?  Honestly, I couldn’t decide whether bacon or coffee should be first.  Both hold very important places in my kitchen.  Coffee, though, is a daily thing, while bacon is a couple-of-times-a-week thing, so coffee got top billing.  I’ve always loved bacon.  BLTs are my favorite sandwich, and I would pick bacon over sausage in any breakfast situation.  I married someone whose love of bacon is probably even greater than my own.  Last year he had his gall bladder removed and heard all kinds of horror stories about people who couldn’t eat various foods after their gall bladder surgery.  He was terrified that he would not be able to eat bacon again.  Luckily, this was not the case.  Thank God.  Of course, Link 41 bacon is my favorite…but I’ll pretty much take bacon anyway I can get it (except turkey bacon. No way, no how).

3.  Half-and-Half

When I first started buying raw whole milk from Fall Creek Farms, I stopped buying half-and-half to pour in my coffee for a while.  Like, two months.  I made a valiant effort…but eventually I decided I needed my half-and-half.  It’s creamy flavor in coffee is unrivaled (unless you like heavy cream in your coffee…which I do, but I can’t justify that one!).  I buy the two pint carton….yeah, we drink a lot of coffee.

4.  Water

All right, so it’s not something you buy at the grocery store.  Water probably should have been number one on my list, though.  If you have spent much time around me, you know that I don’t drink much of anything else (besides my cup or two of coffee a day).  It didn’t used to be like this; in fact, prior to my first big-girl job, I probably had plenty of days when I didn’t drink  any water, and even after starting my job, I probably only drank about one big cup a day.  Until 2006.  Philip had surgery and had to drink a ton of water to prepare for being under general anesthesia, and I decided to do it along with him.  An amazing thing happened….we realized how dehydrated we had been pretty much our entire lives.  Ever since, we’ve been obsessed.  And if I don’t have my water, I can tell.  It’s not pretty.  I love my Klean Kanteen and take it just about everywhere.

5.  Butter

Hoo boy.  Bacon, half-and-half, butter…..I sound like a heart attack waiting to happen, huh?  Nah.  I mean, I’m not putting bacon on top of bacon (well, with one exception…and that was just one time) or pouring glasses of half-and-half or eating butter like a candy bar.  Seriously, though.  Butter is gooooooooood.  If you can believe it, I used to buy Blue Bonnet.  I’m not lying.  I couldn’t tell you when the change happened.  I don’t really remember.  I just remember that I started buying butter and stopped buying margarine.  I’m so glad I did.  Margarine is a manufactured item.  Butter is food.  End of discussion.  By the way, I buy unsalted butter.  Sometimes salted butter is the lower quality butter and it’s salted to cover up the flavor, and even when that’s not the case….I prefer to add my own salt.

6.  Speaking of Salt….Kosher Salt

Kosher salt lives in four places in my kitchen: (1) a box in my pantry for refills; (2) a covered ramekin by my stove for grabbing pinches to sprinkle; and (3) and (4) two salt grinders, one on each side of the stove, so Philip and I don’t have to reach over each other if we’re both cooking.  I am not kidding.  I also keep a container of sea salt in the pantry, but kosher salt is pretty much the gold standard where cooking is concerned.  By the way, if you are a salt-shunner….just know that most of the sodium in the Standard American Diet comes from processed foods, not from salt added during the cooking of fresh, homemade foods.  Just look at the labels on the back of those boxes.  You might be surprised.  I’ll happily keep salting my food to taste (I never salt at the table because there’s no need) and avoiding bags and boxes as much as possible.

7.  Local Honey

I used to sweeten things mostly with raw cane sugar (it’s basically granulated sugar but less processed than white sugar), but these days I only keep granulated sugar around for baking.  On a day to day basis, the only thing I sweeten is coffee.  I put two spoonfuls of local honey in each mug of coffee.  It makes me happy.  I love the flavor of honey, and, while I am not sure that this has ever been scientifically proven, it has been suggested that consuming local honey may help prevent seasonal allergies since it exposes you to the local pollens.  I figure (a) it tastes good; (b) it’s unrefined sugar; and (c) it supports local business, so why not?

8.  Eggs

It’s funny when I think back to my egg-buying habits as a young married woman.  When I was first “on my own”, a college student living in a dorm apartment, I probably never bought eggs unless I was planning to bake a cake or cookies.  When Philip and I first got married, I’d be willing to bet I probably only went through about a dozen a month.  These days it’s more like three or four dozen a month….and there are some weeks that I can go through two dozen in a week.  Truth.  Eggs are great for people who are mostly meatless but not vegan…we use them to top rice dishes, salads, hash.  We eat them as sides.  And, of course, we bake and make sauces and ice creams with them.  They get a lot of mileage in my kitchen.  I get them from a man who lives near me or  from a lady that my aunt and uncle sell them for (both have backyard chickens).  Much, much better than any grocery store egg I’ve ever had (even the cage-free organic ones).

9.  Fruit

It’s a crying shame that this item didn’t get added until the end.  I really am a healthful eater (most of the time, as long as there are no Doritos in the vicinity) but I really do believe all of the above foods can be part of a healthy diet (I sound like those fast food people right now).  I eat my fair share of fruit.  There’s always a bag of apples in my fridge (Macintosh are my favorite, and I look so forward to the fall when they are in season and are delicious).  Strawberries in the spring, blueberries and peaches in the summer.  Watermelon….pineapple….pears.  I love to keep bananas and pineapple in the freezer for smoothies. I try to make a point of eating fruit twice a day (I really do try to live by the five-a-day fruits and veggies rule).

10.  Maple Syrup

Real maple syrup, that is.  Not maple “flavored” syrup.  We’ve had this discussion before, I believe.  Now, the funny thing is, I grew up thinking Mrs. Butterworth’s was real maple syrup.  It wasn’t until I started dating Philip and saw how excited he got over the real maple syrup served with the pancakes at Cracker Barrel (by the way, last year they started serving syrup that is 50% maple syrup and 50% cane syrup) that I realized I had been wrong all of those years.  For the last several years, it’s just been plain old maple syrup in our fridge….preferably grade B.  And you’ll never see anything else.  Amen.

Now, there are plenty of other things I like to keep around.  I started to make a number eleven so I could include cheese….but I could probably write an entire post dedicated to my favorite cheeses.  Perhaps I will one of these days.

What are your “must-have” foods?