The Evils of Carnival Food

The above photo isn't what I had to eat at the carnival...

Did I mention in that last post that whilst manning the popcorn machine at the Spring Carnival this morning, I ate 14 pounds of crap????

It started by just "cleaning" the stray popcorn out of the crease of the machine...then graduated to mouthfuls of the still warm popcorn as I was loading the bags. I don't even know how much of that awful "butter flavored" oil I consumed today. We use that prepackaged stuff so we don't have to measure each batch- so I'm sure it was pounds of the stuff.

Then my lunch choices were a hot dog or a slice of Dominoes pizza. Slim pickins there. I chose the hot dog, just because we already had pizza once this week, and I never eat hotdogs, in spite of a wicked craving for one every once in a while. And to wash down my gourmet mid day meal??? McDonalds Orange Drink. Diabetes in a plastic cup.

By the time I fought the typhoon and got back to the apartment, I felt awful. I can't remember the last time I ate such horrible food. And by horrible I mean absolutely no nutritional value. I felt like I had consumed a year's worth of junk food in one morning.

When dinner rolled around, I knew I needed to fix something light and good for me. I opted for baked chicken and a tossed salad.

I prepared the chicken by salt and peppering it, and putting chopped fresh rosemary, sliced garlic and sliced lemons under the skin, drizzling it with olive oil and baking it at 400 degrees until it reached 180 on the digital thermometer. I used bone in chicken thighs, because I think they have more flavor than breasts.

For the salad, I chopped ice berg lettuce, strawberries, carrots, mushrooms and onion, then threw in some dried blueberries. I dressed it with a classic vinaigrette recipe I found in my 1975 copy of "The Joy of Cooking." Here's the recipe:

French Dressing or Sauce Vinaigrette

1/2 t. salt
1/8 t. freshly ground black pepper
1/4 apple cider vinegar
1/2 t. prepared mustard (I used grainy brown)

Whisk these together well and stream in 3/4 c. olive oil until nicely emulsified.

I'll be using this book again tomorrow to bake a carrot cake. I am attempting to exorcise my high altitude baking demons, and this book has a section on changing recipes for high altitudes. I'll post more about it tomorrow.

So what valuable lesson did I learn today??

It's a good thing Spring Carnival only comes around once a year.