Saturday morning, I had flipped to The Jetsons while I was cleaning house. George and Astro had to hide out in a space cabin to hide from a guy who they thought was a mobster, but was actually just an actor playing a space mobster. So anyway, George and Astro were in the cabin, and they realized that they were really roughing it. They went to the “meal machine” there wasn’t any Martian Macaroni, there wasn’t any Saturn Ring Salmon. The plot thickens as they go to find some food for the machine and try to avoid getting rubbed out.
The space age meal machine got me to thinking about my current mode of consumption. Essentially, I’m relying as much as possible on the tastiest frozen foods that will light up my space age meal machine, the microwave or oven, with as much nutritional value as possible. My Judy Jestson-esque search for Lunar Lasagne lead me to the frozen food aisle again last week to discover Michael Angelo’s Eggplant Parmesan.
As a disclaimer, I have a genetically predispositioned soft spot in my heart for frozen Eggplant Parmesan. It was widely known and accepted that my Grandmother Harrison–Annie Fink made the best Eggplant Parmesan in the category of non-Italian heritage person making Italian food on the East Coast, south of Jersey– so good, that I thought my family was vaguely mafioso for my formative years (this belief was not dispelled by my father’s skill for finding expensive furniture and goods that “fell of the back of a truck,” but that’s an entirely different entree.)
Grandma would make a few pans of the thick, breaded cuts of Eggplant drenched in a vibrant tomato sauce, wrap them up, and send them home with us for our freezer. I remember my my mom, a self proclaimed non-cook, couldn’t get enough of them. The pans of Eggplant were a welcome, homemade break from the daily rations of ”Glop” (macaroni and cheese with cream of mushroom soup and hotdogs) or fish sticks. So it was with this romantic ideal of a quintessentially good Eggplant Parmesan melting through my mind that I brought the Michael Angelo’s home for a try.
Time passes, and as I reach in the freezer to grab other frozen foods that populate my Space Age Food Machine, I just touch the box with one finger. Tap tap, we’ll cook you in the real oven when the time is right I’d been saying to Mr. Angelo Parmesani. And tonight was the night. It took about an hour at 375, and due to some space age polymers or perhaps revolutionary cooking materials, I just had to remove the dish from the box, peel back the paper from the pan to vent, and then bake it.
After a long day at South by Southwest Interactive in the rain, eating cold weird salad for lunch, I was so very excited about the smells coming from the kitchen. How surprised was I when the actual food that came from the oven was out of this world?! The eggplant to bread crumb to tomato sauce ratio was just right, and the mozzerella cheese melted on top, was fresh and flavorful.
According to the package, there are 6 servings at 250 calories each. But, I think more realistically, there are three servings of 500 calories, which isn’t terrible for the quality of the food that you get. This made for a really warm, comforting, quality space age meal. I wish that I could say that I remember Grandma’s Eggplant–but I’m going to say that hers was just slightly better.
All in all, I’m going to investigate other foods from Michael Angelos for my intergalactic freezer. As I get busier and busier, I have a lot more compassion for my mom’s take no prisoners penchant for ready made cuisine. Luckily, there are a lot of healthier, tasty foods for the lady on the go in the 21st century. Luckily, some frozen foods are really good, because they’re just going to have to remain a source of sustenance while life right now is moving at the speed of light.
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