We all know fast food is bad for us, but occasionally it’s a treat or a necessity. I took my boys to Hardee’s in Washington this afternoon for a Valentines’ treat. I brought them home and unpacked their kid’s meals to find this….

It’s kind of hard to capture with the camera I have on hand, but THAT IS GRAPHITE. It’s commonly used in machinery as a lubricant, but let me tell you, it has no place on our FOOD! That’s right, the same stuff that forms pencil leads and that lubes molds in the steel making process. Those bastards were trying to feed it to my 3 year old.

I took the burger back to the restaurant and asked for the manager. According to her name tag, I was addressed by the General Manager. When I told her that I didn’t think that graphite was an acceptable condiment, she said, “it’s just the grease from the chain on the grill. It won’t hurt nothin’.”. She offered me another cheeseburger or some chicken strips. Um, no. She refunded my money for the kid’s meal. I could give a crap about the $3.50 right now. What else have these people put in my kids’ food that they thought wouldn’t “hurt nothin’”? What was on the hamburger patty that I couldn’t see? The fact she thought it was OK that there was grease (and not the kind you cook the fries in) on my child’s cheeseburger is extremely disturbing. Then she swept it all off of the counter and into a trash can. Nope. I made her dig it back out. I wanted my receipt for my son’s graphite burger and a picture to prove it.

Graphite is a carbon allotrope and is used heavily in industrial settings. Hell, it’s even in between the gears on my coveted stand mixer……but I don’t feed it to my children. I don’t let them eat pencil lead or suck on steel castings, so I’m damn sure not going to let some fast food restaurant feed it to them.

I’ve put in a call to Hardee’s corporate headquarters. Wonder what they’ll have to say…..

Wonder what the Health Department would have to say?

Update:

I spoke with an area Rep for Hardees’, who was on his way to Beaufort County. While I appreciate their quick response, I don’t appreciate the BS he fed me. He visited the restaurant and called me back to inform me that it was burnt butter on the hamburger bun. I didn’t get into an argument with him, because it just isn’t worth it at this point, BUT…….I’ve burned plenty of butter in my lifetime and I’ve never seen it have a metallic sheen to it. I’ve also seen plenty of graphite from the inside of my stand mixer while cleaning it and I’m pretty certain that’s what’s on our bun. Burnt butter doesn’t usually have flecks of silver in it.

Oh well, guess there’s a lot to be said for cooking for my boys at home whenever possible. Eventually they’ll get old enough to see past the commercial crap and the toy that comes with the food to realize that my cheeseburgers taste better anyway. They’re damn lucky I’m a good cook. I only hope I can learn to market myself as well as McDonalds’ or Burger King.

Posted in Rant, Food | No Comments »

Well, today has been full of hard-core holiday baking. I’ve completed Nutella rugelach, peanut butter cup cookies, 7 loaves of cinnamon raisin bread, snickerdoodles, chocolate cookies with white chocolate chunks, peppermint marshmallows, and a 1/2 sheet pan size batch of brownies. I made it all the way to the brownies without many bumps in the road. I have a great recipe for a large batch of brownies left over from when I baked under a pastry chef. I prepared the batter, poured into the pan, poured these too cute red and green swirled white chocolate chips on top and set the timer. Within 10 minutes I smelled something that wasn’t quite right. I peeked in the oven and much to my horror, the chips on top were well done to put it nicely. Fuck me. I pulled the brownies out of the oven, placed on my stovetop and tried to problem solve as I burnt the bejesus out of my finger tips picking off an entire bag of chips from the brownies. No better solution came to me, so I had to pick every single on off, fresh from the oven, by hand. In order to mask the left over red and green spots on top of the brownies, my husband has graciously run to the store to buy me another bag of chips. I’ll wait and put these on until after the brownies are done baking.

Posted in Me, Food | 1 Comment »

That’s right folks, its time to start up all of my holiday cookie baking bliss. I’ve gotten almost all of my ingredients stockpiled and I think I have my menu in mind. This year’s trays are going to feature red velvet cupcakes. How perfect are they for the holidays? They’re bright red cupcakes with white icing and I’m going to put green sugar sprinkles on top. For the cookie varieties I’m going with butterscotch toffee, peanut butter cup, chocolate chip, and snickerdoodles. I also have a killer brownie recipe I’m going to include in the trays this year. I have some green and red swirled white chocolate chips to top the brownies with. On top of all the little hand held goodies on the cookie trays, I think I’m going to bake up a few loaves of cinnamon raisin bread to send along with some of the trays. If I get them done in time, I’m also going to bee sending a batch of rugelach to New Jersey with a friend of mine. I haven’t tried to make them before, but they sound absolutely delicious and should be quite beautiful. For a final performance, I’m going to try making homemade marshmallows. I saw a recipe for peppermint ones and the thought of melting one a top a cup of hot cocoa was more than I could resist.

So, how’s all that for ambitious?

Posted in Food | No Comments »

The boys’ noses have stopped constantly running down their faces and I almost feel human today. Thank goodness! Last night whatever this virus is culminated in the worst sinus headache I’ve had in ages. I am SO happy to see it subsiding. The boys seem to be right back up to speed, too.  Emmett appears to be feeling so much better that he’s not even going to nap today. I guess its just as well, since its going to be 80 degrees today (in December!?!?) so we should take advantage and spend as much time in the sunshine as possible.

I’ve gotten most of the big Christmas shopping done, I think. Now, its time to get on to the baking. We’ve got a fairly modest Christmas budget, so every year I make up for it by baking tons and tons of some incredible cookies. We deliver big trays of white chocolate chunk cookies, snickerdoodles, peanut butter cup cookies, iced sugar cookies, butterscotch toffee cookies, chocolate cookies with white icing, mint chocolate chip cookies, brownies, and I think rugelach this year. I have a dear friend who’s Jewish and I can only imagine how hard it would be to celebrating Hanukkah in a Baptist town, so maybe they’ll spread a little joy.

I’d better get some butter out to soften and check on the chip supply in baking pantry!

Posted in Food, Daily Boo | No Comments »

We’re finally getting some much needed rain and so to pass the time, I made cinnamon raisin bread yesterday. Best bread I’ve ever made, hands down. It pays to try new recipes. Andy and the boys finished a whole loaf and have already started on the second one. I guess I’d better get some yeast working so I can make some more later today. Now, if I can just figure out what to do with my insane children for the rest of today. I think the rain has turbo charged them.

Posted in Food, Daily Boo | 1 Comment »

« Previous Entries