You know those weekends when you go to two great parties you never intended on going to, and you don’t even care about the party you didn’t go to? For me, that was my weekend in the world of food.
It was the typical Friday night dilemma: I had to figure out what I was going to eat. After remembering a commercial I saw on television a few days ago, I decided to try something new. The Pillsbury Doughboy had introduced to me to unsloppy joes. I was slightly worried, because it’s been hit or miss in the kitchen for me recently, but I decided to give it a shot. The concept was relatively simple, and I hadn’t had sloppy joes in a long time. Part of the reason was because I hadn’t been craving them. The other is because, like most simple things, I had never made them before.
I made the ground beef and added the mix and water. I didn’t have tomato paste and contemplated using Ragu pasta sauce, but I played it safe and borrowed my roommate’s. I cooked the sloppy joe meat for 10 minutes, then I opened up the crescent roll can. The directions called for using biscuits instead of crescent rolls, but I didn’t have those. I put two triangles together and made them into a rectangle. After adding a spoonful of sloppy joes, I added some shredded cheese, folded the crescent rectangles over and sealed them closed. I threw them in the oven for 12 minutes and made a side of steak fries. They were absolutely delicious, I didn’t make a mess, and it was a great meal to start off the weekend.
On Saturday, I had big plans. I was going to wake up early and make a quiche. I was going to a breakfast with some friends, and I thought it would be nice to add some more food to the menu. I knew it would be a great addition to my Homecoming weekend, and it couldn’t go wrong, because people never complain about free food. I bought the pie crust, the eggs, the bacon and the cheese. I had the recipe, and my alarm was set for 5 a.m., so I could get up in time to make it and wait for it to cool. This was going to be my best meal yet.
My alarm did go off at 5 a.m., and I did not want to get out of bed. Not only did I not want to get out of bed, I hit snooze until about 6:25 a.m. I finally pulled myself out of bed and made my way to breakfast without anything to contribute.
My next great weekend food moment was my Saturday evening dinner. I was starting to really miss the food back home. Not necessarily the home-cooked lasagna, but the restaurants back home. One restaurant this campus does not have is Skyline Chili. I was really starting to debate going home just to get my favorite meal covered in a mountain of cheese.
I was walking through Wal-Mart, and I saw it: a can of Skyline’s chili. I can’t explain my excitement when I realized that I was going to get to enjoy a Skyline Chili 3-Way without driving an hour and a half to Columbus.
The fact that making this meal was incredibly easy only added to the greatness of it. I boiled spaghetti and heated up the chili, and that entire process took about 10 minutes. I only wished my shredded cheese was just as good as Skyline’s. I feel like Skyline adds some special ingredient to their cheese that makes it incredibly delicious and addicting. Even without the special cheese, having that great taste of a restaurant back home in my own kitchen was satisfying enough.
I’d have to say that Homecoming weekend was a complete success.
Mesha Baylis-Blalock is a senior journalism student, a novice cook and a columnist for The Post. What’s your favorite Skyline dish? Email her at mb345109@ohiou.edu.
