Concasse?

I got the July Lee County Shrine Club newsletter in the mail yesterday. No article this month either, I sent out a one page newsletter. A one pager means one legal size sheet of the 24 pound paper printed on both sides with the calendar on the back with the address header. We aren’t meeting in July, due to the holiday week and people being gone. Attendance would be very low. Plus our main cook will be in Toronto at the Imperial Shrine session. I have an idea for an article about the ten year old girl that passed away last month. She was a Shrine Hospital patient with more problems since birth than you can imagine. She was a sweet kid though and I have to get it down just right to satisfy me on the article. I already have approval from the parents to write something.

Funny thing happened last week. On Tuesday, while Christy was on vacation after the store inventory, I went after us some lunch. She was focusing on house cleaning stuff, like getting rid of stuff and cleaning up her scrapbook room. I went to Subway for a couple of sandwiches. This was about 11:45 AM and the Subway on West Main & North Thomas was packed. I was in line and I ordered two ham & turkey subs and while I was waiting for all the toppings, she girl behind the counter was telling the guy in front of me that he could get two sandwiches because it was “Two for Tuesday.” He said he didn’t want a second sandwich but she insisted, so he gave in and said he could feed it to his dog or throw it away. Good deal, Two for Tuesday, right? I was getting two sandwiches, so I wanted a free one.

When I got to the register to pay I asked, “Two for Tuesday, right?”
“No, that doesn’t apply on the ham & turkeys, they have to be melts.”
Then she said, “You can add bacon and get one for free, that would make them a melt.”
I was confused. How could adding to “their food costs” make me qualify for a discount? I didn’t want the bacon. My doctor wants me to cut down on fat and salt. So I said “Okay” and paid full price for both sandwiches. When I got home I stewed on this and it made me mad. The guy in front didn’t even want a second sandwich and they insisted he take the extra one for free. I started looking at the Subway web-site and saw that the sandwiches I ordered were the “healthy” ones. So I guess eating better costs more and you can get free food if you eat extra bacon.

I sent them an e-mail through their contact section. I told them where and what I ordered including the store number and receipt number from my purchase. I simply asked them why adding to their food costs would qualify me for a discount. I also told them that the guy in front of me didn’t even want a free sandwich but the counter girl insisted he take it anyway but then refused to give me a free sandwich unless I added bacon.

I have only contacted a company a couple of times before. One was a true complaint and one was just for grins. I contacted Hardees a few years back after seeing a girl doctor another girl’s new tattoo on the food line. I was at the drive-thru waiting on my order. Someone from Hardees called me and told me they would be taking care of this and he said I was the kind of customer they wanted.

The other time was over a TV commercial. It was a Healthy Choice commercial; the actor tasted this soup and put his soup back in the pot of soup. It’s a commercial, no real harm to anyone, but I was tempted to contact someone. I did a little research and found out the brand was owned by Con-Agra Foods and sent them an e-mail. It was about four months later; I thought they had ignored the crazy guy from Mississippi when I got a response e-mail. The e-mail explained that their company was all for food safety and it was just a commercial and they were only actors. I saw the commercial later and they had cut out the returning spoon part. That was funny.

A manager from Subway called me the next morning. He said he had received my e-mail, read it and said he agreed with me. He said, “I’m sorry some of our employees are stupid.” He said they might as well wrap up a dollar and given it to me. He also went to explain that the “Two for Tuesday” promotion was for melts and if he tried to explain any exceptions that would only make it worse, because some of their employees were stupid. He told me to simply order a “melt” and hold the bacon and/or cheese. Then I could get the ham & turkey sandwiches I wanted. He agreed with me completely and told me he was going to send me some coupons. I told him I was looking for anything in the way of compensation, I just wanted to understand how adding to their food costs would qualify me for a free sandwich. He still sent me three coupons for free six-inch subs. I gave them to Christy to use when she has a short lunch from work. Now I feel obligated to have a “good” experience at Subway and e-mail him and tell him about the good part to balance out everything. So on Tuesday, order a “melt” and simply tell them to hold whatever you don’t want.

O concassed a tomato, actually a couple of tomatoes now. To “concasse” actually means to “peel seed & chop.” I like the word. I was watching Julia Child on the new Cooking Channel and she mentioned “peel, seeding & chopping” tomatoes but she never used the word “concasse.” I guess many people are doing something fancy named while cooking but never realize there is a fancy word for the process. I heard Martha Stewart mention once that if you love your family you will peel your tomatoes. The old boiling water and ice water plunge really works well. So I guess if you love your family you will boil some water. I have found if you get into the habit of doing the little things right every time, it won’t seem like a bother. Using decent cookware and a good sharp knife also helps.

I am growing some basil along with my pepper plants this year. I am growing it in a plastic window box type pot and it has done really well. That fresh basil plucked off the plants just before you use it is amazing. The flavor is so nice. I am finding stuff to cook that I can use it in now. I was whooping up me a quick lunch the other day after I finished printing the newsletter. I chopped an onion, garlic and some of my mild peppers and one jalapeño. I started to sweat that then concassed a tomato and threw it into the mix. Then I tossed in a can of herring filets in tomato sauce that I found at Big Lots. You can tell Christy was at work, because she would never eat something with herring filets. While my herring sauce was simmering I cooked up some linguine noodles and had one heck of good lunch. I used fresh grated parmesan also. I know buying real parmesan cheese of good quality seems to cost more, but in the long run it tastes better and you get more cheese than you will out of some container of fake filler parmesan product.

This morning I made my version of caprese bruschetta. Caprese (kah-PREH-seh) is a mixture of tomatoes, basil, olive oil and mozzarella. I added some onions, peppers and garlic though. But I got to concasse another tomato and use some more fresh basil. The only side effect is I now sound like an Olive Garden. The bruschetta was tasty though.

I am reading Anthony Bourdain’s new book “Medium Raw.” It’s pretty good and I agree with a lot of things he has to say. Some people might not like him but the man can write. Maybe this book is what has me thinking about cooking and food. Now if I can break my Facebook farming obsession for a while. Why this virtual farming is so habit forming I don’t know, but it seems a lot of people are wrapped up in it. I see a group called Farming Anonymous coming up. People addicted to virtual gaming to a point it controls their lives. People that don’t drink, do drugs, or gamble but have lost everything because their grapes were due. We are destined to become a society of “weebles” sitting at home in front of a computer screen plowing and planting. So I guess the cure it to sit around blogging about peeling seeding and chopping a tomato, CONCASSE!

By the way, here is a link to a whole encyclopedia of pasta.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pasta