Monday, January 7, 2008

Gluttony or Gourmand.....you decide



gluttony
noun
1. habitual eating to excess
2. eating to excess (personified as one of the deadly sins)


gour·mand

noun
Definition:
food lover: a lover of food who often eats excessively or greedily



My latest and greatest obsession is Torani syrup. I love Italian Sodas. Now I am not much of a regular soda person. I never drink a coke, sprite, or fanta, dare I say "mellow yellow" (which they still sell prevalently in the south). I drink a diet pepsi on occasion.....that is about as far as it goes. I don't like sweet drinks. I could live off of iced tea. I like fresh brewed unsweet tea with lemon and a pinch of sweet n low. Yes, I know that in labratory animals large amounts of sweet n low has shown to produce cancerous effects, you are falling on deaf ears, my argument being that since I outweigh a labratory rat by about 140 lbs I don't think 1 packet of sweet n low a day is going to kill me. Anyway, I digress. So it is really odd to me WHY I like Italian Sodas. They are pretty sweet....I mean sugary sweet not Carmen off southpark sue-weeeeet but they are sue-weeeet also. Digressing again......it is the ADD. Torani syrups are kind of hard to come by in Little Rock. No one seems to carry the fruity varietys. Ordering from the internet is actually kind of hard also because they only like to sell to distributors so your options are very limited. Our 19 year old son was in Omaha visiting vegetarian girlfriend turned meat-eater. She no longer be an herbivore. So, I call Ben on his cell phone 2 days before his flight is to leave. Giving him plenty of time to go to Cost Plus World Market to get said Torani syrups. He calls me and reads off the flavors dilligently and I give him my order. 1 strawberry, 1 raspberry, 1 caramel, 1 guava, 1 peach, 1 blood orange, 1 almond rocha, 1 sugar free almond and 1 sugar free raspberry (for a friend). Thinking these were the smaller size bottles they ended up being wine size bottles. No worries, I won't have to stock up anytime soon. He then treks off to the UPS store and has them package it up for the plane ride. He actually didn't do as much complaining as I expected either. Although both he and my husband know that when they are out and about whether here or in another state, they can expect a call from me at anytime requesting food items from various places. Deal with it. Anyway........I love these syrups. My favorites so far are 2 Tablespoons of Torani Syrup, 2 Tablespoons of fat free 1/2 & 1/2 (which is another of my latest and greatest obsessions......fat free 1/2 & 1/2 whouda thunk it???), and then mix with club soda..........it turns into a cream soda.......the raspberry and caramel are soooo good. I get on these kicks with certain culinary items and this is one of my new ones. I have a couple more and will post on those in the future. If you come across a Torani.....buy some and try it. The drink is delightful and refreshing. It is also great with the splash of lemoncello or limoncello. I guess the meaning of this post was.........when I get on an ingredient kick or find a food or drink that I am enthralled with.......I can't just buy one. In this case I bought 9 and spent $60 on syrup and then another $29 to have UPS pack it up so my son could bring it on a NWA flight from Omaha to Minneapolis to Little Rock. I will go to great lengths to get whatever food item I am interested in at the time. Dr. Phil, Why couldn't I just have bought 1 or 2 bottles like a normal person instead of 9. Gluttony or Gourmond.........you decide.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love fat-free half and half. I use it everyday in my coffee.

Lora said...

You never know when the supply may dry up or the travelers may stop traveling. Better safe than sorry. Do you think they have these at the "World Market" stores? That is about an hour drive for me, but I occassionally get over that way. Since I love Diet Dr. Pepper-they might be wasted on my uneducated tastebuds.

Obsessive Foodie or Food Addict....You Decide said...

Diet Dr. Pepper is the other one that I like if there is no diet pepsi...sometimes a fresca can be refreshing also. World Market, I think, is the same as those Cost Plus World Market and that is where he bought them. They are kind of fun to entertain with. You can get some of the flavors sugar free. You can use sparkling water instead of club soda (cuts down on the sodium), you can add alcohol or leave them virgin. There are good creamed, you could add a scoop of ice cream or even a scoop of sorbet is wonderful. You could use the syrup if you make snow cones....you can flavor iced tea with them also. Torani website has loads of recipes. I hail from Titusville, PA (less than 6,000 people) originally so there are no more uneducated tastebuds out there than mine. Perhaps we could share the crown????

Obsessive Foodie or Food Addict....You Decide said...

oooh, and I also serve them in a Pilsner glass which is really fun.