4th of July Weekend Eats I

I'm going to do something a little different over the next four days: instead of waiting until Tuesday and doing a recap of the entire weekend, I'm going to update the blog several times with the latest eats. I hope you all have a fun and safe holiday weekend.

Thursday evening I went to the South Pasadena farmers market with my friend Carla. A woman was giving out samples of goat cheese and I tried one with sweet pepper and basil. It was outstanding. But then I saw a container with roasted garlic and dill and I bought it without even trying it. It was also delicious.

When Elizabeth got home Thursday evening, excited to have a four-day weekend, we talked about doing something special for dinner. But then we just decided to go to the store and get snacks and have a completely laid-back evening at home.

Yep, I microwaved a White Castle burger and put the garlic/dill goat cheese on it. Does it get any lazier? Well, yes, actually....

This "Fast Bites" Spicy Chicken Sandwich was in the freezer at the store, on sale for 99 cents.

"Oh I have to try this," I said.

"You know it'll probably be terrible," Elizabeth said.

"Yes, it doesn't matter."

As I have seen before with these type of products, this sandwich recommends thawing before heating. This never fails to make me laugh. I promise you something, my friends: any rock-solid, covered-in-ice-crystals chicken sandwich that you heat in the microwave for 40-50 seconds to cook does not need to be thawed first. There is no such thing as "best results" in these matters.

It came out of the microwave looking almost exactly the same as it went in, minus the visible ice. It was hot and had the consistency of a sponge. I was reluctant to eat it as it.

So I added some sweet pickle slices and Dijon mustard.

Let's just say it could have been worse. The bun was tough to bite through, as most heated-in-the-microwave breads are, and the chicken patty was springy and mostly flavorless. But it did contain a little bit of spice. And it was more impressive for two things it didn't contain: there were no ice-cold, didn't-cook-through spots in the patty, nor were there any tough, inedible pieces of chicken.

I will never eat one of these again under any circumstances, but for 99 cents, it was actually better than I expected.