Archive for the ‘Cheese’ Category

Red Baron 4-Cheese Pizza

Tuesday, December 8th, 2009

Red Baron 4-Cheese Pizza - Ad

Red Baron 4-Cheese Pizza

Looks: I still can’t get these pizzas to brown properly, even after following different advice I’ve gotten from readers: “Move it under the broiler”; “don’t preheat the oven”; “use a blow-torch.” None of it works. 4 out of 5

Taste: There is a definite quality scale of frozen pizzas: it starts with your Lunchables mini pizzas (ketchup and bread), then you have your Jack’s/Jeno’s/Totino’s, then up on the high end, you have your Digiorno’s and Freschettas – the “pizzeria-style” pizzas (if you believe their commercials). I would place this Red Baron above Digiorno, but below Freschetta. The cheese is thick, the sauce is zesty, and the crust is nice and chewy, but not as nice as Freschetta’s. This pizza has a good collection of herbs mixed in the cheese as well, and I think that is what really sets it apart from the Jack’s and Jeno’s. 4 out of 5

Kraft White Cheddar Macaroni & Cheese

Friday, December 4th, 2009

Kraft White Cheddar Macaroni & Cheese - Ad

Kraft White Cheddar Macaroni & Cheese

Looks: The sauce isn’t quite thick enough to fill in the holes in the ends of the noodles, and the noodles aren’t long enough to curve like the noodles on the box; both are minor nitpicks though. 4 out of 5

Taste: It’s very similar to the normal Kraft Macaroni & Cheese that everyone has had at least once in their life, except without the sharp bite of the yellow cheddar cheese mix. I definitely preferred the more mild taste of the white cheddar, but like most Kraft Mac & Cheese, every subsequent bite was a little worse than the one before it, and by the end, I felt a little queasy. My body must immediately start building immunity against whatever chemicals Kraft is using to make this dish taste so good. 4 out of 5

Marie Callender’s Old World Rigatoni Bolognese

Sunday, November 29th, 2009

Marie Callender's Old World Rigatoni Bolognese - Ad

Marie Callender's Old World Rigatoni Bolognese

Looks: The noodles are right, but the sauce is all wrong. Instead of being a thick and hearty tomato sauce with chunks of beef, it consists of some dried-up pieces of meat and a scant amount of liquid. It really makes the difference in how edible the dish looks, wouldn’t you agree? 2 out of 5

Taste: The taste mirrors the looks: the noodles are ok, but the sauce is just meh. The different parts of the sauce never seemed to coalesce, but rather just separated into tomato and beef and liquid. Not only did the sauce not form one mixture, but the different parts of the sauce didn’t stick to the pasta, further separating the dish into “noodles and tomato and beef and liquid” instead of Rigatoni Bolognese. 2 out of 5

Tyson Anytizers Stuffed Chicken Cordon Bleu Minis

Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

Tyson Anytizers Stuffed Chicken Cordon Bleu Minis - Ad

Tyson Anytizers Stuffed Chicken Cordon Bleu Minis

Looks: Remember how the Pizza Rolls looked like they were singing? Well these Cordon Bleu Bites look like they’re puking their literal guts out. Even after cooling for a few minutes, the filling wasn’t thick enough to remain inside the bites, and instead poured and popped out with every bite. 3.5 out of 5

Taste: I thought they were just ok – the filling didn’t have much flavor and it gummed up my mouth, and the outer chicken sphere was a little dry. My wife, on the other hand, thought they were quite good; she liked the crunchiness of the breading and the cheesiness of the filling. (I already knew she loved cheesy things; she married me, didn’t she? *ba-dum-bum*) 3.5 out of 5

Side note: Over the weekend, I put together a more professional setup for taking these photographs. I built a light tent, purchased some dedicated lighting, and I’ve started experimenting with the advanced features of my camera. Today’s post is the first food picture I took in the new setup. What say you, Internet – is it an improvement?