They aren't terribly interesting to look at since I failed to follow the decoration instructions. But I'm sure if I had sprinkled them liberally with confectioner's sugar and then sifted the cocoa, cinnamon, and nutmeg over a cupcake stencil to make a nifty design, they would probably be much cooler looking. Nevertheless, they taste just like a freaking chai latte and that blows my mind. Actually, they also taste like Chai Luna Bars, which really makes me want to stop by Whole Foods on my way to work tomorrow... Or maybe I'll just have another cupcake and wait until I go food shopping in a few days.
I had a bizarre experience at work today that I would like to ramble about for a few minutes before I go to bed.About three years ago, I discovered that I am actually capable of making my own soup and that it is actually much better (in many ways) than canned soup (even Amy's, sorry), which I had happily eaten for the first twenty*ahem* years of my life. In that instant, I forswore canned soups...until today.
I am generally a huge pain in the rear of our Cafe manager at work. I bug him almost relentlessly about the ingredients in things like, well, soup. As I've alluded to in the past, it just doesn't occur to some people that using chicken or beef broth as the base of a soup makes it not vegetarian anymore, even if everything else used to grow in the dirt. We have actually discussed the tomato soup in detail and I inadvertently introduced him to the PETA website while he reluctantly disclosed to me that the tomato soup is nothing more than Campbell's. He probably thought I would call him out on the inauthenticity of more or less advertising home-made soups and then pouring a vat of Campbell's Tomato Soup into an electric tureen, but I was actually thrilled, because that particular soup is 100% vegan.
The point of all that was to tell you that I ate Campbell's Tomato Soup out of a "styrofoam" to-go bowl with a ridiculous plastic soup spoon at my desk today. I realized about halfway through the soup that I felt almost melancholy and nostalgia was washing over me. I paused, spoon hovering between the bowl and my mouth, trying to locate the source of this sudden reflection when I realized it was the soup! The last time I had tomato soup out of a to-go container was when I worked in the alternative school and nonprofit social service agency. For some reason, I distinctly remember that day as the day I realized that Campbell's Tomato Soup leaves a fire-red tint on your lips if you don't wipe them with a napkin after you eat. My mind kept going back, though, further down the road of food-related memories. I remembered so very many times throughout my childhood, adolescence, and even early adulthood when we all had Campbell's Tomato Soup with grilled cheese for dinner or lunch on a lazy weekend, and how my dad always dipped his sandwich into his soup. I was not a fan of my food touching any of my other food, so I found that both appalling and intriguing as I slurped my soup and then ate my sandwich, or the same in reverse, but never together. I also thought of how many times my mother made that same combination of soup and sandwich for me when I was sick or sad or doing homework for countless hours of my junior year of high school.
I don't know how long I thought about these things, and I can only hope no one I work with caught me staring dumbfoundedly at my soup today. It's not thanksgiving yet, but I'd like to add those memories to my list of things for which I am grateful.
Careful, a lot of Campbell's Tomato Soup still has MSG in it! I do a lot of can-checking (both at the grocery store and friends' houses :P) and while most cans I've checked don't have the dreaded msg added, many do. I guess it's being gradually phased out, or just the "low sodium" ones don't have it.... not sure.
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