Where Oh Where Does it End?

You know, there are times when I am pondering about what to write about and am not sure if I will do a post or not. Well, it has been interesting in that I am yet again working on trying to eat less and shed some pounds. In so doing, why is it that weird food items come into my world. I was reading a blog (I guess that is pretty common among bloggers, they read each other's blogs) and came across posting about Paula Deen. She is a cook from the south who has several shows on Food Network and she and her two boys run a restaurant called The Lady & Sons in Savannah, Georgia. More on her later. Well, from there it lead to a discussion about KFC's new sandwich called a Double-Down. OMG! It is disgusting. Just call it a heart attack in a wrapper. Well, little did I know what can of worms I was just about to open...Ladies and Gentlemen, first up is The McGangbang! First discovered in 2006...

The McGangBang ranks up there in the holy pantheon of WTF. It's a sandwich made from a double cheeseburger and a McChicken sandwich — where you put an entire McChicken sandwich inside a double cheeseburger. It's a creative manipulation of existing menu items, and an exercise in frugality: taking two items off of the Dollar Menu and creating an entirely new sandwich for a total of a little over $2.00 with taxes added. Truly, it's a sandwich that's more than the sum of its parts. I went looking and sure enough I found an official reply from McDonald's on this most unique sandwich without ever referring to the common given name. Believe you me people just go Goggle, Bing, Yahoo "McGangBang" and there are all sorts of entries. How do you think I even found the picture!

Official Statement From McDonald's regarding the McGangBang:

“McDonald’s loves to hear from our valued guests, especially when they customize
and create meal combinations to fit their personal taste preferences – no matter
how unique! Whether it’s requesting an Egg McMuffin without cheese or a Big Mac
with extra secret sauce, McDonald’s is proud to satisfy our customers’ requests
and provide them with a variety of great-tasting meals every time they visit our
restaurants.”
Danya Proud, Spokesperson

So I think OK, so this is pretty scary. There are big breakfast and oversize this and that, but most of the stuff out there at chains and such isn't too bad, is it? Oh how wrong I was. Little did I realize that the folks over at IHOP saw how much free press KFC got with their new sandwich, the Double-Down, that I mentioned above and so not to be outdone, they have come up with a new - limited time only - creation! Ladies and Gentlemen, I present Pancake Stackers!

Pancake Stackers consist of a crustless cheesecake filling surrounded by two buttermilk pancakes and toppings. You can choose from strawberry, blueberry or cinnamon apple compote and whipped topping. Pancake Stackers are available a la carte or with a combo meal, which adds eggs, hash browns and a choice of bacon, pork sausage links and ham to the tally, just in case the initial offering was not enough.

The Glendale, Calif.-based company did not provide nutritional information for Pancake Stackers by themselves. But the company said the regular combo meal — which includes Pancake Stackers with strawberries, two eggs, bacon and hash browns — runs 1,250 calories.

That meal is more than double KFC's Double Down chicken sandwich — which weighs in at 540 calories — and at least half the total calories many adults should eat all day. It also packs 2,750 milligrams of sodium. The Institute of Medicine recommends that adults not exceed 2,300 milligrams of sodium a day as a perspective. I do wish to acknowledge The Boston Globe for their statistics on this item and a nod to Seattle Weekly's Voracious for the heads up on McGangbang.

So if you think any of these items can even come close to the level of myocardial infarction inducing bliss that Paula Deen is capable of, well, you’ve got another think coming.

Meet the Lady’s Brunch Burger — a Paula Deen original. Its got a 1/2 pound of ground beef, topped by a fried egg and two slices of bacon, in between two Krispy Kreme glazed donuts.
Only in the south Ladies and Gentlemen, only in the south.Here's the recipe for The Lady's Brunch Burger:

Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
3 tablespoons freshly chopped parsley leaves
2 tablespoons grated onion
House Seasoning ~ recipe follows
2 tablespoons butter
3 eggs
6 slices bacon, cooked
6 glazed donuts

Directions:
Mix the ground beef, chopped parsley and grated onion together in a large mixing bowl. Season liberally, with House Seasoning. Form 3 hamburger patties.

Heat a large cast iron skillet over medium-high heat and spray with non-stick cooking spray. Add the burgers and cook until desired temperature, 4 to 5 minutes per side for medium-rare.

Fry bacon in a hot pan until crisp. Remove and drain on paper towels. Set aside.

While burgers are cooking, heat a non-stick pan, over medium heat. Add 2 tablespoons butter. Crack 3 eggs into the pan. Cook until the yolks are just set and still slightly runny and remove.

Place burger patties on glazed donuts, as the buns. Top each burger with 2 pieces of bacon and a fried egg.

Please note: glazed donuts can be replaced with English Muffin or hamburger buns.

House Seasoning:
1 cup salt
1/4 cup black pepper
1/4 cup garlic powder
Mix ingredients together and store in an airtight container for up to 6 months.

So I think I'll stop now as I have gone on about all this food I need to go make some dinner and believe you me, it will not be ANY of the above. What I can tell you is that I am really happy that tomorrow is Friday and I am just a bit ticked off that I got a notice today from a company that I had gotten my collage student loans through and paid off over a decade ago telling me that "on March 21, 2010 ECMC discovered the theft of personal information of 3.3 MILLION individuals!" WTF?! How? How? How? And then offers a year of free identity protection. I wanted to make sure it was real and so went to their website and saw this:

Data has been recovered—suspect is in custody
The Minnesota Department of Public Safety announced on April 16, 2010, that the property and data stolen from ECMC headquarters on March 20-21, 2010, has been recovered and a suspect is in custody. It does not appear that the personally identifiable information of ECMC’s 3.3 million federal student loan borrowers has been compromised.

All borrowers affected by the theft have been notified via letter and offered free credit protection services through Experian. ECMC will continue to honor that offer.

So sometimes there is a somewhat better conclusion than thought and it is all not a total scam.