As my health has taken a sudden decline, some of you (thanks especially to my parents, my in-laws, and Beth) have offered to cook us food that we can freeze and reheat, and that has been quite helpful. But not everyone likes to cook, yet many of you still want to give me a hand somehow. So here's a suggestion you might not have thought of. (It only hit me last night.)
UPDATE: It turns out that Coca-Cola U.S.A. found this post, and will be sending me "a small supply" (I.e. not a semi truck) of Diet Cherry Coke. Wow! Thanks to them.
UPDATE 2: Of course my network of friends is even faster. Sylvia dropped by today with both Diet Cherry Coke and Easy Cheese, courtesy of her visiting uncle. Another thanks!
My family and I live in Vancouver. When we travel to the U.S., we often pick up a couple of things that are simply unavailable here. One is Diet Cherry Coke. No, nothing weird, none of the bizarre combinations of flavours that the soda companies keep experimenting with. Simple: Diet. Cherry. Coke. Like this:
I have never figured out why this wonderful drink, easily available just across the border in Blaine, Washington, has never been for sale in B.C.
The second is a true guilty pleasure. It's Kraft Easy Cheese, which sprays out of a can onto your cracker or other eating surface:
In the 1970s, we could buy something similar here, but I haven't seen it in a Canadian grocery store in decades. No particular flavour (Cheddar, Sharp Cheddar, whatever) is my favourite, it's the squeeze-cheese experience that I enjoy.
So if you're a Vancouverite travelling to the U.S.A., or you're a U.S. resident visiting Vancouver, I'd be happy to reimburse you for the cost of some Diet Cherry Coke, some Kraft Easy Cheese, or both.
And if you say that those are horrible food-like substances that will give me cancer, I will just laugh and laugh.
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I can't cross the US border right now but JT can and I will ask him to bring lots of Diet Cherry Cola for you.
If you aren't completely swamped with both of these by the 17th, let me know - we're doing a Trader Joe's run and I'd be happy to smuggle you some cheese and DCC :)
I am going at the end of April. I can get some for you if someone hasn't already done it for you.
I have a feeling I might have created a monster...
I'm actually crossing tomorrow - I'll pick some up for you.
Derek - I would be happy to buy some Easy Cheese here in the U.S. and mail it to you. Just let me know.
-Brian
Ugh..
So first you would deny us our precious second space between typed sentences, a major concession that required not an insigificant amount of sacifice for a middle aged man as set in my ways as I am. And now, (see! I just did it right there before "And"!) swelled by the unbridled hubris so absolutely characteristic of you, you proceed to demand ("demand" is not an accurate word, but it makes my point better than a more honest one) that we violate the sanctity of the world's longest undefended border by serving as diet cheese and cherry, spray-on cola mules! Well if the gods of processed foodishness now smile on you with excessive enthusiasm, you have only yourself to blame.
;)
Dude, don't you know that s--- will give you CANCER!?!?! :)
(I got such a chuckle out of your closing line that I thought I'd give you the benefit of a good "laugh and laugh and laugh" too!)
It looks like you are covered as far as Diet Cherry Coke and spray cheez (eww), but if there's anything else we can ship up from California, just say the word! (That goes for the rest of the family, too.)
Ha ha!
Do you want cans or 2 liter bottles of the Diet Cherry Coke?
I prefer cans. But I'm not picky.
I have a feeling we might end up with a significant stockpile of these two junk foods sometime in the near future. I'll post STOP! ENOUGH! THANK YOU! if it gets genuinely crazy.
Hi Derek, Thank you for being such an amazing fan. You deserve a Diet Coke Break! Your Diet Cherry Coke is on its way. Our thoughts and concerns are with you and your family.
Best, The Diet Coke Team
Diet Cherry Coke and Spray Can Cheese -- this is the kind of diet I can get behind. Cool that the crew at Diet Coke are getting in on the action...Can the Easy Cheese Support Group be far behind? Enjoy...
Wow power of the internet...way to go Coke USA! I hope you can get all the fun stuff you want to make your life more pleasant.
I just wanted to say that I love the term "eating surface" - I'm totally going to use it!
So happy to see the diet cherry coke is on it's way!
Do you feel comfortable emailing your address? I'd LOVE to send a few things your way.
Am surprised that no one has mentioned the weight gain sure to come from eating too much Easy Cheese. That stuff has 630 calories per can! And let me tell you, a can goes pretty quickly. (Posted in the hopes that this, too, will elicit a laugh.)
Wow, Great job Team Diet Coke USA!
Hi Derek !
As i told my wife about your preferred easy cheese she said "hmmmm" with closed eyes. Unfortunately we live in germany where there is no easy cheese.
We also prefer cans of coke which are quite hard to get in germany because of our ecologist laws. Cherry coke therefore is a seasonal drink here that you drink for some weeks/months.
So don't minnd that we cannot send you some tasty refreshments.
PS: I'm hearing some IHR Podcasts at about #50, they are great!
I can't find words to thank you for your great job on teaching about homerecording and life.
Thanks !
is it called easy cheese? i thought it was "cheez whiz" - i think the poor spelling might make it more enjoyable!
on a different but related note, we just did a podcast about how i posted something on a message board thread about being unhappy with some aspects of our wedding photography policies and almost immediately got a call back from the manager of that department. like 10 minutes after i posted immediately. and then proceeded to hear her on the surface extremely polite and professional but more sort of defensive and confrontational questioning about what was i unhappy with...... oy!
i would have preferred a can of cold diet pepsi for sure!!
glad there is something you do still enjoy! did you say what you put the easy cheese on or is it sort of a squirt into the mouth thingy? :)
Cheez Whiz is entirely different:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheez_Whiz
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easy_Cheese
Cheez Whiz does not squeeze out (it's in a jar, like peanut butter), it has its own distinctive taste and texture, and it is for sale in Canada.
Anyway, my primary choice for the Easy Cheese has been Carr's Table Water crackers, though it's good on toast too. And we've already finished our first can.
Fast forward to some day in the near future: Easy Cheese is back on Canadian grocery shelves. Says some official-y spokesperson-y person: "It was the strangest thing...we had this groundswell of people demanding it and they all wanting it shipped by the boxload to Vancouver."
Now that, my friend, would not be a bad legacy at all. :)
Oh god, that last line is hilarious, but my toes still curl at the thought of someone ingesting that stuff. How do you feel about aerosol foods in general? Mousses and foams are the very latest chichipoopoo thing in the gastronome world, and they're really just a more expensive, hopefully less toxic version of this kind of thing.