New Old El Paso

Old El Paso, the familiar brand of Mexican-style foods owned by General Mills since it acquired Pillsbury (which acquired Old El Paso when it acquired Pet Foods, which acquired Old El Paso …). Anyway, Old El Paso now has acquired some space in supermarket freezer cases. And it's no little test-the-waters move, either. There are chicken or steak fajitas, chicken or steak quesadillas, chicken or shredded beef enchiladas, and chicken or shredded beef burritos, all sized to serve two.

All but the fajitas are packed in boxes and are complete with flour or corn tortillas. The fajitas, for some reason, are in bags and do not include the tortillas. Mr. Tidbit didn't really notice the packaging difference, and the information that the tortillas were in the "just add" category was on the back of the bag, not the front. OK, there was a hint, of sorts, for the very observant: The front of the burritos box says "Contains 2 burritos," the quesadillas box says "Contains 4 quesadillas," and the enchiladas box says "Contains 6 enchiladas." The fajitas bag says "Makes 6 fajitas." (Italics supplied by Mr. Tidbit, from a stockpile he keeps on hand for just such occasions.)

So Mr. Tidbit was annoyed, when he got home and looked at the back of the bag, to have to go back to the store to buy tortillas (and of course he had to buy a package of eight — and some sour cream). That said, the fajitas were pretty good.

More yogurt raisins

Mr. Tidbit isn't a raisin kind of guy, so he has not been keeping close tabs on the many kinds of raisins offered by Sun-Maid. He knew of what probably must be called "original raisins," and milk chocolate-covered raisins, vanilla yogurt-covered raisins and dark chocolate yogurt-covered raisins (not to mention golden raisins and the moist baking raisins, although he just mentioned them).

Now there are at least three more, although it's possible he has missed some: cherry chocolate yogurt-covered, orange cream yogurt-covered and strawberry Greek yogurt-covered. Is this a great country, or what?

Al Sicherman