Fancying Up an MRE: A Deliciously Deceptive Meal

As I sat down to enjoy my specially prepared meal, I couldn't help but feel a sense of excitement and anticipation. The MRE, or Meals, Ready-to-Eat, that I had been presented with was supposed to be a humble and unassuming meal, but I had other plans. I had decided to take it upon myself to "fancy" up this bland and boring meal, adding my own special touches and flair.

First things first, I reached for the toasted almonds that were scattered on top of the MRE. A few handfuls of these crunchy little morsels added a delightful textural element to the dish, providing a satisfying crunch with each bite. Next, I turned my attention to the rosette, which was carefully placed at the center of the meal. This beautiful and elegant touch added a pop of color and visual appeal to the dish, elevating it from bland to grand.

With my meal looking almost too good to eat, it was time to bring everything together and add a finishing touch. And so, with a flourish, I added our little potato galette, made from au gratin potatoes, to the dish. This delicious addition added a rich and creamy element to the meal, complementing the savory flavors of the beef sirloin pithivier perfectly.

But just as things were starting to look rosy, reality began to set in. As I took my first bite of the pithivier, I couldn't help but feel a little disappointment. While it was certainly more visually appealing than your average MRE, the flavors were a bit of letdown. It tasted almost exactly like a frozen beef pie, with a crust that was flaky and crispy, but a filling that was surprisingly bland.

Undeterred, I moved on to the potato galette, which had been made from au gratin potatoes. While it did have a nice little crispness to the outside, the inside still tasted suspiciously like pre-made au gratin potatoes, with none of the rich and creamy texture that one would hope for in such a dish.

Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, I moved on to the salad, which had been made from fresh lettuce, cranberries, jam, onions, and toasted almonds. This was definitely the highlight of the meal, with each component working together in perfect harmony to create a deliciously sweet and tangy flavor profile.

But even this couldn't save the dish from its biggest flaw: the bread. Oh, the bread! It was dense and heavy, like something out of a bad dream, and seemed to be doing its best to suck all the joy out of the meal.

And yet, just when I thought all hope was lost, I remembered that there was still one more component left to try: dessert. And so, with trembling hands, I picked up my little Tootsie Roll-sized piece of tiramisu and took a tentative bite. It was like nothing I had ever tasted before - rich, creamy, and subtly sweet, with just the right amount of coffee flavor to make it really sing.

And that's when it hit me: sometimes, even in the darkest of times, there is always hope for redemption and improvement. Even an MRE can be made fancy and delicious with a little bit of creativity and flair. And so, I left my meal feeling uplifted and inspired, knowing that no matter what challenges lay ahead, I would always have the power to turn even the most mundane things into something truly special.

The MRE: A Study in Contrasts

One of the most striking things about this meal was the way it seemed to defy expectations at every turn. On the one hand, we had a beautifully presented dish that looked almost too good to eat - but on the other hand, each component seemed to be somehow lacking or unsatisfying. The pithivier tasted bland and unremarkable, while the potato galette was dense and heavy. And yet, despite these flaws, there were moments of pure magic throughout the meal - like when I took a bite of that delicious salad, or when I savored the creamy richness of the tiramisu.

It's this kind of contrast that makes the MRE such a fascinating subject for exploration. On one hand, it's a meal that is designed to be functional and efficient - easy to prepare and eat on the go, with minimal fuss or muss. And yet, despite its utilitarian nature, there are moments when it seems almost... human. Moments of whimsy and creativity, like when I added those toasted almonds or turned my attention to the rosette.

These moments of human connection are what make the MRE truly special - they remind us that even in the most mundane of places, there is always room for a little bit of flair and personality. And so, as I sat down to enjoy my meal, I couldn't help but feel grateful for this strange and wonderful thing we call an MRE.

A Personal Journey: From Humble Beginnings to Gastronomic Glory

As I reflect on the journey that brought me to this moment, I am struck by the realization that it was not just about the food itself, but about the people and experiences that surrounded it. For it was not until I added those toasted almonds, or turned my attention to the rosette, that I truly began to appreciate the MRE for what it was - a meal that was greater than the sum of its parts.

In this sense, our journey together is a personal one - a journey of self-discovery and exploration, as we navigate the twists and turns of life's unexpected challenges. It's a journey that requires patience, persistence, and a willingness to take risks, but also one that offers rewards beyond measure.

And so, as I look back on this meal and all that it has taught me, I am reminded of the power of even the humblest of things to inspire and uplift us. For in the end, it's not just about the food itself, but about the memories we create around it - the laughter, the tears, the moments of connection and shared experience.

And so, as I finish this meal and bid adieu to my MRE, I am filled with a sense of gratitude and wonder. For in this strange and wonderful world we live in, there is always room for a little bit of magic - even in the most mundane of places.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en(classical music)- Greetings my beautifullovelies, it's Emmy.Welcome back.Today's video is sponsored by ExpressVPN,the virtual private networkthat gives you peace of mindwhen you're on the internet.So the way a VPN works isthat it creates a tunnelfrom your computer to the internet,and your connection getsrerouted through oneof 3000 different servershiding your IP address.So I think using a VPN isimportant for a couple of reasons.Number one, security,particularly when I'm in a public place,and I'm using public wifi,I know that my passwords are secure.So the other reason why I likeusing a VPN is for privacy.An internet service providercan see all of the sitesthat you have visited, and your data.And using a VPN, youcan circumnavigate that.I also like using a VPN togive you access to differentkinds of media that arespecific to different countries.So ExpressVPN is really easy to use,and I have it installedon multiple devices,including all of mycomputers, and my phone.So if you'd like to learn howyou can get three months freeof ExpressVPN, click the link down below,or go to expressvpn.com/emmymade.Big thanks to ExpressVPNfor sponsoring this video.So today I'm gonna be attempting somethinga little bit different.I'm gonna attempt to take this MRE,a Meal, Ready-to-Eat and make it fancy.Big things to lovelyStephanie who suggested this,I think it's a brilliant idea.It is of course isinspired by Tasty serieswith Chef Rie who takes very humble thingsand elevates them to some fancy level.So this is a Meal, Ready-to-Eat,and it contains food to subsist onwithout any heating, orcooking, or anything.It's all in here.This of course is government issuedand I am gonna deconstruct this,and reconstruct it into something fancy.So when I was thinkingabout my ideas about fancy,I found it really interestingthat many of my preconceivednotions about the wordfancy and relative to food,always kind of lookedback to French cuisine.That somehow Frenchcuisine was the epitomeof a fancy Epicureaness.Which is not necessarily true,because I feel like each cuisinehas something fancy to it.But somehow there's thiskind of Western idea,or ideal of French cookery being the best,which I'm not necessarily--(beeping)Oh, that was my InstantPot beeping right there.I'm actually makingchashu for ramen noodles,so if you wanna see thatvideo, if I haven't posted it,I'll put a link down below.If it hasn't arrived yetat it will arrive soon.Anyways, I digress.I'm not saying that Frenchfood isn't the fanciest,but I think it's justinteresting to kinda think aboutwhat we mean when we thinkof something as fancy.I often think of thingsthat are encrusted,and that require lots of ingredients,but lots of technique andof course presentationand aesthetics is ahuge part of it as well.So I am not a chef, Rie isa chef, I am not a chef.So what I'm attempting to do hereis very much a home cookversion of fanciness.But of course I'm usingthe MRE as my base.I think that's absolutelyhilarious and ridiculous.So let's go ahead and try it.Now, this MRE was verykindly sent to me by David.David, thank you so muchfor sending me this MRE.This is menu number seven,brisket entree, gravy withseasoned beef brisket slices.So I think that will be agreat base for something.Always wrestle with these.(grunting)Okay, got it.Not as much effort.(opening package)We have a flameless ration heaterwhich we will not be using.Blackberry jam,Irish cream cappuccino instant powder.We have, whoops, wheat snack bread,Cranberries osmotic.(giggles)In my past experience thatjust means dried cranberries.And we have Tootsie Rolls.Here's the peanut butterto go with the jam.And then we have the accessories pack.Au gratin potatoes, solike scalloped potatoes.And here is our beef brisket entree.So these are all theitems that are in the MRE.So I'll be using everything in this MREto create a fancy meal.And I can buy anything that I wantto add to this meal to make it fancy.Let's try to break this down.I'm not gonna use theflameless ration heater,I don't need this.I don't need my spoon.And I've got my brisket,so that'll be my main dish.And I've got bread here.Irish cream powder,Irish cream powder, that I coulduse in some kind of dessertalong with the Tootsie Rolls.Peanut butter might be a dessert item too.And potatoes, cranberries, bread, bread?Okay.So I think I might be able totake this wheat snack breadand add some kind of mascarpone cheesewith this instant coffee powder.And maybe some peanut butter,so maybe this will be acoffee, peanut butter,layered tiramisudessert, I think.Tootsie Rolls.I could.... now Tootsie Rollsare a chewy kind of taffy --chocolate-ish flavored taffy.Now that'd be weird in a tiramisu.I think I could make somekind of garnish with this,some kinda garnish.I actually have an oldvideo on my other channeland it is a prison recipe where you takeJolly Rancher candies,and you heat them up andyou shape them into roses.So I think I could do something like thatwith the Tootsie Rolls.Au gratin potatoes from my understandingare like scalloped potatoes,where the potatoes havebeen sliced, very thinly.I'm gonna open 'em up to confirm that.(opening package)Whoa, look at that.(harp music)Okay, well if I canseparate the potato slices,I was thinking I could makesomething like a pommes anna,or a potato galette, which sounds fancy,but all it is are sliced potatoesthat are arranged in a beautiful pattern,kinda like a rosette, but it's a pancakeand you fry it up with lots of butter,traditionally with duck fatand you get this crispy potatoey thing.I've never made itbefore, I've just seen it.Shout out to JacquesPépin, and Julia Child,watched them religiouslywith my mother as a kid,and my brother.So that's how I know this stuff,I'm not trained by any means.So I thought that maybeI could take this apartand make a little potato galette,so I think that's what I'm gonna do.All right, so this is actuallycoming apart pretty easily.Let's open up the beef brisketand see what we've got here.(opening package)So, whoa.Esh, wah.Okay.Doesn't look all thatappetizing though, does it?And it says on theoutside that it's sliced,but it's pretty mush.Let's give this a taste.(chewing)Hmm, mhm, just falls apart.It tastes like Dinty Moore canned stew.It doesn't have any metallic flavors,and as you can see, I don'tsee any vegetables whatsoever.I'm thinking maybe I couldmake some kind of pie,or something with pastry,maybe like a king,what do they call it?Pithivier, where they use puff pastryand then it puffs up and ithas a kind of a dome to it.I think that's usually a dessert item,but I think I can do this with a savory.So I still have cranberries,and I still have blackberry jam.Cranberries, I could use this in a salad,and then blackberry jam,I can just use this inthe dressing as well.Add a little bit of fruity sweetnessalong with some balsamicvinegar, olive oil,maybe some onion.And yeah, I think I've gotmyself the goings of a meal here.So now I've gotta do some grocery shoppingand I will be back to assemble thisinto some semblance of fanciness.(giggling)I'm back.And I think I'm gonnatackle dessert first.So I've got the mascarpone cheese,which I've never bought before.Let's taste it.(eating cheese)Mmm, ooh.Oh, it's not like cream cheese.The consistency is like cream cheese.It's very creamy and spreadable.Mm.But the flavor is much more buttery.Ooh, that's delicious,it's much more like clotted cream,which I just had recentlyin my Christmas pudding taste test.Oh, that is delicious.Okay, yum.All right, I'm just gonnaput all that in there.And to that, I'm gonna addsome of my peanut butter.(squeezing packet)Abouta tablespoon or so, it'sjust powdered sugar.(classical music)And some of our Irishcream cappuccino powder.(pouring in powder)So, let's put this up.(blending)Oh yes.Let's give this a taste for sweetness.Oh, that's plenty sweet, yeah.Mm, peanut butter's good in that.I want this to be spreadable,so I'm adding a little bit of milk.(blending)So this is our peanut buttercappuccino mascarpone cheese.So I'm gonna use someof this espresso powder.(spooning powder)Add some of that to that.Along with some of our Irishcream cappuccino powder.(pouring in powder)Hot water.(pouring in water)Ooh, it smells good.(stirring)Ooh, pretty bitter.Let's add some more ofthis cappuccino powder.(pouring in powder)Okay, now let's open upour wheat snack bread.(laughing)(cutting)It is very dense.I think I'm gonna put mymascarpone in a zippery bag.We are getting fancy after all.Now, if I was a true pastry chef,this would be a piping bag.But I'm not, I'm a home cook.So we're gonna use a zipper bag.(filling bag)Give this little snip.I'm dipping the bread inthe syrup we just made,and then I'm gonna take thisand place it on the bottom.Like that.Pipe that right on there.(classical music)All right, so far so good.Put that right on top,give it a little smush.(classical music)Oh, that looks great.I'm pretty pleased with this,we'll see how it tastes though.Yay, this looks great.(classical music)Okay, so I've cleaned up a little bitand I've placed thetiramisu in the fridgeratorto allow the mascarponecheese to set up a little bit.Now I'm gonna make my garnish.So I'm gonna open up thisbag of Tootsie Rolls.Oh, I was expecting thelittle Tootsie Rolls,so they've given us twolarger Tootsie Rolls.Are you a Tootsie Roll fan?I have to confess, I'm not.Ooh, these are pretty fresh,but I'm gonna just microwavethese for maybe five,10 seconds.This is perfect.So push this aside, just roll this up.This is gonna be the center of my rose.Like that, and take a smaller piece,and form it into a petal.And overlap that.Look, I'm already getting a Rose.See right here, we wannaoverlap that, like that.The edges of the petal tend to be thinner,so thin them out.Looks a little bit more like a gardenia,but you know, for a Tootsie Roll, not bad.So I'm gonna cut thisexcess piece off here.(cutting rose)Our little Tootsie Roll rosette.(giggling)I've got a little griddle here,and I've got some clarified butter here.Add some of that to the pan.(stirring)Oil to that as well.Now we're gonna make alittle spiral patternfor our galette.So.(sizzling)Now for a true pommes anna,the potatoes would actuallybe cut much thinner,but they would also be raw.(flipping potatoes)Ooh yes.Season this with a little bit of pepper.I think what's traditionalis a little bit of thyme.I should have put that down first,but I'll put some downnow just 'cause I have itand I forgot.Oh, yes.Okay.Yes.MRE pommes anna.(sizzling)Okay, drain any excess butter or oil off.Rosette shape backtogether on the plate here.That is looking lovely.Yes, I'm so pleased.I've got my beef stew here,and I'm gonna add somefrozen peas and carrotto that just for some color.That's an improvement already.So I bought some store bought puff pastry,and I'm gonna cut a circle out of it.(cutting)Okay.(classical music)We'll make this one slightly larger.This one's gonna go on the top,and because we have our filling,it's gonna dome up a bit.So I've got an egg yolk here,and I'm gonna put asplash of milk in there,and that's gonna be our egg wash.(stirring)(pouring meat)Now that I have this mounded,I've decided to make this smaller,so I'm going around.(cutting)'Cause I really want thisto be a cute little bubble.And go around the edge of the pastry.So I'm gonna transferthat to my baking sheet,and put this on top.And I'm gonna just go all the way aroundand seal this all the way around.And cut a little hole in the top.Brush on our glaze first.(brushing)Now we're gonna take a knife.(classical music)Just dragging the tip of a paring knifeall the way around.(classical music)I've only seen images of this,I've never done this before.As my tentative line strokes show.(classical music)Into a 400 degree ovenfor about 20 minutesor until the puff pastry looks done.Okay, see ya in a bit.(laughing nervously)(placing pan in oven)All right my lovelies.My beef sirloin pithivierMRE entree is ready.Check this out.Look at this thing of beauty,I'm so excited about this.Look how beautiful this is.This is my first pithivier,and it looks marvelous.(indistinct)Gorgeous.Okay, so I'm gonna to let this cool offwhile I make a salad.A little bit of balsamic vinegar,and I'm going to add my blackberry jam.And just about a teaspoon of that.(whisking)A little bit of salt, pepper.(grinding pepper)And olive oil.(whisking)(smacking lips)Mm, not too shoddy, alittle bit more pepper.(grinding pepper)Salt and acidity is good.Okay, pithivier onto plate.We'll take some lettuce, justa little bit of red onion.Now I'm just gonna add some cranberries.Balsamic flourish like that.Got some toasted almonds,just a few of those.And to finish things offwe're gonna place our rosette.Boom.(classical music)Oh my goodness, I'm so pleased.I am so pleased with how this turned out.Look at this it's so stinkin' beautiful.(giggling)All right, now it's time to eat this meal.This is the fancy MRE.We made a beef sirloinpithivier with puff pastry.I made a little potato galette.I made a vinegarette, and a little salad,and I made a little tiramisu for dessert.(crunching)Can you hear that?Oh, yes.(crunching)Yeah.Okay, I'm gonna try the pithivier first,give that a go.All right.Itadakimasu!(chewing)Mm.Yeah it's not bad.It looked really fancy,but it tastes a lotlike a frozen beef pie.(laughing)The crust is flaky and it has a nicekind of crispness when you eat it.But the filling tastespretty much the sameas it did when I tasted it before.Except it does have a fewmore vegetables in it,which makes it a littlebit more attractive,but it definitely has kind ofa processed beef flavor to it.Now let's try our potato galettethat we made out of au gratin potatoes.Here we go.(chewing)Mm.(giggling)There's a nice littlecrispness to the potatoes,but in terms of flavor.(chewing)Mm, it still tasteslike au gratin potatoesthat have been kind of pre made.The texture of the potatoesis a little bit strange,kind of waxy and dense.(chewing)Mm.Mm.That little bit of thyme inthere was really nice though.Kind of livens things a bit,but you still have that kindof processed cheese flavorkind of permeating through the potato.Still, an improvement.Okay, let's have some salad.This has our cranberries and our jam.And of course we addedlettuce, and other good fixins.Alrighty, salad.(chewing)Mm.(cutting)I love salad.(cutting)Mhm.See if this was really fancy,it would just be like one leaf of lettucerather than four.Oh, come back here, lettuce.I really like the blackberry jam in there.Adds a nice little frutiness,goes really well with the balsamic.And the onions are really great,I love onions in my salad.And then of course,you've got the toastedalmonds in combinationwith the cranberries.(chewing)Delicious.I imagine out in the field,that's probably one ofthe things you miss most.Just fresh greens, fresh fruit,because MRE's last a long time,but you're unable to get thatreally crisp green freshness.Just even that texture isprobably really missed.Oh, look how dense that bread is.(giggling)And that's pretty good.The bread is still very dense,but a little bit lighter.And you've got the peanut buttermascarpone cheese in therethat has really nicepeanut buttery flavor.The coffee flavor's really nice.The espresso powder is quite strong,but we tamed that down withthe instant cappuccino powder.(chewing)Mhm.That's not half bad.The bread is still very strange.It's still very, very, very dense.(chewing)But a longer soaking timeI think would take careof that and also give it evena stronger coffee flavor.Let's have a petal of our rose.Yup.Just how I remember.Chewy, sweet, vaguelyreminiscent of chocolate,but not really.Yeah, Tootsie Rolls arestill not my favorite.This mascarpone cheese--(chewing)Spread stuff,oh my gosh, delicious.And I'm not even a big peanut butter fan,but I really like that.All righty, so there you have it.My take on fancying up an MRE.Thank you guys so much for watching,and big thanks to ExpressVPNfor sponsoring this video.If you'd like to get threemonths of ExpressVPN free,click the link down below,or head over to expressvpn.com/emmymade.Thank you again for watching.I hope you guys enjoyed that one.I hope you guys learned something.Please share this video with your friends.Follow me on social media,like this video, subscribe,and I shall see you in thenext one, toodaloo, take care.Bye.(classical music)Bye.(burps)That was not, it did nothave the base that I wanted.\n"