My daughter’s high school is having a can drive. Through Monday, they’re collecting cans of food for local pantries in advance of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.  With the exception of canned tomatoes when local tomatoes are not available, I can’t think of anything I eat from a can. I eat soy nut butter from a jar and some sauces from a jar but cans? Not so much. Early in my abstinence, I ate a lot of canned pineapple.

But there are some canned foods I remember fondly. Here, to the best of my recollection, are my top three favorite canned foods.

#3 Creamed Corn

My third favorite canned food - Creamed Corn

My mom didn’t serve this very often. Mostly, this was something I had at camp where, it came in the  much larger #10 cans. Of course, I thought this was a vegetable, which it is but I don’t count it that way today.  Actually, according to Wikipedia, corn is a grass:

Maize (Zea mays L. ssp. mays, pronounced /ˈmeɪz/; also known in most English speaking countries as corn), is a grass domesticated inMesoamerica and subsequently spread throughout the American continents. After European contact with the Americas in the late 15th and early 16th centuries, maize spread to the rest of the world.

Very yummy and something I could eat today. Hmmm.

#2 Brown Bread

Canned brown bread.

It may be 99% fat free, but the 16 ounce (454 gram)can has a little over 1000 calories.  I could eat that. I would eat that. Sometimes plain but more often I would warm the bread in the oven and then slice and cover the slices with cream cheese.  It really was more like canned cake than canned bread. The brown comes from molasses.

I sort of regret that I always sliced it so that I had about ½ inch, cylindrical slices. Now, looking at this in the new light of recovery, maybe I wouldn’t have been tempted to overeat this if I had sliced it the long way so that I was getting rectangles instead of cylinders.

Nevermind.

#1 French Fried Onions

French Fried Onions

All bow to our fried onion overlords. To be fair, straight out of the can, these can be a little slimy and can leave an unpleasant mouth feel. But, invest a few moments in a warm oven so that the fat, which is oozing from every pore, can begin to flow and the onions toast and you will be rewarded. Yes, you will be rewarded with 2.8 ounces of Palm Oil, Wheat and yes, eventually, onions.

Wait! Late breaking news. On the Frenches website, I can only find information on their new LARGER size. A full 6 ounces or 24 serving can.  Interestingly, this 6 ounce can has almost exactly the same calorie count as the canned bread. Fat will do that for you. Some years ago, I wanted to see if  I could make friend onions without really frying. So, I took an onion, sliced it, separated the rings and sprayed it lightly with olive oil. I then placed this in the oven on a moderate temperature. When I was done, I got a very nice roasted onion sort of thing which when cold, was sort of but not really, like fried onions. Tasted good on my salad (a little at a time) .

That’s it. My top three favorite canned foods. If something else should come to mind, I’ll let you know.