Spamosaurus Rex

Spamosaurus Rex

Spam! Some people love it. Some people hate it. And some people think it's just OK. Personally, I'm in the "it's just OK" camp. When I was a kid, my parents kept it in the pantry. My older brothers would eat it most of the time. In those days each can came with a "key" that was used to open it. There was a little tab on the end of a metal "band" made into the can. The "key" had a slot on the end. You had to put the metal tab in the slot of the key and start winding the metal "band" around the "key" until you removed the entire band from all around the can. I remember one time the band broke after only a few twists of the "key." No small panic broke out among my brothers. Then one blamed the other for breaking the band. Then they started pushing each other. It was like the legendary battles I imagined that were fought by tyrannosaurs and triceratopses. Then my Mother stepped in to stop a fight. My oldest brother started thinking the problem over to find a solution to free the trapped Spam from its prison. He tried a can opener but it didn't work. He tried a screw driver to pry the metal band away from the can. That didn't work. Next, he pulled out a butcher knife. Fortunately he didn't cut off any fingers. But the Spam was still trapped. The final solution to release the succulent salty loaf of ground pork was to use some tin snips to cut through the can. Personally, I would have just ate an apple. It was bad enough to have to eat Spam but to work that hard to eat Spam was going a bit extreme, in my opinion.

Looking over the canned meats at a local supermarket I noticed cans of Spam on the shelves. I picked up a can and noticed that they no longer have that infernal "tab and key" can opening mechanism. They have put pull rings on the cans. Nice update. I also noticed that they now have a lower fat and low sodium option. That can't hurt. Holding the can of reduced sodium Spam I thought back to the great Spam jail break episode. Then I wondered if there was anything I could do with the can of reduced sodium pork fragments. Once I got home, I made a list of Spam possibilities. That's where I got the idea for Spamosaurus Rex.

First, I drew some dinosaur patterns on paper and cut them out. Then, I used the paper patterns as guides to cut the shapes out of a sheet of aluminum foil. I sliced the Spam into "sheets." I put one of the foil patterns on a sheet of Spam and used an impeccably clean X-acto knife to follow the outline of each foil pattern as I cut the shape out of the Spam.

I made up some gluten free macaroni and cheese (recipe to come in a later post), fired up the grill and grilled the Spam. I dished up the mac & cheese, placed the Spamosaurs on top and Spamosaurus Rex was done.

I suppose you are wondering how it tasted? It tasted like grilled Spam with mac & cheese. The mac & cheese was delicious.