Ranu's Reviews

Friday's frozen appetizers are a mainstay in the Ranu household during every football season. Nothing

goes better with the Steelers winning another Super Bowl than Friday's Bacon and Cheese Potato Skins. So when I saw a new edition to the tasty, but sometimes pricey line of Friday's frozen apps, I figured I'd give them a try if the price was right.

I didn't need Bob Barker or even Drew Carey to help in my decision--it was the baby blue $1.00 off coupon on the front of the box that made me "come on down" the frozen food aisle and put in my $3.79 bid (price after coupon savings) for some Friday's quesadillas.

Check Out My Package

I have to commend Friday's for their consistency in packaging. They might not have much flair, but those red-and-white striped boxes sure do a great job of standing out in the freezer case.

The one thing that I couldn't help but notice on the box is that the Friday's logo is unnecessarily in direct competition with the ginormous word, "ANYTIME!" They try to clarify "anytime" on the back of the box with this gem: "Bold Flavor For Lunch, Snack, Dinner Anytime!" I guess it's OK to throw punctuation out the window when your statement is initial capped (that means that each word in the sentence begins with a capital letter). And what about breakfast? You said, "anytime," didn't you?

Just the (Nutrition) Facts, Ma'am

Normally I could care less about this stuff, but since I have turned my life around by proper dieting and exercise--I think it is important to share some of the nutrition facts. One quesadilla has 280 calories and 110 of them are from fat. There are 12 grams of fat and 5 grams of saturated fat on top of 30 grams of carbs--that's a lot of junk in your trunk for an at-home, frozen appetizer. If it tasted better, I wouldn't mind as much, but for those of you concerned with your figure--this product isn't worth straying off your diet.

Quesadilla Time

The text next to the two cartoon quesadillas on both sides of the box clearly states a cooking time of two minutes, but after further review I find out that each item requires a two-minute minimum stay in the radiation motel. Each item does come with a complimentary cardboard "robe" to assist with the crisp during its stay.

While my "anytime" snack is cooking, I happen to see quite a few references to making sure that the internal temperature of the product reaches 165 degrees before eating and they want you to confirm this by using a meat thermometer. Are you kidding me? A meat thermometer? I'm not cooking a 20 lb. turkey--it's a frigging frozen quesadilla!

Isn't this stuff already pre-cooked? Why are they so concerned about the core temperature reaching 165 degrees? Is there raw turkey inside? Inquiring minds want to know.

Now getting an accurate meat thermometer reading in this quesadilla was like trying to stitch together two pieces of processed cheese slices. I had to stab this thing like four times before I hit 165 degrees. My prints were all over this crime scene, so I had to hurry up and eat the evidence before I got charged with assault with a deadly meat thermometer.

Taste Test

I decided to eat both quesadillas--one plain and one with sour cream. The first thing I noticed when the timer hit zero on my microwave was that these things smelled funny before I even opened up the door.

Now this could have been caused by the remnants of soup embedded in the roof of my microwave from six months ago or the simple fact that bacon and microwaves just don't mix. There was no faking that the bacon was making the smell.

I took the quesadilla out and followed the post-cooking instructions by letting it stand for two minutes. The tortilla was crispy as promised. Didn't think it was going to be anywhere near crispy, but it was. This thing was also hot as hell! What did I expect? I took the quesadilla's temperature and it had a fever of 165!

I let it sit for another minute before attempting my first bite. It really didn't help that there were now four stab wounds in this thing and the molten lava center oozed out onto my lips with almost every bite. The insides were just dominated by the bacon flavor which is normally a good thing. In fact, I like bacon so much that I would take a bath in it, but the bacon inside the quesadilla was just plain yucky. Two hours later and I am still burping up that taste.

The box also claims that there is mozzarella cheese in the center and there very well might be, but I couldn't taste it. I was pretty disappointed with the inside of the quesadilla, but the outside was just fine. My second quesadilla tasted a little bit better with the sour cream. It actually did a great job of minimizing the overpowering bacon taste.

The End Result

If you are in a pinch and need a quick, easy-to-make appetizer--and don't like your guests then this is the product for you! However, I can't really imagine making a quesadilla from scratch in a frying pan being that much more of a hassle and it will taste a lot better. Seriously--you can't do much worse. I would probably serve this during football season if there weren't any frozen appetizers left at the store, but would still wait until my friends were drunk--unless they were Cowboy fans!

To see the entire line of frozen food products, visit Friday's web site .