"CannedTuna" news and stories

A Florida woman got more than she bargained for when she opened a can of Chicken of the Sea tuna. She claims to have found a black fly embedded in a chunk of fish, WTFV Eyewitness News reports.

Vanessa Winter of Altamonte Springs, Fla., told the news she opened the can of tuna last week and was shocked to find the insect inside. She bought the can, one of a four-pack, at a local Publix supermarket.

"I lifted the tin on the first one. It looked like a little black thing in there, and I thought it was the skin," Winter told Slashfood. "I put the fork in there to lift out the skin ... when it fell off the fork, it fell on its side and that's when I was able to see it was a fly."

Winter told Slashfood Chicken of the Sea asked her to send them the tuna at her own expense and said she'd be reimbursed. She said the FDA contacted her and asked for the tuna instead.

We are having something of an unprecedented heat wave here on the East Coast (and it's not even officially summer). Yesterday it was 96 degrees and they are predicting that it will top out right around 100 degrees today (and with the humidity, that means it feels more like 105). I have a brisket in defrosting in my fridge, but the last thing I want to do is turn my oven on long enough to get it cooked (it will just have to wait until Wednesday, when the heat breaks).

On nights like this, I turn to cool summer greens from the fridge and cans from my pantry. I always keep black beans, pickled beets, garbanzo beans, artichoke hearts and tuna in olive oil in the kitchen cabinet, so that I can augment veggies with much-needed (at least for me) protein. I create a table top salad bar with the beans, tuna, diced tomato, sliced cucumber, grated cheese, carrot rounds and anything else I can find and go to town. If you need a carb with your meal, add some crackers or bread from a local bakery.

That's my basic meal for those nights when I can't bear to heat up my apartment. How do the rest of you beat the heat in the kitchen*?

*I know that those of you out on the West Coast are freezing and still wearing your winter coats. What are you eating these days?