Confession is Good for the Soul

I have a confession to make.

I went by Walmart this weekend to check out the Easter candy.  Didn't see much new - with the exception of Marshmallow Three Musketeers which I'll review as soon as I get back to my camera (I'm on the road).  So to comfort myself I bought a bag of Reese's Pieces Eggs.  Have you tied these?  I've reviewed them before:

These are like regular Reese's Pieces on steroids - they have two or three times the peanut butter.  They are simply fabulous.

What is my confession?  I ate the entire bag.  Once you start, you are powerless to stop.  They own you.

I'm not even going to tell you what happened with the Chocolate Peanut Butter Bugles I also bought.

So take this post as a recommendation - both of these products are soooooo good!  And a warning - they are the work of the Devil.  You will be powerless to resist them.

National Popcorn Day?

Supposedly the 18th was National Popcorn Day.  I don't know if that's true or not.  And I really don't care.  I just needed an excuse to write about popcorn.

I was considering a Black Swan tie-in.  I just saw it in the theaters and loved it, although I'm not entirely clear on what happened.  I just know I was on the edge of my seat the whole time; Natalie Portman did an amazing job; and the symbolism was fab.  Very cool.  I didn't actually eat any popcorn at the movie (I smuggled in Christmas candy), but I THOUGHT about popcorn.

And there you have it.  Popcorn.

I met the folks from Jody's Gourmet Popcorn at the Fancy Food Show and they were awesome enough to send me some samples afterward.

They sent three different types of their popcorn (they have other flavors as well).  This one was double cheddar:

Now I love cheese flavored popcorn.  When I buy those tins with the three flavors, this is the flavor that I always chow down first.  But I'm sad to say, this cheese popcorn was no good.  It had a weird flavor and I actually pitched it.  For me throwing away cheese popcorn is like Lindsey Lohan thowing out vodka.

Next up was Kettle Corn:

This was perfect.  I mean perfect.  Not overly sweet, just the right balance between sweet and salty.  Awesome!!

And look at those kernels - all their popcorn is like this - fully popped, nice and fluffy - no bits.  Some popcorn is filled with unpopped bits and hard pieces and is just crappy.  The last time I got popcorn from the Popcorn Factory it was like that - bleech.  This was great.

This is Jody's Recipe 53 Caramel Corn:

Also very cool - a nice light coating of caramel corn - very, very well done.  You can still taste the popcorn - it's not overwhelmed by the caramel.  A work of popcorn culinary art.

This is Great Scott's Peanut Butter Cup popcorn (I was sooooo excited to try this one!):

Boo!  No good.  Not very peanut buttery or chocolately; a weird flavor. There are so many better choices that I pitched this one too.  You know it's no good if I threw away something involving peanut butter.  That goes against everything I believe in.

Before we write Great Scott's off entirely, look at this flavor - bleu cheese (notice how not full the bag is):

I love the fact that the bleu cheese actually has a bit of a bleu tint to it!  Gotta tell you - this stuff was delicious!!  Love it!  As you can see, I ate half the bag before I could even get to a camera to take a picture of it:

Everybody is getting in on the popcorn act.  Harry & David just lauched a line of flavored popcorns.  Here's loaded baked potato:

and bacon ranch:

I'm sure you are wondering why I don't have pictures of these flavors.  Well, I now have like 5 open bags of popcorn in my house.  I have to eat some before I open any more!  I did sample both of these flavors in the Harry & David store and they were delish.  There's no room for crappy entries once Harry & David is in the house.  Popcorn makers of the world - step it up!

Harry & David also has their entire line of Moose Munches  (coated popcorn with chocolate and assorted nuts or other ingredients).  This stuff is over the top addictive.  I saw this flavor (Milk Chocolate Pumpkin) and was dying to try it:

As Tim (my sweetheart) observed, "Pumpkin has it's place and this isn't it."  I have to agree.  As much as I love pumpkin, somethings just don't lend themselves as well to that flavor.  Popcorn really shouldn't be pumpkin flavored.  This wasn't very good.  I was going to throw the bag away, but Tim said, "Don't get crazy, it's not that bad!"

So far, this is the best flavor of Moose Munch that I've tried - White Chocolate Macadamia Nut:

This is sooooooo good and is completely addictive.  If you open a bag, the next thing you know it will be empty and your jeans will be tight.  It's wicked good.

Harry & David also has a line of Moose Munch chocolate bars.  This one is caramel with cashews and almonds:

It looks pretty good and in theory is a good idea.  But I honestly think loose Moose Munch is better.  This is too much chocolate.  I know, I know - how can you have too much chocolate?  If you eat the Moose Munch with only a few chocolate covered kernels, it's perfect.  If you have all of it coated in chocolate, it's too much.

The takeaways?

Let's all be grateful for the awesomeness of popcorn.  It can be healthy as heck or decadent beyond belief.  It makes movies better and smells delicious. 

Contrary to what I have long believed, pumpkin really doesn't make everything better.  Neither does chocolate.  I'm soooo happy they are both out there, but they don't need to be everywhere.

Really great things usually do get the recognition they deserve - Black Swan, Cirque du Soleil, popcorn.  We all have different tastes and opinions, but we agree more than we disagree.  If given the chance, Orville Redenbacher could probably have gotten us world peace.

 

Holiday Recipe Exchange: Inside-Out Buckeyes for the Butter Theme

Sometimes, inspiration works in funny ways. Sometimes, inspiration causes you to completely turn a recipe inside out. Like I did with these Inside-Out Buckeyes.

But wait. How did I get here? Did this just pop into my head out of nowhere? Sadly, I’m not that creative. You see, this week’s Holiday Recipe Swap theme is butter.

Sweet, wonderful butter, that can really be used in any recipe. I had butter ganache on the brain anyway, after enjoying a Teuscher Buttercrunch truffle, and reasoned that I could use butter ganache as a base for my recipe.

And then I kept seeing recipes for Buckeyes, those chocolate-covered peanut butter confections that are constructed to resemble the nuts of a buckeye tree. Suddenly I realized what I had to do.

I had to make buckeyes with chocolate centers and peanut butter coating. I had to. And I had to call them Inside-Out Buckeyes, because that’s what they are.

If you think this sounds as wonderful as I do...vote for them! Come join the fun at the My Baking Addition and GoodLife Eats Holiday Recipe Swap Sponsored by Kerrygold.

Alternatively, you could take a stab at making them on your own. Here’s how it goes.

Inside-Out Buckeye Ingredients

16 oz semi-sweet chocolate (El Rey 61% Cocoa Mijao), melted and cooled

8 tbsp butter

4 c powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla

½ tsp salt

2 10-ounce bags of Reese’s Peanut Butter Chips

Obviously, chocolate is a key ingredient. As it is in all recipes here.

Once the chocolate was melted and subsequently cooled, I whipped it together with the butter, slowly mixed in the powdered sugar, and then added in the vanilla and salt.

It was delicious. Trust me. I took the portion that I didn’t eat, and rolled it into balls ¾” in diameter.

Since these were to be inside-out buckeyes, meaning chocolate inside and peanut butter outside, I needed something special for dipping.

Reese’s chips! I’d debated trying to make my own coating out of coconut butter and peanut flour, but grabbing some of these chips and melting them is much easier.

In preparation for dipping the chocolate balls in the melted peanut butter chips, I chilled them and poked toothpicks in them to make dipping easier.

Then, one by one, I rolled them around in the melted peanut butter chips.

I shook off the excess coating, and set them on parchment paper to solidify.

After about an hour, they were nicely set, and ready to eat.

I had to hide these from myself. In the back of the refrigerator. Peanut butter and chocolate are usually a delicious combination, but these things are unreal.

So unreal that you should vote for them as this week’s best butter-themed recipe. Seriously. It’s just not possible to do better than this.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Decadent Recipe from Elizabeth Sims

As you know my world's of Chocolate and Crime Fiction often collide. Today I welcome mystery author Elizabeth Sims who is guest blogging a truly decadent and easy recipe for Chocolate and Peanut Butter. Simple and delicious. You probably already have the ingredients in your pantry! :-)

Elizabeth Sims is the author of the Rita Farmer mysteries and the Lambda Award-winning Lillian Byrd mysteries. As a contributing editor at Writer’s Digest magazine she specializes in the art and craft of fiction. Visit her at www.elizabethsims.com

Elizabeth Sims:

I’m writing this on Halloween night in between answering the door to trick-or-treaters. So far all have been little and cute; by the time the tough teenagers start coming around we’ll have the light out and the door strapped shut with police tape. And the leftover Milky Ways WILL BE MINE, ALL MINE.

Thinking about children and candy, I’m remembering my teenaged babysitting days and a recipe I developed then. It works like a charm when you really need to shut them up.

As an adult, one might call the recipe shamelessly trashy. But once you read it, you know you’ll try it. So be it. Extremely easy: no cooking, no dish, even.

CHOCOLATE & PEANUT BUTTER

Ingredients:
1) Jar of peanut butter
2) Spoon
3) Chocolate chips

Directions:
1) Open jar of peanut butter.
2) Gouge your spoon deep into it.
3) Come up with a large glob.
4) Press chocolate chips into the peanut butter.This is the crucial step. Do not merely sprinkle the chips on the peanut butter.

5) Keep pressing in chocolate chips until no more can fit.
6) Serve.

Eating method 1: Nibble while reading a book.
Eating method 2: Cram the whole thing into your mouth at once. This is so depraved I can only do it when alone.

A traditional version of this recipe would involve Jif peanut butter and Nestlé's chocolate chips. If bridge club is coming over, however, I advise going gourmet with a natural-style peanut butter (no sugar added) and Ghirardelli bittersweet baking chips in the dark-brown bag (60% cacao).

If you try this, let us all know just how transformative the experience was.

A really great time to make and eat this recipe will be on November 18 just before you attend my live webinar, How to Write a Dynamite Mystery or Thriller That Sells, 1 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time. I’m teaching this in cooperation with Writer’s Digest, where I’m a contributing editor. It’ll be jam-packed with the essential elements of the mystery-thriller, how-to advice, tips, and the hard-earned wisdom of somebody who’s written and gotten published seven mysteries. Plus you get to send in a page of your writing for a personal, constructive critique from me. For full information, hit this link http://bit.ly/aR8Fn2. or go to Writer’s Digest dot com and enter ‘Webinar Sims’ into the search. (It’s just easier than clicking through.)

Thanks for reading.

Photos: Marcia Burrows (thanks!)

Teenage Vampires and Werewolves, Oh My!

I don't pretend to understand middle aged women who are into teenage vampires.  I don't pretend to understand middle aged women who are in to middle aged vampires.  (I mean, do you know where those fangs have been?)  But, hey, to each her own.  Or to each her own undead.

I've never seen this show or read these books and I have no intention of doing so.  But I did want to try the candy.  (I'm telling you, pickin's were slim this year!)

This assortment had three different designs and flavors.  Peanut butter for the werewolf Jacob:

I like the howling wolf design, (but is that his tongue poking out?  Wha? You can't howl with your tongue poking out!  Try it if you don't believe me.), liked the taste the best of the three, but that's not saying much.  This is no Reese's peanut butter and no great chocolate.  Better than Palmer, but that's about it.  (And really, what chocolate is not better than Palmer?)

This is a chocolate truffle for Bella:

Bleech.  Crappy chocolate.  Not even the truffle part was good.

Caramel for the vampire Edward:

Like the design - very detailed - nice!

While this looks like a good caramel, it's not that flavorful.  These are just not that great.  Mediocre. Zzzzzz...

I got this prototype bar at Candy Expo - before the final packaging was done - cool, huh?  These are made by the New England Confectionery Company (yep, Necco).  I hate almost everything else they make (Necco wafers, Sweethearts) - so I shouldn't be surprised these don't rock my world:

Here's the final - the new Sky Bar with the Twilight design:

Got a little crushed on my travels:

This is repackaged in the individual servings for Halloween.  I like the flavors even less in the bar because there's more cheap chocolate.  I like having the variety of flavors in one bar, like the creative artwork, don't care for the taste.  Sorry, Necco.  But hopefully those vampire/werewolf lovers out there will sustain you - I like your creativity. 

But next up are the real artists in chocolate, the super creative chocolate makers!  Stay tuned!

Peanut Butter and Jelly

Those of you who have been reading this for any length of time know that I have issues - dating issues, chocolate issues, and perfectionist issues.  When I review something - say peanut brittle - I want to review ALL the peanut brittle.  The only way I know how to tell you what's best is by comparing them.  I can't just try a random peanut brittle and remember all the others.  I don't how gourmets do it.

Of course, the problem with this perfectionism is that I can never get my hands on ALL the peanut brittles.

But I can't stop myself.  Today I went in Rite Aid to check out the Halloween Candy.  I have to tell you, I am underwhelmed this year.  Not much new and exciting.  But we'll get to that.

I saw this - Chocolate Covered Peanut Brittle by our friends at Old Dominion and had to buy it:

Box looks nice!  But look at this blob:

That's how it is - all in a blob.  You gotta work at it to pull it apart.  It's not bad - chocolate covered peanut brittle - I mean, can you really go wrong?  But it's not as good as Feridies.  Feridies is much thicker, not in a blob and has more peanuts.

And, of course, Planters has a peanut bar (there's my love, Mr. Peanut):

In color it falls between the Old Dominion bar and the overcooked Carolina bar.  I gotta say, it's surprisingly good.  Very peanutty.  But a bit smaller and with more calories that the others.  No wonder I like it - probably has more sugar.  God help me.

I promised you peanut butter!  But I can't review all the peanut butters - I will literally explode.  I adore peanut butter and if I have multiple jars in the house, I'll eat them all.  So I'll just review some fringe peanut butters.

Imagine my amazement when I saw this at Harry and David - Creamy Caramel Peanut Spread!

Looks pretty good, right?  I like caramel.  I love peanut butter.  I like candies that have both.  This, however, I do not like.  I prefer plain peanut butter.

Just so you know, I've tried A LOT of these flavored peanut butters.  And for the most part, I don't think they improve on plain peanut butter.  That's my standard.  If it's not better than plain peanut butter - it should not be made.  The caramel flavor here just makes the peanut butter taste weird.  Boo!

But there's another - Creamy Raspberry Peanut Spread!

BLEECH!!!  Funky weird raspberry taste - what the hell were they thinking?  Just get some raspberry jam!  UGH!  I think this line is going to disappear from the Harry and David shelves.

These samples I got at the Fancy Food Show. This is Peanut Butter and Co's Smooth Operator - their natural regular ol' peanut butter:

It's good - very peanutty. 

But their White Chocolate Wonderful - oh dear God - it's TO DIE FOR.  I don't have a picture of it here because I will eat the entire jar.  It is the best peanut butter in the entire Universe.  They have it at Super Target and more grocery stores now.  I think you should go out and get some as soon as possible if you like peanut butter.  Your life will never be the same.

From the Fancy Food Show - Justin's (also all-natural) honey peanut butter blend:

Is also okay.  There's nothing wrong with these, but Peter Pan is so damn good why go to the trouble of finding new peanut butter unless it's extraordinary?

Justin's also makes maple almond butter:

This was much blander than I thought it should be.  I like almonds, I like maple.  But this?  Eh.

Harry and David also has a chocolate hazelnut spread.  They are totally trying to move in on Nutella.  Their jar is even shaped like the Nutella jar (shame, Harry and David, shame):

This is a little single serving of Nutella I got at Candy Expo:

This is the Harry and David spread which looks just like Nutella (same color, a little less thick).  But.....

Nutella is better.  The difference is slight - but Nutella tastes a little sweeter and more chocolately.  The Harry and David mix has a stronger hazelnut flavor.  But both are damn good. 

Not as good as White Chocolate Wonderful peanut butter - not even close.

This is somewhere between a butter and a jelly.  It's Harry and David's Pumpkin Pecan Fruit Butter:

Okay - I know that looks gross, but this stuff is soooooo good!  It's spicy (ginger) and pumpkiny and the chunks of pecan are delish!  I've been eating it right out of the jar!  Who needs pumpkin or pecan pie?  This is awesome!!!!!!!

Now for the jelly (well, actually jam)!!  My friend Ruth Taylor (who went to the Fancy Food Show with me), makes the most amazing jams.  I mean, she wins blue ribbons at the NC State Fair!

This is her raspberry peach:

Doesn't it look great?  And it is - the sweetness of the peach works perfectly with the tartness of the raspberries.  YUM!!!! And so fresh and fruity tasting - wow!!!

And this (my favorite) is cherry pecan:

Wow!!  Tart cherries (see the chucks?) and pecans - so very, very good!  It's packed with fruit and nuts and really is a treat in and of itself.  Put it on some Walker's Shortbread - woowee!  Now THAT would be amazing!

It's fall!  Time to get out there and try some new flavors, hit some festivals, celebrate the harvest and the season and most importantly - life!