My Peanutty Valentine

I have to give a big Valentine's Day shout out to all of you who gave me some back up with my recent romantic disaster. Your support really means a lot to me. It was great to hear from you all.


I am following my own advice and getting back out there and have managed 1.) to be asked for my number by a drunk electrician who tried to buy a cigarette from me for a quarter (I don't smoke, but what a "hot" line) and 2.) to actually go on a date with a suspected arsonist (apparently his house recently burned down under suspicious circumstances and the insurance company is investigating him). I'm not sure why you would tell someone that on a first date. And no, these two men were not the same guy, although I would assume an electrician could easily become an arsonist. Unless he were drunk. Or maybe because he was drunk.


So you see, things are looking up!



Ahem - on to surer bets. Men might let me down, but Reese's never will!!!!! And have they pulled out all the stops for Valentine's Day! Cupid must know I need some love!




This is the first time I've seen these - they are like the baby to the regular Reese's Heart. 85 calories each and really great. But evilly addictive. Do not keep the bag near you. Lock it down. Lock yourself down. Very peanut buttery. Dreamy.

There are even smaller Reese's hearts and these have more chocolate and hold their shape better. You want aesthetic beauty - go with these. You want sinful peanut butter, go with the blob.

You'll notice this is an assorted bag - with Hershey Milk and Special Dark Chocolate Hearts too. Pretty foil, pretty colors. Again - you want bling, you want shiny, pretty things - here you go. I want shapeless blobs of salty/sweet peanut butter! YAH!!!

You can opt for no assortment and just go for all Reese's.

This assortment has the full size Reese's cup, a baby Kit Kat and a baby Hershey bar. The Kit Kats bars are conversation bars (good God - EVERYBODY stole the Sweethearts one claim to fame. There is no shame!! Rhyming unintentional.) Each Kit Kat bar has a different message molded into it "love ya!" "cutie pie" and "could u b any coolr?" (That's a little scary.)

There was another one, but I ate it and forgot what it said. (I'm a sick, sick woman.) Kit Kats are just too addictive - I'm not strong enough to open more and just read them and trash them. So the remaining phrases will be a mystery until I give these out at a seminar and the attendees read them to me.

Here they are naked.

But Reese's is just getting warmed up! They also have the usual miniature Reese's cups in red and gold foil. And then there are the Big Boys:

Oh baby - these are my favs. I love the Reese's Heart - weighing in at 180 calories. Then there is the Double the Peanut Butter Heart weighing in at 340 calories and 21, yes 21 grams of fat! (No wonder Cupid is so chubby.) And the ginormous Peanut Butter foil wrapped heart which has 680 calories and 40 grams of fat. (This is supposed to be four servings, I'm just all about the dramatic effect of the total.) Cupid doesn't have to shoot you with an arrow - he can just force feed you one of these and your arteries will explode.

But if I gotta go.....Hit me, Cupid!!!

Let's take off every body's clothes:

Now that's my idea of a centerfold!!!! The one at the top is the foil wrapped molded guy. Followed by the blobs - then the Big Daddy! The Big Daddy is molded as well and has details like a lovely bow. I say too much chocolate (remember the Reese's Christmas Snowman? Great detail and a big thick base of chocolate. That's the way this is made.) When it comes to Reese's I'm not in it for the chocolate. I'm in it for the peanut butter.

I do have to tell you that the little tray the Double the Peanut Butter Heart comes on was completely soaked in peanut oil? fat? something very oily. A sane person might be bothered by this. Look at the slick shine on the Double PB Heart. Again, I'm not in this for the aesthetics, I'm in for that decadent, sinful, greasy, salty sweet, peanut buttery taste! YEHAW!!!

Do you think this oil could serve as an accelerant? I'll check with my lunch date.

Eggs, Radioactivity and Chocolate

The Cadbury's Egg reigns supreme. Even at Halloween.

My "friends" (and I am using that term more and more loosely) at Russell Stover tired to get on the egg bandwagon with the following two offerings:

Buzzard Eggs. Normally I would applaud such creativity. But once you've had a Cadbury Creme Egg, you can't accept second rate imitators. If you're going to shamelessly steal someone else's candy, you should do it better!! Of these two, the vanilla and chocolate is better. But it's a far cry (or should I say, squawk) from the delectable Cadbury Egg. The egg where you can bite off the top and see the yolk and lick out the creamy center. Yum!! (Excuse me, I'm having a Cadbury's moment.)

This egg is coated with that lame RS chocolate and as soon as you bite it, the whole thing breaks. You have gooey buzzard yolk all over your hand. Ugh. The chocolate/vanilla ooze tastes good, but who wants to lick it off their hands? The marshmallow caramel is, well, just creepy. The marshmallow is spongy, and with the caramel oozing around it...let's just say you don't want to eat this.

Now here's where it really gets weird.

Here's a naked Buzzard Egg:

Now it was really hard to get a good shot of this, but do you see those wavy EASTER EGG lines? Who decorates Buzzard Eggs? Was Russell Stover too lazy to make a new mold for Halloween? I say if you're going to try and pull off something as stupid as a Buzzard Egg at least lose the Easter Egg mold! Boo! If you have crappy tasting chocolates, at least get with the aesthetics! And hey, why not vulture eggs? It is Halloween, after all. These eggs suck.

I have another boo (both on the flavor and aesthetics ratings):

I like the bats on the wrapper. And these aren't bad, they just aren't as good as milk chocolate Kit Kats or dark chocolate Kit Kats. I think this coating is too sweet - I really missed the milk chocolate. Also the orange is a bit disturbing - you open it and you're startled - it's kind of radioactive looking. Great to give to the Trick or Treaters, but Kit Kat can do better.

I am so having a blast this Halloween!! All these fun things that only come around once a year! You just have to try them!! I'm also especially delighted this time of year because so many things come out with pumpkin flavors! I LOVE pumpkin!! I also like cinnamon and nutmeg, those flavors get more play in the fall too. And maple and brown sugar! How good is life?

I'll hope you'll join me in savoring the fall and the holidays this year. I'm not going to worry about what I can't control, but I am going to celebrate the changing of the seasons (and of the candy aisle!). Life is good!! But Buzzard Eggs are bad, very bad.