The Many Phases of the Moon Pie

For some reason, all things remotely festive have been consumed around my birthday.  This post started with the Moon Pies with sprinkles .  For some reason, sprinkles just say "party!" to me.

I've never been a big Moon Pie person, but when I saw this in Cracker Barrel, I thought I'd just check it out.  I am such a sucker for nostalgia!

It looks like the current Moon Pie, but flatter:

And you know what?  I like it A LOT better!  The "cookie" part is much less dry - it's almost like cookie dough.  I thought it was like 10,000 times better!  It's made by the same people (Chattanooga Bakery) who make the standard Moon Pie.  I'm so bummed this recipe was replaced with the new one.  Not that I've given it one iota of thought before now.

I wanted to try these solely because of the sprinkles:

As usual, nothing lives up to the image on the box.  And now I'm ruined now by the Scooter Pie.  This seems way too dry and flavorless to me.  Even sprinkles can't save it.

These sprinkles seem to say "hangover" more than "party!".

I've reviewed these before and they really are nothing like a Moon Pie.  No marshmallow, no weird cakey/cookie slab:

This is a chocolate cookie with peanut butter filling dipped in chocolate:

These are okay.  Not enough peanut butter in my book.  (Is there EVER enough peanut butter?)

These are like the peanut butter ones, but with mint:

This has more in common with Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies than a Moon Pie:

If you like those Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies, you will adore these!!  I think they did a better job with the mint than the peanut butter.  Mint and chocolate lovers - get thee to Cracker Barrel and stock up! 

These are just like the regular Moon Pies to me:

Dry and crappy.  Sorry Little Debbie.  The original Scooter Pie kicked butt.

These are like the other Little Debbie marshmallow treats I've reviewed.  And what makes them so addictively good is the base.  It's a brownie - a thin base of brownie that works great with the marshmallow.  These are way better than the standard Moon Pie!

And they look really good too!  Aren't they pretty?

All they need are some sprinkles!!!  Party!!!!

Snow, Ice and Chocolate!

We've got ice and snow in North Carolina and the capital city is shut down! Whoohoo! Of course, it's Saturday, so it's no big deal. Come Monday, we might have some issues.

In honor of the snow, we'll talk Snowflake Pretzels. My Sorbet Sistah Tracy said these were awesome, so when I saw them on sale at Crate and Barrel, that was a good enough excuse to buy them. And I love the cute tin they are in:

Here they are :

The tin says these are "wintry snowflake pretzels dipped in white confection and white nonpareils."

Now let's analyze that statement. I think all snowflakes are wintery (both spellings of wintry are okay BTW) so that's just hyperbole. (Not that I'm opposed to hyperbole in the least, mind you.) Where we run into trouble is white CONFECTION - i.e. - these don't involve anything remotely close to chocolate. Well at least they're honest. And nonpareils are just tiny sugar balls. Closely related to sprinkles.

Bottom line - these things are delicious!! Once you start eating them it's almost impossible to stop. Those lame pretzel M & Ms have nothing - I mean NOTHING on these. I hope I get invited to a Super Bowl Party so I can take these and save myself from them. A+++

Since we have more sleet right now than snow, let's talk ice. Or at least the candy equivalent of ice - mint.

Andes has a Valentine's Day offering:

It's the same old Andes mint, but I like the inner wrappers (although the outer package looks awful - I say go red or go pink, but not - what - mauve? Ugh.):

The best part is they did some different designs, not just slapping the same old mints in new wrappers:

I still am not a fan. I think these taste kinda like toothpaste.

These aren't chocolate, but they are my favorite peppermint:

Nice and chewy! LOVE these! And look at those adorable hearts:

All I have to do today to "get the sensation" is stick my head out a window, but just in case you'd prefer a more pleasant method:

Love the cute hearts on the wrappers:

And you know I'm thrilled with the heart shaped patties as well as the slightly pink mint filling. Go York! Same solid taste, but a nice holiday touch! YAY!!

Ah - love is in the air! Well, at least today, snow is in the air here in North Carolina. We don't get it much so it's something really nice to see. It's so quiet outside and it gives the landscape a gorgeous clean and pure look. We often take for granted the things we see all the time, but the unusual is easier to appreciate. I'm watching the birds hopping on the white background where I can really see their coloring. Just saw a cardinal - gorgeous!

If you're in the snow - take some time to enjoy it - and be thankful that you're warm. And try not to take the usual for granted. I mean, those white confection pretzels are unusual, but they will never replace Reese's. Ever. Not even if Raleigh and Hell DO freeze over.

A Quick Kiss

I'm a sucker for Hershey's Kisses. I love all the great flavors, love the shape, love the wrappers. So I'm always excited to see the new flavors. This one isn't new (I reviewed it last year):

Still a solid choice. I stand by last year's comments. There's also a really good looking cookie recipe on the back of the package.

These I haven't had before:

The dark chocolate is a nice offset to the mint. No candy chunks as in the peppermint ones and not as sweet with the dark chocolate. More sophisticated. And pretty darn good, I might add. No Lindor Truffle, mind you, but good.

And these I hadn't seen either:

Wow!! Yum!!! I didn't think I would like these at all (not a big fan of whiskey), but they are really good! Once again, I have no idea what I'm going to really like until I try it. I hope this won't interact with my Percocet.....

More on whiskey, rum and liqueur tomorrow! Woowee!!

Creativity, Peppermint and Chocolate

I really am not a big peppermint person. I like it and all, I'm not opposed to peppermint, but it doesn't rock my world. I like mint chocolate chip ice cream, I like those mint girl scout cookies, I'm not inhuman. But well, let's just say it's not peanut butter. It's not caramel either. It's above orange, but below almond. Neck and neck with raspberry. Kicks butt on lemon. That's my peppermint placement. Just so you know where I stand.

But what better flavor to kick off the Christmas postings? It's tradition! It's festive! It's decorative! And it's everywhere!

Real Simple Magazine made some great candy wreaths I want to share with you:

A little too weddingish for me, but very creative (and easy to make - the mag gives full instructions).

I'm glad someone finally found a use for those God-awful Goetze's caramel creams (glaack!).

And, my fav:

Very cool and contemporary. Like I said, full instructions are in the mag. I don't want to infringe on the copyright laws any further than I already have. If this posting disappears, you know I got busted.

Now I won't be making any of these wreaths - I am so NOT a hand crafter. A buyer, an admirer, but that's it. They did get me in search of Andes mints, however, and this is what I found:

LOVE the seasonal designs and the colorful wrappers. Although green was in short supply in this bag. However, the shapes don't seem to correspond to the color, so they might have been more evenly mixed. I have no plan to open them all to find out.

These are just like the standard Andes mint - always a solid, if not earth shattering, choice. BUT because of the extra chocolate used to form the Christmas designs, they are better! Stuff those stockings, Santa!

But Andes didn't stop there! Check these out:

Ah- ha! Very different!!! You all know how I like creativity for the holidays. Don't just be giving us the same old candy in some kind of festive wrapper. Show us something! Bring it!

These, unfortunately, remind me why I don't like peppermint. There's a fine line between tasting like candy and tasting like medicine. These cross over. I don't like 'em. Creative, yes. Good, no.

For comparison, here's Ghirardelli:

Another assortment - with Eggnog (apparently the least popular) and Pecan Pie. We'll review those another time. Peppermint is the star of this show.

Ghirardelli did very, very well. There was the crunch of peppermint, but it was prevented from becoming too strong by better white chocolate and a milk chocolate backing. So far, these are the clear winner in the festive peppermint category. But we are just getting started, dear readers! It is early in the game!

I had great hopes for these:

Don't they look awesome????

Here they are in real life:

They look a little different, huh? Those damn glamour shots!! Kind of like online dating pics.

But the important thing is the taste and I was pretty excited! I like the colors - the sprinkles! But the taste - GLAACK! Yucko! These have a weird aftertaste. What a let down! Skip these and buy peanut butter Oreos again. Why mess with genius? Roll the edges in red sprinkles if you want. But don't get these.

Creativity is good, but at the end of the day - it's about the flavor. Just like with people - a hot exterior is great, but who will be there when you need a new hip? Know what really matters and don't get distracted - it's too easy.