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.

 

Pumpkin and Elusive Childhood Memories

I have to say that Ben's comment on my last post shamed me into getting a real post done.  Ben - good for you!  I'm a slacker!!

As promised - pumpkin!

I found these at Target - Ghirardelli Squares in Milk & Pumpkin Spice Caramel:

What a great idea!  Love the creamy Ghirardelli milk chocolate, and they have a whisper of pumpkin.  But I like a stronger pumpkin flavor.  If you want a hint of pumpkin with your chocolate, this is for you.

Harry & David has these Pumpkin Spice Caramel Balls:

Gotta say I like them better!  Much more pumpkin flavor.  No chocolate, however.  But I just LOVE these!  Great texture, chewy caramel - yum!!

Harry & David also has these Pumpkin Spice Milk Chocolate Maltballs:

This is the perfect solution - a little chocolate and a LOT of pumpkin.  These are great too!  Harry & David rock the house on maltballs - TONS of flavors.  These are seasonal.

Chewy or crunchy?  Harry and David has your pumpkin balls covered!  Wait, that didn't sound quite right....

Pumpkin Delights by my girl Little D.  I'm so glad these are only available for a short period of time.  They are impossibly delicious:

Moist and cakey and chewy - sooooo good.  I really do love Little Debbie - these are awesome!!!

And they smile at you!  What more can you really ask for?

I found these Pumpkin Pie with Cream Cheese Topping cookies at World Market.  They are by Too Good Gourmet.

Great idea!  Love the cream cheese topping!  And the cookie is moist and has good pumpkin flavor as well as the delicious nutmeg and cinnamon of pumpkin pie.  Well done!!  So far I like everything I've tried by Too Good Gourmet.  Look for them in World Market and TJ Maxx.

I was over the moon when I heard about these - thanks to our other Ben who tipped me off several posts ago - PUMPKIN PIE POP-TARTS!  When Ben told me they existed, I searched for them.  I read online reviews gushing about how great they were.  I HAD to find some!  They became my holy grail.  When I finally saw then in Target, I was so excited; I bought up six boxes.   I snuck home from Target like a junkie who just scored a fix.

Okay, not really like the picture on the box, but we know how this goes:

Promising?

The result?  BOO!  Not nearly enough pumpkin filling.  These should be called Pumpkin Pie CRUST Pop-Tarts.  I mean, I'm down with pie crust, I like it, but I was expecting more here.  I was expecting some filling.  These were a heart breaker.

Pumpkin is one of my favorite flavors so I'm definitely biased in demanding more.  And it's only available seasonally, so I gotta get as much of it as I can! 

What have we learned?

Some flavors need more chocolate, some need less.  Pumpkin and chocolate is a tricky mix and should best be left to professionals.  I think there should always be more pumpkin.  I feel the same way about peanut butter - the more peanut butter, the better.  Although mixing it with chocolate isn't tricky at all - any combination is good - and complete amateurs can mix away with abandon.

Little Debbie remains a goddess (and the poor man's Paula Deen).

Childhood memories are tricky.  Pop-Tarts are not as good as I remember them.  Prolly because I was forbidden to have any.  I could only get the amazing sugary treats when at friends' houses. I remember more filling - strawberry was my fav.  

But you know how tricky those childhood memories can be!  Some of the things you thought were so amazing you have today and you're shocked.  The best example I can think of is the game Pong.  My brother and I used to play that for hours.  Kids today would be like, "Are you serious?  Do you have a wooden paddle and a ball on a rubber band too?"  Our reply?  "Yeah, to smack you with you little Xbox, Wii playing brat!  Let me get my wooden gun that shoots rubber bands and I'll teach you some respect!"

We've tried so many different foods from so many different countries over the course of our lives, how can a poor childhood favorite keep up?

Never fear, there's always Reese's my dears.  Always.

Halloween - The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

I am sooo happy that Fall is here! What a great time of year! All this new candy, all this cool pumpkin and cinnamon and ginger flavored stuff - yahoo!! I can't wait till the leaves start turning and that crisp feeling is in the air.

But not all fall candy is a winner. Check these out:

Great fall colors, interesting shapes - there's an ear of corn, a bat, a cat, both a pumpkin and a jack-o-lantern, a little brown jug, a moon, and some wheat. These would be great on a Thanksgiving cake or to toss around the center of a table.

Now get this - yellow tastes a little like BANANA (not really what I'm looking for for fall), dark brown tastes a little like chocolate (but nowhere near as good as Tootsie Roll - not even close - kind of gross), the light brown was my favorite (tastes like maple). I don't know what flavor the orange ones are - not orange - and not bad. But mysterious. These are all VERY sweet - pretty much all sugar. The good news is that they have zero fat and 6 of them have only 130 calories.

They get even more interesting. I bought two bags (they looked better than they are) and half of them looked like this:

Okay - it's probably just sugar, but it looks gross. This kind of messes up the whole - use them for decorations idea. But hey - they are cheap - if you had to pitch some of them it wouldn't be the end of the world.

Good for decoration (gotta love all those crazy shapes - I mean, a little brown jug? Who woulda thought!), not so great to eat. About ten million times better - Brach's Maple Nut Goodies and/or Tootsie Rolls.

I reviewed these last year and I'm just mentioning them again in case you guys forgot:

I bought these Pumpkin Spice Kisses at Target and was surprised at just how damn good they are. They were even better than I remembered! Now you will see there is no chocolate here. But I figure if Hershey's can make Kisses with no chocolate, I can review Kisses with no chocolate. : ) These are all about the pumpkin and the spices and they are so creamy and so good - WOW! A+++ There is even a recipe for Pumpkin Spice Swirl Cheesecake Pie on the wrapper (Holy God).

This is a clever update from Reese's:

It's a bag of their miniatures, but with half milk chocolate and half the new dark chocolate. I love the orange and black foil wrappers - VERY festive! These look terrific in a bowl on your fall table.

What can I say? Reese's Miniatures never let me down. The perfect bite size peanut butter and chocolate combo. But I have to confess - I still like the milk chocolate best.

Now here's something you probably haven't heard of - spiced pumpkin seed brittle. I tried to buy this at Williams-Sonoma last year, but they were sold out. I wasn't about to miss out this year:

Okay - I know it's kind of ugly. But man, it tastes GREAT!!! It's made by Anette's Chocolates in Napa Valley.

https://anettes.securesites.com/shop.html?Category=Beer%20Brittles%20plus...

It's about half the price I paid on their website, so you might want to go there first, although I didn't see this exact brittle. I really like peanut brittle, and you know how I feel about pumpkin, so I thought this might be good. Oh yeah - I can see why it sells out every year. YUM!! Try it before it's gone!

So, what do we have?

The ever popular - don't judge a candy by its appearance. Brach's looked great - awesome shapes and colors, but it was pretty bad. The spiced pumpkin seed brittle looks pretty ugly, but it is excellent. Unfortunately we too often think that the attractive person is better than the unattractive one, and we are so very often wrong. I'd like to give a shout out to O.J., Ted Bundy, and Britney Spears.

In our constant search for the new, the novel, the different, we sometimes forget the tried and true. It's pretty damn hard to beat a Reese's. You all know I love the new as mush as anyone, but I think we often overlook what we already have in search of the next new thing. Look how many marriages end in divorce, how much stuff we buy when we already have perfectly good stuff, etc. etc. etc. We take the old stuff (which often is the best stuff) for granted.

And finally - celebrate the season!! All this stuff won't be around forever. (And neither will we.)

My Love Affair with Pumpkin

Well, my love life continues to suck. Been on another couple of dates - one guy WAY too young, but he was a hottie, so I couldn't help myself. And he was the persistent one - I blew him off at first, saying he was too young. The date actually went well. He asked for a second one, but bailed out at the 11th hour. I'm sure my decrepitness panicked him. The other date was fine - nothing to complain about - we just didn't "click" - it was like we were just out of sync with each other. Bummer.



But, here's one love of my life that never fails me.....PUMPKIN!!!!!!! I know I've waxed poetic about pumpkin before - I mean I love this stuff. I'll eat pumpkin with some Splenda tossed in, right out of the can! (We've also discussed my idiosyncrasies.)



Anyway, I was in Harry and David a couple of weeks ago - I have some of their chocolate, which is actually really, really good and I'll review at some point. But today I want to talk about these:

Pumpkin Spice Milk Chocolate Malted Milk Balls - their description:

"Two autumn flavors combine in this limited-edition treat, made here in our own Candy Kitchen. Outside, a coating of traditional pumpkin pie spices. Next a layer of milk chocolate. And at the center, our crisp malted milk. Yum!"

Well, I don't think that milk chocolate is a autumn flavor, so I don't know exactly what the writer was thinking. I also have no idea why Candy Kitchen is capitalized. Maybe to give it the reverence it deserves. The important thing is that these are freaking AWESOME!!!! and they are a limited edition - so you need to get some NOW!!

You you are going to think that I am insane when I say this, but I'm going to say it anyway. These are better than Godiva's pumpkin truffles. There is is - I said it. I reviewed the truffles last year and thought they had a funky weird aftertaste. These just rock - the pumpkin spice flavor is terrific. And I'm not a big malted milk ball fan. But I'm telling you, these are GOOD!! (And WAY less expensive - $7.95 for the whole bag vs. like $1.50+ per truffle.)

They aren't on the Harry and David website, so you have to go to one of their stores. But it just might be worth the trip! Check out these:

Could life be any better?? Pumpkin Spice Caramel Balls!!! I really do love the fall!

What can I say? These are great! Richer in flavor than the malted milk balls and just as delish, add these to your fall shopping basket. They are about the size of a peanut M & M - perfect for popping! I am crazy about the Harry and David stores and have found some really great treats there. But these are super, super good - especially if you adore pumpkin.

Oh a sad note, apparently due to the cooler weather we've had this year, some of the pumpkin crops were damaged and in some areas the harvest was terrible. I hope all the pumpkin farmers out there know I love them and I have never appreciated their efforts. I have taken them and their pumpkins for granted. So this year, if you go to buy a pumpkin - thank a farmer - we are damn lucky to have them!! And if you have to pay a little more - don't complain - pumpkin is worth it!! (And the Great Pumpkin may be watching.)

True Confessions

I've always felt better after confessing my sins. If I tell my girlfriends how much I over ate, somehow I feel skinner. I can't explain it. So you, dear readers, get to be my confessors.

I chose pumpkin over chocolate today.

I know - can you believe it? I had two choices today at lunch (well, I guess I had four - no dessert (HA!), chocolate brownie, pumpkin blondie, or both!). I saw the chocolate brownie - it looked good - a nice dusting of powdered sugar, nuts - yummy. But the other "brownie" looked orange. My breath caught - could it be? I said hopefully, "Is that pumpkin?" (I mean, honestly, how often do you get a pumpkin dessert as an option?) "Yes!" Our hostess said immediately with as much excitement as I felt! She said they were great! Her eyes were sparkling.

I went with the pumpkin.

I have no regrets. It was awesome! Like a cakey, pumpkin nut blondie. Yum!!!

But I feel like I cheated on chocolate.

Oh, I can rationalize. The pumpkin is rare, seasonal. Everyone else picked brownies, they did not go uneaten.

Still.


I feel I must somehow make it up to chocolate. Maybe I can:


This is Bissinger's Pumpkin Bark and it tastes just like their description:

With real pumpkin swirled through creamy milk chocolate, our Pumpkin Bark is a delicious reminder of such cherished traditions as homemade pie.

It really tastes like pumpkin! And look how pretty it is!!

You might want to try some Bissinger's Chocolate, if you haven't. Not only is it delicious (at least the pumpkin bark is), their history is lofty (at least according to them):


The name "Bissinger" has long been linked to fine confections. The Bissinger family began creating their fine delicacies in 17th-century Paris, and at that time European nobility, heads of state, Ludwig of Bavaria and the Rothschilds were all loyal Bissinger enthusiasts. Bissinger's confections were once enjoyed by King Louis XIV and were used as a gift by Napoleon Bonaparte to his beloved Josephine upon his return from battle. In fact, Karl Frederic Bissinger, the company's namesake, was named the Confiseur Imperial, or "Candy Maker of the Empire," for excellence in the confectionery arts by Emperor Louis Napoleon.

Hey, if it's good enough for Napoleon, it's good enough for me.

http://www.bissingers.com/

It's a seasonal fling with pumpkin, my heart belongs to chocolate. (But sometimes you can have your chocolate and your pumpkin too!) Forgive me, readers, for I have sinned.....