TheSnackHound

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Jones Soda. All opinions are 100% mine.

Its midnight and you are scrounging around for that last minute item to make to take to your Thanksgiving fete.   You don’t want to cheap out and just buy your host and hostess a pie like everybody else. No way. Nobody remembers a pie unless it was the best one they have had in their life (granted, they probably don’t remember much before the age of four, so MOST of their life) or the worst one. I won’t go into the Great Rhubarb Pie Fiasco of 1998. Lets not even go there, but I will say I never had a rhubarb before that moment and will summarize by saying what I was putting in my mouth was the absolute opposite taste of what I thought it would be.  I digress.  It was right up there with Grandpa’s birthday party of 1994. That year, Grandpa blew out the candles and made a wish and at that very moment, Aunt Rita fell off the edge of the sofa arm she was sitting on and broke her hip. Of course, for a split second there everyone looked at Grandpa instead of Aunt Rita.

Are you looking for something that you too will be known as having brought on the food incident of 2009, always to be remembered? It is not to late to run to Meijers right this second or Kroger’s in the morning  (don’t forget they have it at Spartan too) to pick up some Tofurky and Gravy Jones Soda .  If you prefer, you can order it from Jones as well.

An independent taste test was conducted this past week. The particpants were myself, My Favorite Guy, my Favorite guy’s whole immediate family, my father, my brother and some friends. We wanted to conduct the study in perfect fairness to create some sort of balance between adventurous eaters who put Andrew Zimmern to shame, picky eaters like me that only ordered toast at restaurants until she was five and everyone else in between. There were those that leaned towards the almost vegetarian side and participants who have hunted the real deal on occasion.

The appearance of Tofurky and Gravy soda looks like, well….brown turkey gravy.  This caused some trepidation until the familiar air shifting sound of the bottle opening. We could be sure it was really carbonated.

My Favorite Guy summed it up as, “Interesting.”  He didn’t say he hated it, but didn’t say he liked it, either, which was a fair assessment. John, who is considered the gourmet of the bunch, noted that it had a slight aspartame-like bouquet, or perhaps some other artificial sweetener that lingered. One of the kids thought that it tasted like butterscotch.  One of out friend’s faces lighted up when he heard it was a Jones Product.  They love Jones Soda, and somehow it made the concept more huggable and lovable.

My brother, who was once a professional cook had the following picture to paint: “Picture this: You have a hot turkey sandwich and you let it sit for an hour while you are talking with family, and then you get up and take a taste and say. ‘Huh…cold gravy’  Then you wash it down with seltzer water. That’s exactly how it tastes.”

The overall consensus is that it tasted how it was set out to taste, but would they buy it?  Yes.  It would be the perfect novelty gift to take to someone’s house. In fact, we will all remember our experience for many years to come.  It will be, “Remember 2009 when we had that soda?”  It definitely is something to pass around while watching the football game.   But would they buy some to slug back a few?  Nope.   No one was ready to stock the fridge, but we will probably buy it to stock in friend’s fridges.   Luckily, in the store, you can buy it in a multipack with some mouthwatering flavors.

I am very curious to see what Jones has up its sleeve for next year. Let me think. Green Bean Casserole? Yukon Gold? Candied Yam? Buttered Roll? I know, I shouldn’t be giving anyone any ideas, but you know I would probably try it just to have another great time polling everyone.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours from my family!

It’s time, once again, to check in with the Refrigerator.  The Fridge is featured on the Resist the Fridge page and is a nice little shiny black refrigerator, where you can play with some old school fridge alphabet and number magnets.  Some readers have been nice enough (or bored enough) from time to time to leave me a little note.

The latest note is not a new one.  It is merely an addendum to the prior note, shown here. The heart rending dilemma on who believes in the five second, or five lick rule for a puppy eating soy sauce, or your love of Chinese food is seriously tested.   In the August edition (I am a little behind, I know its November), someone did not pen their own sonnet, but merely answered the question of the lone fridge artiste.

It reminds me of the magnets my brother and I had when we were little.  He would write his name, in magnets, on the fridge, and I would probably come along and arrange the letters to read “Is a Dummy!”  I was far from original in those days, but my fingers would seriously itch every time I walked by.

Would you like to leave a note for all the world, or at least me, to see?  I’ll blog about it as long as it is something I can repeat.   The fridge on this page is just a .jpg file, so I could freeze a fridge moment in time.  If you want to write on the real fridge, do the following:

1) Travel to the Resist the Fridge page.

2) To create your own message, press “clear.”  Drag and drop the letters and numbers to spell what’s on your mind.  Don’t worry, you can use the individual letters as many times as you want.  Otherwise, I would get a lot of notes that just said “QWERTY.”   Then press “save.”   It may ask you for your name.  It usually will fill in your location, reading your ISP.

3) To add to a message, just drag and drop, and then press “save.”

Have fun!

Unfortunately, once you leave a message, the prior message is lost.  That is why I am archiving as many as possible.

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Dirt Devil. All opinions are 100% mine.

This year, Dirt Devil is helping us all out by providing the world with the 2009 Dirt Devil Shopping Shortcuts guide.   There are some photos of some great Christmas gift ideas for both ladies and gents this year from Dirt Devil. There are small hand vacuums you can stow in the car for those emergency cleanups, or keep one handy behind the bedroom door for when guests unexpectedly show up.   However, if you were expecting a long winded ad about the virtues of Dirt Devil that will just end up in the circular file, think again. From page one, the company gives you all the different coupon and discount websites that are out there that offer promotion codes. They actually WANT you to find every code to save money on Dirt Devil products.

Well, that might be expected, but I had no idea that they wanted you to save on other stuff too.  They just want you to get out there on the computer and shop, period.   They give you all of the best Black Friday and coupon sites out there, plus sites where you can swap your stuff as well.

Of course, I knew all about the Black Friday websites, but “Free Shipping Day,” which is December 17th took me by surprise.  Maybe a bunch of retailers just made it up this year. Freeshipping.org is one place that they give to check out all the deals. I won’t give away all the tips and tricks.  Where can you get this bounteous find for yourself?  It is available for pdf download.  You don’t have to move your rear from your chair. But you should.  Once in awhile.  Remember, you have yo vaccuum before I get there.

Looking for something to do that is steeped in tradition this Thanksgiving?  Pull up a chair at Jefferson’s table.  In a de-luxe apartment in the sky-ey-ey.  Oh wait.  Not those Jeffersons.  Although when I was a kid I would have loved to have visited.  Ouisie always endured such crazy hijinks that I think that she needed a break.

The Jeffersons I am talking about is the Thomas Jefferson type, who have been around a little bit longer than the ones that have “moved on up.”  In fact, now we can hang out with the 10th generation of the family whipping up great dishes in the kitchen.  Actually, it is more so the 9th generation, but now the 10th generation is in on the act.  On the Jefferson’s table blog, you can read all about the amazing feast that is in store, and you can cook some of the dishes at home.  The latest posting features a recipe for Indian Corn Cookies from the most adorable chef ever.

Nope, she didn’t make cookies and then pop the kernals off corn and transplant them, but it looks real doesn’t it?? You’ll just have to wander over to Jefferson’s table to find out.   If you are feeling froggy, sometime in the future, you might want to pull a physical chair up to the table and visit the Old Masini Adobe in Santa Barbara, where you may partake in an awesome cooking class or a winemaker’s dinner.    You just may “Finally get a piece of the pie!”  I know.  I just had to say it.

Dear Readers,

Sometimes a product comes a long that compels the mind to go in a bit of megalomaniacal hysteria. It fuels it to think, “SOMEONE STOLE MY IDEA.” Of course, when that happens, the product is usually nothing that could have been produced by me. I would not have had the follow through to completely figure out the mechanics of making the item. I would not have the budget to produce a prototype. It may not have been a rip roaring success, as my package design skills are lacking. Sure, it would have some sort of a box, or at least wrapping paper around it, but I would have failed to psychologically analyze what package colors trigger a “buying” response in potential purchasers.  Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the product probably is nothing like I thought either.  Oh, but other than that it is JUST like it.

What went on in my mind that constitutes a “Hey, I thought of that first?” Well, it is quite simple. I probably said,”Hey, wouldn’t it be neat if refrigerators had locks on them?” Five seconds later I completely forgot that I thought of it. That’s hardly a stroke of “eureka” that would give me a claim to any patent.

What is the inspiration for this meandering announcement? I just have become acquainted with the Fridge Locker. If you don’t believe me that one exists, go to www.FridgeLocker.com. Truth be told, it is not exactly what I had envisioned. It is not a big padlock on a Frigidaire. Rather, it is like a little jail cell inside of your fridge. Maybe you could call it a pop play pen.

I hear you chuckling.  This is a legitimate product that could potentially save your life, so don’t scoff, Bucko.  In fact, there is a testimonial from Howard L., from Pacific Beach, California.  He writes, “My friend’s Girlfriend can’t eat all the Multigrain Bars anymore.”  Well, Howard, firstly, what is your friend’s girlfriend doing over there ransacking your fridge?  If she is the girlfriend of your roommate, then maybe I could understand, but if she is dating just a random friend of yours, then I think your random friend needs to be given a talking to.  Maybe he told her that he rents a shelf in your fridge or that your place is really a hipster theme restaurant.

The inventor, Kevin Alan Tussy, was having a similar life drama.

One Saturday I was thinking about how I really wanted to start eating better at the office.  I was always eating out and spending a lot of money on some pretty unhealthy food.  Not to mention that I always seemed to be on the brink of starvation before I would actually go eat.  Some healthy snacks would definitely be a great thing to have around.  I went to the grocery store and every morning I packed up my brown bag, but after a few days I started forgetting.  In my morning rush it would slip my mind and I was back to eating out…  If only I could bring in a weeks supply of snacks to work all at once, then I would never go hungry…  But I knew that wouldn’t work. My food would be eaten by all the employees in the office. People just weren’t very respectful.

Do you see a theme here? There is no nonsense about beer or chips. Perhaps Howard and Kevin should just realize that there coworkers, relatives, and girlfriends of friends only steal multigrain bars. They should stop eating them and get a little monosodium glutamate in their diets. That will fix the wagons of all of these pilferers.

Until at least tomorrow, I think this is the Best Invention Ever. If only I would have had something like this years ago, I would have not been accused of eating all the chocolate in the house.  I could show people that it was all locked up so I couldn’t possibly have done it.  Of course, if I am the only one with the key, then that would have solved that. Like all of the best products, the Fridge Locker is available for the paltry sum of $19.95. That is a magical number.  It is so much cheaper than any of those $20 products.  I don’t have that kind of money.  Do you think I am rich?  But I do have $19.95.  But I am going to hope that my readers buy it for me for Christmas instead, right?