TheSnackHound

This is a very serious chocolate matter.  Firstly, Kroger has Endangered Species Chocolate bars on sale two for one or half off.  The exception is the Blueberry flavor with the turtle on the front. You have to pay over $4.25 for one of those bars.  I thought they excluded the turtle flavored bars because they were new. Oh no. That theory was blown out of the water when I found myself at Whole Foods.  The aroma from the candy aisle was like a siren song.  My car went on autopilot and drove out of the Kroger’s parking lot a few miles down the road to Whole Foods.  A bomb had went off in the candy aisle and there were only a few scattered Endangered candy bars to be had.  Yes, they too had a 2 for one sale but there 2 for one sale was BETTER, because the candy bars turned out to be $2 each instead of 2.50 or something like that on sale each AND the blueberry turtle bars were included.  I snapped up the very last one.

Three days later, the candy aisle at Whole Foods still is pilfered.  The only bar to be had, if the chocolate scanner picked things up correctly, is the Milk Chocolate variety.  That is just plain boresville to a dark chocolate aficionado. My worse fear was momentarily toyed with: what if Endangered Species bars were being discontinued and this was there way of giving us our last fix?  I don’t think so, based on the empty slots remaining on the shelf. If they were truly gone, the whole area would have been remerchandised.   I don’t buy these bars every day or week as it would appear, but since I can’t have them, it makes me want them even more, especially the Goji Berry bar.  I can’t remember what it tasted like.

In the meantime, I guess I will have to be happy with the Kroger sale, but I don’t want to be. They have a limited variety of varieties and they are more expensive.  Sure, its time versus money but perhaps the thrill of the hunt is worth more to me. Perhaps the true answer is that I am just somewhat insane.  Ascribing this task as a worthy pursuit just makes me feel a bit better about my condition.

The moral of the story? If you see said dark chocolate varieties of candy bar, just clean off the shelf.  It may be more chocolate than you need right now but its cheaper than paying full price in the long run. Get thee to a Whole Foods or Kroger’s.  Just stay away from mine.

I am related to one of the world’s authorities on Saltine Crackers. Did you know that only authentic Saltine crackers have 13 holes? Sunshine brand and generic versions do not have this special feature. Grandpa has made it one of his life’s missions to educate the world, much like appraisers that alert folks to fakes on The Antiques Roadshow. Does it matter to your stomach if the cracker is an authentic Saltine or not? I doubt it, unless we are talking about the low sodium variety, and then your liver and kidneys will thank you and so will your heart.

The alert was send around from our friends at UnBeige that there is indeed a Saltine cracker made out of pewter.  Yes, you too can commemorate your favorite cracker with a lovingly crafted collectible by artist Herbert Hoover.  No, this is a different Herbert Hoover, not the President that you are used to.  Mr. Hoover (I assume Herbert is a Mister and not a Mrs or Miss but you never know with the creative child naming that goes on these days) also lovingly crafts other snack foods, such as Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwiches, and Cheese Crackers. (Check out the line up HERE to prove I am not making this up). They sure would be a show stopper, or at least a denture stopper at your next bridge party.  The ice cream is quite convincing.  The cookie portion is merely pewter with a black patina.  I wonder how it would hold up “in person” ( or more properly “in ice cream bar”) to the real thing.

The individual crackers will set you back $15.00 a piece and the ice cream sandwiches are being sold in traditional pewter and colorful patina for $50.00 a pop.  Grandma would probably want to give me a pop if I got these for Grandpa.  I may not be able to buy any if Chuck Norris finds out. He’ll probably buy them as snack food. I can imagine him whipping them out of his pocket and being the talk of McDonald’s.  Free senior coffee and he sometimes gets extra perks for wearing his veteran’s hat.

Homer Laughlin officially retired the Evergreen color in the Fiestaware line on March 1, 2010,  making way in the collection for the summer entry into the Fiesta line, Paprika. The color is available until it sells out at better department stores and online boutiques.  HLC seems to be introducing new color at a pace of twice a year now, having introduced Ivory, Chocolate and Lemongrass in the past two years.

As the most widely collected American made dinnerware, is production meeting demands, or like American Girl clothes, is HLC just making more excuses for us to have the entire sets of something? Either way, whatever they are doing is working.  I am pleased to see the line return to brighter and clearer colors and discontinue the more somber evergreen and cinnabar. While those colors have their place, to me, vibrant colors is what makes Fiesta ware Fiesta Ware and not any other line.

Will you grab up all the Evergreen you can find, store it under your bed so you can sell it and make a profit when your first child, yet unborn, goes to college?   I likely won’t, but since its a color that I don’t have, I will most likely purchase a carefully selected representative to add to my assortment of kitchen goods.

After a long hiatus, the official League for the Suppression of Celery blog is back. For quite some time, I feared that Wendy, League Representative, had succumbed to the opposition or had been kidnapped. Lo and behold, she is back, or at least someone impersonating her at the present time. For the uninitiated, the League is united against the Evil veggie, Celery. In the January 2009 interview here at TheSnackHound.com, Wendy recounted her initial trauma that set her on her path:

“…My mother handed me a celery stalk loaded with peanut butter. Moments later, my intuitive corporeal body rejected this vile veggie. Imagine a big Christmas puke-fest. Poor Mom. In a way, I suppose it was karmic for her — a more enlightened mother would have known better. Still to this day she maintains that I’m the one with the problem and I consider it a big failing in life that I can’t get my own mother to see The Truth About Celery. I’m filled with shame.People call me a picky eater, but in fact, did you know that there are a select group of people who have a natural vomitous reaction to some of the chemicals in celery? This comes from being more highly evolved, one step further ahead in the evolutionary chain than the celery-eaters.Probably this might come across as elitist, but it’s really not. I feel it’s the League for the Suppression of Celery’s job to enlighten everyone about the devil’s vegetable. It’s just like any other cause, like mosquito nets to combat malaria, needing clean water to drink, literacy issues, and getting supermodels to eat more. (In fact, if they’d stop eating so much celery they might not have so many weight-related ailments.)

To read more on the league: CLICK HERE.

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Dimplex North America Limited. All opinions are 100% mine.

Lately, I have been adding a sparing amount of chicken to my diet. I had been trying to go vegetarian plus fish lately but chicken is so gosh darn convenient when I am cooking for others and they don’t like fish. Typically, my mom notices my eating trends and when I am over decides to buy similar items. Instead of antibiotic-free chicken breast, however, she bought a bag of chicken strips that were painted with grill marks. I knew that it wasn’t really grilled because of the chicken nugget-like interiors. I was polite as I could be, but I am really hoping that it sinks in that they will feel so much better without all the sodium. There was no time savings as you still had to prepare the chicken. Maybe you didn’t have to cut it, but you couldn’t exactly eat it raw.

If you desire the sear marks on meat or veggies but don’t want to fire up the barbecue because its raining, winter, or you live in an apartment, never fear….Dimplex PowerChef Electric Grills are here. Well, its not HERE in my lap, but they’re here in this wonderful world. The grill is electric and safe for your apartment balcony or indoor applications and creates the gas grill-like stripes on the food. Instead of being just a Toast R Oven, the heat actually comes from the grates. You can view the rocking video of it HERE.

Maybe the “indoor grill” seemed gimmicky at first, but there health benefits to grilling food instead of frying it, and there are all sorts of pre-programmed settings for folks who absentmindedly tend to be authoring a book and not watching the food.  That wouldn’t be me, of course unless I ignore the kitchen timer.

Have you tried the gentle art of indoor-outdoor cookery? If so, tell me how you did.

This summer, the new kid on the Fiestaware block is the spicy Paprika. It continues on the trend of deep, warm colors that Homer Laughlin has been offering.  While there are already colors in the red and orange pallet, Paprika seems as it will mix well with the two prior Fiesta offerings, Lemongrass (2009), Ivory (2008). and Chocolate (2008) of the past two years.

I have not seen the product in person–or more properly “in dish”–so I do not know if the color varies slightly from the photo. However, the color in print reminds me of a variation of the old Fiesta Red.  Not the OLD old uranium red, but a spicer, less orange peel version of the post WWII orange Fiesta Red.

Paprika will hit the shelves and websites around June 20th. The color will first be available in five and four piece place settings in the traditional shape and in 3 piece square sets. Suggested retail is between $40-48 for the sets. (P.S.: Fiestaware and other Homer Laughlin China is proudly made in the United States. All dinnerware is lead free.)