Wheat Thins Sweet Cinnamon

Knowing how much we love Wheat Thins, Nabisco knew that we were perfect to take their limited-edition Sweet Cinnamon Wheat Thins for a test drive.

These are a perfect blend of sweet and salty. Think cinnamon-sugar toast with butter. Or Cinnamon Toast Crunch with salt. Or, you know, cinnamon rolls without icing.

You know what? Think of cinnamon. Think of salt. Now combine that with a tablespoon of awesome and think of Wheat Thins. These are great for snacking right out of the box, and especially fantastic when paired with a cheesecake dip or a small smear of vanilla icing. They're even good topped with a slice of cheddar. These little guys are versatile and perfect for the holidays.

Unfortunately, they're only available for a limited time, so get them while they're here.

Archway Cookies: Holiday Edition!

Last year, the awesome folks at Archway sent us their line of holiday cookies to review. They were completely amazing, and this year, the generous folks at Archway has surprised us yet again with a sampling of their holiday cookies. We got them just before the snowstorm, so they were a delicious, sweet way to forget that we didn't have lights.

These cookies are just as delicious now as they were then. We were given a sampling of Wedding Cakes, Pfeffernusse, Iced Gingerbread, and Gingerbread Men.

The Wedding Cakes are almost as delicious as my grandmother's: a sugar-coated, melt-in-your-mouth treat studded with Brazil nuts and baked to perfection. These are definitely my favorite of the bunch, but then again, I'm biased - these cookies have a huge emotional connection attached to them.

Next up are the Pfeffernusse, which are slightly spicy and almost licorice-tasting with hints of cinnamon, cloves, and raisins (which is not at all surprising, seeing as there's raisin paste added to them.) Chewy and (also) rolled in powdered sugar, these are another delightful treat to have with coffee or tea.

Next, we have two variations on one of my favorite holiday cookies: gingerbread. Dave and I used to make gingerbread houses when I was a kid: huge, elaborate, Necco-wafer-shingled Victorian-esque houses with melted lollipop windows and Twizzler fences. (The best part was eating it.) But I digress. Archway's gingerbread cookies are just as good as any I can make, if not better. The crunchy gingerbread men are a perfect go-with for hot chocolate, and the softer iced gingerbread cookies practically scream wintertime at you as you eat them.

If you've never had any Archway holiday cookies, you're seriously missing out. They're truly "just like homemade" and are just as worthy of a spot at your holiday gatherings as the ones your family makes. Archway holiday cookies should be available at your local grocery store now.

Ed Hardy Rocks: Highly Caffeinated Chocolates

Have you ever had chocolate-covered coffee beans?  Starbucks sells them, and so do a lot of other, smaller coffee shops.  Pop one in your mouth and you get delicious smooth chocolate, ability-enhancing caffeine, and a mouthful of nasty-assed coffee grinds, homemade by your very own teeth, which find their way to every nook and cranny of your mouth, providing you with endless opportunities to spit out cruddy black granules all day.  It's a great idea - directly-ingestible chocolate-flavored coffee nuggets - but a horrible execution.  (But feel free to tell me in the comments how much you love them and what an asshole I am.)

But there is a BETTER WAY:  Ed Hardy Highly Caffeinated Chocolates.  

Not too long ago, I got an email from Eat Hardy LLC, asking if I'd like a sample of their Ed Hardy Rocks caffeinated candy to try.  Soon, there were small boxes of little round nuggets in my mailbox.  Lynnafred, who is able to detect chocolate the way a bloodhound can detect a chain gang escapee, had placed the package on the dining room table and was still circling it when I got home from work.

"What are THESE?" she demanded in her Chocolate Voice.

"Chocolate Rocks and Coffee Rocks, caffeinated chocolates," I said. "Wanna try 'em?" Well, of course she wanted to try them, and so did I.

The Chocolate Rocks are smooth delicious chocolate, covered with a dark brown candy coating, and spiked with caffeine. Although firm enough to crunch when bitten, there's no graininess to the chocolate, which melts deliciously in the mouth with a rich flavor somewhere between milk and dark chocolate.  Coffee Rocks are similar, but with a flavor more like mocha-tinged espresso, deep and slightly bitter.  Lynnafred chose the Chocolate as her favorite; I was more partial to the coffee. Either way, they're high-quality confectionary, and you can enjoy them without filling your mouth with coffee grounds like some old percolator basket.

And what about the caffeine, you ask?  Well, five Rocks carry the gentle eye-opening properties of a single cup of Joe, but there are more than five Rocks in a box.  I forget just how many, unfortunately, but let's just say it's a good-sized handful.  And the people at Eat Hardy LLC are refreshingly up-front with their nutritional information.  They know that most people aren't going to stop at five candies, especially when using them as a delicious way to pull an all-nighter, so they come right out and say that the serving size is "1 box."  Good for them, it's about time there was some common sense out there.

Yes, these are totally eye-opening and awesome. You can find them, I presume, at any of the Ed Hardy stores sprinkled around the country, or you can order them online (click here.)

McDonald's Sausage McMuffin with Egg AND BACON

I noticed a smallish sign dangling from the menu display at my local McDonald's last week:  Add Bacon To Any Sandwich: 99 Cents. That has some serious potential for dietary abuse. Imagine, if you will, a Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese and Bacon.

Though I rarely eat anything other than breakfast at McDonald's, that sign was still highly relevant to my interests.  So this morning, when I stopped to pick up the best breakfast sandwich on the planet, a Sausage McMuffin With Egg, I decided to BACONIZE IT.  

"Sausage McMuffin with Egg, please.  And add bacon to it."

The woman behind the counter looked a little surprised.  "You want to add bacon to that? Really?"

"Yes," I replied. "I'm crazy. Please do it or I will stand here and bark like a dog."

She laughed and keyed the order in.

I did not think it possible to improve upon a Sausage McMuffin with Egg.  I was wrong. This sandwich was BORN TO BEAR BACON. The smoky umami of the bacon pairs perfectly with the egg, of course, but also highlights and enriches the already-outstanding flavor of the sausage.  If you already like Sausage McMuffins with Egg, you should add bacon to it at least once to experience this awesomeness for yourself.

And McDonald's, I say to you: Offer a Sausage McMuffin With Bacon And Egg as a regular menu item. It's amazing (and I don't ever use that word lightly because it's trite and overplayed.) Just remember it was my idea and I'll expect at least a sweetly-loaded Arch Card for my troubles.

Sweet Treasures Petit Fours

I'm going to lay it down on the table right now: of all delicious desserts, Petit Fours are probably my absolute favorites. It's common to find me combing the "yesterday's bake" rack at Stop and Shop during the holidays for any packages of petit fours I can find. There's something about their delicious chocolate-coated-cakey goodness that I can't resist.

So, imagine my delight when I found boxes of petit fours at Ocean State Job Lot the other day. Delicious! I begged Dave to get me a box of them and couldn't even wait until we were in the car to try one. I held the small cake in my mouth as I struggled to close the box, and Dave couldn't help but laugh at me as I said, "Oh my God, I'm drooling!"

And these petit fours are totally droolworthy. Rich vanilla flavor and soft, spongy cake are perfectly matched by soft, smooth vanilla buttercream frosting and white chocolate coating. I'm completely content with these petit fours, although my favorites will always be the vanilla ones with the smidge of raspberry jam in the center.

The Triumphant Return of Who Let You Cook?!

Lynnafred here.

I've been doing a lot of cooking lately. I've been making dinners, coming up with creative new lunches, and generally been spending a lot more time than should be normal in the kitchen. (Dave even told you all about my most recent baking rampage which resulted in two full batches of cookies, and two half batches of cookies, for well over 100 cookies total.)

So it should come as no surprise that when my friend and partner writer over at Lynnafred's Fashion Disasters, Nannerkins, stayed overnight because of the recent tornado, the first thing we did in the morning was look for something to eat. And what happens when the only things in the fridge are cheese, meat, eggs, and a green pepper? If you said omelet, you're close. But we were far too lazy for the whole "omelet" thing, so we went for dirty scrambled eggs instead.

"Dirty" scrambled eggs are one of our favorite morning snacks where we just take whatever we have in the fridge and throw it into our eggs. They're not pretty, but they taste delicious.

This one's got kielbasa, green peppers and cheese in it. The one below has ham, cheese, and green peppers in it.

They're a really easy thing to make in the morning (especially if you're omelet impaired, like Yours Truly over here.) I usually chuck the meat and veggies in the pan first to saute in the butter, then pour the eggs over the entire lot, and as they're cooking, add the cheese and mix it all up until the eggs are set and the cheese is melty. DELICIOUS!!

Vecchitto's Italian Ice, Middletown CT

Dekoven Drive in Middletown is a quiet two-lane road on the edge of the town. It runs parallel to Route 9, and as you travel 9 past the city, you can look at Dekoven and see a few billboards, a couple apartment buildings, some former industrial buildings, and a business or two as you go by.  One particular building stands out in a quietly unobtrusive way; a single-story red brick storefront nestled between two larger white structures. There's a sign over the door - Vecchitto's Italian Ice - and a couple of neon signs in the window. It's easy to drive past, but if you're paying attention you can take Exit 15 off of Route 9 (the sign says "66 West, Middletown, Marlboro,") hook a quick right after you get off of 9, and wind up right there at the door of Vecchitto's.  Do this, and you will find frozen happiness in a small paper cup.  Do this not, and you will be poorer for what you have missed.

The Vecchitto family have made and sold Italian Ices in the summer since 1930, here in Middletown and at another location at Sound View. (The shops are only open between Memorial Day and Labor Day.) At one time the family drove a vending truck through the streets, summoning children to the curb with a bell announcing that ices had arrived, but these days the customers come to the shop.  The Vecchittos are old friends to many of their customers, some of whom had enjoyed ices as children and are now bringing their own children and grandchildren there.

The store is a humble place. Behind the counter is a long freezer chest with doors in the top, and there's a cash register at one end.  On the right is another long freezer chest.  By the front window is a single small table and a few chairs. Most customers don't sit inside, though, they bring their ices outside to enjoy with the breeze from the Connecticut River as they slurp their frozen treats and watch the cars whiz by on Route 9.  There's a sign listing the flavors currently available, but if you have a special flavor in mind, just ask - sometimes they have a variety or two that hasn't made it to the board.

I took the family to Vecchitto's on opening day - this year, it was Saturday the 28th.  We got there about 1:30 in the afternoon and there was a steady stream of customers, though no lines or long waits.  As the summers deepens, it gets crazier near the shop with lines of people waiting for their ice fix and cars parked up and down the shoulders of Dekoven.  We ordered a variety of different flavors to sample across the boards and every one of them was completely awesome. Chocolate, rich and impossibly fudgy, almost like a slushy Tootsie Roll; Coconut, clean and smooth and fantastic; Blue Raspberry, fragrant with berry flavor and vanilla; Watermelon (one of Vecchitto's most popular flavors,) like a scoop of frozen fresh fruit; and Grape - remember the full-bodied Concord grape flavor of Welch's juice or Mountain Dew's Pitch Black? Yeah, like that.

Really, there is no Italian Ice anywhere that can compare to Vecchitto's. You would totally make your own day if you took a few minutes to stop by on your way through Middletown, but it is equally worthwhile to drive to Middletown just to get a scoop at Vecchitto's. 

You can even make it an awesome day trip if you want.  We made the ride special by driving to Middletown "the back way" - rather than taking I-91 south to Route 9, we got off 91 in Hartford and picked up Route 2, then traveled up scenic Route 17 to 17A (Main Street in Portland) and over the Arrigoni Bridge into Middletown.  On the way home, we detoured off of 17 in Glastonbury to Route 160, and took the ferry across the river to Rocky Hill, where we caught 91 North and came home again.

That ferry is the oldest continually-operated ferry crossing in the US. It started as a private enterprise in 1655 and was taken over by the State of Connecticut in 1915. Today, the Department of Transportation will bring your carload of people across the river on a ferry platform powered by a small tugboat, and all it will cost you is a drive through some of the prettiest scenery in the state and $3.00 for the fare (which is a bargain.)

Dan'l Boone Country Ham at Dollar Tree!

My fascination with Dollar Store Meat continues: I found 3-ounce packages of real, honest, genuine (and delicious) Country Ham (aka American Prosciutto) at Dollar Tree.  At a dollar a package, it works out to a little over $5 a pound, a fair price, and not bad if you consider how incredibly hard it is to find real Country Ham up here in New England.

The ham in the packages - Dan'l Boone Brand - are pre-sliced, and it is the real deal.  And I kind of like the small packs because I can pull out a slice to accent a cold cut grinder, or add some to a pot of greens, or use up the whole pack at breakfast time with delicious biscuits.  Like many other Dollar Tree items, this one probably won't be around long, so if you have a hankering for the taste of real Country Ham, hie thee to a Dollar Tree with a refrigerated food section and grab a packet or two. I promise it's good stuff.

Dan'l Boone Brand is one of the labels used by Goodnight Brothers of Boone, NC to sell their ham.  According to the information on their web page, Dan'l Boone is primarily packaged for grocery store chains and is distributed by Sysco.  They package their product under other labels for different distribution networks, and that includes a brand they call "Hardee's Country Ham" which is packaged exclusively for distribution to and by Hardee's fast food restaurants.

Also of interest:  Goodnight Brothers is on Facebook.  Check out their page's photo album for a close-up look at how country hams are prepped, cured, processed, and packed. It's fascinating.

Archway Introduces Three New Awesome Cookies

Archway Cookies, the Official Cookie of Dave's Childhood, has introduced three additions to their delicious cookie lineup:  Shortcake, Triple Chocolate, and Peanut Butter.

Last week, the folks at Archway sent me a package of each of these new varieties and asked me if I could rate their Awesomeness Factor.  I broke out a big bottle of milk, gathered the family around the table, and passed around the Archways.

The Triple Chocolate cookies are wonderful. Soft and chewy, they have the texture of rich fudgy brownies. Each cookie is generously studded with white, dark, and milk chocolate morsels, and every bite is a satisfying rush of chocolate flavor. They're probably the best commercial chocolate cookie I've ever had.

Peanut butter lovers will really go for the Archway Peanut Butter cookies, studded with chopped peanuts and filled with peanut butter deliciousness. Like their chocolate cousins, they're rich and fudgy in texture.

Everyone and their Uncle Reese knows how great peanut butter and chocolate taste together. We made some simple sandwich cookies by spreading the flat side of an Archway Triple Chocolate cookie with some Peanut Butter & Co's White Chocolate Peanut Butter and then topping it with an Archway Peanut Butter cookies.  The kids enjoyed them carefully, lest the cookie's awesomeness cause a rift in the Snack Continuum.

There were no such snacktime shenanigans performed with the Archway Shortbread cookies, however.  They were far too excellent to fiddle with. In fact, they delivered the perfect shortbread experience: Rich, meltingly tender butter crumb with a huge finish trailing off to just the barest hint of saltiness at the end to accent and tie the flavors together.  "When life sucks," Lynnafred observed, "nothing makes it better like a couple of shortbread cookies and a hot cup of tea.  They're the perfect comfort snack. And these are the perfect shortbread cookies."

These brand-new varieties have been hitting the store shelves over the past few weeks.  If your favorite store hasn't stocked them yet, be patient - they surely will soon.  Or, you could be impatient and ask the store manager if they can get them in more quickly.

Link:

Archway Cookies website.

The Continuing Mad Deliciousness of Wheat Thins Stix

Well, Nabisco has done it again, taking the awesomeness of Wheat Thins, rolling them into crunchy sticks, and making them just about irresistible in two new flavors - Chipotle Pepper and Cinnamon Kick.

Last week, the Wheat Thins folks sent along a box of both of the new flavors for Lynnafred and I to review.  We cracked the boxes open tonight and shared them around with the family so that everyone could experience the addictive delight of STIX.

The first box we opened was Chipotle Pepper. Their wheaty deliciousness is enhanced with a smoky, chile-peppered flavor that isn't really backed up with much spicy heat. Although I was hoping for a bit more spice, I have to admit that they did a pretty good job of capturing the flavor of chipotles while leaving the heat behind; while that might be a bit of a disappointment for me, Maryanne and the grandkids thought they were just the best.  The Chipotle Pepper Stix do have a bit of residual heat that kind of builds up into a gentle warmth in the mouth as noshing progresses - in a mild and kid-friendly way - so don't buy them if you're trying to impress your frat buddies with your capacity for ingesting fire.   Oh, and by the way, they're excellent broken into a bowl of tomato soup.

Of the two, the Cinnamon Kick flavor that we opened next was actually our favorite. Like the other Stix we've enjoyed, the Cinnamon Kick variety is subtly sweet without being like a cookie. The cinnamon flavor is exceptionally well-balanced by the toasty wheat flavors, making an awesome savory crunchy snack.  You know what we found most surprising of all?  Cinnamon Kick has a touch of jalapeno pepper juice in the ingredients! It gave the cinnamon a wonderful warm glow loike you might get from a taste of cinnamon heart candies, and everyone really liked it.

Nabisco is packaging the new flavors in the same cleverly-designed widemouth box that has distinguished Wheat Thins Stix since their introduction.  I appreciate this design even more now, with the kids around - they find it easy to help themselves to the Stix without having to bury their grubby little arms in the box. Win all around as far as I'm concerned.

Yes.  The new Wheat Thins Stix are every bit as fantastic as Honey Wheat and Fire Roasted Tomato, the first two varieties.  And if I ever meet the people who developed the recipe, I'm going to shake their hands and  buy them each a Pepsi Throwback, because Stix have no high fructose corn syrup in them.  Awesome indeed.

A New Take on an Old Favorite

Peanut butter and Marshmallow Fluff sandwiches - Fluffernutters - are a long-standing lunchtime favorite in New England, and no wonder because they're completely excellent.

But you know what's even more excellent?  Strawberry Fluff, with Peanut Butter & Co.'s Dark Chocolate Dreams peanut butter. It turns lunch into chocolate/strawberry AMAZEMENT.

A Whisper of Summer

The snowbank at the foot of my driveway is still five feet high, and there's still a couple of feet of snowpack remaining in the yard. The temperature got down to 10 degrees last night, and I'm still pouring pellets into the stove to keep the house warm.  But thanks to some awesome heirloom tomatoes sliced for BLTs, we can pretend it's summer for a little while.

It's hard not to be drawn to the heirloom tomato display at Stop & Shop when I walk through the produce department.  The GOOD tomatoes (as opposed to all the flavorless pink billiard balls in the standard produce section) just call out my name whenever I go by. Finding little stickers on the fruit identifying them as "UglyRipe" tomatoes piqued my interest and I thought I'd find out a little more about them.

UglyRipe tomatoes are an heirloom hybrid grown in Florida. Unlike many "winter tomatoes" sent to New England markets, UglyRipes are as flavorful as a backyard-grown summer tomato.  Because they were developed from heirloom tomato strains, they also have the classic ridges and "wrinkles" of old-fashioned backyard varieties as well, and this characteristic has historically pissed off the Florida Tomato Committee, a state regulatory board that for years prevented UglyRipes from being shipped out of state because they didn't fit the standards for Florida tomatoes (i.e. they aren't perfectly round, smooth, and indistinguishable from the tomatoes around it.)  The Florida Tomato Committee's rules are probably to blame for all those cellophane-wrapped unripe balls of nastiness which used to pass for tomatoes in northern markets when I was a kid.

Anyway, UglyRipe growers finally were able to get the courts to overturn the shipping ban in 2007.  For those of us tired of Big Agriculture breeding the flavor out of fruits and vegetables in favor of uniform appearance and "shippability," that was good news.  UglyRipes are as excellent a tomato as you can find in the dead of winter, and are one of the few acceptable tomatoes available to us before we can start picking fresh field-grown tomatoes out of our own gardens in July.

Slice one of these babies and awesomeness ensues.  You don't even need to dirty a frying pan for the bacon if you use some of the Hormel ready-to-eat stuff (which I still contend is the best of the pre-cooked bacons out there.)

Link:

SantaSweets, Inc. website - home of the UglyRipe tomato.

Fishy Delights 41: Ready-To-Eat Crispy Squid Heads

Ready-to-Eat Crispy Squid Heads.  I can't even begin to tell you how delighted I was to find this snack on my latest excursion to A. Dong Supermarket in West Hartford.  I just looked at the photo on the package and was overwhelmed with the urge to buy it.

I got home and ripped open the package.  A strong but clean aroma of fried clams slapped me in the face, and I peered inside the bag to find it filled with lightly breaded squid tentacle bunches, fried until crispy, fairly beckoning me to reach in and GRAB THEM AND NOM.

I managed to control myself long enough to take some pictures.  

You can see how deliciously delicate the tentacles are.  They're covered, as I said, in a light crunchy breading.  And they are scrumptious, though not in the way that I expected them to be.

Because when I smelled their calamarish perfume and saw that they were indeed actual squid tentacles, I expected an assertive squid flavor, which is not actually what I got.  No, the flavor is subtle and almost ethereal rather than bold and clammy. These tasty morsels are close cousins to those tins of French-fried onions that people dump out onto green beans at Thanksgiving time, only with a hint of seafood flavor replacing the onion taste.

Despite the gentleness of the squid taste, I found myself really enjoying them.  They were crunchy and satisfying and there was just enough in the package to make a perfect snack.  I am really glad that I bought two of them while I was there, so I can treat myself to them again without having to make the road trip out to West Hartford for them.

Homemade Stock Concentrate

Some time ago, I bought a small jar of chicken stock concentrate by a company called Savory Basics.  It was the best stock concentrate EVER.  A little bit added to a homemade gravy really kicked up the flavor, and if I needed a really fast stock that truly tasted homemade, a spoonful dissolved in some simmering water yielded an instant broth that tasted like it had been cooking all day on a back burner. Wicked high quality, but as you can imagine, mad expensive for that little five-ounce jar - almost seven dollars.

Eventually, I used it all up, but I kept the jar for information purposes as I searched in vain for another one.  The company which made it, Sarliz LLC, has apparently gone out of business; their website clicks over to one of those "domain parking" pages, and when I dialed their phone number it came up as disconnected.  Too bad, because this was a really bitchin' product that I truly loved.

[Slight tangent:  Sarliz LLC was founded by former Nestle VP Bob Greene.  Mr. Greene, if you're out there reading this, I'm really sorry the marketplace didn't properly reward the awesomeness of Savory Basics stock.]

Anyway, for a long time I've pondered upon how to make a similar stock concentrate at home.  I wanted it to be somewhat shelf-stable but would settle for refrigerator-stable (something that could have a refrigerated shelf life measurable in months.)  I was thinking along the lines of a demi-glace on steroids, but because any single roasted meal usually produced such a limited amount of drippings with which to work, my ideas never got much past the planning phase.

Until I cooked that turducken. The long roasting time, triple-shot of poultry products, and loads of savory stuffing ingredients left me with a whopping quart and a half of rich and flavorful drippings topped with a massive load of poultry fat.  When the frankenbird had been removed from the roaster and carved and served with gravy made from a separate pot of poultry stock from the birds' bones and trimmings, I poured off the accumulated drippings into a big bowl and realized that I had enough to try making my own stock concentrate.

I started by removing most of the fat from the bowl of drippings, setting the fat aside for later use.  I deglazed the pan with the minimum amount of water needed for the job, then poured that off into a large round cake pan, to which I added the drippings, whisking all the while to make a smooth blend.  It was about the consistency of heavy cream.  From there, the cake pan went into the oven at 200F.

It stayed there for about five hours.  Every hour or so I would slide it out of the oven and poke at it with a spoon to check the consistency and make sure that it was simply evaporating and not burning.  I was finally left with a cake pan filled with a dark, tarry paste which was slightly tacky to the touch.  I tasted the smallest bit of it, smeared on the tip of a spoon.

It tasted amazing.  There was no bitterness from long cooking, no hint of char. I called Maryanne and Lynnafred in and they each tasted a bit.  Maryanne's eyes widened: "Wow.  That's rich."

"It's like you took all the flavor from all three birds and packed it into that pan," Lynnafred observed.  She hit it right on the head - that was exactly what I was going for.  Although a much darker color than the Savory Basics stock concentrate that I missed so much, I managed to capture the same effect.

The next step was a little trickier.  I scraped the concentrate back into a bowl and began working in salt and poultry fat, tasting tiny amounts smeared on the back of the spoon every so often to monitor the progress.  I wanted enough salt to act as a preservative and make the concentrate useful as a soup base and a seasoning, but not so much as to render it inedible.  It was trial and error and I had to go slowly because I didn't have more to fall back on if I made a mistake.   It took some time, but eventually the proper balance of rich roasted poultry flavor and salt was reached.  I tested it by stirring a teaspoon of the concentrate into a cup of boiling water and...it was perfect, giving me a cup of delicious, full-flavored poultry stock.  Huzzah!

When I packed away my homemade stock concentrate, it filled a half-pint jelly jar.  I've used it now and again, bringing a quick boost of additional flavor and awesomeness to soups, gravies, and sauces, and it never disappoints.  I use it sparingly, the same way I used my treasured Savory Basics stock concentrate, and it is serving me well.  I hope that when I finally run out I'm able to do it again.

Balli Cerez

The produce store in my hometown carries a lot more than just fresh fruits and veggies.  The owner, a Turkish expatriate, carries a wide variety of imported groceries from his home country.  I've written about some of the cheeses and dairy products before, but today I'm writing about balli cerez, or "Honey Nut," an amazing and delicious spread widely enjoyed in Turkey as a snack.

Balli cerez first came to my attention just before Christmas when Enfield Produce stocked a shelf with large and small jars of it.  The outside layer of nuts in the jar, so carefully arranged into neat rows, caught our eye immediately, and we decided to add a jar to everyone's basket.

Our own jar, however, sat quitely in the pantry while we went about our holiday business, until last night when I discovered it anew.  Time for a snack!

I opened a jar and dug in a teaspoon, taking out a small amount for a taste. [Cue choir of angels.]  Damn, this stuff is amazing.  It's like eating baklava without the puff pastry, only better because there's a mix of nuts both common and rather exotic within. The flavors and textures combine almost magically.  I took out a full spoonful and spread it on some bread and was suddenly confronted with the best toast spread EVAR.  Once the jar was opened and left visible on the kitchen table, the rest of the family decided to have tastes as well, and before long the little 200g bottle was nearly empty.  Looks like I need to go back to Enfield Produce and buy one of the BIG jars.

How can you not want a
jar of this based just on
presentation alone?

Ingredients include honey, beemilk (that's royal jelly), pistachios, almonds, hazlenuts, caraway, pine nuts, walnuts, peanuts, coconut, radishseed, black cumin, apricot seed, and pollen.  I guess many of these ingredients have health benefits - the label also reads:

For everyone who wants to be young with a strong mind and nerves, for every old man who dreams to have his youth back.

Amazing stuff indeed.

David Glass Is Back!

Photo from www.davidglass.com

According to this story by Korky Vann at ctnow.com, David Glass is back - for now, at least - in a "pop-up" bakery in South Windsor.  Glass and his wife Vivie are calling the new shop "Vivie and David Glass' Delicious Desserts," and will be the only employees, baking during the week and opening to the public for tastings and sales on Saturdays through December 18.

This Saturday, December 4, will the first tasting and sale with the bakery open from 9 am to 4 pm.  The new location is at 400 Chapel Road in South Windsor.  For more information, click the link on the beginning of this post to go to the ctnow.com article.

Boniet

Boniet is an Italian "spread" (for lack of a better word) made up from parsley and anchovies and garlic, finely chopped together.  It's kind of like a pesto, I guess, but without the strong and heady basil flavor.  

It's used most frequently as an appetizer, spread on crusty bread or on freshly sliced tomatoes.  I like it with small fresh mozzarella balls, cherry tomatoes, assorted olives, and thinly sliced red onion.  I make small, single-serving salads in little glass bowls, arranged around a central dollop of boniet that diners can use as they please.

Like many other Italian "family" recipes, there are probably a million ways to make boniet.  They all start with parsley, anchovies, garlic, and olive oil, but from there it seems that everyone has their own variations.  My family's version calls for a touch of basil and a little bit of tomato paste.

Boniet

1 large bunch of parsley, leaves only

4 cloves garlic

12 non-pareil capers

2 or 3 sweet basil leaves

2 ounces anchovies (1 small can), drained (reserve the oil.)

1½ tablespoons tomato paste

Using a Chinese chef's knife
to chop the ingredients finely.

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

Pick all the leaves off of the parsley and discard the stems.  Chop the parsley, garlic, capers, basil, adn anchovies together until the mixture is an homogenous paste. Stir in the reserved oil from the anchovies, the tomato paste, and the vinegar.  Store in the refrigerator overnight to allow the flavors to meld.

Allow boniet to come to room temperature before using.  Spread on toast, or use as a dressing on tomatoes, eggs, and salad or use like pesto on pasta or pizza.

Boniet really does make an awesome pizza sauce.  Spread your pizza dough with some boniet, then add cooked, sliced boneless/skinless chicken breast, slices of fresh mozzarella, and a generous sprinkling of grated smoked provolone cheese.

Buon appetito!

Archway's Incredible Holiday Cookies

On Friday - totally unannounced and out of the blue - a package arrived on the front porch.  I wasn't expecting anything, so imagine my surprise and delight to find that it was filled with samples of Archway's new holiday cookies!

As awesome as the people at Archway are for sending them, these new cookies are even more awesome.  Just in time for the holidays, they've gone and made a special line of cookies that are delicious enough to serve to guests.  Many of the labels say "just like homemade."  I know you've heard that before, but in this case it's true - the cookies are indeed just like homemade.  Let's try them out one by one, shall we?

Snow Tops are chocolate cookies with walnuts topped with a royal-icing-like frosting glaze.  They're as rich and chewy as fudge, bursting with chocolatey goodness with just the right amount of chopped walnuts baked in.  These quickly became a favorite here.

Archway's Pfeffernusse are a delicious variation of the German Christmas favorite.  Cloves and cinnamon are prominent in the cookie, which is just slightly soft and chewy and rolled in powdered sugar.

If you're a fan of Archway cookies at all, you'll remember their Cashew Nougat cookies.  A few years ago when the company was in dire straits, Cashew Nougats were discontinued.  But they're one of Archway's most beloved and fondly remembered product, and even the quickest of Google searches will turn up dozens of recipes attempting to duplicate them.

No need now, though - Archway has brought them back, and they are every bit as delicious now as they were back in the day.  Sweet just a bit brittle, they melt in your mouth.  The cashews are the perfect compliment to the nougat and the nuts' hint of saltiness makes the sweet cookies even more delectable. 

If your holiday traditions included a few packages of Cashew Nougats, you are not going to be disappointed.  And if your holiday traditions don't include them, it's a great time to start!

Wedding Cake cookies are a time-honored tradition in our family.  Ever since she was a wee lass of four summers, Lynnafred has spent time with her Nonnie (my mom) making Wedding Cakes just before Christmas.  It was an inexpensive way for Lynnafred to give everyone in the family a delicious Christmas treat, and it got her involved in the kitchen early on.  

We still make wedding cakes, but this year they'll be joined by Archway's Wedding Cake cookies.  Sweet and walnutty and delicious, they're another melt-in-your mouth delight.

Candy Cane cookies are another new addition to Archway's holiday lineup.  They're semisoft shortbread cookies, studded with peppermint morsels and drizzled with icing glaze.  They're cool and sweet and minty and taste like an eight-year-old's dream of Christmas morning, as painted by Norman Rockwell, with full stockings hanging from the mantle and candy canes hooked on the branches of the Christmas tree.

If I were expecting a visit from Santa Claus this year, these are the cookies I'd put on the plate for him.  After all,  I presume they're made with Essence of Kid's Christmas, which isn't actually on the label unless of course it's classified as a "natural flavor."

Even with all the other delicious offerings, the holidays just wouldn't be the same without gingerbread.  Archway's Iced Gingerbread cookies are soft and tender and fun to eat.  Yes, the icing has something to do with it, but then there are the red and green sprinkles studding the icing.  You can never go wrong with gingerbread.  Or icing.  Or sprinkles.  Especially sprinkles.

Last, but by no means least, are Archway's Holiday Gingerbread Man cookies.  They're very similar to gingersnaps, but in the form of happy little gingerbread men seemingly rapturous with the thought of being dipped into coffee and munched.

For more information about any of these cookies, visit Archway's website.  It includes a store locator you can use to find a retailer near you carrying them, so you can experience the awesomeness for yourself.

More Pocky

Awhile ago, I did a post on a collection of Pocky I'd eaten. Well, I'm back again with two more flavors: Strawberry Custard Cake and Chocolate Banana Cake.

The Chocolate Banana Cake have a lot more flavor than the regular chocolate banana flavored ones that I tried before. These seemed to have a more "natural" tasting banana flavor instead of the typical, noticibly artificial sort. The chocolate on these was also more pronounced, giving it an equal standing with the banana instead of letting it get overshadowed. They were good.

The Strawberry Custard Cake ones were heavenly, however. Milky and rich and full of strawberry flavored goodness, these are my new #1 favorite Pocky flavor. It was like biting into vanilla custard topped with fresh strawberries...except, you know, on a Pocky biscuit stick.

Life Savers Gummies: Island Fruits flavors

There are two kinds of food I'll try with almost no hesitation. The first one is potato chips. There's something about the greasy little buggers that I absolutely adore. If there was ever a way to win my heart with little or no effort, potato chips would be the way to go. The second is with any kind of gummi or other fruit snack. Even more than chips, I'll do anything for a fruit snack. Whenever I notice a new kind of gummi, I'm all over it.

So when I was down in Florida and saw these Life Savers Island Fruits gummis at the local Publix, I couldn't resist. I ended up picking up a bag of these and a bag of Wonka Squishy Splooshberries gummies. I'll review the oddly named Wonka ones later.

The thing I like best about Life Savers gummies is that they're almost always universally good. I've never had a lifesavers gummi candy that I haven't liked. These were, unsurprisingly to me, no exception.

They come in four flavors: pineapple, fruit punch, strawberry kiwi, and mango melon. Mmm, delicious. The pineapple ones taste exactly like the hard fruits used to back in the day, before they discontinued them. It was nice to taste that delicious pineapple flavor again. The mango melon ones were also really delicious, with a strong mango flavor and just the slightest backdrop of canteloupe. The fruit punch ones were the fairly standard fruit punch flavor - they tasted just like red Hawaiian Punch. The most disappointing one was the one I was really looking forward to: the strawberry kiwi one, which had a completely artificial strawberry flavor and a hint of that artificial grass-like kiwi flavor.

Other than the disappointment of the strawberry kiwi gimmi, the others were all really enjoyable. I'm not sure if I'd really call them "island" fruits as much as I would "troipcal" (which mean almost the same thing in the marketing world anyway) but if I saw them again around here, I'd pick them up. They were a nice change of pace from the typical flavors that you find in every pack of gummies and fruit snacks.