Food Lush

Pigs in a blanket and other upcoming appetizers

by Caitlin

Notice how I cleverly avoided titling this "Holiday appetizers," "Christmas appetizers," or "New Year's appetizers"? But consider this the ole bait & switch. I do love a good hors d'oeuvre, and I think this can be considered the season of the appetizer. And the season of the cocktail, cookie, baked good, giant meal, and anything else you want to justify indulging in.

I've got a few menus and meals to plan for, and I can't stop thinking about pigs in blankets. A few years ago on a whim I decided to make some (for the first time ever) for a party my husband and I were throwing. He'd just made his own duck breast prosciutto, was plotting a fancy cheese plate, and didn't see a place for pigs in a blanket on our snack table. Guess what was the first to go? Apparently people just can't resist processed meat products wrapped in processed pastry, especially when you offer them something to dip them in. They've become a favorite once-or-twice-a-year indulgence for me ever since, and this is the perfect time of year for them. 

Photo: me

Last year I felt much more virtuous buying cans of crescent rolls and Morally Superior Hot Dogs* at Whole Foods. They didn't have Humane L'il Smokies* at the overpriced hippie grocery store, so I bought regular sized Virtuous Hot Dogs* and cut them into L'il Smoky size. It worked great. Press some poppy or sesame seeds on the top to show you mean business. 

*Not the actual names.

Photo from browneyedbaker.com

In the past I've also had great success with buffalo chicken dip (again using Virtuous Chicken because chicken in a can = ew), and I am currently contemplating Things That are Wrapped in Bacon. Contenders: water chestnuts, scallops, dates stuff with goat cheese. 

Photo from sheknows.com

Yep, I think we've got a winner.

Do you have any fun appetizers planned? What are your feelings on pastry wrapped meat products?

'Tis The Season For All Things Peppermint

By Jessica

Even though Texas hasn't gotten the memo that it's December (yesterday I was sweating in shorts and a tank top while putting up my Christmas tree) it officially is and that means that all manner of peppermint items have hit the stores. As a peppermint fan? This makes me happy, happy, happy.*

I've already purchased, consumed and driven others to purchase many boxes of these:

Junior Mints Peppermint Crunch which are 5 for $5 at Target. To find them, you need to head to the Christmas aisles and look at the back where the stocking stuffers are, they aren't with the regular candy, FYI.

My next favorite candy are peppermint tootsie pops but this year I found these:

 

Candy Cane Pop Drops for the same 5 for $5 sale at Target and snatched up a box to try. 

Even though I love Angie's Kettle Corn and buy the huge bags at Costco whenever they have them, the Holidrizzle White Chocolatier Peppermint Kettle Corn made me skeptical but...

...not enough to keep me from buying it and scarfing down a bag regardless of it's ridiculously tiny quantity. It was good, I definitely wanted more.

Finally, my most favorite ice cream, that I will totally suffer sinus issues for:

Graeter's Peppermint Ice Cream

Of course there's always peppermint bark and everyone that has a TJ's talks about their most beloved Candy Cane Joe Joe's (which I will finally get my hand's on this year, oh yes, I will) but the above are some of my favorites. Tell me about yours, I'm always on the hunt for a new "must have"!

*Duck Dynasty. Yes.

(Photos from: Candyblog.net, Angies, Graeters)

The State Fair of Texas and All the Fried Food in the World

By Julie

There are many things for which the State Fair of Texas (yes, capitalized) is known, but perhaps none so much as the cuisine. Which, in this case, is a fancy word for fried everything. Literally. And it is awesome.

I haven’t been to the fair in many years, so when I had the chance to partake this week, I jumped at it. They have a contest every year to crown winners in new food categories, and the list of champions is long, distinguished, and deeply weird. There have been fried bacon, fired butter, and fried coke. Sensing a theme here?

So I did my own little taste test of decadent delights. My criteria for selection were as follows: it had to be unusual and it had to have enough tickets to buy it. Let Fried Fest begin!

Let me just state from the beginning that all of these foods, ones tasted and ones left for another day, look remarkably similar because they are all created on the principle of “let’s see what bizarre thing we can wrap in dough/dip in batter and fry to oblivion.” Nothing wrong with that.

I started off with the fried banana pudding because I saw it and remembered I’d seen a coupon in the guidebook for it. Savings at the fair? Yes, please. My judging panel consisted of myself, my 4 year old daughter, and my dad. Our conclusion was that this was pretty good, basically a banana cream fried pie. The whipped cream frosting was the best part, in my opinion. My dad said that it would really be better with some crushed up vanilla wafers inside to give it the full banana pudding experience, and I wholeheartedly agree.

A bit later, we were joined by my husband (who’d been off on his own fried food expedition, and more on that in a moment) to try the fried pineapple upside down cake and the fried “taste of autumn” pumpkin pie. The cake was just a canned ring of pineapple battered and friend, and was incredibly difficult to eat with only a flimsy plastic fork. The pineapple just slid out of the coating and refused to be severed by said fork. The pie was ball shaped and merely filled with pumpkin pie filling, so it wasn’t all that spectacular and I have no idea why it required a special “taste of autumn” descriptor. It was merely fine. I guess I just prefer my pumpkin pie chilled.

Now, my husband had wandered off in search of this year’s best taste winner, the fried jambalaya. He said it was tasty, but that it was predominantly a disc of fried rice and couldn’t really find any sausage or seafood in it, as one might expect in jambalaya. He also said it was fairly teeny in portion.

All that said, the winner of the day was a classic: the good ol’ corn dog, a fair staple since forever. Whether you’re a purist and go for a good slather of mustard, or a renegade and cover yours in ketchup (like my daughter, whom I don’t even know anymore, because ketchup?), you cannot go wrong with a corny dog. So good.

And there you have it, my 2012 State Fair of Texas food roundup. If you’d like to join my next year, please being prepping your arteries now.

{Photo Credits: blogs.observer.com, sidedish.dmagazine.com, and eatsblog.dallasnews.com. I actually took my own photos, but my computer and camera are currently conspiring against me.}

New Favorite Candy: Darrell Lea Soft Eating Liquorice

by Caitlin

It's been fairly well-established around here that I'm a sucker for gummy candy. Haribo specifically, but any gummy, fruity confection is a friend of mine, and I am happy to announce I'm adding a new cast member to my (hypothetical) (as far as you know) gummy shrine. There are so many things to love about this new-to-me candy, I hardly know where to start. They spell it liquorice! They call it "soft eating"! It's soft, sweet-but-not-too-sweet, fruity! It comes in a wide variety of flavors, each more delicious than the next!

Photo from amazon.com, and sure, I'll take an 8 pack.

Someone (wisely, generously) gifted me a bag of the strawberry, and just like crack, the first hit is always free. It suddenly became the quest of all parties in my house to find this stuff wherever they went, in order to sample all the flavors, and also apparently to consume bag after bag. We've so far found it at liquor stores (aka Packies, if you're a New Englanduh), and our local World Market. Amazon has a nice selection, too. If you order an 8 pack from Amazon and are looking to unload some, give me a call. I'm a very charitable person and will be happy to help you out.

Photo from amazon.com.

I can't decide what my favorite flavor is: I'm torn between mango and strawberry. The green apple is also quite good. And aside from purchasing all three of those flavors to try, my other piece of advice is to make sure that they are really soft. Give that bag a squeeze. Go on. Don't be afraid. Someone (no naming names) once brought home a rock-hard bag of the ginger, and it was a very sad first world situation indeed. Wonderful flavor, but inedible due to the texture. So squeeze that bag! Be gentle, but firm. The liquorice will understand.

Sadly they are not gluten free, so they're not allergy diet friendly for me, but in the long run that's probably better. I'm betting my dentist is happy, too. Eat some for me, won't you?

Have you tried Darrell Lea LIQUORICE? What's your favorite soft, fruity candy?

(Confidential to Haribo: I love this Darrell Lea fellow, but you have my heart ALWAYS N' 4-EVA. Caitlin + Haribo 4 Life xoxo <3.)

My Favorite Halloween Candy

By Tara C.

(photo from: realsimple.com)

An alternative title to this post could be: Candy I Should Absolutely, Under No Circumstances Buy a Month Before Halloween. As I'm sure you've noticed, Halloween is already in full swing at all the stores. I for one will not be buying any candy for trick-or-treaters until much closer to Halloween. And when I do, it will probably be candy that holds no appeal for me. This mostly includes anything of the hard, lollipop, sour, or gummy variety. But a nice piece of chocolate is a different story.

When I was a kid, there was some hysteria about Halloween candy being tampered with, poisoned, or filled with razor blades. As a result, I remember my dad inspecting our Halloween candy before we were allowed to eat it. He would check that none of the wrappers were torn or otherwise suspicious. And he would also eat some to "make sure it wasn't poisonous." At the time I wasn't suspicious of his motives. But eating something to check for poison? Really? I think maybe he just wanted some of our candy. And you know what, Dad? I totally get it.

On Halloween I get to dress my children in adorable costumes AND they arrive home with a bucketful of candy. This has got to be one of the biggest perks of parenthood, as far as I'm concerned. You know, after the whole unconditional love thing.

So here are the top three candies I'm secretly (well I guess the secret is out) hoping my kids will bring home on Halloween. Now you all know what I'll be doing around 8:30pm on October 31. Pilfering candy from children.

1. Take 5 candy bar is without a doubt my favorite. You guys, if I could find a way to eat these every single day and still fit into my pants, I totally would. It's a combination of pretzels, caramel, peanuts and peanut butter, all wrapped up in chocolate. I don't see these candy bars in the stores very often, but I recently saw bags of the minis for sale in the Halloween aisle of the grocery store and they are calling to me. I'm tempted to write sonnets and haikus about them.

(photo from: kandkkandies.com)

2. Mounds and Almond Joy are my second favorites. Maybe they should be separate, but why bother? They're the fraternal twins of coconut-chocolate candy bars. With or without almonds, they're like a mini-vacation for your mouth.

(photo from: realsimple.com)

This Real Simple article suggests it would be healthy to eat an "old fashioned coconut macaroon" than a Mounds or Almond Joy. Sadly, my children have yet to bring home old fashioned coconut macaroons in their Halloween baskets. They did however, bring home some Fiber One bars last year. I would love to know which neighbors were giving Fiber One bars to trick-or-treaters. Not funny, neighbors! Okay, kind of hilarious.

3. Reese's peanut-butter cups come in third on my list. Like number 1, this one is a winner for it's sweet and salty qualities. By the way, I'm talking about classic Reese's classic peanut-butter cups here. Not the minis, not the white chocolate. Let's stick with the classics, okay?

(photo from: wikipedia)

Please tell me that I'm not the only one looking forward to Halloween candy. What are your favorites? Any other Take 5 fans out there? Or will you be handing out Fiber One bars?

Trader Joe's Cookie Butter

By Julie

We’ve just returned from a cross country road trip, which included not one, but two visits to Trader Joe’s. The second was at the behest of my seven year old. Clearly, I’m raising him right.

Our haul included an item I’ve been reading about on Twitter for some weeks: cookie butter. Come on, those are two of my favorite things! I had to try it.

Oh my. This stuff is heaven in a jar. It’s a smooth, peanut buttery spread that truly does taste like blended cookies (to me, sometimes it’s sugar cookies, sometimes it’s gingersnaps, always it’s delicious). I’ve been using it as a dip for apple slices and a topping over vanilla ice cream, as well as trying very hard not to eat it straight out of the jar with a spoon (and failing).

Certainly, cookie butter does not have many redeeming healthy qualities, but I love finding something new to have as a treat. I can’t wait to come up with some recipes I can make with it. So the next time you find yourself in Trader Joe’s, I highly recommend picking up some Speculoos Cookie Butter. Yum!

{Photo Credit: traderjoes.com}

Fudge From The Bass Pro Shop

by Jen L.

My husband is an avid fisherman, so we make a lot of trips to the Bass Pro Shop. In spite of myself, I actually enjoy these little outings. When else can you see a camoflage mini-fridge? One of my favorite parts of the Bass Pro Shop is the Fudge Shop. Amidst a general store atmosphere crammed with gumballs, circus peanuts and old-fashioned licorice whips, you'll find over a dozen flavors of delicious homemade fudge. And they give free samples.

My son and I took a detour to the Fudge Shop on our most recent trip and were very excited to hear of their "Buy 4 Get 2 Free" special. My son wanted to try a piece of vanilla fudge with rainbow sprinkles. I knew my husband would go nuts over the chocolate pecan variety. I opted for classic chocolate. Before we bought anything, I had to ask whether or not they prepared their peanut butter fudge separately, due to my son's peanut allergy. I was assured by two different employees that not only do they have separate pans, utensils and storage areas, they make peanut butter fudge on different days than the rest of the flavors.  I appreciated their knowledge and reassurrance. My son appreciated the tiny plastic knife they gave him to cut his vanilla fudge.

The flavors ranged from traditional favorites, like chocolate walnut, peanut butter/chocolate swirl, and rocky road to the more exotic, like maple nut, red velvet and the mind-blowing salted nut roll.  They'll let you sample flavors before you commit. My palate can generally only sample two flavors at any given time, lest I go into sugar shock, but all those sweet little squares were very tempting. 

Should you find yourself in a Bass Pro Shop any time soon, be sure to stop by the Fudge Shop for a sample.  I'll bet you leave with a box of fudgey goodness and a tiny plastic knife.

Photo credit:  blogs.basspro.com

Making donuts

by Elsha

My nephew is spending the week with us this week so we were trying to come up fun things for the kids to do. We decided one of the things we wanted to do was make donuts. Random I know, but we have a donut maker, so why not? Our donut maker is like a million years old, but it turns out they still make them! Like this one by Sunbeam:

(photo credit: amazon.com)

The donuts weren't the best donuts I've ever had (I mean, they aren't Krispy Kreme, so obviously they can't be the best.) but they were still yummy!

(photo credit: me)

(photo credit: me)

The kids had a great time adding frosting and sprinkles, and who doesn't want a nice fresh donut? 

Have you ever made fresh donuts? Am I the only person who owns something as random as a donut maker?

Teenage Boy Approved: Limited Edition Hot Pockets

By Jessica

In the fall, my son will be taking Culinary Arts for one of his classes at school. You'd think that maybe he signed up for this class because he has an interest in cooking as a future career, or maybe he wants to head off to college knowing how to feed himself something that resembles real food but you'd be wrong on both counts. He chose that class because they make bacon-wrapped sausage and get to eat it. Can you imagine? Bacon-wrapped sausage. It's every meat-eating, teenage boy's culinary nirvana. 

So obviously my son's choice in food is of the simple and full-of-meat variety. Take, for example, his choice from the grocery store the other day:

They don't seem to have this particular variety on their website, at the moment, but they do have other limited edition flavors, if you want to hop on this train as well. I'd check your local grocery store if you are interested in the same one that Sprog chose, they might just have it, even if it's not listed on the web yet.

These particular Hot Pockets come without the crisping sleeve and are a serving of two mini meat and cheese filled buns at once. Both he and my husband liked them so I guess I'll be grabbing some more at the store to keep on hand as a snack, before they are gone, dumb suckering marketing ploy. *sigh*

(Photo from: me)

My New Favorite Thing: Dairy-Free Dessert

By Jessica

My quest to slowly weed dairy out of my diet has been going well, so far, and I'm feeling better, which means I'm going to grudgingly continue. Thankfully, I can usually get through my day without it and already have some tried-and-true substitutions for most common things. I've even hit on a dairy-free ranch dressing recipe that I'm happy with and of course I have my favorite vegan banana bread recipe.

But sometimes, I just want an ice cream sandwich, like everyone else, and I was so happy to find these litte minis the other day. They taste sorta Mounds bar-ish which is one of my favorite candy bars and since they are made with coconut milk, it's still creamy enough to feel like an actual ice cream treat. 

I really like the smaller size, too, just enough to satisfy a craving but not so much you feel all over-sugared and gross afterward. If coconut flavor isn't your thing, they also have vanilla, or banana split and they also have chocolate dipped bars, or even fudgesicle type bars.

(Photo from: So Delicious)