Happy Halloween

Greetings Friends!  It's been a while since we've posted anything, but I can't let a food-centric holiday go by without posting something about Halloween.  There's lots of arguments about necco wafers and apples being handed out for trick-or-treat, so I think that everyone can appreciate this great video called "The Guide to Trading Candy".  Enjoy!!

A Confession via Lobster Tracks

I have a confession, I've been on a diet since March, so I have not been able to eat or post any evil food delights for your reading pleasure.  That being said, I did go on vacation this past month and fall off the wagon.  After losing 39 pounds and counting, I decided that eating ice cream from a little rustic general store in Maine would be alright.  Of course, that was the first day of daily ice cream for the week, but hey, at least I have something to write about and have since bravely stepped back on the wagon.


Here's a photo of myself and my girl having ice cream at The Granite Hall Store in Round Pond, Maine, which features Gifford's Ice Cream.  Gifford's Ice Cream was born and raised in Maine, and now stretches as far south as New Jersey.  I've had their ice cream religiously on every trip up North, so I honestly can't tell you how it stacks up against Ben and Jerry's - mostly because when I eat it I'm about 100 yards from a harbor and I'm always on vacation.  This means it will always be the best ice cream on the planet.

This time around, because I hadn't eaten ice cream in 4 months, I tediously examined the many many choices at the ice cream stand and opted for Lobster Tracks.  The description hysterically says (smartly so) "This product contains NO lobster. Vanilla ice cream, lobster-colored chocolate cups filled with caramel all swirled with a unique éclair crunch."  I figured this is something worth doubling my daily calorie count for.  Yes, it was good.  The bright red color was a little distracting, but I thought it was definitely worth trying since they made the effort to match the food coloring to the actual color of a lobster. 

So if you were in my shoes, or on a desert island and walked up to the ice cream order window, what would you get, and... cup or cone? 



 

Fabio's Ultimate Donuts

My husband happened to be curious about a recipe for the ultimate donut, as I surfed Facebook I couldn't help but be sucked into watching the hilarious Italian host, and yes, a surprise ingredient in the donuts. Donut fans - check out the video!

Fizz Pop goes the Firecracker Chocolate

My trusted supplier of many culinary adventures, the lovely and talented Dana Isenberg, brought in a Firecracker Chocolate. It's made by Chuao Chocolatier, and consists of premium dark chocolate, chipotle, salt and popping candy (to you normal people that means POP ROCKS). I've been a huge fan of the "dark chocolate and salt with [insert anything here]", so true to form I snapped me up three small sections of the chocolate.

At first I started just chewing it, when Dana suggested I just leave it sitting in my mouth and enjoy the show. I think the show was watching the victim eat the chocolate, as she said the best part was watching my face while I ate it. The chocolate was smooth, the chipotle had this subtle kick, the salt rounded it all out. Then came the pop rocks. Fizzzzzzzzzzzzz. I opened my mouth and could hear that signature semi-unholy sound of strange bubbles escaping from a mad scientist's lab. I really could have just eaten one small section. But no, I had three small pieces to see if I could get past the pop rock flavor and see if it melded with the other ingredients. Nope. By the end of the third piece, my throat felt like I had been on an all night vomit-fest, with this weird bitter burning in my throat.

It was time for my afternoon tea, and no one was more surprised than me to drink my black tea and feel like it re-activated the pop rocks in my throat, it started burning all over again.

So, don't you want to run out and try it now? My advice, buy one bar, and share it with 8 friends, you'll be fine! It's worth the flavor experience, complete with the fizzy novelty.