Yummy yummy yummy I got love in my tummy

I ate a new flavor of ice-cream the other day called Denali Bear Claw. It's basically a creamy dark chocolate ice-cream with goopy caramel swirls and little chocolate coated cashew clusters.

It tasted like there was a party in my mouth... and everyone was getting it on. Aw yeah.

What foods make you ecstatically happy? (And why aren't you eating a big bowl of them right now instead of reading this nonsense?)

Sweet, sweet candy.

I have been sadly lacking in sugar-related content on this blog lately, so here's a two-fer.

1. A recipe: Super Easy Peanut Butter Cups
(little chocolate cups filled with peanut butter, for those of you unaware of the glory)

Ingredients:
1 tub chocolate frosting
1 jar peanut butter, crunchy

Using a teaspoon, remove 1/2 teaspoon of chocolate frosting from the tub.
Using the same teaspoon now containing the frosting, remove 1/2 teaspoon of peanut butter from the jar.
Serve directly into mouth. Swirl if desired.
Repeat until suffused with the joy and wonder of life / insulin shock sets in.

2. Another blog about candy
(much more about candy than mine is, to be honest)

Richard, The Bewildered Brit, is a British expat living in the USA. He writes about the history of various candies, both famous and obscure, and includes reviews for your gustatory information! It went on my reading list because I like to hear other non-US born viewpoints on this place, because I like learning about things (in short bursts appropriate to my attention span), and (duh) because it's about one of my favorite things (candy, duh). I also imagine the blog's voice as a posh, Jeeves-like accent, which always makes things more enjoyable.

So in summation, you should read The Bewildered Brit, but only if it doesn't interfere with paying attention to me!

Clearly, no one could be a more appropriate candidate for the Sweet Blogger Award.

Halloween Schmalloween.

Halloween is just around the corner!

The vast majority of Australians do not celebrate Halloween. Trick or treating is virtually unheard of. If you don't have small children, who might do some Halloween-themed coloring-in at school, you probably wouldn't even notice it coming and going. So I don't have the cultural connection to it or the emotional history that Americans who've grown up in this tradition might have.

As I remarked some time ago on the Caped Tirader's blog, I like candy (understatement of the year?) but costumes etc. are a bit too much effort for me.

So I propose a new holiday (I can hear the retailers salivating now):

Laze-O-Ween.

It's the lazy version of Halloween! Here, let me show you by comparison:

Halloween: Door-to-door traipsing around the neighbourhood
Laze-O-Ween: Lying prone in the comfiest chair in your house. Preferably a La-Z-Boy - they'd be the perfect Laze-O-Ween sponsors!

Halloween: Elaborate and potentially expensive costumes require thought and effort.
Laze-O-Ween: No costumes, you just wear your undies and a wifebeater. You're in your own home after all.

Halloween: You must buy large amounts of crowd-pleasing, individually wrapped candies.
Laze-O-Ween: You buy however much you want of the candy you like best.

Halloween: American culture dictates that you must give the aforementioned candy away to complete strangers just because they knock on your door and they're so little and adorable in their teeny weeny costumes!!!
Laze-O-Ween: You turn the TV up to drown out the sound of the doorbell, consume all the candy yourself over the course of the evening and fall asleep in a delicious sugar haze, nestled amongst the discarded wrappers.

See? Laze-O-Ween is much better!

What Halloween tradition would you improve with a Laze-o-Ween twist?

Reader Poll: White Chocolate

White chocolate is:

a) delicious

b) all right once every six months or so (or if it's the only chocolate available)

c) second only to carob (aka Satan's chocolate) in evilness


Bonus questions:
Non-Aussie, non-American readers: How popular is white chocolate in your country? Do you have Milky Bars (small flat bars of white chocolate) or Cadbury Top Deck (a block with top half white, bottom half milk chocolate)?

American readers: What have you got against white chocolate, eh? Why does it have to have cookie pieces or truffly goo or vanilla bean pieces in it*? Why can't it just be free to be itself?

*Although the Ghirardelli block with vanilla bean stuff in it is rather nice. *smug smile*

************************

In other news, I got an award from the wonderful mysterg over at Meditations in an Emergency:

Mysterg is a really great blogger I discovered recently, and even though I suspect he gave the award to every blog he reads, it does make me smile to think that someone of his talent thinks well of my crazy nonsense. Also it is in Brazilian and French and has a stylish chick on it, which makes it one of the best awards evs. I'm very pleased to add it to my sidebar.

I was going to agonize over who to pass it on to but honestly I adore so many blogs it would either be an unfeasibly long list or I would forget someone and there would be hurt feelings, so just know that I adore your blog.

Yes, yours.

Forgive me Blogger, for I have sinned. Also, ribbit.

I made a jokey comment on another blog that was supposed to be funny but came off as mean. It hurt that blogger's feelings and I feel effing terrible about it, and I'm so sorry.

So in a desperately transparent effort to worm my way back into his good graces, I am breaking my promise to myself to stop pimping out other bloggers (because they're all better than me and all my readers bugger off to their blogs instead of reading mine) to bring you someone who is indeed one of the cool, beautiful people.

Allow me to introduce you to Trinity.

Trinity is awesome because:

1. Trinity is his real name. It's just a freaking cool name. Like a badass video game character or something.

2. The This Book Will Change Your Life Experiment - as he puts it, said Book is "a 365 page instruction manual for adding crazy shit into your life". He performs daily tasks as instructed by the Book and blogs his experiences for your reading pleasure. I don't think I've ever seen anyone do anything like this on a blog, and I really like it! Luckily he writes in an engaging and entertaining way, because even the best story needs to be told right.

There's no way in hell I'd ever do something that requires so much effort and commitment, but this way I can do it vicariously. Yay! It was an easy instant add to my ginormo reading list.

3. He is the soul-twin of my dear friend, ex-blogger The Girl with the Pink Teacup. Anyone Miss Teacup likes is instantly all right in my book, so in a way, Trinity had pre-approval before I even "met" him. She likes him so much she sent him Freddo Frogs, which brings me to the next part...

4. Trinity also goes by the blogger name of Newt the Wonder Frog. Now, a Wonder Frog sounds pretty awesome in itself, but this is because frogs are awesome already and here's why:

• Frogs are the first indicators of an ecosystem going tits-up. If the frogs are gone, everything else is headed for doom.

• Tree frogs are awesome. They look like plastic or rubber but they are real and they have adorable roundy toe pads. Also they get in the shower with you at your friend's house in the Australian bush. Not because they're pervy, but because it's delightfully humid in there, just like a rainforest.

• Poison Dart frogs are awesome. Toxic secretions from their skin are used by the indigenous peoples of Central & South America to poison the tips of blow-darts (wiki here), and also, they come in a delightful Crayola range of colors.

• Frog Princes are a staple of popular culture. No other animal has as much chance of turning into a prince as the frog. It's just a fact. Although there is little to no data on whether His Highness continues to eat flies after gaining human form.

• Freddo Frogs, as mentioned before, are Australian chocolate frogs available either in solid chocolate or filled with various flavors of delicious goo. And y'all know I like my candy.


So there you have it, now go visit Trinity and tell him I sent you and said he was cool, beautiful and awesome! and then please come back and read me.

Seven Sweets

Someone thinks I'm awesome!


I felt pretty bad about neglecting to follow up on this award meme until I realized that the wonderful Cora, who gave it to me, had admitted to neglecting it for some time herself!

And how could I resist when Cora redesigned the award to have conspicuous sweet-toothed overconsumption, but also it has PINK in it?!

So in honor of Cora's redesign (and the writer's trick of sticking to what you know), my list of seven is all about sweet things from various corners of the globe that I could gorge myself on all day.

The hard part was narrowing it down to seven.

From Australia
Tim Tams
I know I've written about them before, but I can't leave them out of this list!!! Tim Tams are the quintessential Australian cookie, although Aussies call cookies biscuits* (we don't have the savory, scone-like things Americans call biscuits).
A Tim Tam is 2 rectangular chocolate biscuits with chocolate-flavored cream sandwiched in the middle, then the whole thing is covered in chocolate.
I like to eat them by themselves (in large numbers) but there is also a popular technique whereby the Tim Tam is used as a straw by biting off each end and sucking hot chocolate or coffee through it. Shamefully I haven't actually tried this, so if any Aussies out there want to elaborate on this procedure please do!!!

Jaffas
I'm not even sure Jaffas are being made any more. They're little spheres of orangey-flavored chocolate, coated with a thin layer of orange candy (like an M&M). The main use for Jaffas is not eating but rolling them down the aisles at the movie theatre - due to their spherical shape and smooth coating they roll quite well.

Fantales
Another movie theatre candy. Fantales are delicious individually-wrapped rectangular lozenges of milk-chocolate-coated chewy caramel. Your dentist will berate you if you eat too many of these sticky, chewy delights. It's sort of like getting a whole bag of my one favorite chocolate from an assorted box. The unique thing about Fantales is that on the wrapper there are (usually hilariously outdated) movie-related facts such as movie-star biographies or plot synopses of classic films.

Chupa Chups
Chupa Chups aren't really Australian, but as that's where I first ate them and I have yet to personally see them on sale in the US they're going in my Australian list.
Chupa Chups are a brand of lollipop, or sucker, which come in a huge variety of flavors. There's cola flavor, classic fruit flavors such as orange, lemon & strawberry, the expanded fruit range including delicious green apple and transcendent cherry, and a disturbing and unpleasant cream-based flavor range.
Chupa Chups originated in Spain; the name comes from the verb "chupar" which means to suck or lick**. The second-best thing about Chupa Chups, after their deliciousness, is that the logo was designed by one of my favorite artists, Salvador Dali. The third best thing is that the stick is made of plastic instead of paper so it doesn't get all mank and soggy while you're eating.


From America
Milk Duds
Milk Duds, like Fantales, are milk-chocolate-coated chewy caramel but they are not individually wrapped, they are smaller and sort of round pebble shaped. They are completely addictive and it is quite easy to eat a whole box very quickly.
There are of course many more wonderful American candies but this is the one I'm most in love with that is not available in Australia.

From England / Europe
Kinder Surprise Eggs
Kinder Surprise is made by Ferrero, an Italian company. It is a hollow egg (approximately the size of a regular chicken egg) made of a very mild milk chocolate with a thin layer of white chocolate on the inside. Inside the hollow egg is a capsule containing a toy.
They are supposedly designed for children (kinder being the German word for children) but are beloved by most people who like chocolate and awesomeness.
The best Kinder Surprise toys require some construction; they come in parts and have wonderfully simple wordless instructions included in the capsule. Sometimes you'll get a crappy one like a small plastic figurine or a little cardboard jigsaw puzzle, upon which event you throw a tantrum and demand to be bought a new one until a satisfactory surprise is received.

Terry's Chocolate Orange
Terry's Chocolate Orange is from England originally but sold in quite a lot of countries now. It is available in both milk and dark chocolate. It is a ball the size of a small orange, wrapped in orange foil. Before you unwrap the Orange, you bash it against a hard surface like a countertop to break each end, because this releases the segments - it is actually segmented somewhat like a real orange. This is adorable, but also makes it very easy to eat a solid tennis-ball sized amount of chocolate in a very short time.


And that concludes my thesis on interesting, tasty and wonderful things from around the world. Now it's time for that dreaded part of the meme where I infect other people with it. In honor of the Awesummm award's new non-girly-specific design, I am nominating only boy bloggers to pass this onto (but even if you're not on the list or not even a boy, please feel free to take this meme and run with it).
Please write a list of seven things from any topic you like, although I would be delighted if it was related to food and particularly sweet things.

I nominate:
the INdefatigable mjenks
mjenks, I'm so stupid, Cora already nominated you along with me, so you don't have to do it twice if you don't want to!!!

mo.stoneskin
Andy
Words... words... words...
Cooper Green
G Henry
Tennyson ee Hemingway
The Jules - I'm adding you in as a ringer for mjenks since you're my newest male blogroll member!



*Or bickies for short.
**Which you may recognize from the Mexican monster El Chupacabra, the goatsucker.