York Peppermint Patty Pieces

TWR's creator, Pseudo3D, always has his eyes open for tasty food. It was a surprise to him that the local Walmart had opened up part of the space that would be the Food Center department of the Supercenter. Pseudo3D passed through and walked into a room with very high, warehouse style ceilings with a small selection of food. Garbage bag-like tarps blocked off the rest of the store-to-be, and Pseudo3D looked back at the main store. A yellow wall was where the ceiling dropped to its normal general merchandise Wal-Mart height. Had he been in the same place only a year ago, he would've been in a parking lot, staring at a cinderblock blue wall.

But back to the present. He wandered through the food department until he came to a selection of candy. There, on the wall, were Reese's Pieces, York Peppermint Pattie Pieces, Hershey's Special Dark Pieces, and Almond Joy Pieces. He had seen commercials for them, and bought one to find out.

Specifically, it was the York Peppermint Patty Pieces. And how were they? Pseudo3D blogged about them a day after he bought them. And here it is.

You've probably seen the commercials of people grabbing for candy only to have it disintegrate into M&M-like candies, with the designation of "(Candy) Pieces". This, of course, is an extension of the Reese's Pieces line which dates back to the late 1970s/early 1980s and rose to fame with a certain certain movie. Since the E.T. trend died down, it's back in the shadows of M&Ms but are still widely available.

So, when I bought the York Peppermint Pattie Pieces, it was $2.50 for a 10.5 ounce bag. Factor in a 6.25% sales tax, and it came to around $2.71, which is a bit expensive for candy but worth a try. And how was it?

Well, it was pretty good, make no mistake on that but if you strip out the creamy mint center of a York Peppermint Pattie and the perfect dark chocolate, it's not really a York Peppermint Pattie anymore. So what you get is essentially a dark chocolate-mint M&M. Not even to freshen your breath. I was hoping that it would have creamy stuff inside (after all, that's what Reese's Pieces have) but alas, no. Factor in the slightly-chemical, ever-so-slightly-salty M&M-style shell, and that's actually a loss.


Anyway, here's some relevant links. According to CandyAddict, the Almond Joy Pieces actually contain coconut pieces and are bigger than norm. I've tried Coconut M&Ms before and those are good...

ANYWAY, I do have some upcoming blog post plans. Not terribly big ones, though...

IMAGE CREDIT: CandyAddict.com (see link)

Breakfast burritos

I don't know what I was teasing about "Floridian hamburgers" (oh wait, now I do...but it's more of >this variety) but today's post is on a good TEXAN breakfast burrito.

Ingredients:
2 flour tortillas (6" in diameter)
2 eggs
Milk
2 packets of Taco Bell sauce
2 "brown and serve" sausage patties
A slice of onion (preferably Texas 1014)
Butter
Salt
Cooking oil
Pepper
Cheddar or colby cheese

1. Heat a small saucepan with some butter.
2. Mix about a tablespoon of milk with the eggs, until the mixture is a nice uniform yellow. Pour the mixture in the pan and make the scrambled eggs (which I won't tell here. If you don't know, help is a few clicks away)
3. About this time, if the tortillas are frozen (or you'd like them heated a bit) put them in the microwave. A wet paper towel will help moisten them.
4. Before the scrambled eggs are done, thaw (NOT cook) the sausage patties, dice the slice of onion, and butter the tortillas.
5. Move the scrambled eggs off heat (as in, out of the pan), and add a bit of oil to the pan. Chop up the sausage patties, and add the sausage patties and onion to the pan.
6. Cook those things thoroughly. Grate the cheese, if it's not already pre-grated.
7. Take everything off the pan. Put the eggs on a tortilla, followed by the sausages and onions, followed by cheese, followed by a packet of sauce, followed by salt and pepper.
8. Layer the other tortilla on the mound of food. Then put the sauce on the top tortilla somehow (I like to draw lines with the sauce)
9. Put the thing in the microwave for 15 seconds.
10. Eat with a knife and fork!

Ice Cream

Wait: before you read this, play or download this to get in the mood. Ice cream used to be the American treat. Now it still is, but split between the grocery store type and the snooty Starbucks drinkers. How so? In idyllic 50s through 80s America, the Good Humor man would come down the street, delivering high quality treats and ice cream to the children. Now ice cream trucks often have obnoxious tunes ("It's A Small World") carrying either overpriced licensed treats (such as SpongeBob, Super Mario, or Spider-Man) or obvious knockoffs. However, due to the way things tread, ice cream is slowly changing. We now have the ol' grocery store brand (which can be very good, depending on the brand) or you can go out to your local Cold Stone or Maggie Moo's for the good (ie, high-priced) stuff. We no longer favor Tin Roof, Rocky Road, Cookies n Cream, Neopolitan, Banana, or the once far more prominent Rum Raisin. Rum Raisin used to be everywhere, Ben & Jerry's even made it. Now, we favor Cotton Candy, Mango, Cake Batter, Cinnamon, Dark Chocolate, and Cheesecake. Waffle cones are out, Waffle Bowls are in.

Strangely enough, one flavor notably absent from the ice cream majors is Green Tea, a surprise due to green tea's recent popularity. What will happen when those flavors are passé and we end up eating weird but tasty flavors?

Whatever. I'm going downstairs to eat some ice cream.