Jolly Rancher Sours

Jolly Rancher Sours

Every once in a while I'll blog about some food I purchased. These Jolly Rancher Sours are something I have to tell you about because they are so, so good. I love most things with Jolly Rancher flavors. There's just something unique about those flavors that take me back to my childhood, eating Apple Stix, Cherry Stix, Watermelon Stix, and Fire Stix at my brother's baseball games. The flavors haven't changed, but the forms they come in have. The most recent incarnation of Jolly Rancher flavors is in the form of heart-shaped sour sugar coated gum drops. There are only four flavors in the bag: orange, watermelon, cherry, and apple. All of them delicious and sour. My mouth is watering just talking about it. I really purchased the first bag for my husband, but I think I ate most of that first bag all by myself. In two days. I'm on the second bag now, and I had to stop myself at six hearts after dinner tonight. They'll still be here tomorrow, but I'm a little concerned these are only a Valentine's thing. Wait, it's probably better that way.
So, if you too are a fan of Jolly Ranchers, even if you don't normall eat sour things, give these a try. I'm warning you, though, you just might get hooked.

Minty Chocolate Shake

Minty Chocolate Shake

The Target Archer Farms brand products are really quite good. I enjoy their ice cream, spice mixes, potato chips, and the hot cocoa mix you see in the photo. I first tasted this shake at SuperTarget, from a sample lady who was making them right there in the store with the Market Pantry vanilla ice cream and the Archer Farms Mint Hot Cocoa Mix. Being a lover of mint chocolate chip ice cream and other chocolate mint combos, I loved this. And it was so simple. And I already had the hot cocoa mix at home. Since I love the Archer Farms Madagascan Vanilla Ice Cream so much, I bought that rather than the Market Pantry. I like high quality ice cream. If I'm going to fill my body with fat, I'm going to do it with at least a little bit of style and good taste.
What I like about this "recipe" is that I can make a little or a lot. It's not like baking a whole cake that will sit there begging for me to eat one more slice, or that I have to plan to have people over for. I can make a shake just for myself or to share with my eating buddy, Ezra. The shake you see pictured is already in my belly, and I'm calling it breakfast and lunch. It was delicious. Oh, and it's topped with Andes Mint Baking Pieces. I had them left over from the Mintereoos I made a couple of months ago, and I needed to use them up. They're optional, and actually, they just get stuck in the straw. I just thought they'd dress up the shake nicely for the picture. Same with the whipped cream. It's pretty redundant on an ice cream shake, but it looks nice.
So, there you go. Here's the super easy recipe for a super delicious decadent treat.

Minty Chocolate Shake

Ingredients:

• 3 generous scoops of vanilla ice cream
• 3 tablespoons mint chocolate cocoa mix (like from Archer Farms)
• 3/4 to 1 cup milk
• whipped cream (optional)
• 1 teaspoon Andes Mint Baking Pieces (optional)

Instructions if you have a hand/immersion blender:
Place the ice cream, cocoa mix, and 3/4 cup milk in a tall plastic tumbler that will hold it all and give you at least 3 inches space at the top. Put in your hand blender and mix until completely mixed. Add more milk if you want a thinner shake. Stick a straw in it and enjoy; or pour into a classy glass, top with whipped cream and minty bits and enjoy.

Instructions if you have a traditional blender:
Place the ice cream, cocoa mix, and 3/4 cup milk into the blender. Put the top on and blend until smooth. Add more milk if you want a thinner shake. Pour into a glass and top with whipped cream and minty bits, if desired. Stick a straw in it and enjoy.

Purple Cauliflower?!

Purple Cauliflower at HyVee

Oh my gosh!  I was at the Johntson (Iowa) HyVee this afternoon and I had to take a photo of this cauliflower display.  I haven't tried it yet, but I plan on getting some soon to put into my chicken egg rolls.
Apparently this purple cauliflower has the same antioxidants as red cabbage and red wine.  Hmmmm... yet another way to counteract the unhealthy aspects of my egg rolls.  More details to follow.

King Arthur Flour: The BEST Flour

King Arthur Unbleached All Purpose Flour

*Note: If you've arrived at this post via a link within a recipe calling for King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour, I want  you to know that you can use ANY all-purpose flour in most of those recipes, particularly cookie recipes. If you're going to be making any of the bread or pastry recipes, though, I highly recommend investing in a bag of King Arthur. Read on to see my rationale. 

I used to think that people who used King Arthur Flour (KAF) were rich snobs.  I mean, I've seen it priced as high as $6.99 for a five pound bag.  I have found it a couple of places for under $4.00, so it actually is affordable for me.  Even Cook's Illustrated recommends this flour, so I should have clued in sooner.  It wasn't until I moved to Iowa, though, and I started entering the Iowa State Fair food competitions that I even TRIED King Arthur Flour.  They have two King Arthur Flour competitions at the Iowa State Fair: Yeast Breads and Yeast Rolls.  You have to provide proof of purchase, so I bought the flour.  Up until then I had used Pillsbury Unbleached All-Purpose Flour, and it worked fine for me, even when making things like soft pretzels and breads.
Once I started using the KAF, I started getting used to the results.  Then one time I saw Gold Medal Flour on sale at SuperTarget, and I bought some.  I was shocked when I tried to make soft pretzels with the Gold Medal Flour.  I couldn't even roll out the dough to form the pretzels because it kept breaking on me.  I got rid of the rest of THAT bag, and went back to the KAF.
Besides making breads with better texture and crumb,  the KAF, I think, adds a tenderness to everything else I bake, from cookies to croissants, to pizza crusts.  It really does just create a better product.
I'm not sure what they do to it to make it better, but just the flour itself seems to be milled a little finer and has a lighter feel to it than other flours right out of the bag.
If you've never tried it, just try it once with your favorite recipe calling for flour and see if you notice a difference.  It's an experiment worth two or three extra dollars.   Trust me.  I wouldn't lead you astray.  Not about this.

Pella Tulip and Bakery Tour

Ezra & Max in front of Jaarsma Bakery in Pella, Iowa.

Ezra & Max humoring their Mom and posing in front of the tulips.

So, living in Iowa, I have the opportunity to experience the miracle of spring each year.  After bitter cold winters, spring really is a sign of new life and hope for me.  I never got that winter/spring analogy until I moved here.  In California where I grew up, it was always sort of spring--rarely super hot and rarely super cold.

Inside Vander Ploeg Bakery

 This is the second time I've made the drive (only an hour) to Pella, Iowa, to see the tulips.  And to sample the pastries.  As far as I can tell, there are two Dutch bakeries in the little town: Vander Ploeg & Jaarsma.  My friend Karla and I (and our boys) made sure to buy the goods from both bakeries so we could compare. Okay, it was all MY idea to do the comparing, but Karla, being the good friend that she is, went along with my zany idea.  She's such a giver.  

Pillow puff interior (blogspot isn't letting me place this pic where I want to)

Cream horn held by Karla's delicate hands.

Pillow puff held by my wrinkly hands.

We only compared two types of pastries on this trip, so as not to make ourselves completely sick.  Dutch letters and the cream pastries.  At Vander Ploeg, the cream pastry was a "cream horn," which is a spiraled puff pastry baked with coarse granulated sugar on top and then filled with a white cream that sort of reminded us of marshmallow fluff.  Quite tasty.  The Jaarsma version was called a "pillow puff" and was puff pastry with coarse sugar baked in a rectangular shape, sliced and then given a cream middle that tasted more like what we considered a traditional bakery frosting.  I think I liked the Jaarsma pillow puff better because the pastry seemed to be baked more thoroughly than the horn.  Both were delicious, though, of course.

The secret interior of the Dutch letter.

As far as Dutch letters go, I think Vander Ploeg was the winner for Karla, because it had the coarse sugar on top, but I preferred the Jaarsma because they used regular sized granulated sugar on top of theirs.  I plan on trying to bake some Dutch letters and post them in the near future, but for now, I just have the one pic of the half-eaten letter from Jaarsma. (Update: Here's the recipe for the Jaarsma's Dutch letters. You just have to click on the words there to get to the recipe, by the way. Enjoy.)
If you're ever in Iowa in early May, you really must make the trip to Pella.  It's quite a nice cultural excursion.

Inside Jaarsma Bakery, on the gift shop side

Some of the prepackaged baked goods at Jaarsma

Another shot of the Vander Ploeg Bakery case

Ezra enjoying a cheese stick from Jaarsma's Bakery

A simple glazed donut from Vander Ploeg's Bakery.  So soft and only slightly sweet.  Good.

M&M's Mint Thrills

M&M's Mint Thrills

Okay, so my husband was laughing at me as I took these pics of these M&M's, but really, I had to post about them.  The are a little-known treasure hidden up on the top shelves in Target stores across the country.  Anyone who loves minty chocolate really has to try these gems.  Just look at them; they're even shiny, for crying out loud!  This is one of those items that has actually gotten that SNL Target cashier comment: "Oh my gosh!  I haven't seen these!  Where did you find them? I need to get some of those!"
The shells on these are not like your typical M&M.  No, they have a barely perceptible crunch to them, due to the metallic green coating. (Yeah, probably not good for me, but I don't care with these.)  The minty chocolate interior is soft and smooth, and very minty.  I shouldn't buy them as much as I do because I can't just eat a couple.  I eat a couple of handfuls.  So, go on out to your local Target to the chocolate aisle and look on the top shelf.  They're worth the trip AND the calories.  Trust me.

*Update.  Bad news.  I can't find these Mint Thrills anywhere now.  I went to the M&M's website, and it looks like they're still making them.  Amazon has a pack of 4 8.1oz bags for $29.99.  Yikes!  I'll have to research this further, and perhaps write a letter to our friends at M&M/Mars.

Bob's Chili

Now, I didn't make this chili myself, which is probably obvious by the box in the background.  Bob's Big Boy chili straight (no beans) with a side of fries was exactly what I ordered growing up every time we got to dine at Bob's fine establishment.  I have such fond memories of Bob's.  From the Big Boy himself proudly welcoming us in with his picked nose, to the fancy club sandwich toothpick someone must have shot through a straw into the cork ceiling, that place is full of sensory memories for me.  The best sensory memory, though, is their chili, in which I dipped my fries.  A mellow, greasy chili with NO BEANS, coating the fat french fry skewered onto my fork.  I can't even describe the flavor, but I know it when I taste it.

The last time I had that delicious flavor was about five years ago in Diamond Bar, at the Bob's Big boy there.  Recently, though, I took a road trip to Michigan with my friend Karla, and I discovered that they have Bob's Big Boy up there!  I was thrilled to go there for dinner on our way home, but my thrill ended in disappointment when my chili arrived at the table, looking like a chunky home-made chili, not the brown-orange and bumpy stuff of my memories.  So, so sad.

In my never-ending search for Bob's Big Boy chili, I have tried lots & lots of chili and chili fries--mostly at restaurants.  Sometimes I'll try a store brand.  I found this Four Star Beef Chili last night at HyVee in the meat department.  This is the closest I've tasted to Bob's and you can bet I will be purchasing this again.

The picture includes my home-made french fries, which I won't include a recipe for because it involves cutting potatoes and frying them.  Not much of a recipe, as far as I'm concerned.  This post is really just to commemorate Bob's and to celebrate my recent find.