Falling into Zen

When I was about 5 I came into the house after playing in our backyard, my mom asked if I had been eating raspberries. I responded with an adamant 'no,' my mom pressed on, saying it was ok if I had been. I continued to deny any association with our raspberry patch, not knowing that my face was entirely covered with evidence of my recent raspberry excursion. I knew at a young age that raspberries were sacred, that they were coveted and worthy of being secretive about. Unfortunately, my lack of stealth in indulgence meant that my mom would forever know what I looked like when I was flat out lying.

On Sunday morning I pulled out of my driveway and headed to Sutter's Ridge to pick raspberries.  I laughed as I changed the radio from Garrison Keillor to The BackSpin with Spindarella.  It can't be too often that the old timey Garrison is juxtaposed with The Humpty Dance. 

As I drove to one of my favorite destinations in the world, I began to observe the anxiety inducing signs of the end of summer.  I absolutely love autumn, but I do not do well with the transition from summer to fall.  Some of it is directly related to my depression, and some of it is preferring hot weather over cold. With the onset of fall each year I start to get nervous, it's like the impending doom of winter is right around the corner and I have to muster up the strength to get through another soul zapping winter. 

Pushing these emotions aside and choosing to focus on the moment, I admired the beautiful waves of grasses blowing on the side of the road, navigated around the road bikers, and quickly arrived at my destination.  The farm provides me with a beautiful zen experience each season.  Standing in the sun, picking and eating beautiful raspberries, inhaling sweet raspberry air, listening to the constant drone of busy bees and feeling the gentle mosquito inhibiting breeze on my skin.  Not sure it gets much better.

I've been picking up some of the newer candy that has hit the market over the past few months and it's time for a few reviews.

Not so new to the shelves anymore are Pretzel M&Ms.  They officially became part of the line early this summer after a limited edition run earlier in the year.  General sentiment - they aren't perfect but they don't suck.  I'd like to try a version with a smaller pretzel and/or a thicker layer of chocolate.  I think that mixing pretzels and M&Ms as separate items is still a better flavor combination, you get more salt and will feel less likely to hurt a tooth.  They are worth trying and I'm happy they exist.

Following my allergy tests (see previous posts) I stumbled into the hospital gift shop.  Random stores always have at least one candy that I haven't found elsewhere and my find was Extreme Sour Patch Kids.  Claiming 'two super sour flavors in one' these have a slightly different texture (less sticky, more chewy) than their original counterparts.  The flavors are: Watermelon/Grape, Orange/Blue Raspberry, Sour Apple Strawberry.  They are NOT extreme.  With sour candies on the market that can make a person cry, naming an already sour candy 'extreme' indicates that tears and puckering are likely.  While I like the texture of the extreme kids better than the original the flavors are trendy and lame and the lack of sour in a sour patch kid just doesn't make sense.  After visiting their website I learned about some products that I have not seen or tested yet, let me know if you find these!  Sour Patch Cherry and Sour Patch Peach (there's also a blue raspberry but I'm not interested).

Twix has been reinventing and creating for quite a while.  I have heard that a favorite variation, Espresso caramel, is going to become a standard but I haven't seen it on the market since it appeared as a limited edition.  It rocks so I hope these aren't just candy rumors.  An ok limited version that you may still be able to find is Triple Chocolate.  It has a chocolate cookie, chocolate caramel and of course if coated in chocolate.  It's nothing to write home about but it isn't bad.

Butterfinger Snackers are crispy wafer like squares filled with butterfinger and coated with chocolate.  If you're looking for your butterfinger fix this isn't going to do it.  They seem like they belong in the 100 calorie pack craze - a product with a similar name that lures you in but doesn't deliver what you were craving. 

I'll leave you with a favorite (also scored at the hospital gift shop) Haribo Roulettes.  I first found these when I was vacationing with my Aunt and Uncle in Texas, I was 12.  I'm a Haribo gummy fan and this is my all time favorite from their product line.  First, when you buy them you can pick the roll that has the most of your favorite and least of your least favorite flavors.  Second, they have a better chew than other gummies.  Could be because of their size but whatever the reason, these deliver.  They are available in a bigger roll, the pieces are even bigger in diameter.  They are pretty spendy for gummy candy and they aren't available in many places.  You can usually find them at Cost Plus and I've spotted them at several coffee shops. 

Future reviews will include Milky Way's all caramel bar, Three Musketeer truffle crisp and Reese's crispy crunch.

Food Adventures of a Hive Free Gal

When I woke up on Sunday morning I wasn’t sure if it was Sunday or Monday. It had been seven weeks since I had two days in a row off from work without hives. I celebrated my hive free weekend by spending tons of time outside and making great food. A few food highlights are below.

On Saturday morning I went to the market and picked up ingredients for mom’s birthday lunch. BLTs with Jordandal Farms bacon, beautiful lettuce, a new to me green called Purslane (turns out it's a weed to most), brandy wine tomato, sweet basil pesto from Renaissance Farm on lightly toasted wheat Madison Sourdough. I served it with seedless yellow watermelon (one nephew thought it was really good, the other wasn’t into this ‘wrong color’ watermelon), muskmelon and a cucumber and carrot salad. The adults had mini rootbeer floats with lunch. For dessert everyone had an individual molten chocolate cake with blueberries and raspberries.

Late Saturday night I decided to make blueberry muffins. It was my first time substituting seaberry juice for citrus. The muffins were great but I don't know that the seaberry juice had any real impact. It's a bit difficult to say because it was a small amount of juice being used to flavor the sugar that went on top of the muffins. Not a big part of the overall muffine experience but a great local substitute for citrus. Carandale Farm has been doing some cool research on non traditional crops including seaberries, hooray for our local Farmers!

Dinner on Sunday was yellow watermelon and a kitchen sink salad with bacon bits, tomato warmed with garlic and basil, cucumbers and carrots.
If this is making you Madison area folks hungry consider signing up for the Eat Local Challenge being held by the Willy Street Coop. It’s free to sign up and you score a bunch of great coupons for local items that don’t typically offer deals, plus recipes, a shirt and a food journal. This is the first year of the challenge and they were already close to 500 participants on Thursday last week. There are different levels so you can find the right fit for you and your eating habits.