So You Don't Have To

There was a hullabaloo (talk about an archaic word, but there you have it) at the middle of April when Oreos announced a new flavor.

Of course, when I saw them in the store, I had to try them. It's a public service I provide, you know.

Ah Pop Rocks. I remember you from the early 1990's. They were mildly amusing then. Carole didn't like them. She wasn't thrilled with stuff exploding in your mouth. Let's see how the combination of Oreos and Pop Rocks goes.

Meh. I was expecting more of an explosion. There wasn't much taste to Pop Rocks, if I'm remembering them correctly. My memory leaves me with the impression that the smell upon opening the bag was more pronounced than the actual flavor. This was the same impression with Oreos. You had your typical Oreo cookie taste with an occasional pop when a fleck hit your tongue. Those pops were few, at least in my bag of cookies.

Sigh. I just don't see that Oreo is losing market share to anyone. So, I'm really not certain why they feel the need to do something like this. It was underwhelming. Supposedly, there is or was, a waffles and maple syrup version of Oreos out there. I haven't seen those to try them. I'm intrigued, but, again, why mess with the greatness that is chocolate wafers with white stuff in the middle of them?

I'm not sure you can find these anymore. I think they were out for Memorial Day and have disappeared from shelves. If, by chance, your retailer has a stash and puts them out for sale, save your pennies. These aren't worth it at any price.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

So You Might Want To

With a flurry of excitement, M&Ms announced a new flavor; caramel. /sigh. If you've spent any time here, you know I've been less than enthusiastic about their attempts to broaden their flavor base. It's kind of ridiculous. M&M/Mars holds a commanding lead in market share in the American chocolate market. They don't need to make anything other than M&Ms in plain, peanut, peanut butter, and pretzel, and they would still trounce anyone else. But they seem to always be trying something else.

Chocolate and caramel are a winning combination, however. Milky Way and Snickers bars have delicious gooey caramel. Cadbury has a chocolate caramel bar that is amazing. I should give this a try; that is, if I can find it. Reports were Wal*Mart had them, but I refuse to go to Wal*Mart unless that is the only place to buy something which is life-saving. M&Ms with caramel is not lifesaving.

Then, I found them on a site looking to position itself as an Amazon alternative; jet.com. The bag was cheaper than I anticipated finding it in the store for this size. So, I bought it. I have since found out that Jet.com is owned by Wal*Mart so I'm in a quandary. I refuse to overtly give the Waltons any of my money because I know how much they pay their workers; how a friend of mine had to apply for foodstamps because a supervisor who didn't like her, cut her pay in an attempt to get her to quit. (It was a very nasty story. That supervisor was, eventually, fired from Wal*Mart because she picked on not just my friend, but also others. Yet the corporate culture is such that employees can be subject to the whims of a supervisor who simply doesn't like them, with little recourse unless others speak up.) I will have to consider the use of this service versus the use of Amazon which I'm not fond of because of its world domination perception.

Anyway, the M&Ms came to my door in a padded mailer. Inside was the bag of M&Ms and this.

I should mention the mailer with the M&Ms arrived while I was at work. I suspected, when I saw the "Expected delivery date" on the shipping form, it would arrive when I was not at home. I had a bit of worry I'd pull out a mass of liquified chocolate mixed with caramel. That wasn't the case. It was still cool on the inside of the mailer.

Ta Da.

Although the graphic on the front would suggest the caramel was liquid, that is not so. It is chewy. I found it a delightful soft chew. I feel, if it were the more liquid caramel of, say the Milky Way, there would be little of the caramel taste. It would disappear from your tongue before you had a chance to actively combine chocolate and caramel. They didn't put hard caramel centers because you couldn't eat them one after another, if they were the hard caramels. I'm actually impressed that thought and probably not a little testing went into this design.

I give these two decided thumbs up. If you like M&Ms, I recommend you seek out a package and give them a try. "Sharing Size"? I think not. Get your own.

Beverage:  Earl Grey Tea

Deb

And Upgrade to Life

At my November doctor's appointment, I discussed everything with my "new" doctor. I'd seen her once before and she came across as very understanding and empathetic. I was, and still am, very impressed with her. In that November visit, we went over all my meds and all my lifestyle choices. One thing I brought up was alcohol.

Since March of 2012, this has been wine.

I like sparkling grape juice so I didn't feel I was missing out on much. Alcohol and medications go through the liver and alcohol can cause problems with the liver and methotrexate. So, depending upon how much methotrexate you take, doctors will tell you not to drink so your liver just processes the drug, and not the alcohol. There could be liver damage. I decided, when diagnosed, that my health was more important than alcohol so it was not an issue to remove this from my life. I even created a "Poor Man's Mimosa".

I don't know why I haven't ever noticed these individual orange juice bottles before. I love orange juice but can't always consume a whole carton before it get, shall we say, "ripe".

But, since the middle of last year, I'd been reading a great deal of information on how alcohol in moderation is good for those with RA. It should be noted I'd seen studies conducted in Europe, but not much in the US. One of the RA sites I frequent commented on the older studies of the general population which detail how a glass of red wine at least 3 times a week, was beneficial to one's health. There was no mention of conflicts with methotrexate. So, can I or can't I? Dr. Francis said I shouldn't be drinking, period, in spite of what studies may be saying. Okay /shrug. I can live without alcohol. There are some cool mugs out there which liven up my non-alcoholic ways. Witness the mug my friend, Pam, gave me for my birthday.

(Yes, this celebration was at Steak 'n Shake.)

Still, there was enough "noise", if you will, over the alcohol issue that I raised the point with Dr. Gierut. What did she think of all of this? She said there are three schools of thought. One, the European school, feels one alcoholic drink, per day, is okay for people on any RA meds. European studies have not shown a correlation between moderate alcohol consumption with methotrexate, and liver damage. Many US doctors feel the studies are very flawed and no one taking methotrexate should drink alcohol. And there there are doctors, like her, who fall in the middle. If I limit myself to three drinks per week, she feels that's a good middle-of-the-road answer.

I did not, dear reader, rush out and toast this news of being able to break my abstinence, with a beer or 3. Nor have I rushed to Binny's Beverage Depot and purchased a shopping cart full of beverages. My first beer since 2012 was at the company Christmas party last December.

It was a vanilla porter. I've always said I like beers I can chew. I did go to Binny's to get beverages with which to ring in the New Year.

Oh Belhaven, how I have missed you. And you now have a stout? Yes, please. And I got a beverage with which to lace my hot cocoa.

In the years since I quit alcohol, Godiva discontinued their white chocolate flavor. No matter. This will be fine. I've consumed "so much" that I have one shot glass left in the bottle before I have to replace it. I'll drink hot cocoa at any time of year. When I'm feeling a lot of stress, it's a good relaxant. But, yeah. It's taken 6 months to finish the bottle off. I'm not in any danger of overconsumption.

Currently, there is a regional stout in the fridge. I bought it in, um, March, maybe? I wasn't a big drinker before the ban and I'm not going to be a big drinker now that I can. Three glasses of alcohol a week seems like a lot more than I was drinking before, even averaging an evening out where two or three might be consumed, with weeks of nothing.

Still, I see this as a victory of sorts. I'm doing well enough that I can, with great moderation, toast my friends or relatives with alcohol. The upcoming Disney trip features brunch with "all you can drink" mimosas. I love mimosas, which was why I replicated, somewhat, the taste. "All I can drink" might be a couple, but at least I can have a real one.

Beverage:  Dr Pepper

Deb

Chocolate Goodness

I've been talking with guild members about our October trip to Walt Disney World. We can make food reservations beginning on April 14th so I'm trying to decide where, exactly, I want to eat and to get people who have expressed an interest, committed to coming to the vacation. All this Disney talk put me in the frame of mind for waffles.

This has been a staple of the family since 1990.

I wasn't sure when the last time was that I'd used this. It was quite dusty on the box top, so it has to have been over a year ago.

The interior was a bit dirty so I scrubbed it before plugging it in. The interior is ostensibly non-stick but I need to remember that, after so many years, the non-stick needs help. I forgot with the first waffle.

This wasn't as bad of a mess as it looks. I unplugged the waffle iron and used a fork to peel everything out of the iron.

This tasted good so I put the debris in a freezer bag and I'll use it on ice cream.

The other issue I had was not knowing how much to actually put in the waffle maker.

One-third cup was too much. One-fourth cup was too little. After dirtying two measuring cups, I settled on a bit shy of a third of a cup. What's always the issue is getting the batter into the ears so you get a full ear.

The ears can, with the right amount of batter, fill in, but it's much cooler to have them be the circle.

There was enough batter to make several waffles. I have no idea how long I have had this recipe.

I also don't remember where I got it. Given the paper, probably from a magazine. Shockingly, I have no pancake/waffle syrup in my house. I'm not sure how that slipped from the grocery list. However, this particular waffle does not benefit from maple syrup. These are best served with whipped cream.

I have enough for two meals, assuming I eat two waffles per meal. So, one lunch this week will be waffles at the office. I hope they are all jealous.

Beverage:  Scottish Breakfast tea

Deb

Fleurs

A couple of things from the deck flowers last year which were successful.

1) Zinnias in a pot.

I sat next to this pot all summer, when I was stitching on the deck. It never failed to provide cheer. I adore zinnias. I'm pretty sure I have some old zinnia seeds in the basement seed packets. I should dump a mix out front when I plant the sunflowers. I'll buy plants for the pot on the deck.

2) Chocolate cosmos.

This was a new find from Select Seeds. It does not, unfortunately, smell like chocolate. I put three plants in a pot with a "wavy" petunia.

The petunia cascaded over the sides of the pot and it's green-edged pink flowers were most striking. But, as the summer wore on, it required lots and lots of water to not shrivel. In the end, it was dessicated long before any other flowers were. I did not get it in my order this year.

I did get more of the cosmos. I think if combined with white snapdragons, this could be a very distinctive pot pairing. We'll have to see. the cosmos tolerated the few dry spells we had and kept blooming, as long as I deadheaded it, well past the first light frost. I love wild colors in flowers so this definitely is a keeper.

Beverage:  Dunkin' Donuts tea

Deb

So You Don't Have To

I'm late with this food review. However, it's important to post my thoughts so, when they come around again, you have an idea of how I felt about these.

These were out around Valentine's Day. I'd heard about them from members of my World of Warcraft guild. I didn't get out much in February, so trying to find them took a back seat to just existing. Then, I had to go to Target for something and they were on an end cap. I won't eat coconut or mint M&Ms and I've heard a rumor of chili-spiced which is just...no. But something like this, I'll try.

As advertised on the package, they were pink, white and ivory. Taste? Well, they weren't bad. I've railed in this space about how I think M&M's needs to stay with what they do best: peanut, milk, and peanut butter M&M's. I'd allow the crispy ones. Those aren't bad either. The almond ones are blah. I know people who adore the coconut and mint ones so those can be on the shelf, too. But all the different flavors seem to me to be diluting what they do best. At Target right now are red, white and blue M&Ms. I can get behind changing the colors on the brands. That's a clever way to make them relevant to the upcoming holiday, but multiple flavors? I bought a bag of strawberry shortcake M&Ms. They were not horrible like the candy corn or pumpkin ones were, but they aren't anything I can't live without. There was a hint of strawberry but the overwhelming flavor was artificial white cake. Strawberry shortcake is an amalgam. It shouldn't be mostly about the cake. These were more bland than exciting.

So, my recommendation is, if you like M&Ms and want something of a novelty AND they are on sale, buy a bag. Otherwise, save your pennies or support the original flavors. Sometimes I get concerned that they will be so busy trying for new flavors that they will forget to make M&M's with peanuts.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

Of Course You Realize, This Means War

Got a package from my brother, Dan, a couple weeks ago. It started with a Priority Mail box that had Bears duct tape on the ends. I didn't think to take a photo of the box when I opened it. The duct tape on each end meant I had to actually destroy the box to get into it. I dumped out the contents and found this.

It's a Priority Mail envelope which has been folded around something and sealed with Bears duct tape. (My brother is a big Bears fan.) At that point, I knew something was up. This is obviously something I must document. I had to get the scissors and cut through the duct tape to free enough of the packaging to dump out the contents. This was inside.

It's a belated Christmas present. The wrapping paper is held together with electrical tape. This is totally appropriate, coming from my brother. It was easy to get through this layer. Here is the next layer. (Sensing a theme, perhaps?)

It was yet another bag only this bag was held together with brown tape and Bears duct tape. We're down a couple sizes now, from the original package size. I'm wondering, at this point, just what he sent. Could it be a gift card and I'm going to have to go through 15 more layers? I had to cut this layer to get enough of the packaging free to see what the next layer was.

Aha!

"Couldn't you feel the M&M's?" I hear you asking. He had compressed the bag so tightly and added all the layers so, no, it didn't feel like a bag of M&Ms. This is hilarious. Of course, you know, I must "retaliate".

Beverage:  Dunkin Donuts tea

Deb

Better?

One of the few souvenirs from Disneyland I allowed myself was this antenna topper.

I'm thrilled with it. it matches my personality and really, who wouldn't want Jack Skellington, with a smirk, stuck on your antenna?

I'm going through my Flickr photos and here is Ms. Green, the antenna topper Jack replaced because she was stolen. I'd had her pop off my antenna a few times and she was more than a little worse for wear by the time someone purloined her.

I really like her. Jack's fantastic, but he's not green or chocolate. 

Beverage:  Raspberry Seltzer

Deb

Not On My Watch!

For my birthday, my best friend, Patt, sent me packets of the best instant hot cocoa on the planet. Seriously. This cocoa is incredibly good. Years and years and years ago (it seems, and then, didn't she just graduate? Time is fluid.), when Carole was in marching band in high school, to raise money, the band did Market Day fundraising. They bought food wholesale and you purchased this food in bulk. We used to get a lot of meat through them because things like chicken breasts and hamburger patties were individually sealed.

One of the things they sold, from November through March, was a box of Land O'Lakes hot cocoa. There were 6 different flavors in a box. Oh my! We would wind up buying 2 boxes per month and storing them because cold winter months require good hot cocoa to survive. I'm torn about which flavor was my favorite. This chocolate cinnamon was right up there along with their white cocoa and chocolate raspberry. Patt's cocoa didn't last very long.

Fast forward to Christmas and there are three packages of the same size in the box of Christmas gifts sent from Carole and Larry. I opened one and knew exactly what the other two would be.

Look at this! These are store display boxes of cocoa. You tear off the one side and the cocoa is easy access.

There are a dozen packages in each box. That's 36 packages of cocoa. I was sort of parceling them out because I didn't have any other cocoa, not even the mix in milk kind. I figured, the next trip to the grocery, I could get the Stephen's instant cocoa they have, assuming they had it. I've gone multiple trips without seeing it.

I mentioned to my friend, Terry, that I was low on cocoa. Christmas 2014, she sent me some Williams-Sonoma mix in milk cocoa and I've been working through that. The container was down to a half a mug's worth of chocolate. It's shaved and it actually goes very nicely on ice cream. The first week of January, I get a box. Inside is a note. "I read in your letter that you were nearly out of cocoa. That is not happening on my watch!"

The old container is to the left. In the middle are vanilla-tinged marshmallows. They are nice, but I tend to drink my cocoa without adornment.

I do, however, add more than the "recommended" amount of cocoa to a mug. It can sometimes be akin to drinking the syrup out of a can of Hershey's, for those of you who remember that.

Winter is saved. I just need to make this last until...oh...May, perhaps. The thing about Terry's cocoa is that it has to be mixed in milk. This is a great way to get calcium, at least that's what I tell myself when I'm on my third cup.

Beverage:  Water (I'm not bringing my cocoa to work. I don't want to share.)

Deb

A Discerning Choice

Everyone has a comfort food. For some, it's as simple as a hot mug of tea. For others, it's steak and potatoes. There is something we reach for when the going has been akin to walking uphill through molasses in January in Helsinki.

For me, comfort food is situation determinate. Hot cocoa. Macaroni and cheese. Chocolate. They all fit the bill. It can simply be a matter of what's on hand or what I can have access to with the least amount of preparation. Let's face it. If you're stressed and want comfort food, you don't want to have to spend 90 minutes preparing it. It needs to be ready.

Viola. Comfort food at the ready.

The egg nog ice cream is only available from Thanksgiving through the second week of January. Oh my. It's so good.

Egg nog is such a diet buster. I have never liked rum so the pairing of egg nog and rum has never appealed to me. That's where something like this ice cream comes in handy. I drenched my bowls of it with warmed chocolate sauce and sprinkled chopped walnuts or'top.

The chocolate peanut butter is a silky semi-sweet chocolate with ribbons of creamy peanut butter. It didn't need any ornamentation, although I chopped more walnuts than I wanted for the egg nog so there is no harm in adding them to the chocolate peanut butter.

Given the stress of moving the office and all the travel and inspections I've had to do, either of these were a fantastic way to wind down. And yes, it was supper on more than one occasion. Both are gone now, but there will be a New Year's Day delivery. I adore their banana chocolate walnut but felt three quarts was too much for the freezer. I may need to move some things around or, what a novel concept, cook some of the frozen stuff I have in there. Then there's room for three quarts of ice cream.

Beverage:  water

Deb

California Food - Part the Second

Here we are, standing in front of the entry to BlizzCon. All the saving. All the sacrificing. All the trips to and from have lead to this. Liz has to work in her capacity as a journalist so she leaves Ashley and I to walk through the doors into the convention center. "Trust me on this," says Liz, as we part. "Eat at the food trucks outside and not at any of the convention spots inside. Convention food is nasty."

With this echoing in our ears, we sit through the opening ceremonies. Ashley is meeting a friend for lunch so I wander off to look around. It's now close to 12:30 and there is a panel discussion coming up I want to hear. Food is everywhere at this convention, everywhere. But remembering Liz's comment, I go outside. Holy food trucks, Batman.

Looking toward the convention center, this is part of the trucks on the left. And here is the same spot on the right.

There were at least a dozen behind me. It is a great way to provide food for the 25,000 convention attendees. Add staff and BlizzCon employees and a small city of close to 30,000 develops. There's just no way to have enough hamburgers and hot dogs inside. If you have any sort of dietary restriction, you could find a food truck catering to that. On Friday, after walking up and down and looking at the dizzying array of choices, I settled for a turkey wrap.

Turkey, bacon, cheese, lettuce and a mild sauce in this flavored tortilla. The size is deceptive in the photo. It was cut in half and was bigger than my hand. It was $12.00 with soda. That's the thing about the food trucks. They were not "cheap" by any means. But the sheer size made the amount of food comparable to, say, my usual lunch fare of a Subway foot-long with chips and drink; $10.00. I don't recall what I had for dinner on Friday night. I don't have a photo record of it.

Onward to Saturday. Liz left early so Ashley and I ate the free buffet at the hotel. It was standard stuff; muffins, waffles, cereal, pastries, yogurt, bacon and beverages. She'd not been able to connect with her friend for lunch on Friday so they arranged to meet on Saturday. We did a couple of things in one of the areas of the center and I wanted to see a program starting at 1 p.m. Ignoring Liz's comment about convention center food, I stopped at a stall selling orange chicken.

You know, this was pretty good. The candy bar was 2.5 times what I'd pay in the store, but the orange chicken was only $6.99. I got a bottle of water and picked at it for the next hour during the program. There was almost too much food in the container.

Ashley and I attended a session at 2 and then we split up again. Three thirty California time is 5:30 my time and my Hawkeyes were playing Indiana. I had asked my Facebook friends and family to post updates on the score, since I knew I would be otherwise occupied. I dashed back to the hotel room, popped on the TV and was able to post an article to my guild's web site while watching the last 5 minutes of the game, which Iowa won.

That respite, where I was able to put up my feet, left me energized for one final pass around the convention. I headed back and decided to try my luck with another food truck. I met Ashley; not planned, we just happened to see each other; and decided we'd eat off this truck. The fare looked good. They had bratwurst. Ohboy ohboy ohboy!

How can you go wrong with a solid hunk of sausage. Ashley got a bacon wrapped hot dog.

We got our sausages and sat down.

I don't like sauerkraut which bratwurst is usually served with. But cover it with a good German mustard and I'm deliriously happy. This was awful. I don't know if it was because I'm used to Wisconsin brats, i.e. Milwaukee made, or what it was, but it was just not good. I could only eat half of it. I hated to throw away what amounted to $6.00 for the half I didn't eat, but I just couldn't finish it. That, really, was the only bad meal I had.

On Sunday, we had reservations at Ariel's Grotto for breakfast.

The meal started with hot cocoa and a fruit and pastry basket. We sort of snarfed them up before I could get a photo of the basket.

Suffice it to say this was a hit.

The menu is fixed. You're handed a card and you order off that. It's not buffet. I had waffles this go 'round of breakfast.

That's a muesli mix at the upper right corner with bacon under my waffles. One thing Liz pointed out which I had not realized, every restaurant we went to did not have water out on the table. That's something we take for granted in the Midwest. You sit down and you're brought a glass of water. With Southern California in a terrible drought, that kind of thing wastes a lot of water because you can't just pour it back into the pitcher for the next guests. So water is provided on demand. We were out on the terrace of the restaurant, overlooking a lagoon. We quipped that the waiter would just take a bucket and drop it over the side to haul up water for us.

This was a lovely breakfast. Various Disney princesses wandered through the meal, including Rapunzel, who is Ashley's favorite. While the food was good and the atmosphere nice, I far preferred Goofy's Kitchen and the buffet. I'm glad we had a chance to do both.

The evening meal was a small affair over by the haunted mansion.

Cafeteria style, you grabbed a tray and walked around selecting items from a variety of stations. I got the kids-size pasta because it came with fruit and veggies, and a chocolate cake. Both were adequate. Later, I got a bag of popcorn and ate that while watching the pyrotechnic show and the fireworks. This was okay and a decent value for the cost, but I was tired at this point so the cake seemed dry and somewhat flavorless even though it was chocolate.

The next day was get away day. I grabbed breakfast at the airport; a large blueberry muffin and tea. My flight was delayed getting out of LAX and I couldn't bring myself to pay the price asked for what seemed like substandard fare aboard the aircraft. When I finally got home, I had soup and a ham and cheese sandwich.

Vacation food can be iffy. All-in-all, I had one lousy meal. That's not too bad of a track record for all the times I ate something. Uninspired meals were breakfast at the hotel, at Starbucks, and the final meal at Disney. Adequate meals were Sunday breakfast and breakfast at both airports. The meals that surprised me were the convention chicken, the sandwich on Friday and Thursday's soup at Rainforest. The other meals, Cafe Orleans, Goofy's Kitchen and good ol' IHOP, were amazing. I think I should try to make that peanut butter and jelly pizza. I'll let you know how that goes.

Beverage:  La Croix sparkling water

Deb

That's a Surprise

Over a year ago, my guild mate, Amber, who lives in Australia, sent me two packages of this cookie called "Tim Tam". I'd never heard of it. They are biscuit-like cookies with a flavored layer sandwiched between them and the whole thing dipped in chocolate. It was a lot of fun to have something from the other side of the world.

I was in Target a couple weeks ago and had to walk down the cookie aisle to get from point A to point B. I thought I wanted cookies to nosh on but not really, I decided, until I saw this.

Wait...what? I've had the regular Tim Tam to the left. The caramel was new to me. I had to try those.

Here's a cross section of the cookie. There's the 2 biscuit layers and the cream layer with caramel and the outer chocolate shell. They are good but rather sweet. This is not a tray of cookies you'll sit down and eat all in one sitting.

For me, the attraction of these cookies is the connection I have to Amber. If I hadn't known about them, I would have passed them by. They aren't remarkable in their own right; more a novelty in the vast cookie aisle. What they remind me, though, is just how global life is now. These are an Australian cookie on the shelf of my Wheaton Target. Some executive made the decision to either import them or have a manufacturing plant make them here. I can't see them taking over much more in shelf space, but who knows. Something new and different could garner just enough of a following that we'll see other flavors besides plain chocolate and caramel on the shelves.

Beverage:  Dunkin Donuts Tea

Deb

A Fail But Not A Ruin

Perhaps you heard of the huge problem with 1-800 Flowers and Mother's Day. The company screwed up Valentine's Day flower deliveries, too, so they aren't doing real well in the flower delivery department. Carole sent flowers via Pro Flowers and I was thrilled, initially, with what I got. These were the flowers on Mother's Day.

Cut tulips can wither quickly, but these seemed to fade much faster than if I'd gone into the yard and cut some. The iris never opened, never. They turned yellow. That's it.

But the biggest disappointment was when I opened the box of chocolates that comes with a flower order.

The chocolates were not exposed to any heat at my house. The box sat on the table, out of sunlight. This could have happened in transit, in which case it's a UPS/FedEx delivery problem and possibly explains why the flowers faded so quickly. Temperatures hot enough to melt chocolate will ruin flowers.

The other problem could be the warehousing of these boxes of chocolates. There could be no quality control for checking to see if chocolates are perfect to be shipped. The small box is shrink wrapped and tucked into the bottom of the large flower box.

Carole said this is the second time this company has failed to deliver what was promised to me. (I honestly don't remember the other time.) They gave Carole a substantial amount of money back and a coupon for money off the next order. "I guess I can't order from them again," she said. I told her to tell them that, calmly, and email them the photos.

One thing that struck me about some of the comments I read regarding this 1-800 Flowers fiasco was how many people said "Mother's Day was ruined". I'm not sure if that's hyperbole in all cases, but it seems wrong to me. I don't get the attitude that feels an arbitrary day is "ruined" because you didn't get a very transitory expression of gratitude. That's holding your kids' feelings hostage to something over which they have no control. I would never say my Mother's Day was "ruined" because a flower company failed to uphold their end of the exchanging of goods for money. There are ways Mother's Day could be ruined but they have nothing to do with whether my iris bloom.

Carole hasn't said what compensation she was offered for this problem. I hope they make it right by her. The one good thing is the vase is cool.

Beverage:  English Breakfast Tea

Deb

Mothers Day Brownies

Three weeks ago, NPR had, on their Facebook feed, a recipe for Decadent Chocolate Brownies. The recipe contained ingredients I had on hand, meaning no extra trip to the store. That's always a good thing. I did buy ice cream when I first encountered the recipe, in anticipation of making brownies but didn't make them until today.

It was different. First you had to line a loaf pan with parchment paper.

Usually, if you use parchment paper, you also grease the paper. This recipe didn't have you do that. My paper is old. It's been around awhile, but it was still good to use.

I didn't realize this was a loaf pan size amount. That should have been a clue that these weren't your average brownies. I gathered all the ingredients and started baking. Step 2 was to melt semi-sweet chocolate chips and butter.

This is what the directions told you to do. Put a glass bowl over simmering water in a pot. It was nice that they didn't assume everyone has a double boiler. I used to have one but I think Carole took the bottom part of it years ago when she moved west. You wind up adding the rest of the ingredients to the melted chocolate so these directions keep the amount of dishes to a minimum.

It takes a bit to get it going but once the chocolate starts to melt, you need to continually stir it to keep it from burning. Mmmmmm. Melted chocolate.

Once the chocolate is melted, you add the other ingredients, one at a time. The recipe called for white and brown sugar. My brown sugar could have been used to pound nails. A quick internet search and I had soft brown sugar. I've put it in an air tight container but the best thing would be to use it up within a month of purchase. Yeah, well, that's probably not going to happen, so I'll go with the air tight container.

This gets poured into the prepared pan.

It's a lovely glossy brown, which is what it should look like, but it's not very much. The loaf is put in the oven for 35 minutes. The house begins to smell heavenly.

I thought, although my knowledge of brownies told me otherwise, the batter might rise so what I put in the pan might get bigger. It didn't. I have a loaf of brownies. They are cooled for a half-hour and then here it gets weird. You put them in the fridge and chill them further 2 hours. The time at the top of the recipe is not accurate for preparation. It says 45 minutes when that's not even close when you consider 30 minutes to bake and 30 minutes to cool BEFORE sticking them in the fridge. I was beginning to wonder about these.

After 2 hours, I took the loaf out of the fridge and dumped it on the counter, peeling off the paper.

It's a loaf, of baked brownie batter, a loaf. The ends and sides were dry and hard to the touch. I carved off an end piece.

The hunk is soft and gooey on the inside but dry and hard on the sides. I wound up slicing the ends off because I couldn't gnaw through them.

Perhaps raccoons would appreciate these, but I haven't seen a raccoon since last fall so I don't think I want to tempt them back. I was very disappointed by this because it's a half-inch of brownie no one can eat.

How does it taste? Well, if you can overlook the dry, crusty, exceptionally hard ends, they aren't bad. I warmed up a chunk and it went very well with vanilla ice cream. But, the bottom line is this is an awful recipe.

I saved the rest of the loaf and will see how it fares. I put it in a freezer bag and stuck the bag in the fridge. Will it dry out quickly?

I have other brownie recipes with a couple more ingredients or a few more steps that make better brownies and more of them. I am certain you can type "Brownie recipe" into any search engine and get a recipe that even a beginner can make. The ones made with cocoa can be just as rich as melting chocolate and butter together. This was a huge disappointment.

Beverage:  English Breakfast tea

Deb