Happy Halloween Everyone!

I hope everyone had a good Halloween, though I realize it's late and many of you probably just did the Halloween party thing over the weekend. That's where these cookies came from. It's a fairly standard sugar cookie recipe with food coloring and chocolate chips for fun. At least everyone got a kick of out them, especially the kids.

Ok, back on Thursday with a new post. Note that Dairy Queen announced the new Hot Cocoa Blizzard which is just really sad on their part because it's just a chocolate Oreo blizzard. What's the point of even reviewing it? They couldn't be bothered to add a marshmallow factor or maybe even Hot Cocoa Oreos? Uggg. DQ also brought back the Candy Cane Chill Blizzard (reviewed here). I think DQ needs someone new on the flavor team and I'm open to relocating if that's what it takes to join. Give us something! How about a Candy Cane Brownie blizzard? Candy Cane Bark blizzard? Everyone else is stepping up their game, they should too!

Alrightly, keep commenting on my last post and dig in to that Halloween candy! I'll also continue to dig in to this bag of Reese's Dipped Pretzels that I have at work. If you've had Utz Butterfinger Pretzels then these are similar in flavor. I love Reese's and pretzels so this was easy to enjoy.

The floor is open for comment....

I swear I was going to write the A La Mode ice cream bar review today. I even have the pictures taken (but not cropped). But I have failed once again, so I'll ask a question. What do you want me to cover until the 2018 season kicks in? I know I usually get a couple of calls for some head to head matches or some specific flavor rankings, but please keep in mind that I have both a monetary and caloric budget to factor in. I also can't review anything with erythritol so I know that knocks out most of the so called "healthy" stuff. What else is out there?

Note (if you really want to know where the day went): I got to hollow out a pumpkin that my wife and son carved while my daughter painted the other pumpkin. I actually tried roasting pumpkin seeds and making pumpkin butter (both went ok). Super Mario Odyssey is pretty awesome. My son is really digging the co-op mode. We watched Spider-man: Homecoming. We had a full day.

Have a good week everyone.

How do you feel about salt on cookies?

Today, one of my vendors was nice enough to bring in several cookies for me and my coworkers. Since technically he was there to see me, it seemed only appropriate that I claim dibs on the biggest cookie in the Panera box. This is the kitchen sink cookie.

It's pretty obvious that this no mere cookie but checking out the Panera website reveals it to be a mighty 800 calories. That's a hearty lunch right there my friends, but in it's defense, the website points out that it's "big enough to share". The cookie contains semi-sweet chocolate, milk chocolate, caramel pieces, pretzels, and flake salt.

Wait, flake salt? You mean those aren't giant sugar bits on top?! Curse your trendiness Panera! I get the whole salty and sweet thing, but not like this and not on my cookies! Salt crystals this big are basically mini salt licks. I picked off what I could but the salt factor was still very prevalent.

Did I resist (finishing) the 800 calorie cookie? Yes I did, but I think it's more about salt than self control in this instance. It wasn't exactly filling and I could have easily inhaled a non-salted version. I'll probably eat the other half tomorrow morning, but I'll be honest, the salt factor really does make me question if that many calories is worth it. There's just no need for that much salt.

Has anyone else had this tasty yet salty cookie? Have I scared anyone off?

Breyers Butterscotch Blondie Frozen Dairy Dessert

[New for 2017] Wow, just wow. This frozen dairy dessert (not ice cream!) is possibly the worst thing I've tried all year. A flavor like this should never be combined with a texture like this.

Breyers Butterscotch Blondie Frozen Dairy Dessert

buttescotch flavor with other natural flavors and blondie pieces

Three Twins joins the Halo Top bandwagon

Look, this isn't the first trend we've seen ripple through the freezer aisle, but for whatever reason is does seem quicker than say the greek froyo trend. The latest to join the high protein, low cal, low fat frozen dessert trend are the folks behind Three Twins ice cream. Not too long ago, they were announcing a mainstream version of their organic ice cream and now we have...

Slim Twin by Three Twins Ice Cream

There will be seven flavors to start: vanilla, chocolate, coffee, mint chip, cookies & cream, lemon cookie, and cardamom. Each pint packs 24 grams of protein. They seemed inspired by the regular three twins lineup and that should be a good thing.

The slim twin webpage doesn't have nutrition info posted yet, but the PR person told me that it's "cane sugar, monk fruit, and small amounts of erythritol". I had hoped for something without erythritol but I guess I am out of luck.

At the moment it looks like it's going to start off as a west coast thing, but I felt it was important for everyone to see just how quickly things can change. To put that in question form: who do you think will jump on the bandwagon next? could we see weight watchers or healthy choice take the plunge? Haagen-Daz? Turkey Hill? Take a guess and leave it in the comments.

Parting thoughts: 1) I'm trying to get Nick to actually review a pint of Breyers Delights.
2) I apologize that my posting is still inconsistent since I was sick. I guess I'm using the slowness of the freezer aisle as an excuse to take better care of myself. In the past, I would force myself to post no matter what but recently I'm letting my self slide with a movie or early bedtime. Gotta recharge before ice cream 2018 starts. New review will be up on Monday.


UPDATE: I forgot to go back and check ingredients. So much for "small amounts of erythritol".

Slim Twin Vanilla = organic nonfat milk, organic egg yolk, organic milk protein concentrate, organic erythritol, organic soluble tapioca fiber, organic cream, organic vanilla extract, organic cane sugar, organic locust bean gum, organic monk fruit extract.

Granted I don't know the flavor to quantity ratio, but that order of ingredients does not match how it was described. That really annoys me since they were annoyed when I pointed out the erythritol... yet here we are and what's the fourth ingredient? erythritol.

Edy's Slow Churned Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream

[New for Fall 2017] As I was walking the freezer aisle the other day I realized that I need to kind of step back a bit and do a little bit better job of rounding out the frozen reviews here on the blog. To be less vague, what I mean is I picked up a container of Breyers and a container of...

Edy's Slow Churned Pumpkin Pie Light Ice Cream

pumpkin light ice cream with a graham cracker swirl

Cinnamon Toast Crunch Bites and the end of The Nosh Show

It's a sad day in the world of podcasting. Ok, most of the planet won't notice, but I certainly will. It's going to be weird not talking to my Nosh Show cohorts every other Wednesday. It's been 4.5 years since the first episode and I've grown accustomed to being able to share my love of food in this unique way. Without the show, where is my excuse to try things like new Oreos and...

Cinnamon Toast Crunch Bites

soft donut bites with a sweet cinnamon filling

Ben & Jerry's One Sweet World Ice Cream

[New for Fall 2017] Alrighty, time to take one for Team Dubba. No, wait, I'm Dubba. Time to take one for Team Second Scoop! Meh, still doesn't sound right, but whatever. Everyone remembers I don't like coffee ice cream right? Ok, good, because I'm about to step out of my comfort zone and in to the scoop zone with the new limited edition....

Ben & Jerry's One Sweet World Ice Cream

coffee caramel ice cream with fudge chunks
& swirls of marshmallow & salted caramel

Perry's Let's Dough Buffalo! Ice Cream

[New for October 9th, 2017] Did you see Perry's teasing their latest flavor on social media these last few days? Perry's loves to team up with their local sports teams and they've decided to replace their old Buffalo Sabres collaboration, Top Shelf Sundae, with the new...

Perry's Let's Dough Buffalo! Ice Cream

cookie dough ice cream with crushed cookie swirls & cookie dough pieces

Burger King Cinnamon Toast Crunch Shake

[Limited starting Oct 2017] We knew this day was coming right? BK is having way too much fun not to throw another silly cereal flavored shake our way. The best part is that these shakes seem to be available as soon as I hear about them. So, let's head out and grab...

Burger King Cinnamon Toast Crunch Shake

vanilla-flavored soft serve, Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal, and sweet sauce

Baskin Robbins Candy Bar Mashup Ice Cream

[New for Oct 2017] Ok, I'm a little hurt. I've been gone for almost a week and I'm not sure anyone really noticed. It's ok and I do understand. I'm sure there were still plenty of ice cream pictures in your instagram feed while I was sick. It's the quiet time of year anyway. All we really have to keep us going until 2018 is monthly specials from whoever will serve them up.

Baskin Robbins Candy Bar Mashup Ice Cream

a mashup of SNICKERS, MILKY WAY and TWIX bar pieces
in chocolate ice cream, swirled with a caramel ribbon