This candy is the best

www.yummyearth.com is the home of the absolute best candy around. It is organic hard candy, flavored with fruit and all natural ingredients like beet sugar, and cane juice. The colors come from cabbage and carrots.
This is a candy one can feel good about giving to a kid. It is available as pops or drops. The drops are about 14 calories each.

Most flavors are available both ways. I really like the blood orange, lemon and cherry, and the "hot" ones are the best of the best. Really spicy and sweet. The candy costs a bit more than the bargain stuff, but it's worth every penny.

Proof that it's not just for kids:

from the yummyearth website:
Cynthia Nixon of
Sex and the City coined the
phrase Lollipoptail when she
stirred her own YummyEarth
organic Pomegranate Pucker
lollipop into her cocktail:

Recipe
Shake Vanilla Vodka over ice.
Pour into a chilled cocktail glass.
Stir with a YummyEarth organic
Pomegranate Pucker lollipop.

Drink. Lick. Stir. Repeat

Toast is toast, but a bagel is not

It's funny how toast has become a generic-specific term. It means a piece of bread, lovingly baked (or toasted) to a delectable brown, crunchy state. Go to any place in America, and ask for toast, and that's what you get. Rye toast, wheat toast, Texas Toast, cinnamon raisin toast, it's all the same. Well, except for French Toast, but that's not really toast at all. It doesn't have all of the toasty qualities, and some philistines put syrup on it. Blech. It's eggs and bread--a high class egg sandwich, so it should be slathered with ketchup. But that's another story.

Today, I had a whole wheat bagel with cream cheese and jam for breakfast. The bagel was toasted to perfection in the uber toaster. The combination of the bagel, crunchy on the outside, yet tender, soft and warm on the inside, spread with a cooling layer of cream cheese and some sweet grape jam made for a dining experience unknown to anyone but an East Coaster living near a great bagel shop.

But I wonder why that isn't called toast. Flour and water makes it a bread-like product. A short trip through the uber toaster makes it golden brown and delicious. Yet, no one would call it bagel toast.

It shall remain one of life's imponderables.

I Love Hell's Kitchen

I'm a big fan of Hell's Kitchen, and I'm not entirely sure why. It doesn't have much of a cooking element to it. Of course, they cook, but it's not food anyone would make at home. Tonight I'm watching them make gourmet pizza. Ramsey said his one restaurant offers a $200 pizza. I can't even begin to wrap my mind around that.

Pizza developed as a simple street food. Why do chefs have a desire to turn it into something so complex? Do I need sliced truffle pizza? Is Kobe beef really going to make my pie any better?

I'm a huge fan of simplicity, with quality. A slice of crusty Italian bread, dipped in some really good extra virgin oil is a gastronomic masterpiece. Some fresh herbs like parsley or basil really guilds the lily, as Molto Mario would say. Serve it with some good provolone or fresh mozzarella, and that's as good as it gets.

I just bought a case of Sicilian extra virgin oil, and the taste is spectacular. It has a depth of flavor that is nearly indescribable. That is the basis of a perfect meal.

Welcome to the Joy of Toast

This is a blog dedicated to the weird things I eat, mostly on toast. And an occasional review of cooking shows. Hey, it can't be all about me.

Ok, some of it's not so weird, and to me, none of it is. But I have been told, Old Man, you eat some strange stuff. Not Andrew Zimmern weird, but strange by normal diet standards.

I'll start with today's lunch. I had a banana, some pineapple, and a sandwich.

But what kind of sandwich? Ok, here is where, I admit, it may be a bit odd. I had toasted rye bread, covered with peanut butter, grape jam, and sliced jalapenos.

This is one of my all-time favorites. And before you decide it's gross, think about it. It combines the sweetness of the jam, the smoothness of the peanut butter, and the spicy deliciousness of jalapenos.

Yeah boi!