I Hate My Message Board » The Museum of Snack Foods I Own

A Lazy Sunday with my box of 70s Candy

Tracy — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 22:37:41 +0000

Or, peanutty goodness was big back then. That and quaaludes.

1970s Candy Gift Box

This is going to be one of those posts were I just put up a lot of pictures and don’t talk too much, as my husband brought me back a couple of boxes of Feminax which I sorely needed today. And which I have just now found out have been discontinued when I went to find a descriptive link so I really won’t be able to write as I’m trying to figure out what the heck I’ll do in 2012 when my current supply runs out. Menopause maybe? We can only hope.

In case you missed it, several good friends sent me this huge box of 1970s candy to cheer me up. I’ve been working my way through it and posting photos because the best part about candy is showing off how much you have to people who haven’t got any.

Today, I realized I’d better go on and finish all of the chocolates before they went bad. I’m happy to report that none of the bars I sampled today tasted off, rancid or stale. I didn’t care for any of them but I wonder if that has anything to do with having more grown up taste buds and being totally spoiled by my in laws sending me boxes of Leonidas. As much as people say we eat crap today, I think that compared to what I remember eating back then, we eat like freaking gourmet kings and queens of Freshandnaturalturia these days.

First up: Oh Henry!

Oh Henry! candy bar

These reminded me a lot of a 100 Grand Bar. The fudge wasn’t terribly fudgey and I’m not crazy about nougat, all in all it was edible but reminded me that our tastes in candy have matured a lot these past decades.

Oh Henry! bar cross section

Clark Bar

Clark candy bar

Almost exactly like a Butterfinger bar with artificial peanut taste. If you have ever had the squeeze container of peanut butter from Army rations back in the late 70s/early80s that’s the sort of peanut butter flavor I’m talking about. Not repulsive, maybe even a little addictive but also not anything you could objectively call good.

Clark candy bar cross section

Pearson’s Milk Chocolate Bun Maple & Roasted Peanuts flavor

Maple and roasted peanuts milk chocolate bun

Unlike the Clark and Oh Henry! bars I’d never heard of a chocolate bun candy. It looked like a large, blobby turtle candy. It wasn’t horrible but it did taste very fake and cloying and like something old people would give out for Halloween if it came in miniature form.

Person's milk chocolate bun, maple and roasted peanuts flavor

Boyer Butterscotch Smoothie Peanut Butter Cups

Butterscotch Smoothie Peanut Butter Cups by Boyer

I really wanted to like this one but again, the artificial flavors put me off. What it does make me want to do is figure out something scrumptious to do with butterscotch and peanut butter. I did get a kick out of the rebate offer on the inside, it reminded me a lot of those offers that you could send away from in the back of the Caspar the Friendly Ghost and Richie Rich comics we read back then and the Green Stamps catalog.

Rebate offer

Butterscotch peanut butter cup cross section

I’ll be back soon to report on more 1970s candy!Similar Posts:

Annabelle’s Rocky Road Candy Bar

Tracy — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 03:27:01 +0000

Or, more candy from the 70s

Annabelle's Rocky Road Candy Bar

I don’t know if I was supposed to review all the candy in the 70’s Decade Box I was so kindly given by my friends, but I can’t help but think that part of their thinking process was “Tracy has too much time to think, let’s give her something to do!” The problem is, the box had so much stuff in it, I was having a really hard time deciding what to eat next, so I went with the time honored practice of randomly IMing somebody to ask.

Rocky Road Candy Bar

I’m not really the most experienced candy blogger so I didn’t think that it probably wasn’t a good idea to put the candy bars on top of my computer so I could type out the descriptions in said IM and the poor thing melted. I actually like slightly melted chocolate, it gives it a nice, rich flavor but it didn’t really do too much for the appearance. Also, when I first opened the wrapper and saw that it was gooey, my first thought was “Eeek! It’s hot enough in my house in the middle of winter to melt chocolate and I didn’t notice! I must have some strange disease!” and was quite worried until I figured out what happened.

Rocky Road bar

It was exactly as described, milk chocolate with cashew bits coating a bar of fluffy marshmallow substance. The chocolate part was good for candy bar style chocolate and it was just enough cashews. The marshmallow itself was not like a marshmallow from a bag or Peep’s marshmallows but sort of like a more solid marshmallow fluff, not sure if they are always that way or if it’s because I partially melted it. I thought it was good, but couldn’t eat more than a bite because it was very sweet and I’m not too crazy about marshmallows. My two older boys opted to finish it for me instead of having Fla-Vor-Ice, which is pretty high praise for a candy bar in this house.

You can buy rocky road bars here if you can’t find them locally.Similar Posts:

A big box of 70s style love

Tracy — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 03:04:41 +0000

Or, showing off my loot as I am wont to do

1970s Candy Gift Box

My Go Group got together and surprised me with this 70’s Decade Box to cheer me up, aren’t they amazing? It’s going to take me weeks to get through this all; it’s a ton of treats.

Contents of 1970s Decade Box

It was super hard to get a picture of the contents because my boys were in the room and every shot had a blurry little hand reaching in. Every day since it arrived they ask, Mom, can we have some candy from the 70s? They even told their teachers all about it, which is a tiny bit unfortunate because…

Candy Cigarettes

Yeah, sure Victory Candy. You can’t fool me, I know what you are. Alas, my internal censor is broken because the first thing out of my mouth when I saw this was “Wow! Candy Cigarettes! I haven’t seen these in ages!”

Candy Cigarettes

So of course, all day long the boys are talking about the candy cigarettes and how fun it would be to pretend like they are smoking even though they know how bad it is. Probably because they know how bad it is. I explained to them that back when mommy was a little girl people didn’t know as much as they do know and let kids do all kinds of crazy things like pretend to smoke but now we know it’s not something to joke about but they still thought it was the most hilarious idea ever.

Candy Cigarette

There was nothing in the official parenting manual about what to do if you accidentally exclaim “Candy Cigarettes!” with glee within earshot of children so I figured the best thing to do would be let them eat them, but not pretend to smoke them and consider the matter closed. And eat them they did, with great relish, even though I found them boring without the whole pretending to smoke thing. Eh, I guess if you don’t know any better merely eating something as naughty as a candy cigarette is cause for great excitement. To be honest, I always preferred the Bubble Gum Cigarettes that would make a little puff of smoke when you blew through them.

We used to buy these from the fruit and vegetable man that would drive through our US Army housing in Germany. I would kill for a fruit and vegetable man right now, he had this van with sides that would fold down to reveal all sorts of produce and a staggering amount of candy. I bet these days people wouldn’t go for mixing sour pickle gummies with cucumbers and certainly not candy cigarettes with tomatoes, but like I told the kids, things were different then. We also had a donut man and 3 different ice cream guys (real ice cream, in scoops and real liqueur for making sundaes!) and a pomme frites van that sold fries and wurst. It was kind of an awesome time and place to live.

Wax Bottles

Today we opened the Nik-L-Nip Wax Bottles Candy. The boys were perplexed by these, although they liked the little bit of sugary syrup that was inside.

Heh, everything in here is bad for you but there’s so little of it, who cares?

Wax soda bottle

I told the boys they could chew on the wax, but they didn’t seem to like it. Me? I found it very relaxing. Kind of reminded me of the wax I used to put on my braces, in a good way. You can get rid of a lot of tension by chewing on wax, I think.

Hot Dog Bubblegum

This was not in the package, but it distresses me so I had to post it somewhere.

(note post contains affliate links, if you buy using this link I get a commission)Similar Posts:

So you have leftovers from McDonald’s

Tracy — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 04:30:10 +0000

Or, I am super helpful what to do with stale McNuggets, cheeseburger and fries lady

McDonald's fries, cheeseburger and McNuggets

The McNuggetini has captured my imagination. As the mother of five boys, I often have leftover bits and pieces from McDonald’s which I dutifully bring home because it’s a sin to waste food then toss, because let’s face it, leftover fast food is not so appealing. Why did I never think of transforming old, leftover fast food into new and exciting homecooking?

After my pickle soup adventure and kimbap experiments, I had plenty of panko and nori sheets, so it seemed I should make use of them. Frying the kimbap in egg was a huge success, so why not a cheeseburger? I slightly squished down the burger, cut it into wedges, dipped in beaten egg and coated with panko and fried it.

Panko fried McDonald's cheeseburger

And you know what? It was pretty tasty. Crunchy on the outside, vaguely beefy and cheesy with a bit of pickle and ketchup on the inside. A success!

If Spam was good in kimbap, then McNuggets should be good, right? I don’t actually like McNuggets, but I do very much like rice and nori. I decided to throw the fries in, too.

The building of a McNugget sushi roll

McNugget sushi roll

To be honest, it was bland. I should have added carrots and spinach and pickled daikon radish and other ingredients that would have added some flavor. But never fear, I still had plenty of panko and hot oil.

Panko crusted McNugget maki and panko fries

That was much better, especially dunked in some Sriracha. I went ahead and threw some fries in, too and they were absolutely delicious. It would have been much better with all the normal kimbap fixings but this was decent. Probably a bit more work than a McNugget deserves but at least I’m not just throwing it away. My mother, aka she who puts leftover hot dogs in all kinds of places they don’t belong, will be very proud.

BTW – should I put a disclaimer here that I don’t hardly ever take my kids to McDonald’s or any fast food for that matter or is that implied? You can totally tell from my logo that I am a good parent, right? Am somewhat paranoid about these things after my poor boy and his chocolate covered face upstaged the chicken in the can.Similar Posts:

It’s a SOUP made out of PICKLES and CREAM

Tracy — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 03:01:39 +0000

Or, never let it be said that I am afraid of trying new things (recipe included)

Dill pickle soup with panko fried pickle spear

I kind of like the way it looks like crusty sea monster is trying to get my soup, don’t you?

One of my dear friends in Canada tried this recipe at a restaurant and was kind enough to pass it to our group of friends. Where we skeptical? Of course, but she said it was really very good, so a few of us decided to give it a go. I am not nearly as brave as our friend that served it at a dinner party. She said reviews were mixed and although she wasn’t over the moon about it at first, the second day it completely won her over.

And that’s when I was brave enough to give it a try. I am finding that it’s one of those foods that gets better the more you eat it. First spoonful I was just glad it didn’t kill me, second hey, this isn’t too bad and now I’m drinking it. It’s incredibly rich with a bit of tartness from the pickles. It’s kind of like if tartar sauce were a soup, in a good way.

For garnish, I made a panko crusted fried pickle. I’d planned on making traditional Southern cornmeal dusted fried pickle chips but it turns out I was out of cornmeal and pickle chips. These were good and dead simple: I halved petite dill pickles, dusted with flour, dredged in some beaten egg then panko and fried. You could serve these with any sort of dressing, like honey mustard or ranch for dipping. Fried pickles aren’t my first choice, but if somebody orders a basket, I’m happy to dive right in.

And for dessert:

Peppermint stick in a pickle

It’s a peppermint stick! In a pickle! A girl at work told me about this, oh 5 years ago. Seems it was quite common down in Mississippi where she grew up. Alas, I only had petite dill pickles left and tiny candy canes, so I made do. I think maybe it would have been better with a more peppermint-y candy cane, this one had a muted flavor. It wasn’t gross, it just wasn’t good. I’ll have to try it again with a huge pickle and a proper peppermint stick sometime in the future – possibly when I finally get off my butt and track down one of those Kool-Aid soaked pickles they sell around these parts.

Recipe for Dill Pickle Soup

Courtesy of Chef Donovan Sawatzky of the Hoodoo Grill

Ingredients:

6 Dill Pickles

½ Med. Red Onion

½ cup pickle brine

2 litres whipping cream 35%

1 Tsp ground black pepper

Method:

With a food processor, puree pickles and onions.

Transfer to a heavy bottom pot and heat on med/high for 5 mins or until carimalization starts.

Add pickle brine, bring to simmer.

Add whipping cream and stir to prevent from separating.

Maintain simmer and reduce to desired thickness.

Add pepper.

Serve

Garnish with a dill pickle wedge and a sprig of fresh dill.

Serves 4 meal size or 8 cup size

NOTES: I halved this recipe and it came out quite nicely. I did use 100% cream but my friend subbed some milk and hers came out fine. I probably wouldn’t use only milk, as the richness of the milk fat balances the pickles.Similar Posts:

I went to go pick up some rice yesterday

Tracy — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 01:40:04 +0000

Or, one day I am so going to get banned from every store in the tri-state area

Flab Steak

I actually bought some of this flab steak, thinking it was flank steak but it turned out to be skirt steak. It was pretty good with a bulgogi style marinade. And yes, I think it is turning to flab on me as we speak.

Yeah, yeah, yeah I know what they say about buying meat that you don’t rightly know what it is. Pah, I say, pah. I will continue to buy mystery meat and take my chances.

Assorted Oriental Delights

I am a complete sucker for anything that says “assorted” on the package. I don’t know if faux meat with carrots and crap is what most people think of when they hear the phrase “assorted Oriental delights”, though.

Spicy Peanut Cuttlefish Wheat Balls

I didn’t see these spicy peanut cuttlefish wheat balls when I bought the original flavor ones that I reviewed last week. Oh Dr. You, what other surprises do you have for me?

Dr Endorsed Crackers

Here are some doctor endorsed crackers or cookies. I’m not sure which, my stealth camera skills are still lacking.

Pineapple sandwhich cookies

I think this lady is a doctor, too. Mmmmm, pineapple Oreo-style cookies.

Flute Wafers

Not only do these look tasty, I like that his hat looks like a jalapeno pepper.

Lye Water

Lye water: Not for drink gives me the giggles. You know like it’s a lie of a water because you can’t drink it.

Shut up, it is too funny.

Rambutan chom chom

Does anyone know what sort of fruit this is because I have no idea. I am, however, intrigued. I might have to buy this next time. It looks like a sea anemone swallowed a huge water chestnut.

Sealife Crackers

Why have boring single-species goldfish crackers when you can have these? I wonder if they really have eyeballs or if that is just an artist’s rendition.

Tako chips, octopus flavored

Speaking of Goldfish crackers, don’t these octopus flavored chips look like ruffled Goldfish rather than octopi? Okay, I’ll grant you that it’s probably very difficult, more difficult than those of us not in the snack food industry could imagine even, to make a chip with 8 slender arms. Probably making them isn’t so much a problem, but making them so that you don’t wind up with a bunch of bodies at the top of the bag and broken off bits of arm at the bottom is not a simple matter. Not by half.

Squid brand fish sauce

Can you imagine a factory owned by squid with squid workers? They would be super efficient at screwing on the bottle caps, much better than those two-armed fools Laverne and Shirley.

Yogurt Yan Yan

I don’t know why I didn’t just buy these, because you know I want them. Oh fake yogurt flavor, I am your captive.

And that’s my shopping done until we make our way through this 20 lb bag of rice I bought, which takes far less time than you’d think. A ridiculously, embarrassingly short amount of time, really. Like, it seems like entire small villages in some parts of the world could make a bag of rice that size last for longer than we can.Similar Posts:

Somehow peanut cuttlefish wheat balls doesn’t sound right

Tracy — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 01:50:01 +0000

Or, it don’t sound right? I don’t know, grammar and good snack choices are not my strong suit (is?)

This is going to be short, since the head cheese sort took away my passion for unusual food blogging. Bag of “Instant Snack” from Korea. I liked/was scared of how some of the little balls had faces and one of them looked constipated, so I picked it up.

This was before I read the ingredients.

Peanut. Check.

Wheat flour. Check.

Perfeat Amyl Ac. Why not?

Shrimp Extract. Ummmm.

Sliced cuttlefish. Yeah.

I wish I could read Korean because I am interested in learning more about the 4 Step Dr. You Project and how cuttlefish snacky balls fit into it.

I have no idea of what, if anything, the markings on the balls are meant to be. They don’t exactly look decorative, do they? So they must mean something, but what?

You know what though, they weren’t all that bad. Not as good as cheesey poofs, but I didn’t vomit. I do like dried cuttlefish and squid and those tiny dried anchovies, so I didn’t mind the mild shellfish flavor. The peanut taste was dominant and it was more on the sweet side than salty. I will not buy these again unless I find out that the Dr. You Project is my ticket to a slimmer waistline and mental acuity but if somebody had a bowl of these at a party, I’d dig in. They are much better than Funyuns and Corn Nuts but not as good as salt and vinegar chips and Honey Twists.

Note, Amazon links are affiliate links. I mostly put them there so that readers from other countries can see what Funyuns are for themselves, but if anyone wants to buy a case of Corn Nuts, I’m all for getting a piece of the action. I couldn’t find the exact peanut cuttlefish balls I sampled online, but I did find this brand that seems awfully awesome.

Seriously, wouldn’t you eat this? I know I would.

Similar Posts:

What to do with leftover kimbap

Tracy — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 05:04:55 +0000

Or waste not, want not

If you have leftover kimbap, here is an easy and delicious way to use it up. You could also do this with non-leftover kimbap and other kinds of leftover sushi rolls as well. This is great for rolls where the rice is starting to get a little hard, like supermarket sushi tends to do.

Heat about 1/4 inch of vegetable oil in a frying pan. Beat an egg or two, depending on how many slices you have to fry in a bowl. When the oil is hot, dip each side of each piece in the beaten eggs, letting the excess drip off. Fry on each side until the egg is cooked and starting to brown, about 1.5-2 minutes. Drain on paper towels and serve!

This is great plain, very warm and filling and comforting, but I also enjoyed it dipped in a bit of Sriracha hot sauce (rooster sauce). I bet it would be good with ketchup, too, because it reminds me a lot of om rice (fried rice wrapped in an omelet, often served with ketchup on top). I think it would also be good to fry the kimbap in tempura batter, although I haven’t tried it yet.Similar Posts:

How to make Kimbap (Korean style futomaki)

Tracy — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 04:44:01 +0000

Or, you see me rolling…

Assorted pieces of kimbap (or gimbap)

I should start by saying I really had no idea what I was doing when I decided to try and make kimbap. We didn’t get around to making it while my mom was here, so I just winged it and although my results were tasty, the rolls themselves weren’t going to win any beauty contests. I did get better at it as I made more rolls, but I wish I would have taken the time to look up a good tutorial video like this one before I started!

Kimbap is the Korean adaptation of Japanese futomaki style sushi. The biggest difference is in Korean Kimbap (also spelled gimbap, the pronunciation is somewhere between the two) the rice is seasoned with sesame oil instead of rice vinegar and sugar. Kim is the Korean word for nori (the seaweed sheets) and bap is rice. In Korea, kimbap is a very casual food and very popular for picnics or casual entertaining.

To be honest, I have no idea how to write this recipe, since the quantities and ingredients will depend on how many you are serving and your own preferences. Plan on one roll per person; each roll requires one sheet of nori and about a cup of cooked rice.

Ingredients

Necessary:

Hot cooked short grain rice, about 1 cup per serving. Look for a rice labled for sushi or calrose. Nishiki and Botan are two brands I often see at regular supermarkets. Brown rice would be delicious, just make sure that it’s short grained.

Nori sheets, enough to make as many rolls as you’d like to serve.

Sesame Oil

Plus some of these:

Cooked bulgogi – this is a perfect use for leftovers! Here is my mom’s recipe for bulgogi.

Strips of cooked Spam – it might sound strange but I can tell you it’s delicious. Spam is very popular in Korea! I pan fry thin slices of spam until brown and crispy (I even like it slightly burnt) and then slice into thin strips.

Fish cakes

Surimi (or fake crab)

Canned chunk tuna

Strips of omelet

Any other meat or protein that appeals to you

Matchstick sliced carrots and cucumbers

Pickled daikon (long radish)

Spinach, blanched and squeezed dry, seasoned with a bit of sesame oil and soy sauce. I used about 9 ounces of fresh spinach to make enough for about 4 rolls.

Toasted Sesame seeds

The Process

Cook the rice according to package directions, enough to make one cup for every roll you want to make. When the rice is ready, put it in a large bowl and season with about half a tablespoon of sesame oil per cup. You can use a rice paddle or bowl scraper to fold the oil into the rice – you want it to have a light taste and fragrance of sesame oil, but not so much that it is a greasy mess.

Cover the rice to keep it warm, and place one sheet of nori on a sushi rolling mat. If you don’t have one, you could use plastic wrap, like Saran wrap, but I think a bamboo mat is easier. Put about a cup of rice on the nori and spread it evenly over the bottom 2/3 of the sheet. I did it wrong in the picture, but it still worked out okay. Please consult either the video linked above or this photo tutorial to learn the right way. It will take some practice, but even the ugly ones are delicious.

Place your desired fillings in rows about an inch up from the bottom of the rice, like so and roll! You’ll use the mat to help you roll and tuck, you want to tighten as you go along, but not so tight you rip the nori.

In this roll, we have takuan (pickled daikon), cucumber, spinach, bulgogi and carrots.

Once it’s formed into a delicious rice log, use a very sharp knife to slice into rounds.

And enjoy! My mom said these looked good but were too loose, and I have to agree, some fell apart when I moved them. I did get better as I rolled more and they tasted great. Kimbap isn’t usually served with any sort of sauce, like wasabi or soy sauce. I think it tastes best at room temperature, but cold out of the fridge is good, too.

Kimbap doesn’t keep well, about 24 hours is the limit and that’s pushing it. The concern isn’t food safety, but the rice does get hard and unappealing, even if well wrapped. In my next post, I’ll share an easy recipe for any leftover kimbap you might have.

Spam, omelet, spinach and carrots. I also made one with tuna, avocado and sriracha mayonnaise that was tasty, but very sloppy.

Delicious!Similar Posts:

I said it before and I’ll say it again, Spam is the king of canned meats

Tracy — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 03:36:56 +0000

Or, I will not be cowed by the powerful Vienna sausage lobby

A can of Schwartenmagen and a can of Spam

My brother, aka Pupa eater, brought me this can of Hausmacher Schwartenmagen (head cheese) made by EDEKA when he came to visit me this summer. I wasn’t sure I wanted to try it, but the picture on the front wasn’t that gross and after all, I do eat Spam. Not all the time, mind you, and I try to do it ironically, whatever that means, but yes, I am a Spam eater and I’m not ashamed to admit it.

The grody pictures are after the jump, so here’s your cue to leave if you don’t care for that kind of thing.

See, it just looks like bumpy sausage on the can, doesn’t it?

Although I probably should have looked up the words I wasn’t familiar with on the can before I opened it and tasted. Schwartenmagen just never came up in German class. I guess Rocky Mountain Oysters isn’t a term they teach in English classes until you get pretty advanced, probably graduate level however, I can’t help but think that maybe in Foreign Language 101 one of the little sidebars in the textbook should be “Names of foods you might not want to try”.

Spam and Schwartenmagen

As you can see, Spam is a bit more processed than Schwartenmagen. Spam contains pork with ham, salt, water, modified potato starch, sugar and sodium nitrite. The head cheese contains 65% pork, Schwarten (which as far as I can tell means rinds), potable water, Nitripokelsalz (which I bet is the same as sodium nitrite), herbs and spices, flavoring, preservatives and sugar type substances. So, I guess they are pretty comparable in terms of ingredients.

Head cheese (Schwartenmagen)

Oh but what a difference a whirl through a blender makes!

The parts that look like meat didn’t taste too bad, a little salty and stringy and with a scent of something like cloves or allspice, but not terrible. The huge hunks of fat or rind though? Couldn’t get it down. I put it in my mouth, but I couldn’t bite all the way down and had to spit it out.

In looking up headcheese, I found that it’s made by boiling a pig (or cow) head, stripping off the meat and putting it back in the stock, which jellies because of all the um, whatever it is in animals that jellies. I also found photos of some headcheese that was thinly sliced, like deli meat, and think perhaps it might be easier to eat that way. A thin strip of fat, why that’s just bacon, isn’t it? Huge honking bite covered with animal bone goo? Yeah, I think you have to grow up eating it to like it.

I think that’s the beauty of Spam, all of those white bits are homogenized into the pink bits and so you get the benefit of the unctuous delight that is pork fat evenly dispersed throughout. Oh yeah, sure it’s a rectangular, lightly goo coated pink slab of meat in a can, and as such an object of ridicule, but as processed and preserved foods go, it’s not that bad. In fact, it’s delicious, as my recipe for kimbap will prove.

And although I couldn’t eat the headcheese, by golly, I respect the headcheese and all it represents. It’s not its fault that it isn’t as palatable to me as Spam, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to diss it on the internet.

Similar Posts: