Good mailboxes make good neighbors

Who has the best neighbors? I do! I do! Big Tony and the Necco Door Neighbor clan asked if I could bring in their mail last week while they went off on a jaunt. At first I thought it was just a ruse, that they were just trying to show off their new mega-awesome, kick-butt mailbox they had installed after this winter of discontent (in which the town snow plow sheared away everyone's mailboxes). But they really did go away, as evidenced by this:the motherlode of Cape Cod chocolatey goodness.
When the doorbell rang last night, I thought it was yet another pizza being delivered (mistakenly) to the House of Yum (123 Chocolate Hill Road) instead of the House of People Who Eat Pizza Nearly Every Night (123 Chocolate Road). But to my happy surprise (and clearly, someone else's), it was the Necco Door Neighbor bearing a bag o' candy.

I love, love, love the big egg with the vignettes of the bunnies busily toiling away at the Easter eggs. The Sugar Baby and I have been playing "Easter egg hunt" all day with the little foil eggs inside.
The chocolate-dipped Peeps are great; kind of gives you an excuse to eat the whole darn row at once. (Not that I'd ever do that, of course.)
And look at that deviled egg from Chatham Candy Manor. Is that not the cutest thing ever? I LOVE this.
Last but not least, we have about 20 pounds of Bailey's Irish Creme fudge from the Provincetown Fudge Factory. (Insert your own joke here.)
So what's the lesson we learn here? It's two-fold. First, when you move, make sure you get cool neighbors. And second, when they ask you to take in their mail, say, hell yeah I will! (Even if you do kind of feel jealous of their fancy mailbox with the slide-out tray.)

See's Easter Candies: Go for the Truffles!

The See's Easter catalog arrived just in time the other day. I took a nap while the Sugar Baby sat in bed next to me and "read" it. Here's what I love about the See's catalog: it's very comforting as opposed to, say, the Vosges Haut Chocolat catalog which makes me feel like I'm standing in some funky New York bar all by myself wearing sweat pants. Does that make sense? I'm just not hip enough for bacon-flavored chocolate Easter eggs. I'm more of a purist. Anyhow.
I was offered some samples of their Easter offerings and here's what I have to report.

Assorted Decorated Eggs: these come in a package of six small eggs, two each of Vanilla Chip, Bordeaux (Brown Sugar buttercream) and Chocolate Butter. Each egg is about three decent bites big. I know this because Mr. Goodbar and I tried to evenly divide the eggs after the recent chocolate debacles in the House of Yum. These are the perfect size because they are most certainly rich. In fact, it was impossible to hold them for longer than a minute because they melted so quickly. My favorite was the Bordeaux. It reminded me of penuche fudge. I'm not sure which Mr. Goodbar preferred, but he obviously liked them all. At $5.40 for a box of six, these are a fun, affordable hostess gift (or perhaps a gift from the Easter Bunny).

The second thing I tried were Jelly Bird Eggs. These really intrigued me because they're unique: little jelly eggs coated in white nonpareils. The flavors (according to the catalog) are lime with orange peel, lemon with orange peel and raspberry preserves. Unfortunately, I'd never guess that by taste alone. I was expecting a big burst of citrus flavor, but instead it was more of a super sugary bland gumdrop. It's too bad, because they're so pretty.

The last thing I tried were their Springtime Truffles, little white chocolate squares with raspberry and lemon centers. I pulled these out from hiding when No-Nuts arrived back for spring break. That's when all hell broke loose. These truffles are big time yummy. The lemon is deliciously tart with flecks of real lemon zest and the raspberry ones are like biting into a chocolate-covered berry. There were five in the box, leaving the three of us to fight over the remaining two. They're still talking about the truffles even though they're long gone. I might have to order a few more boxes.

Check 'em out at www.sees.com.