Putting the Choco Treasure Egg to the Test

I had to do it, folks. I had to find out about the Easter Choco Treasure first hand. I shelled out the buck and put the egg in my purse so as to hide it from the Sugar Baby. Of course, what did he see when he was getting out of the car? There was no way I was going to give it to him, so I told him it was his special surprise for afterschool. Then I swapped it with a Cadbury Caramel Egg (made in Canada).
So here's what I found.
Upon uncrinkling the foil wrapper, it gives the recommendation for children 3+. Too bad you can't see that more readily. Once you tear off the foil, the chocolate egg immediately separates into two halves and a pretty heavy-duty yellow egg capsule is exposed. This is the secret to getting FDA compliance, I'm sure. Because the chocolate breaks away, you know what part you're supposed to eat and which part you're not supposed to ingest. My egg contained a strip of stickers.
Now for the real test. The taste test. Frankly, it wasn't too bad. I expected the absolute worst, but this was decent enough. If I was a kid on Easter morning, I'd definitely chow this down.
But my kid will not be chomping on one of these. I'm back on my "no-chocolate-from-China" horse. Not only do we need to keep jobs here in this great country, but we also need to make sure we do our best to know what goes into our kids' mouths. When it comes to candy that's shipped from the other side of the world in a country with no regulations, it just ain't happening in this house.

Art Installation Saturday: Windsor Chair with Chocolates

"Windsor Chair with Plastic Chocolates" 2010
Chair by Mr. Goodbar, chocolate placement by the Sugarbaby

Don't Play With Your Food! (Or on second thought...)

I've talked about Alexandra many times on here but I've never come up with the right name for her. You see, they just come to me. There's no planning, no looking in the Thesaurus, certainly no asking people what they want their name to be. It just comes in a flash of inspiration. So no name for Alex. That is, until the other night. She handed me the most delightful bag of goodies ... all interesting, cool stuff for Candy Yum Yum. It dawned on me: she's Alexandra Super Shopper! Literally, as I'm typing this, I'm realizing that the abbreviation for her new name doesn't *quite* work. (That's one thing you learn when you have a baby: make sure the initials don't spell something horrible.) Looks like it's back to the drawing board. Anyhow...

First up, she gave me a package of teeny-tiny mini board games filled with candy! They are too cute. Now, I expected that I'd open the boxes and find generic round compressed sugar candies, but no! I was pleasantly surprised. The Monopoly had dog and car candies. Sorry had the game pieces. Operation had hearts and bones. Clue had candlesticks and other weapons and Life had... I can't remember. But so cute. I'd love to do something crafty with the boxes afterward. They're about the size of matchboxes. And ideas?
Then, as if that weren't enough, she gave me this way cool Chocolate Edition of Trivial Pursuit. I haven't played it yet (I'm waiting for the von Schokolats), but I'll be sure to give a full report when I do. Apparently the cards are actually chocolate. I'm not holding out hope that they'll taste great, but at least it's made from Ferrara Pan (creators of the Fireball and Lemonheads) and not Parker Brothers. (And it's on sale now at their website for $6.99!)

Saving the Best For Last

After the corn dogs and Cletus's Salt Pockets, we determined it was finally time to procure us some moonshine. So I jumped in the car with the Baron and the Baroness and we headed out to the big city. In addition to the Piggly Wiggly, the town also sported a dollar store, which I begged the Baroness to stop at.

Here's the deal: up north, dollar stores can be mighty frightening. Sometimes in a good way (like the time I found stickers with photos of people doing their jobs, like a phone repair dude and a lab technician), but most of the time they're frightening in a bad way (horrendous plaster doves -n- wedding bells). Needless to say, I never ever NEVER buy candy from the dollar store, no matter how cool it is. That just creeps me out to no end. Anyhow, it occurred to me that a dollar store in the south might have some truly, ahem, unique items, maybe with a hunting or four-wheelin' flair.

Oh ho! How wrong I was. We walked in and-- taa daa!-- it was dollar store paradise. Not a single bejeweled tchotcke to be found. Instead, it was row after row of pretty decent stuff-- toys for the Sugar Baby's return flight, pony tail holders for moi and Gretl, mini popsicle molds perfect for a 2-year-old, stickers upon stickers ... and then I heard the Baroness say, "Hey! Get over here!"

And there was the candy aisle, a shiny mecca of totally new and weird candy, the likes of which I've never seen. First, the Limited Edition 100 Grand with Peanuts. Of course I had to get this and I made the Baron get his own when he started oogling mine.

Next, a bag of miniature Razzles. I can't tell you how much I love this. I've never seen treat-sized Razzles before. A six-pack of fruit Chiclets-- how very awesome. A "Wildlife Clik" candy dispenser with Smarties Bubble Gum. (Note that the package says, "Save our wildlife, every effort counts. 3% of our total proceeds will go to the Wildlife Conservation Society." Hmm. Three percent is a bit stingy, especially when it only cost $1).

Then this gem: edible paper with edible candy gel. Gretl shoved that whole thing in her mouth, but I forgot to ask her what it tasted like. And lastly, a Mounds lip balm.

Believe me when I tell you, I could've spent a lot more time (and money) there, but the Baroness was all like, "The bus is leaving!" and I certainly would've never found my way of that town and I'd be forced to get a job at the crazy little shack/liquor store on the side of the dirt road.

Why Didn't I Think of That?

Everyone knows there's two things that kids love more than anything in this world: candy and horticulture. So it's easy to see why this "Little Sprouts Candy and Grasshead" is such a runaway hit. This was a gift from D-Sword and I have to say, it's quite a bizarre combination: a little egg-shaped creature with gummy worms in the bottom and a little nugget of seeds in the top. According to the package, you just "Open, Water, Wait and Cut" the grass when it gets long enough. FUN!

I was all set to be freaked out by this, thinking it was some sort of Made in China bioterrorism, but it turns out that it's made in Canada. The grass started growing quite quickly-- within two days. I'm considering buying a truckload of these to replace my lawn this summer.