Parades

Growing up in small town, South Dakota, we got to go to a parade once a year or so and it consisted of one band, 5 or 6 floats, some tractors, some horses and 5 firetrucks. But I recall them as being some of the best times ever...because of all the candy of course!!!

Czech Days Parade
...that green bucket on the back is FULL of candy!!

This weekend I walked in the annual Giant Parade at Czech Days in Tabor, SD handing out candy for my boyfriend's mother's entry. I passed out 5 ice cream buckets (yes I counted) full of candy to all the parade watchers, and as hard as it was to give away all those frooties, it was more rewarding to see how happy it made the parade go-ers. Of course there were the young children all lined up with their own buckets to fill with loot from all the parade entries, and their parents smiling behind them because they knew as soon as they got home they would get to sort through their children's candy buckets after they went to sleep that night. But my favorite people to give candy to were the elderly people all lined up together in their wheelchairs with their hands held out, waiting for their sweet treat for the day. Their smiles (or the quick nod from the ones that were maybe having a so-so day) when I dropped a handful of those frooties into their hands was all the thanks I needed.

Not at the parade I was at, but a classic picture of candy & parades :)

Throwing candy at parades dates about as far back as parades' and candy's existence. Why wouldn't it?? I think there are great memories all around concerning parades & candy (except maybe those people that got hit by a float picking up candy, causing parades to now ban throwing candy...boo for them!) So I guess I can only say that I have great memories all around concerning parades, and look forward to partaking in many more, whether it's throwing, handing, or eating the candy!!  

Matt and I before the "Beseda Dance"
at Czech Days in our traditional costumes.

Air Delights

I found a new candy as I was checking out at Walmart the other day. (I came in for light bulbs and came out with a whole cart load!! Hate when that happens--except when it's candy that sneaks it's way into the cart of course!) Anyhow, this new candy bar is Hershey's Air Delights which is explained on the wrapper as

"The HERSHEY'S milk chocolate you love gently blended for a light, airy texture that melts effortlessly in your mouth."

It was quite yummy!! But I must warn you that it is made to melt quickly, and that includes in your hands. I was trying to take a picture of in the inside because it looks really neat, kind of like a honeycomb, but couldn't get a focused picture with a shaky hand, so by the time I gave up, my fingers were covered in chocolate (not that it was a real problem, I would take a shower in chocolate if I could!)

They have Air Delight Kisses too!
The air bubbles really look like that-very neat!

I was intrigued by the aerated chocolate and I searched a little on the internet for more bars like this-I found Bubble Chocolate. They were one of the first to introduce the aerated dark and milk chocolate bars. I really liked their marketing campaign stating that the candy bars have fewer calories per volume that other chocolate bars, which really just means that the air part of the candy bar doesn't contain any calories (duh), so you can eat a "bigger" candy bar for the same amount of calories. Quite clever...
They actually had directions on their website on how to eat aerated chocolate! You are supposed to just let it melt in the mouth slowly is what I got from the paragraph long instructions.

Seems like there are new variations of candy coming out all the time, and I am happy to taste test every one of them....so bring on the candy!!

Warm, Toasty Candies...yum!

Summer is finally here to stay!! Yesterday at 4:00pm when I checked www.weather.com it was blistering a 95 degrees in Vermillion!! :) love it! What I also love is the collection of candy in my car that gets to bake in the sun all day just waiting to melt in my mouth on my way home from work. Yesterday during my 2 minute drive home, I polished off the last couple "Os" of my Apple-Os, a handful of Mike n' Ikes, and 2 handfuls of Skittles. One may think that candy would be ruined if left in a 100 degree car for a week, but as long as you keep them out of direct sunlight, they are just perfect for a soft, melt-in-your-mouth, treat! When I was young, I used to put my bag of Skittles in my pocket all day, letting them warm up just perfectly. I once tried putting them in the microwave, but that did not turn out well....

So before you throw away that warmed-up, slightly melted candy, just give it a shot, you might like it :)

***Warning: this does not work for chocolate!! (duh)

Tricky Twix

I found out that Twix are quite tricky to make! I used a copycat recipe and it turned out okay, but the more recipes I make, the more I realize that the name brand candies are really hard to top!! There are essentially 3 layers to a Twix: shortbread, caramel, chocolate. Here's my Twix adventure:

Copycat Twix
Shortbread

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• baking sheet

Caramel Topping

• 1 bag (14 oz) wrapped caramels
• 2 tablespoons milk or cream
• dash salt

Chocolate Topping:

• 12 oz milk chocolate chips

It's so fluffy!

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F with rack in center of the oven. 

2. With a mixer, beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add egg & vanilla and beat until combined. Add the flour and salt and beat until the dough just comes together

3. Refrigerate the dough until firm. Roll out the dough or press it into a backing sheet lined with wax paper. Bake for 20-30 minutes, turning the baking sheet front-to-back half-way through.

Cooked shortbread

4. Let the shortbread cool. In the meantime you can unwrap all your caramels place them in a microwave-safe dish with the milk.

5. Microwave the caramels for 1 minute at a time, stirring in between until completely smooth. Then pour the caramel over the shortbread and spread evenly.

6. Allow to cool completely. Cut into your desired shapes (fyi: twix are rectangles :) ) For best results you can freeze the pieces before dipping.

Caramels ready to melt

7. Melt your chocolate in a double boiler or a heat-proof bowl atop a saucepan with simmering water. 

8. Dip the twix pieces and let them set until hardened and enjoy!!

So I found I'm not the best baker...I mis-measured my powdered sugar and didn't realize it until I was almost done!! A half-cup extra powdered sugar never hurt anyone right?? Maybe not, but it did make my shortbread veerrry crumbly and hard to dip!! I also had to keep my bars in the fridge because I haven't quite mastered the tempering technique yet! Here's a helpful link for Tempering Chocolate.

Not the straightest cuts in the world, but "that'll do"

Falling apart :(

All in all, you can't really go wrong with a cookie, caramel, and chocolate mixture so they were pretty tasty, but of course, never as good as a real Twix, which I DID buy just for back-up, and yes I've already eaten it!! Hey, it's research right!?

This was my leftovers
I did not have NEAR enough chocolate to dip them all,
so this is what happened!

Can't even tell the difference :)

Plus, this recipe was fun because I jammed my thumb playing softball this last weekend, so I can't do dishes, but I could sure make a mondo-mess for Matt to clean up!! ;)

ouchie :(

ouchie :(