Basket Case

It's time to throw restraint, diets, and dental care to the wind. In other words, Lent is over and the Easter Bunny has gone bat shit crazy.

The scary thing is I got more Easter candy immediately after this photo was taken.

Let's take a closer look at one of my favorite items from the sugar nest, Sour Patch Xploderz. They have all the charm of a Sour Patch Kid with the gross squirt of Freshen Up gum. Xploderz can clear the palette between mouthfuls of chocolate while you pretend you're eating fruit—fruit called Raspberry Lemonade Rush, Grape Berry Surge, Cherry Berry Bash, and Apple Strawberry Burst.

Also fun and palette clearing, Rain•Blo Bubble Gum Eggs. I like the option of chewing, rather than inhaling one's cane.

This is another fun and squishy item. The strawberry flavor could be a little more subtle, then again would you be putting something called "Glop" in your mouth if you wanted subtle? I love how the gum is egg shaped with a gooey red yolk and the bunny head is removable for use elsewhere. Use you imagination.


Some later additions to the basket were inexplicably hard to find Cadbury Mini Eggs, delectable Dove Silky Smooth Milk Chocolate Eggs, Easter Cow Pies, and one uneaten Pecan Puddle. (The image above is an Easter Cow Pie, not a Puddle.)


It's strange that the only thing catching my fancy at Walgreen's this year are mini packs of Giant Cheetos (I wanted them for Guido and was thrilled to find them giagantisized).
Maybe I was too full of candy spillover to notice my beloved chocolate coconut nests, but I never found them.

This year I discovered that Good & Plenty look great in pink plastic eggs and may appease black licorice jelly bean thieves like Guido here. (I'd eaten a bag of black only beans long ago and wanted to move on selection wise.)

This is the basket I made for his brother, I used an inexpensive Rubbermaid container ($1.99) and packed it full of candy. That's solid sugar beneath the top layer, son.
Note the Lindt Chocolate Carrot and Mini Chicks. I don't know what they taste like because they were too much of a hot commodity to unwrap and sample, but they look great and Lindt is one of my favorite commercial chocolates.

I've become convinced that Easter may soon overtake Halloween as the number one candy holiday. Take MilkyWay Bunnies for instance (go ahead, take one).
The rich chocolate aroma smacks you upside the nose when you tear a bunny open and all that caramel comes dripping out, begging you to ravish it on the spot—I won't show you the inside, it's too much.

I lied. They look and taste richer and fudgier than a MilkyWay candy bar. Maybe it's the shape and size, but it seems as if there's even more luscious caramel spilling out. Like the candy bar, they lend themselves to being frozen.

This year's Best of the Basket: Pecan Puddles, MilkyWay Bunnies, Sour Patch Xploderz (not for everyone), Lindt Milk Chocolate Carrots and Chicks, Reese's Milk Chocolate and Peanut Butter Eggs, Giant Flaming Hot Cheetos, bubble gum, and as always, Cadbury Caramel Eggs of any size.
I wouldn't get Chewy Sweetarts Minis again.
And the Worst of the Basket: Little Debbie Easter Egg Brownies
MIA: Russel Stover milk chocolate coconut nests
Best One Stop Shop For Easter Candy: Tarjé
Most Pathetic Display of Easter Candy For a Grocery Store of Its Caliber: The Hilldale Sentry
Best Find at a Gas Station: Cadbury Mini Eggs at Kelley Williamson Mobil