Sunday, April 12, 2009

Basket Case

The family Easter basketIt'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.

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

Sour Patch XploderzLet'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.

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

Hubba Bubba GlopThis 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.

Easter Cow Pie
Cow Pie unwrappedSome 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.)

Giant Cheetos Packs
Giant CheetosIt'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.

AndyThis 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.)

Chris's Easter BasketThis 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.

MilkyWay BunnyI'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.

MilkyWay BunnyI 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

31 comments:

  1. Happy Easter my little Cha cha!!!!I can see you riding around in your new sled delivering all the goodies to you nephews now!

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  2. Haha, I did just that last Thursday up in mini Sota, and if I get my fat necked butt off this computer chair will get the rest of them out soon.
    Cha Cha says "Vrrrommm."

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  3. Wow! Pass me one of everything!

    I miss getting an Easter basket. I always thought they were so pretty, and I loved searching through the grass for hidden candy...

    This was so much fun to read. And pretty, too.

    Hoppy Easter.

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  4. You know I would if you lived anywhere in the tri-state area. Not sure about FIBland...maybe just MN or IA. Okay, for you, IL too.
    Aww, I would have sent you one if I'd have known, Andi.Then again, the one I sent to Jodi has been confiscated by the FAA.
    Yeah, one of my favorite parts too, that's how I learned to love stale jelly beans and rock hard Peeps.

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  5. Happy Easter, thanks for stopping by, I didn't mean to make you feel silly, just trying to share with people how life is like on the other side of the world. In the cities, they have taps, though most of the time there is no water in the taps, comes at night. Please send me some of that candy!

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  6. How on earth anyone could give up chocolate/candy for lent I do not know!

    Looks like you got one hell of a haul this year though Jeanna! Jelly beans are so cool, I haven't had them for way too long!

    Happy Easter Again
    Jim

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  7. Holy candy Batman!

    Easter is, by far, the BEST candy holiday.

    Happy Easter to you! I hope the sugar hangover doesn't slow you down too much.

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  8. Nah, just playing with you, Grace. The water only comes at night?
    Wish I would have given it all to you.

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  9. No jelly beans Jim? Really? What about chocolate flavored jelly beans?
    It's about the toughest thing for a kid to do and I don't think I ever made it all the way through as a child or an adult.

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  10. Hey Erika, I think it's time I put away the candy and got back in the kitchen. Here it is 9:30 and I haven't eaten anything but fruit and popcorn.
    I'm beginning to think it is the best candy holiday.

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  11. Wow ! what a feast ! We only had our traditional colored eggs and a few chocolate eggs and of course a chocolate bunny !

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  12. That bunny was good to you!!! Wowza! Yummy! Giant cheetos? Yum!

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  13. Hi Gattina, hope you had a Happy Easter. I only had the MilkyWay Bunnies, but no traditional large chocolate ones. No eggs either, but I've got a hankering for some.

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  14. The Giant Cheetos are cool, Lisa. Actually the bunny didn't do much for me until we hit Ho Chunk later.

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  15. Nope no Chocolate Jelly Beans ... but there is an idea if ever I heard one! I will review them soon! Thanks for the inspiration!

    Jim

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  16. I'm thinking of chocolate pudding Jelly Belly beans, but I bet there's more. Stay away from the chocolate covered gummi bears.

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  17. OMG. Giant size cheetos, i love thee! weirdness-coolness.

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  18. Hey, perhaps we'll have some with blender drinks some time.

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  19. my head hurts just looking at all that candy!
    We just had some eggs.....

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  20. DOH, I mean that sounds healthy enough, Mary Ruth.

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  21. I didn't have eggs, I had candy, thanks to the FAA letting my cow pies through. My kid confiscated the moo chews. Moo chews, lol.

    Guido looks pretty happy, Jeanna.

    This was a bad fifty percent off day-after holiday. Nothing anywhere, not even those russell stover nests (which I looked for) only sad little sacks of the Palmer's foil wrapped eggs with krispies.

    Thanks, Jeanna!! And happy belated Easter.

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  22. I started to see a discount over the weekend and some of the stuff getting sold out. They said there was a 20 percent drop in Easter candy purchases this year.
    As for the FAA, we're doomed.

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  23. WOW! Our Easter SUCKED compared to yours!! I think I know where I'm going next Easter!! LOL! ;p

    Seriously, your Easter bunny is way cooler than ours!

    The Easter Cow Pie wowed me! You got me hooked on Cow Pies (haha! That sounds funny), so the Easter Cow Pie piqued my curiosity.

    Glad you finally received the parcel I sent you! It took long enough to get to you! :)

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  24. Hey C., so burnt out from doing taxes—arrrggghhhh, the instructions have got to be someone's idea of a sick joke.
    So, how you doing, no MY Easter sucked. But I did get to duck out and listen to a Sox/Twins game, so that was cool.
    Just wolfed down most of a Badger Claw as a reward for waiting in line with the other saps to mail my taxes. And then I got the wrong postage.
    Arrrrggghhhh.
    Can't wait to tuck in, it looks gorgeous, thanks kiddo!

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  25. I remember those days of waiting in line to mail my taxes (in the drive thru line at the post office at midnight on April 15th cause I didn't want to pay) The free hamburgers and donuts, the music, people dressed up as Uncle Sam stamping the taxes with Apr 15th postmarks. Games for the kiddies and radio station giveaways.

    They don't have that here. This area is very sad and depressing. :(

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  26. No doughnuts (never any burgers) and coffee this year (believe me I complained), a line out the door for the only machine that dispensed stamps which doesn't take cash, speed traps set up all around the PO, clueless people lost at this evil stamp machine (many of whom put on the wrong postage not knowing their envelopes were packages), and a sign that says it was closing for about 20 minutes at 10:40.
    When I finally got up there to weigh my comedy of errors I couldn't figure out which stamp and ended up paying $4.95 for priority mail which was way too big for the envelope.

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  27. I'm back.

    1) All I can say is *drool*!!! Still can't get over your Easter loot! Yum!

    2) Taxes. Fun. Just thinking of taxes makes me tired! LOL!

    3) Just noticed the "Hair Like Mine" caption in one of the pics you posted. Y'know, I love curly hair!!! My hair is sooooo straight! I've always wanted curly hair. I even PERMED my super straight Asian hair back in the late 80s, early 90s!!! I looked like an Asian poodle.

    and

    4) Did Jimmy just call you his "little Cha cha"!?!?!! LOL! Ohhh...I love Jimmy and his pet names.

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  28. Got something for you on my blog. xo

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  29. at least you got it mailed and that's something. Maybe the IRS will take the 4.95 priority stamp as a sign of your sterling good-nicey-ness. :)

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  30. You're from a family of straight hairs, then C. I think at this point I've just given up completely, but Guido is young and fighting the good fight (meaning he keeps it short).
    Okay, you've GOT to put up a poodle hair photo!
    He did, that's actually my car's name.

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  31. LOL, Jodi, I think they'll think I'm a procrastinating idiot with something to hide.

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