Blog Archives
Cheat Code: Pizza Dough Pretzels
Pretzels of all kinds are a great snack. Hard pretzels are yummy, and easy to take on the go, but I think we can all agree that soft pretzels are the superior variety. If you don’t, then you might want to stop reading this post now, since, spoilers – this post is about soft pretzels. The main downfall to soft pretzels is that you generally have to put on pants and leave the house to get one, unlike hard pretzels which are usually already there. You can always make your own those times that you’re craving a soft pretzel but also don’t want to go to the mall or other pretzel selling location, but as we discovered when we made the Pretzel Pizza, making pretzels from scratch is kind of a pain in the ass. It’s kind of actually less work to just go buy one.
However! We have come up with a method for making pretzels at home that is not a total pain or a ton of work. It does require putting pants on temporarily to go get the initial base ingredient, but once that part’s done you can totally have a no-pants pretzel party.
The Snack Report: Lay’s Indian Tikka Masala Potato Chips
It seems that this year instead of the “Do Us A Flavor” contest Lays is doing the “Passport to Flavor” contest, with four new limited edition global flavored potato chips. I guess they got tired of having to sort through entries like toenail fungus and unicorn meat and decided to send people away. I’m not really all that interested in the contest itself, but some of the global inspired flavors have caught my attention. First I want to take a minute to ask: where is our royalty check for the Greek Tzatziki flavor? We suggested practically the same exact flavor (a potato chip where the main flavor is tzatziki sauce) in the Do Us A Flavor competition two years ago. We didn’t even make it to the finals, and now here it is as a flavor. Hmmm. Anyway. The other flavors are Chinese Szechuan Chicken, Indian Tikka Masala, and Brazilian Picanha. The one that really caught my attention was the Indian Tikka Masala. A treat that Erik and I both enjoy when we go to the Indian buffet is dipping the vegetable (including potato) pakora in the tikka masala sauce. It’s really yummy. So I was intrigued. I had the feeling that this could be a good chip. Erik was much more skeptical however, that they could really capture the essence of tikka in a potato chip.
The Snack Report: Crunchie Bar
You know it’s the damnedest thing. For some reason over the past 6 months of my life, I have just been craving the shit out of chocolate. Not necessarily junk chocolate you impulse-buy near the register… moreso the finer chocolate confections in life. Stuff like dark chocolate, hot cocoa, high-quality chocolate rabbits, chocolate-covered-everything, etc… And I never really liked chocolate that much, growing up. I never disliked it, but I always made fun of those hokey expressions like “I’m a chocoholic” or “Chocolate makes everything better.”
To be fair, I still make fun of them, but holy hell I cannot shake this craving. If I didn’t know any better I’d say I’m pregnant. (If Meg and I didn’t hate children. Oh and also, there’s the me being a dude part). Lo and behold, we happened upon a fun, little tea shop recently that had Crunchie Bars in stock. I’ve vaguely heard of them in passing, but never actually ate one since they’re not usually sold in the Americas. And man, with top-tier chocolate companies like Cadbury being over there, Europe is freaking spoilllllled.
Shhh… don’t tell anyone this wasn’t for resale. HONEST. IT’S NOT OUR FAULT.
Test the Recipe: Grandma Lil’s Peanut Butter Cookies
“Test the Recipe” is a recurring column on PCFG where we test vintage (anything published before 1990) recipes and see if they stand the test of time or need updating. In this post we test the recipe as exactly as possible for the most accurate outcomes. Those recipes that need updating will be featured later in a “We Can Do It Better” post.
I’m mixing things up a little bit with this Test the Recipe post because I didn’t find it in a book; I found it in my grandma’s recipe box. As such, I don’t know the actual date on it, but considering the recipe is my great-grandmother’s I think it’s fairly safe to assume that the recipe falls within the time frame I established. I think a lot of the Christmas cookies my mom makes use my great-grandma’s recipes, but she doesn’t usually make peanut butter cookies, so I wanted to give these a try. I really enjoy peanut butter, and cookies are great, so I was excited to have some peanut butter cookies to eat. I’m sure my great-grandma didn’t come up with the recipe totally from scratch, but I don’t know where she may have gotten the original recipe from either.
Great-grandma Lillian
The Snack Report: Thomas’ Blueberry English Muffins
I feel like I start a lot of my Snack Reports with, “I was in the grocery store and saw this on sale.” But that’s really how I end up finding most of the stuff I review. Some foodstuffs I hear about in advance and seek out to review, but a lot I find while just wandering around the grocery store, and if it’s on sale, I’m game for giving it a try. So…I was in the grocery store the other day and saw these blueberry English muffins on sale. Actually I saw a different Thomas’ product on sale first, but it’s going to be on sale for longer than these are, so I ended up getting them first. I had tried the limited edition apple pie English muffins a few months ago and enjoyed them, so I figured blueberry English muffins were worth a shot as well; I like both blueberries and English muffins.
The Poor Couple's Food Guide 
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