Here's What's Wrong With America

It seems Hershey's, America's great chocolate maker, is pulling the old bait and switch on their customers by replacing much of the real chocolate in their candy bars with sweetened, chocolate flavored palm oil.  

Erin noticed the story in the news recently, and I confirmed it with a trip to Walgreens.  In the picture below, you'll notice a pre-switch bag of Kissables (on top) and a post-switch bag (on bottom).  There is one difference in the bags.  On the top right corner, you'll notice what used to say "candy coated milk chocolate" now says "chocolate candy".  Chocolate flavored candy, that is.   

 

In this second picture, you see the ingredients from the old Kissables bag.  The first ingredient is milk chocolate,  which contains cocoa butter.  

In the third picture,  you see the ingredients list from the new Kissables bag.  The first ingredient is sugar, followed by palm oil.  Yum!  

In a taste test, Erin and I found the Kissables to be very similar, but taste isn't really the point. 

Hershey's should be ashamed of themselves.  I know I won't be buying their products without a label check.  Other palm oil bars to look out for include:  Take 5, Whatchamacallit, and Mr. Goodbar.  The classic Hershey's bar is still safe....for now.  

Who's up for some fresh baked palm oil chip cookies!!!!

eh BBQ

"The Stand" Arriving in Funny Book Form

I picked up the first of the new comic book telling of Stephen King's "The Stand" which hit stores last week.  Everyone's favorite King book will span six chapters, each consisting of five comics for an eventual total of 30 funny books.  Interestingly, Erin just began reading "The Stand" in its book form a week or two ago.  

Tropical Nebraska

California, Florida, and Hawaii have always been somewhat distinct from most other states thanks to the beauty of the palm tree. The palm just won't grow in places like Nebraska and Minnesota. It seems, though, that technology is now beginning to narrow this "palm gap". I recently discovered these faux palm trees gracing an upscale shopping center near my gym. They even have lights where the coconuts would be!

The Great Zinger Investigation

In a 10/28/06 post, I mentioned spotting Zingers, traditionally a Dolly Madison snack cake, being sold under the Hostess brand name. I had assumed that Hostess had bought out Dolly Madison. Wrong. It seems that BOTH Hostess and Dolly Madison are selling Zingers.

Confronted with these two boxes side by side at the store, I was forced to buy them both for a Zinger-Off.
The Zingers look identical, but the Dolly Madison box claims their Zinger is filled with "créme" filling while the Hostess Zinger is filled with a "creamy" filling. The Zingers seemed to taste very similar although I thought the Dolly Madison filling was more grainy than the Hostess. Erin felt the Dolly Madison cake was a bit dry in comparison.

Then I took a look at ingredients. They're exactly the same (both equally unhealthy). Also they're made in the same Kansas City factory. I guess a Zinger is a Zinger, no matter what the brand name. One concrete difference though, was that the Hostess version was slightly more expensive per ounce.

Happy Nanoversary!

To celebrate being engaged for one year, Erin and I treated each other to new iPod Nanos! I went with Georgia Tech Yellow while Erin opted for Sex and the City Pink.




Between both our collections, we have Nanos from each of the four Nano generations. The black one is a first-gen 2 gig model. Then we have a red second-gen four gigger. Erin's blue third-gen (the squat generation) Nano is an 8 gig model. The two new ones also have eight.



Here Yuki displays the line-up.


Credit for inventing the Nanoversary goes to Robert & Steph as you may remember from this previous blog post.

GT Football - The Perfect Option

well, OK, if they can stop fumbling 5 times per game...

Walkin' Baby!

Ridin' with a Yellow Dog

Ranger continues to reinforce which way his tail wags for the upcoming election.

Sunset & Rocks

I snapped this while walking around a Minneapolis area lake.

Bad Moon on The Rise

Folsom, CA, September 14, 2008, Nikon D70

Jack and The Stairs - Happy Birthday Granny!

Another Loyal Husker Fan

Baby Starts to Toddle! w/ Birthday Footage

Hot Wheels Mystery Blog Challenge Winner!

We had the great unboxing of the Hot Wheels Mystery Car tonight. Here's what was hidden behind the black plastic:



The vehicle's name is "Cloak and Dagger".

Here's how the judging process shook out. Dad, Steph, and Shane were immediately out. Whatever this car is, Mustang, GTO or Charger it ain't.

Erin was out in round two. While the car could be an eco-friendly green design, it probably isn't because it seems to have a big gas guzzling engine. Also, it doesn't have solar panels.

Aaron was dumped in round three. His Aston Martin pick is somewhat similar to the mystery car. Also, the Aston is the vehicle used in the latest James Bond movie, a "cloak and dagger" type film. But the similarities ended there.

The two finalists were Robert and Bill.

The mystery car does look like a super car, similar to Bill's Ferrari pick. Also it has flame-like patterns, although they are blue and white, not black.

Robert came closest to nailing the color with his "blue to green" description. Also, the mystery car does favor the old Corvette Stingray body in some ways.

It was a tough final decision.

Robert wins!

Suzy Q's Make Comeback

Has anyone else noticed Suzy Q's in stores lately? I hadn't seen them in years and had assumed they had stopped making them. Now all of a sudden they seem to be everywhere. The Q is probably the best snack cake in the Hostess line up. Yuki loves them too...for the box.

The Hot Wheels Mystery Blog Challenge

I found this interesting Hot Wheels toy vehicle package at a local drug store. It is a blacked out plastic package so you don't know what kind of car you are buying. According to the back of the package, there are 24 different mystery cars.

Here are the rules of the mystery blog challenge:
1. Decide what type of car you believe is in the package.
2. Leave a comment in this post describing your guess. Obviously, you must identify yourself in your comment.
3. The individual who comes closest to describing the actual car, wins the car. I'm the judge.
4. I will send the car to the winner.

Good luck!