Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Pre-Holiday Product Placements

I know, I know! Where have I been lately? Well, the answer, of course, is under a veritable mountain of ungraded papers, speeches, and final exams! Oh, and at the premiere of Twilight, naturally! ;-) But as of 21 minutes ago, I am FREE for FIVE WHOLE GLORIOUS DAYS! WHOO-HOO! That means I'll actually have some time to cook and blog about it...that is, if I can be roused from the coma in which I am sure to sink. In the meantime, it's been awhile since I've shared products that I enjoy, and some of these might make your holidays a bit brighter.

Let's begin with a quick cook idea, shall we? It should be said that I enjoy fish, but I don't eat it as much as I should because it seems to have become very expensive of late. But I was cruising the aisles of the Sam's Club recently (we like to add the definite article before stores and roads here in the North Country...roll with it), and I spied a frozen package of salmon trout for five bucks! Salmon trout sounds akin to imitation "krab," but it's a real thing. In fact, my next-door neighbor in Salt Lake City used to hook me up with some (har, har...hook me up indeed!) every time he went fishing, and I'd always have a ton in the freezer. It is trout, but it's orange-fleshed and meaty like salmon. In short, it's darn good eats. And five dollars at the Sam's Club gets you four medium-sized fillets--that's four meals for the price of one fast-food hamburger! The best part is, it cooks up in a jiffy, which is perfect for these harried, holiday times. I like to coat mine with some of Paul Prudhomme's Salmon Magic (hey! that was a bonus product placement!) and saute it in butter. To gild the lily, I drizzle on some homemade apple-maple-mustard sauce, and serve it with steamed rice and buttered baby lima beans (now shush about the lima beans--I love them!). Delish!

Okay, onto commercial product placement #2. The holidays call for a lot of snacking--dipping and dunking crackers into all kinds of tasty dips and spreads. And though these have been out for awhile, I only just recently bought a box to try...and suddenly, I'm on my fourth box! Tee hee. Have you folks tried the new(-ish) Flipsides crackers from Town House? Those evilly genius Keebler elves have wrought a delectable miracle by fusing the buttery richness of a Town House cracker with the salty crunch of a pretzel. HOW HAVE WE LIVED THIS LONG WITHOUT THESE THINGS?? Seriously, you have to try them. In fact, I have a vision for what I'm going to do with them next, though I can't tell anyone for the shame of it. I'll simply provide a link without further comment and let you make your own decisions.

I have saved the best and most seasonally-appropriate item for last. I was at the Super Wal-Mart last week and was stopped dead in my tracks by an end-cap full of THESE babies*. Don't THINK that I didn't throw two packages into my cart with the utmost haste! (Stop judging....I gave one to my officemate, Lee Ann.) The Limited Edition Oreos with Old-Fashioned Candy Cane Creme are a blatant rip-off of Trader Joe's Candy Cane Jo-Jo's that I adore. But I am so happy that Nabisco is ripping them off, because now that Grady is finished with his championship, I have no cause to be near a Trader Joe's over Thanksgiving weekend as I usually am, so there will be no holiday treats from Trader Joe's this year (sniff).

How do the Oreos compare to the Jo Jo's, you ask? Well, no one makes a better dark chocolate cookie than Oreo, so they win there, but I have to say that the Jo Jo filling is definitely better. Still, these special holiday Oreos are darn good, and I can think of so many uses for them. They would be yummy (and pretty!) covered in white or dark chocolate and decorated with festive sprinkles for gift-giving. Likewise, they would make terrific minty Oreo truffles. And I think ice cream pie nirvana could be reached with a crust fashioned from these cookies, filled with Breyer's mint chocolate chip, and topped with homemade fudge sauce (note to self: buy Breyer's!). Or better yet, one might make their own homemade ice cream with a peppermint base and chunks of these cookies swirled in! Moreover, how about making a minty version of those terrific cookies-and-cream cupcakes? If none of these ideas float your boat, you could always eat them straight from the package...but leave a few for Santa so you don't get coal in your stocking! ;-)

*I forgot to take a picture of the Candy Cane Oreos that I bought, so I "borrowed" a picture from a blog called Gigi Reviews. So photo credit goes to Gigi!

2 comments:

Randi said...

I know another Gina who calls herself Gigi. Remember????

The only bryers I buy now is vanilla. The other flavors have so many unnatural ingredients in them. Including " Chocolaty" chips.( hint: no real chocolate)

Oh and isnt salmon trout called stealhead?

Joy Bugaloo said...

I don't know. I tried to look it up, but some sources seem to say that salmon trout and steelhead are the same thing, but others seem to suggest that they are similar but not exactly the same.

All I know is the package said "salmon trout" on it, and the fillets inside were delicious!