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!