Cookie Dough Oreos

Having been unable to locate Oreo’s newest limited edition flavor, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, in my regular store, I dispatched my good friend Margaret Harvey to Target in the hopes of scoring a package. 

And score she did.  Maggie reported back toute suite and delivered the package albeit only after taking a few cookies for herself. That, however, is the cost of doing business in our own personal baked good economy.

Perhaps low expectations due to lackluster past limited edition flavors poised me to excessively enjoy these cookies. The cream has distinct brown sugar, vanilla, and butter notes and is actually studded with micro-mini (that is a technical term) chocolate chips.

My God, I think I might like these things better than REGULAR Oreos.

I’ll let you know after further testing, which will included a round of trials using them as ice cream toppings.

 

Usually, my first favorite and second favorite Ritter Sport flavors are “Butter Biscuit” and “Cornflakes,” respectively.

What can I say: I have a thing for yellow carbohydrates.

Crunchy, toasted marshmallow enrobed in a milk chocolate matrix? Yeah, that’s pretty damn good, too.

 

Season’s Delight French Vanilla Cool Whip

Apologies for being MIA, readers, but this elf had to do a lot of traveling during the holidays and is just now catching up.  

Please don’t assume, however, she wasn’t indulging in many seasonal and limited edition treats, including French Vanilla Cool Whip.  I will not waste my time trying to convince whipped cream purists that Cool Whip is a worthy product in its own right despite its highly artificial composition and suspiciously uniform texture.

Instead, I will assert to fans of Cool Whip that the French Vanilla flavor is far superior to the regular, so much so that I don’t think I can go back to the regular, low-intensity plain variety.  Many, many teaspoons of faux vanilla extract were involved in the production of this dairy product and the result is a fluffy topping that easily steals the show from the dessert it designed to adorn.

Case in point, my graham cracker waffles, which ultimately became but a platform for the delicious fusion of liquid maple syrup and rapidly melting Cool Whip. 

‘Twas better than ice cream, I tells ya.

Ghiradelli Peppermint Bar

I’ll give you what you want to know first: Ghiradelli Peppermint Bar is (slightly) superior to Hershey’s Candy Cane bar.  Blame on the bottom layer of pure milk chocolate, which provides a very welcome straightforward sweet contrast to the spicier white chocolate mint top stratum.

Like Hershey’s Candy Cane, Ghiradelli’s Limited Edition Peppermint Bark lends itself easily to seasonal s’more creations. Its design, however, provides a significant advantage as the individual breakable blocks are the perfect size for graham crackers.

 

Now, I just need to find some seasonal marshmallows.

Nestle Crunch Holiday Medallion

Spotted this gem in my local CVS. Two for $1.50 – you for six quarters I can award myself a double chocolate medal?!? Sold.

This is somewhat make up for the fact that I failed to make the curling team for the 2014 Olympics in Sochi. I know, it’s still hard to believe.

 

Props to Nestle for this festive surface design that is not only aesthetically pleasing but also serves as a helpful, edible reminder of a certain person’s imminent arrival.

Limited Edition Barnum’s Animal Crackers

Animal crackers in my soup
Monkeys and rabbits loop the loop
Gosh oh gee but I have fun
Swallowing animals one by one

This song confuses me on several levels.  First, animal “crackers” are really more like cookies, so why not just name them as such? Second, regardless of nomenclature, the taste is sweet not savory, so why put them in soup?

By the way all my objections crumble in the face of Shirley Temple.

The seasonal/limited edition design of Barnum’s Animals box is lovely and rather touching, provided the second scene (not depicted) is of the larger polar bear mauling the smaller one.

And, fyi, the crispy sugar cookies within are not just in arctic ursine shapes. As you can see the photo, there’s a rhino, a hippo, and, um, something I can’t identify.

 

Holiday Almond M&M’s

I don’t usually indulge in holiday M&M’s because they are just marked-up red and green versions of the standard candy.

But these Almond M&M’s deserved to be purchased if only for their packaging.  Never have I seen such a Nutcracker. He seems alarmingly short on oxygen.

And while I still maintain that Peanut is the superior variety of legume M&M’s, I must admit these chocolate almond candies were an excellent substitution for chocolate chips in cookies.

Promised Land Low-Fat Egg Nog

Egg nog is mind-blowingly wonderful. 

But sometimes, after that second or third cups, I feel a bit ill (even if the punchbowl hasn’t been spiked with brandy).  Just too much liquid fat.

Promised Land Reduced Fat Egg Nog certainly does not taste as good as regular version, but it’s infinitesimally lighter taste means I can have my three cups  (and maybe some cake, too) experiencing a violent gastrointestinal revolt. 

Say, I could even use this stuff instead of milk in my cereal.  To be continued….

Holiday Wheat Thins

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I do believe this year is the first in which Wheat Thins has issued a holiday variety.  The classic cracker has traded its traditional square shape for a hexagon and its normally flat facade now boasts a holiday imprint of a snowflake, bell, gingerbread man, or candy cane.

The flavor of holiday Wheat Thins is nearly identical to the regular version, though slightly slightly less oily. 

A respectable carbohydrate platform for most any sort of cheese, but not, I predict, as admirable a holiday cracker as Ritz snowflakes. We shall see.

Nestle Holiday Morsels

For Christmas, Nestle has again issued red and green chocolate chips, which join the regular variety in a festive bag that is sure to make you smile.  Well, at least I did. 

There’s no difference in taste, so don’t hesitate to use them to infuse your chocolate chip cookies with some holiday spirit (and artificial dyes).

If there’s a Toll House, I want to live inside of it.