Mr Peanut is the mascot that represents the Planters Peanut Company that turns 100 in 2016.

The Planters Company was founded by Amedeo Obici an Italian Born American of Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania.

The Planters Company some time back merged with Nabisco and currently (2016) is owned by Kraft Foods American Food Company.

I was very excited to hear about the “Nutmobile” touring for Planters 100th. The Planter’s Peanut Man was very iconic from commercials but mostly (for me) from being one of the hight lights from Atlantic City New Jersey’s Board Walk from my childhood.

The above photo shows you a little bit of what Atlantic City Board Walk was like. The Planter’s Peanut Store is on the left.

This is how I remember it looked liked from the outside with the Peanut man always there.

You had no choice to stop here when you were on the board walk. The aroma of fresh roasting peanuts was intoxicating like a drug. They smelled so good…you can’t imagine unless you have smelled fresh roasting peanuts. They smelled so good that you were hypnotized ….you had to get some.  The Atlantic City Board Walk also got mighty chilly at night and the hot peanuts were also very comforting to warm your hands and stomach from the chilly, misty, sandy shore air. (Photo on the left was from Monicastangledweb.com and photo to the right was found on Pinterest)

I couldn’t find a photo of the inside of the Planters Store but there were some animated Mr Peanuts inside doing things that were fun to look at. They sold fresh roasted peanuts…I think I remember some toys or games….other things I don’t remember and Mr Peanut Collectables.

These might be older collectibles I think from before my time. I remember stuff like Mr. Peanut Mugs, Banks and other things, some were colorful. I think I remember Mr. Peanuts store goods made in Pink, Red, Blue and Yellow colors. (Photo found on Pinterest)

I saw this Mr. Peanut Bench on the internet. I don’t remember it but it might have been there. Behind the glass is a Boardwalk. But that little bit of Greenery by Mr. Peanut’s hand doesn’t look like the Atlantic City Beach to me?

Well Atlantic City is a different Place now and Mr. Peanut has said good riddance to Atlantic City some time back but you can find him on a Jar or Can of Planter’s Peanuts almost anywhere.

Back to our time in Phoenix Arizona!

Here was the Mr. Peanut 100th Birthday Celebration.

I never seen the “NutMobile” before and never heard of it either. We drove to the celebration and luckily it wasn’t too far from my house.

Was the scent of fresh roasted peanuts going to fill the air?….Nope 🙁

Where they going to celebrate with slices of Birthday Cake?…..Nope 🙁

Was there going to be a band?….Nope 🙁

Were they going to hand out keepsakes?…………Nope 🙁

Were they going to give out samples of airplane size packages of peanuts?……Nope 🙁

Was I FORKING GOING TO SEE MR.PEANUT?….nope….Nope and Forking Nope. 🙁

There was nothing but $1.00 off coupons for purchasing jars or cans of Planter’s Peanuts. 🙁

Nuts!…….. Mr. Peanut turned 100 and all they did was give out $1.00 off coupons.

Wikipedia

Planters.com

 

 

If you live in the East, South East, or Mid- Western parts of U.S. The big name brand for Cottage Cheese and other dairy items is Breakstone’s. In the Western parts the big name is Knudsen’s. Both Cottage Cheese brands have been absorbed by Kraft Foods.  I stumbled into a rare opportunity to get my hands on some Breakstone’s Cottage Cheese in Phoenix AZ. I thought I’d see how the two measure up against each other. But first is a little bit of story about these brands.

Knuden’s was at one time a family owned business that made cottage cheese and other items  that got mostly bought out by Kraft.

On the Breakstone’s Container it states that they were established in 1882 and according to the commercials I grew up with Breakstone’s was founded by Sam Breakstone.

I don’t know for sure but according to what I read on the internet the Sam Breakstone’s Name might be somewhat fictitious?????????? There is LOTS of documentation that The Breakstone Name is linked to many named Lithuanian immigrants from the New York Lower East Side named Breakstone from the pre 1900’s that were involved in the dairy business. Brothers, cousins, distant relatives all named Breakstone are linked to the dairy business all where the “real” or “fictitious” Sam Breakstone came from.

Jordon Davis of www.FindingSamBreakstone.BlogSpot.com dedicated his WHOLE BLOG to researching all people that he could find name Sam Breakstone in America that were alive in 1882. He was aiming on finding the real Sam Breakstone of from what we know as Breakstone’s . He digged up records on about SEVENTEEN Sam Breakstones and isn’t satisfied that any of the Sam Breakstones He has found (even though in the dairy business) were actually the founding Sam Breakstone of the 1882 established dairy.

Some of us of a certain age from certain parts of the United States remember the likable character from Breakstone commercials named “Sam Breakstone.”(he’s the same actor from the Dunkin Donuts Commercial, “Time to make the donuts” guy) In the commercials Sam Breakstone turned down lots of milk because it wasn’t good enough for his products. He was a real stickler. (well that’s the way I remember it..think it went that way) Oh I found a bunch of old Breakstone’s Commercials that live on youtube. Most were made from 1977-80.

“Not GOOD enough!”   “NOT GOOD ENOUGH”   “I wouldn’t feed it to a dog!”

“Not thick enough.” NOT THICK ENOUGH!”

I had difficulty researching Breakstone’s and Knudsen’s varieties of cottage cheese that they used to sell before they were bought out by Kraft. It seems that information disappeared or never was found on the web. But I remember Breakstone’s use to sell the cottage with a variety of curd sizes and different fat contents. I don’t recall Knudsen’s because it wasn’t sold were I lived most of my life.

Now back to the two brands of Cottage Cheese…..

Both Cottage Cheeses are low fat and 2% milk fat and are small curd. Both Cottage Cheese have the same amount of calories and fat.

The main ingredients in Breakstone’s are skim milk and cream, plus 8 ingredients.

Knudsen’s main ingredients are Fat free milk and cream, plus 10 ingredients.

You can see the texture differs some.

Knudsen on the right has harder, drier curds and is much saltier tasting.

Breakstone’s on the left has more difference between the curds and whey.

Knudsen’s almost seems like it was blended together.

Breakstone’s taste milkier maybe because it isn’t so salty.

Breakstone’s and Knudsen’s do taste different.

www.FindingSamBreakstone.BlogSpot.com.

 

Sriracha is a tangy garlic chili sauce used to add flavor to foods.

We have many brands out there and they all taste different. After watching Chef Jamie Oliver on TV I found out that many British People use Cholula Hot sauce on their cottage cheese. I started trying different hot sauces including Sriracha sauces and discovered that I liked the Ninja Squirrel Brand on Cottage Cheese. It just made cottage cheese far more interesting and fun for me. I also like some Sriracha Sauces on radishes, in soups, salads and in other things. I started collecting Sriracha Sauces so I could compare them and find out what I like.

Just like wine tasting you have to pair the Sriracha Sauce with Food so I decided to try the Sriracha sauces first with cottage cheese and then for a second tasting on a radish slice.

The next day I thought maybe tasting the Sriracha Sauces with Seaweed and Rice Cakes would bring something different to the tasting so I tried that too.

Shark Brand the biggest bottle at 1:00 o’clock on the plate does not taste great on cottage cheese to me but turns suddenly delicious on radish. I get the garlic, tang and sweet. I think this also was the cheapest of the Sriracha Sauces. It also is the thinnest sauce.The next day I also thought Shark Brand tasted just as good on Seaweed and the Rice Cake. Maybe it turned slightly sweeter on the rice cake. I like the way the ingredients are listed just like a recipe. 35% chili, 25% water, 20% sugar, 10% garlic, 6% salt and 5% vinegar. This BIG 750ml only coast around $2.50 and was less money than most of the smaller bottles. Made in Thailand.

Grand Mountain at 11:00 o’clock on the plate is delicious on cottage cheese. Seems more tangy on radish than Shark Brand. Maybe it’s slightly spicier.It’s thinner than most Sriracha Sauces but much thicker than Shark Brand. Grand Mountain is also delicious on both Seaweed and the Rice Cake. I think instead of making the rice cake sweeter Grand Mountain seems more garlic and maybe a slightly more heat. Grand Mountain doesn’t have added water and the ingredients are Chili, sugar, vinegar, garlic and salt. Made in Thailand.

Huy Fong at 9 o’clock on the plate taste awful on cottage cheese and actually is painful with radish. After tasting Shark and Grand Mountain Huy Fong is very flat with noting going on. It’s just flat on the seaweed and weird tasting on the rice cake. Ingredients are chili, sugar, salt, garlic, distilled vinegar, potassium sorbate, sodium bisulfite, xanthan gum. Made in the USA.

3-Mien at 7 o’clock on the plate taste just ok on cottage cheese but taste sweet and garlicy on radish. This one seemed slightly fish like. This one also isn’t as bright and clean tasting as the first two.. It’s pretty much just tangy on the seaweed but has a better taste on the rice cake. It’s also a little thick. The ingredients are chili, garlic, sugar, salt vinegar, potassium sorbate, and sodium metabisulfite. Made in Vietnam.

Ninja Squirrel at 5 o’clock on the plate. Taste sweet on cottage cheese and almost honey-like on radishes with mild heat.  Oddly sweet on the seaweed but tasty on the rice cake. Ingredients are red jalapeños puree, salt, citric acid, red chili puree, salt citric acid, water, sugar, organic white vinegar, garlic puree (garlic, water, citric acid) salt, garlic, habanero pepper powder, xanthin gum. Made in the USA.

Lee Kum Kee is at 3 o’clock on the plate. OOOOwwwweeee. this is inedible on cottage cheese. I think it’s just weird tasting with a weird lumpy texture and really tangy. Maybe metallic……..Very spicy. Burns..my mouth and is ..too acidic…for me both on cottage cheese and the radish. Just horrible on the seaweed and on the rice cake. Ingredients red chili, sugar, salt, garlic, anchovy extract, acetic acid, ascorbic acid and anchovies. Made in the USA.

My conclusion

#1…… Grand Mountain – good complexity, bold, bright tasting, spicy but not too spicy- tasty on everything I tried.

#2……. Shark – Very thin sauce, good complexity, bright tasting,  a little sweet tomato-like, great value – Close you eyes and taste it….It has something refreshing to it like apple and mint……tasty on most everything…best tasting of the Sriracha’s when you try it straight.

#3……. Ninja Squirrel – oddly sweet on some things but also brings out some delicious flavors on other things. Smooth and maybe fruity….with some fun heat.

#4……. 3 Misn – lots of tang, a little too thick, OK..sauce but.a little flat….Not the best and not the worst.

Not recommended

#5……Huy Fong – flat tasting…it has heat…taste like chemicals after tasting the other Sriracha’s.

#6….Lee Kum Kee – WOW this tasted really harsh on everything. This sauce was the hardest for me to stomach. It had too much funk and too much acidity and some strange different taste going on. The thick lumpy texture was also unappetizing. Burns my mouth and it’s just too acidic for me to handle. I know that Lee Kum Kee is well known for making better packaged items. I don’t know if something was wrong with my bottle or I just don’t like for this one at all……

My Huy Fong and Lee Kum Kee will be living in the land fill this week.

Of what I tried the very best Sriracha’s were Grand Mountain and Shark Brand those will be the only Sriracha Sauces that I will purchase in the future unless I’m in the mood for some Sweet Ninja Squirrel.

Your taste may differ from mine…so you should see what you’d like.

I found a new flavor of M&M’s today so I had to give them a try. They are called crispy M&M’s s’mores. A s’more is a graham cracker sandwich filled with a fire-roasted marshmallow and chocolate. So I imagined something graham tasting and crunchy, sweet, something chocolate and maybe a sweet marshmallow kind of taste.

I opened the bag and took a whiff.

My heart just sank 🙁

It smells like coffee……but…. not the coffee aroma kind of smell that actually smells good. It is like when you work at a restaurant and you take a coffee pot off the burner that only has a little bit of leftover old coffee in it. That kind of smell. I’m wondering why does this smell like forking old coffee?

I take a close look at the M&M’s.

They are very small for M&M’s and are also deformed in shape. The white ones look like baby teeth. The brown ones look like some kind of weird little bean and the dark brown ones look like forking rabbit turds.

I cut one of each open so see what’s inside.

It’s mostly a rice cereal center.

I taste them.

They taste like bitter coffee with maybe a hint of chocolate that is a little salty. I don’t understand why something called S’Mores is flavored like this. Maybe my bag of M&M’s is defective…. Maybe M&M’s just had leftover coffee flavor hanging around from one of the last new flavors called Coffee Nut? ….Maybe the machine that makes M&M’s wasn’t cleaned out after Coffee Nut production?…..I don’t forking know  …..

I don’t like these…..gosh they are horrible to me…. but maybe that’s because I don’t care for coffee. Maybe people that like old coffee will be happily surprised with the coffee scent and flavor.

It’s a shame that these candies don’t taste good because the texture of these M&M’s are appealing because they are very light and crisp unlike any M&M I tried before but that bitter stale coffee taste that’s slightly salty just gets to me. It’s just not good to me. I have to throw these out.

FORKING DISSAPOINTING! Nobody likes bitter candy!

To me these Crispy M&M’s s’mores……..

That was my Forking Review of crispy M&M’s s’mores…… 🙁

I do note your opinion may differ from mine.

 

VPN certified Pizza is Verace Pizza Napoletana that translates to True Neapolitan Pizza.

This kind of pizza is certified by the Italian Government to be made a certain way with certified ingredients in a certified oven. The result is an unique smaller pizza that has a puffy crust ends and has a very tender soft crust. These pizzas usually have more sauce than cheese and are usually soft and wet in the middle so they are impossible to eat by the slice and you have to eat them with a knife and fork.

There are three styles of VPN Certified Neapolitan Pizzas.

The Margarita – Tomato, Fresh Sliced Mozzarella, Fresh Basil and Extra Virgin Olive Oil

The Marinara – Tomato, Garlic, Oregano, and Extra Virgin Olive Oil

The Margarita Extra – Tomato, Mozzarella di Bufala, Fresh Basil, and Extra Virgin Olive Oil

The Certified Ingredients are –

Italian Type 0 or 00 Flour, Brewers Yeast, Water,Salt, Raw pureed San Marzano Tomatoes, Mozzarella Cheese made from Cow’s Milk, Mozzarella di Bufala made from Water Buffalo Milk, Fresh Basil, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Water and Salt.

The ingredients are hand kneaded or slow mixed.

Baked only 60-90 seconds in a certified stone oven with an oak wood fire at somewhere around 800 degrees F.

There are only a small amount of restaurants that are VPN Certified in the United States. According to www.FornoBravo.com we only have around 15 VPN Certified Pizzerias across this whole big country. I don’t know how old that information is so I don’t know if it is accurate. We have TWO certified VPN Pizzerias in Metro Phoenix and each pizzeria has more than one location so you have many options if you are looking for VPN Certified Pizza.

The first VPN Certified Pizzeria in Metro Phoenix AZ was Pomo Pizzeria.

I find that the crust more crusty and less pillowy and with a less wet middle than the La Piaza Al Forno. Seems like less cheese than La Piazza Al Forno.

La Piazza Al Forno started out serving Neapolitan Style pizzas for many years and only a few years back changed the recipe and oven to become VPN Certified. I know they have always made their mozzarella in-house. I don’t know if Pomo makes their own cheese.

Although both are certified VPN Pizzas the La Piazza Al Forno has different tastes and a different texture. La Piazza also is slightly less consistent with the topping and crust bottom.

For more information on Pomo please visit www.PomoPizzeria.com

For more information on La Piazza Al Forno Please visit www.LaPiazzaAlForno.com

Sources

www.FornoBravo.com

www.Wikipedia.com

www.Pizza.About.com

 

Sometimes you eat at places that aren’t for you. Sometimes it doesn’t mean that these are bad places….It just means the food isn’t your style but might be someone else’s style.

A beautiful new casual restaurant recently opened in Scottsdale AZ called The Chicken Scoop. This is a restaurant that specializes in Chicken Salad. They offer 14 varieties of Chicken Salads in a variety of scoops and accompaniments. I love chicken and think it is the most delicious of all meats when prepared well. This restaurant seemed like a very good choice for me so I wanted to try The Chicken Scoop.

My husband and I both pick the two scoop platters. Two scoops of chicken salad, a side and a small  pudding “scoop.”

I got Buffalo Chicken salad and Spicy Thai Chicken Salad and I picked fresh fruit as my side order.

The chicken salads truly don’t taste bad. Some were more tasty than others but none of the four taste bad but the texture was soooooooooooooo off-putting to me.

It’s all smooth. No celery or onion. No chucks of chicken. It’s like you made chicken salad, remove the vegetables and just put it in a blender. They give you a basket of crackers to eat with your chicken salad but I would prefer to pay extra to get some crunch like from celery sticks or other crunchy vegetables.

I guess if I just had dental work or falling out or missing teeth this might be the first restaurant I would want to eat all. You don’t need teeth to eat the chicken salads I tried.

These smooth chicken salads just aren’t for me but I will consider this place again the next time I get dental work done.

I also ate at a Tex-Mex Restaurant that’s been on my Bucket List for a long time.

This restaurant has a fun atmosphere.

They have a nice patio with a big water feature.

The inside looks like a cave.

I ordered the Filet Mignon.

My Filet had nice looking grill marks but didn’t pick up any flavor from the wood grill. My husband and I both tasted the meat and both of us thought it was unseasoned. I’m not a big fan of unseasoned meat. So the steak was mine but wasn’t really for me.

Sadly I also wasn’t a fan of the mushroom and cheese enchiladas that came with my steak.The enchiladas seemed sort of dried out.  I thought the mushrooms inside were seasoned nice and were tasty but the cheese inside was next to inedible to me.

It tasted like they used processed American Cheese-like product

instead of a traditional jack or cheddar cheese or combination that most people would expect.

That plate was mine but wasn’t for me.

Went to Kale and Clover Mindful Kitchen in North Scottsdale AZ. They serve fast food style Health Focused kind of foods. I went to get my beverage and saw all the teas were flavored….(bah)…so I decided to try a strawberry kiwi green tea. The tea tasted like green tea slightly flavored water. I asked my husband to close his eyes and taste it.

He said,

“This just taste like water with something in it.”

That’s the Forking Truth! It just tasted like water with a tiny bit of green tea  in it.

I got my salad.

It’s an attractive salad made with several nice ingredients but the salad was very dry and chicken in the salad was tasteless. I guess most people would be thrilled with this salad but it wasn’t for me.

My husband had their Jambalaya Bowl.

He said the turkey sausage in it was delicious but he also said the sauce around the rice was too salty and smokey for him.

My husband normally likes very salty foods so it’s very unusual for him to complain about too much salt. It must have been a salt bomb.

He was upset that I picked this place for lunch.

He also left half his food there and never does that.

This place wasn’t for either for us.

I do note I don’t know if my experience is typical of these restaurants since my written thoughts here are only based on first impressions.

Oh well…….doesn’t mean that these places are bad……Just not for me…. I’ll do forking better next time.