Category Archives: Forking Thoughts

Random Forking Items of Interest

An Overall Not Worth a FORK Dining Experience in Metro Phoenix AZ

Sort Rib Taco from Salt and Lime Restaurant Scottsdale AZ

Sort Rib Taco from Salt and Lime Modern Mexican Grill Scottsdale AZ

Mexican Food can be delicious and is usually made with various fresh herbs and lots of spices. This kind of food is not boring and certainly isn’t bland.

When I walked into this establishment besides nearly turning forking deaf from the blaring 70s hard rock anthem tunes, I could see by the patrons that the cuisine would not be authentic Mexican and would be some sort of Americanized Mexi Style kind of food. So I only had forking dreams of an average meal but soon my only average dreams turned to a mediocre experience.  We were quickly whisked to the dining room filled with tables and booths that were very close together and some members of our party were actually rubbing elbows with strangers. We soon receive a basket of half broken corn chips that weren’t oily…….. YIPPIE!………. I dipped a chip into the salsa. It was oddly tasteless. It seemed like a few key ingredients were missing from that batch of salsa. It seemed like the fresh cilantro, chilies, salt, garlic and fresh onions were hanging out with the missing Lindbergh Baby.

I thought it might be a good idea to share a pitcher of margaritas. I tasted my margarita and it was cloyingly sweet like hummingbird water and seemed to only had trace amounts of liquor in it if any. It made me go mmmmmmmm not a forking good idea.

Oddly someone was running around passing out tickets to win a forking beer logo floatation raft. It sort of reminded me of a forking circus. My number wasn’t called so I felt deflated and didn’t win the forking floatation raft.

The tacos were $2.00 off for happy hour so they seemed appealing to start out with as appetizers. Four of us were at the table and between us we tried five different tacos. Four out of the five tacos were made with dry undeveloped with flavor meats and seemed to lack similar taste that the salsa was missing. I had the Huachnanco Taco, that is a snapper taco.

excuse the forking poor photo but that’s the fork how it came out.

Salt and Lime Scottsdale AZ

Salt and Lime Modern Mexican Grill Scottsdale AZ

The fish didn’t seem over cooked like all the meat tacos but this taco didn’t have any delicious flavor to it either. You can see this taco lacks fresh cilantro and fresh scallions. This taco was loaded with a creamy sauce that lacked the cilantro flavor that the menu promiced and other good flavors it was suppose to have. You can’t tell by looking at the photo how the pickled onions taste. Usually pickled onions in a taco taste good. These onions tasted like straight vinegar. They lack the sweet to balance them out.  It’s a little hard to see but there are small chunks of pineapple in the taco. The pineapple lacked a fresh pineapple texture and taste. I don’t know for sure but they seemed like sweetened pineapples from a forking can. When I bit into this taco I couldn’t forking taste much more than plain vinegar that made my mouth hurt. that taco was very unbalanced in flavor.

I had the kale and mango salad for dinner with added salmon.

Salt and Lime Scottsdale AZ

Salt and Lime Modern Mexican Grill Scottsdale AZ

After the the not so good tacos (saying the forking least), weak sweet margaritas and not so good salsa I wanted to forking hate my salad but honestly it wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t great. While it wasn’t forking awful like everyone else’s meal but it was expensive for what I got. The salad does come in small and large so I asked the server the different in size so with her hands she makes like the small is a forking 4 inches big and with her hands like the large is a foot long so it makes me think I better get the forking large one that cost $18.75 with salmon. That’s a lot of forking money for a salad even for forking Scottsdale.  The kale was prepared nicely and cut in the right size pieces. Mango, red cabbage, jicama, avocado, queso fresco and pepitas all were a good combination in the salad and did taste good. I can’t forking bust them for bad tasting dressing because the orange lime vinaigrette dressing was mostly forking tasteless. I did get about two bites out of many over the course of two days (because it was forking gigantic and took the rest home) that were DELICIOUS because those couple bites had the orange taste. That leads me to believe the dressing might have not been mixed well and I only got the light stuff off the top of the batch of dressing with all the flavors settled on the bottom. I have to say my salmon was cooked perfect. It had a nice crust and was prepared medium-medium rare. The salmon it’s self was very good.

My husband tried the carnitas. Sorry for another forking poor photo, I wasn’t drunk I swear because I couldn’t choke down that forking margarita.

Salt and Lime Scottsdale AZ

Salt and Lime Modern Mexican Grill Scottsdale AZ

The carnitas were dry and not developed with flavor.

One person at the table had a vegetable burrito. I don’t know what was wrong with it but the Sr. Citizen that had it said, “it was mediocre at best”.  I didn’t forking question that.

Another person at the table had the carne asada fajita. I saw the meat and could see it looked forking dry and shriveled up like beef jerky. It’s too bad the cook that prepared it didn’t feel like a forking jerk for sending that thing out. The person who had the fajita did say something to the waitress and she offered him a replacement that he refused. Later she did remove the fajita from the bill. That was nice and our server did seem very nice. Sadly she works in a place that prepared mostly mediocre food and drink when we were there.

So if your a fan of overly sweet/weak margaritas, American/Mexi Style food that’s bland and mostly dry, expensive salads, in a loud rubbing elbows bar and circus like atmosphere…….This is JUST THE Place for you!

Overall

Not Worth a FORK!

Not Worth a FORK!

I note your forking opinion may differ and you just like this kind of cuisine. I also note this it how it was on the forking day I was there and on other days they could possibly be better.

 The Forking Truth!

The Forking Truth!

Slight update- The manager contacted me and said they’d turn down the music if we asked them too and that the pineapples weren’t canned. She also said I could come back and get a free appetizer.

 

 

 

 

 

Larry The Cable Guy’s TATER SALAD Tater Chips R Forking Good!

 

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I forking crack up a little bit almost every time I see Larry the Cable Guy Food all around at places I go. His name is on all kinds of boxed mixes, spice rubs, candies, a whole line of potato chips and I have no idea what else. Larry the Cable Guy is a multiplatinum recording artist, billboard award winner and a well known comedian.

When you purchase Larry TCG Potato Chips you are contributing to his non-profit Git-R-Done Foundation that Larry and his wife established. Every LTCG Food Purchase supports assistance to mostly veterans and children who have experienced hardship beyond their control.

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I finally broke down and had to try the Tater Salad Tater Chips. Honestly they might be the most realistic tasting flavored chip I ever tasted. THEY FORKING DO taste just like potato salad. You can taste all the ingredients of potato salad. You can taste potatoes, celery, mustard, vinegar, onions salt and pepper but are slightly sweet. The chips are smaller than most other brands, are thin and do have a light delicate texture. The only thing strange about them is the flavor dust they have on them. It’s almost like freeze dried potato salad coats the chips. Honestly these LTCG “Tater Salad” Tater Chips are better tasting at being potato salad than the last potato salad I tried out at a restaurant.

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I can’t forking tell you if the other LTCG Chips or products are good but I can say the Tater Salad Tater Chips are Forking Good!

 The Forking Truth!

The Forking Truth!

 

The Forking Truth is that some Metro Phoenix Restaurants DON’T HAVE PUBLIC RESTROOMS with update****

That's FORKED Up!

That’s FORKED Up!

When I forking moved to Phoenix Arizona I thought that every forking restaurant would have a public restroom. Then I started coming across more and more restaurants without forking restrooms. I thought that a guest of the restaurant should have a private place for hygiene or whatever and at the forking very least a forking hand washing station.

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Caribbean Cuisine in Glendale AZ serves up some delicious jerk chicken but you will feel like a jerk if you pee on the floor because there isn’t a public restroom here.

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Hummus Xpress in Tempe AZ doesn’t have a public restroom either.

Dazzo’s Dog House in Glendale AZ has been serving up some spicy beef for decades now but don’t wash your sandwich down with too much soda here either or you’re going be in trouble.

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Paprika is the tiniest restaurant I ever been in. This place might have been originally a forking closet. On my first visit here I felt claustrophobic but they rebranded themselves,  and redecorated more sensibly. They don’t have a public restroom but you can use the restroom next door because it’s the same ownership.

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If they  put a restroom in Paprika it would have to be a forking porta potty in the parking lot.

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Guido’s in Scottsdale AZ offers you refills in big glasses but your just going to have to hold it in.

Who’d ever forking guess that a James Beard Award wining Chef and Restauranteur would have a restaurant without a forking restroom.

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Pane Bianco in downtown Phoenix AZ doesn’t have a public restroom.****UPDATE since I wrote this in 2015 Pane Bianco expanded and now has a public restroom.

The Forking Truth is that some Metro Phoenix Area Restaurants don’t have public restrooms.

 The Forking Truth!

The Forking Truth!

Some Animation Characters I Remember & The Food they Forking Ate

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Every time you watched the Flintstones you’d always forking see them at the Bronto Burgers and Ribs Drive Inn. The Flintstones were a working class modern stone-age family. They almost always ate forking big pieces of meat whenever you saw them eating.

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Besides the Bronto Burgers The Flintstones also tried the ribs a number of times.

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Fred and Barney also visited sit down restaurants. The soup sure doesn’t look so forking good.

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I couldn’t forking find a picture of Fred with his lunch box pulling out a GIANT Sandwich that were forking bigger than the lunch box but you can imagine it.  I did find a photo of Wilma and Betty grocery shopping.

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The Jetsons lived a space age lifestyle that differed very much from modern the stone-age Flintstones. I don’t recall poor old George Jetson eating anything better than a forking pill. I think it forking had something in it for his nerves too. But at least the pill was presented on a platter by his maid and housekeeper the outdated Rosie the Robot while his wife Jane was out shopping at Mooningdale’s? or something the fork like that.

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Tom and Jerry is a cartoon about a cat that wanted to eat a mouse named Jerry that lived in his house. Tom always was thinking about a Jerry Sandwich.

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Here’s a forking Jerry Sandwich….

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Jerry was just forking happy with cheese.

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The Simpson’s are the longest running and most successful cartoon in history. Homer Simpson loves to eat and drink and Donuts are his favorite food.

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Homer’s son Bart Simpson is forking associated with Butterfingers.

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Homer washes most things down with Duff Beer.

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Garfield the cat is well know for his passion for food but is best known for loving lasagna. He also is known for….”diet is ‘DIE’..with a ‘T.”

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Scobby Doo is a great dane that helps solve paranormal mysteries. Scobby doo needs his forking Scobby Snacks and his owner Shaggie always seemed stoned and also was always eating.

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Besides nuts and berries Yogi Bear and his side kick Boo Boo raid forking picnic baskets at Jellystone Park. If I recall correctly every forking show was about raiding picnic baskets.

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Popeye is well known for super human strength after eating spinach after getting pounded on by Brutus who always tries to make a forking move on Popeye’s girl Olive Oyl. ******Older cartoons made before the 60s featured Bluto as a similar Brutus character. They looked and acted very similar. The change had something to do with licensing and Bluto is suppose to be a different character than Brutus.

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A Disney movie called Lady and the Tramp was a romantic movie about a cocker spaniel named Lady and a mutt named Tramp. They enjoyed scraps from Tony’s Restaurant and Tony helped hide them from the Dog Catcher. This movie is forking well know for the spaghetti scene.

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Ratatouille is another Disney about a rat that has an interest in cooking. Unless you’ve been living under a forking rock you KNOW he cooks ratatouille.

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Bugs Bunny is a rabbit with a New York accent and a New York Attitude and also is a bit of a trickster. He has this catch phase he uses while always chomping on a carrot. “Eh…What’s up Doc?” Bugs Bunny is also the mascot of the Looney Tunes.

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And That’s All Folks!

That was some animation characters I remember and the foods they forking ate.

The Forking Truth!

The Forking Truth!

Easy Old Fashioned kind of way to prepare THE FORKING BEST Roasted Whole Legs of Chicken

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I normally prepare chicken a sort of old fashioned kind of way and my dogs usually wait by the oven anticipating their favorite moist flavorful forking chicken ever.

I pack a pan or two or more with quartered oranges, apples, onions, some celery, carrots and lots of cloves of garlic and sometimes herbs.

Took photo before the onions I almost forgot....was wondering why the forking pan looked empty...

Took photo before the onions I almost forgot….was wondering why the forking pan looked empty…

Had a bunch of leg quarters and I first season them on the undersides with kosher salt, granulated garlic, black pepper and paprika. Then I turn them over and do the same to the skin side up part.

THIS MUCH SALT

THIS MUCH SALT

THIS MUCH GARLIC

THIS MUCH GARLIC

THIS MUCH BLACK PEPPER AND PAPRIKA

THIS MUCH BLACK PEPPER AND PAPRIKA

Then I apply a light spray of canola or olive oil to hold the spices on.

Light Spray of Oil

Light Spray of Oil

The oven is set at 350 degrees and I cover the pan (or pans) with foil.

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I don’t know if your oven works the same as mine but I find the time in the oven varies depending on and especially on how many pans I have in the oven. With all the fruit and vegetables in the pan I find that the chicken usually will take anywhere from 2-4 1/2 hours this way. If I have one pan usually 2-2 1/2. If I have two pans usually 2 1/2- 3 hours.

Not always but when I see this face and a pool of slobber on the floor the chicken is usually done.

the "GIVE me CHICKEN" face

the “GIVE me CHICKEN” face

I find the chicken always comes out moist, succulent, and very flavorful this way but the skin is sacrificed. All the goodness from the skin and surrounding chicken stuff just melts into the chicken. I also don’t use the liquid or fat from this kind of batch because it is too salty. I don’t use anything from the pan except for the pulled chicken.

I find it’s better NOT TO USE A THERMOMETER. You need to use your eyes and nose to smell the chicken. (or my dog’s nose)

The leg isn’t done until it’s fall apart tender and the skin starts melting off the bone.

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You don’t want that hard connective tissues between the leg and thigh. You want most of that stuff to melt so you can easily separate the leg from the thigh. If you think you don’t like dark meat chicken…you are wrong, you just never had it cooked all the way.

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Take the chicken out of the pans. Some legs will just fall off the thigh. Let the chicken rest a while till it cool enough to handle, about an hour.

Remove and discard the skin, pull of the meat, portion and freeze the extras.

The meat is so moist I find you can freeze it and reheat it and it’s still moister and more flavorful than most chicken you will eat out anywhere.

If your Dog(s) isn’t waiting by the oven for your chicken, something is wrong with your chicken.

The Forking Truth

The Forking Truth

WTFork is Taro Root and some stuff You Should Know about it

A peeled Taro Root

A peeled Taro Root

The Taro Root is a staple food for people around the world. The leaves as well as the root are edible but only when cooked. Some people feel they need to soak the root over night to release oxalate. All you have to do is fully cook the root.  Some people suggest adding some baking soda to however you cook the root to release the calcium oxalate or you can forking gout and or forking kidney stones from the taro root. If you consume some sort of dairy with taro root the dairy will block absorption of oxalate. So it’s a good idea to have a glass of milk, a milk shake or some sort of cheese when you eat taro root.

Taro is a staple food around the world and even though it sounds forking harmful to ones body it is not considered a high risk food when cooked. I also read several recipes for taro root and I do note in none of the recipes I read did anyone soak the taro root or in any of them did they add baking soda. It seems like most people around the world just forking cook them and don’t know or forking worry about the calcium oxalate.

Most Americans know the taro root plant as the elephant ear plant for their large glossy foliage in their gardens.

The taro root is believed to be one of the earliest cultivated vegetables and has three times the fiber of a potato and is an excellent source of potassium.

Sliced up taro root.

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I fried it and made it into chips and made a simple dip of just whipped cream cheese, a little non-fat Greek Yogurt and flavored the dip with Sriracha.

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That’s a little WTFork about Taro Root and some stuff you should know about it. (and it was forking yummy!)

The Forking Truth

The Forking Truth

I got most of this information from Fitday.com and Wikipedia.

 

Too Forking Hot in Phoenix AZ to Purchase Lindt Chocolate Truffles

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I’ve had lots of Lindt Truffles before. A few of the malls that I used to shop at had Lindt Chocolate Stores. The outlet mall had a Forking large Lindt Outlet Store where you could purchase large bags of slightly irregular Chocolates for almost nothing and they always gave you a free chocolate with or without a forking purchase. Them were the days well that was back east were you could buy these chocolates all year long without them forking melting.

I was pretty excited to see this the flavor Milk Chocolate Sea Salt featured. So I purchase a bag and a few days later I decided to forking  eat one.

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I noticed the chocolate didn’t have that perfect chocolate plug and looked wet. So I carefully took a bite.

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It’s FORKING MELTED inside.

It still taste good with a great melty smooth milk chocolate flavor and a few lumps of crunchy sea salt.

But it’s FORKING MELTED! Instead of that creamy smooth filling the truffles are suppose to have.

I didn’t expose the chocolates to much heat. Only from my forking grocery cart on the way to my car they were exposed to heat and at this time it isn’t even forking hot yet for Phoenix.  It’s already too Forking Hot in Phoenix Arizona to purchase Lindt Chocolate Truffles.

The Forking Truth

The Forking Truth

 

WTFork is a Clafoutis Part 3

Clafoutis Type of Dessert From Bottega in Yountville CA

Clafoutis Type of Dessert From Bottega in Yountville CA

I had my first Clafoutis at Chef Michael Chiarello’s Restaurant in Yountville CA and ever since I became fascinated with this unique dessert of French origin that seemed light, rich at the same time, airy and accented with delicious fruit. The Clafoutis is basically a custardy, pancake like batter with fruit. The only fruits used for clafoutis are cherries, black berries, plums, prunes, apples and possibly cranberries. I found conflicting information about cranberries so I’m not sure about forking cranberries. When you use another fruit than the ones listed the name of this dessert changes to a flaugnarde.

Then I found Micheal Chiarello’s recipe for an apple Clafoutis so I made one.

Apple Clafoutis

Apple Clafoutis

The batter tasted and had pretty much the same texture as the one from the restaurant. This dessert is very good. But I still have an interest in learning different recipes for clafoutis. The Michael Chiarello Clafoutis were the lightest and airiest of the clafoutis so far.

I also studied several other recipes for clafoutis and I found they were all very different.

So I decided to try Chef Raymond Blanc’s recipe for clafoutis because he is French but is also one of Britain’s most respected chefs. He also owns a two star Michelin Restaurant/Hotel.

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This Clafoutis also was richer and also custardy but had a slightly sugar sanded surface that added another texture to it. In Chef Blanc’s recipe he recommends not to add anything else. The clafoutis is done at this point and should be served warm. This is the only warm one I had so far.

I recently tried the sour cherry clafoutis from Bink’s Midtown in Phoenix AZ.

Sour Cherry Clafoutis from Bink's Midtown Phoenix AZ

Sour Cherry Clafoutis from Bink’s Midtown Phoenix AZ

The Bink’s Midtown clafoutis was the most custardy of all the clafoutis I tried. Instead of being like a custardy pancake batter this clafoutis was more like dense flan. (but not in a bad way)  The Bink’s Clafoutis was also very layered with many flavors and textures.

So this is WTFork I found out about the Clafoutis so far Part 3

The Forking Truth

The Forking Truth

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Korean Style Fried Chicken from Bink’s Midtown was The BEST I ever Tried! UPDATE******CLOSED FOR BUSINESS

Bink's Midtown Phoenix AZ Korean Style Fried Chicken

Bink’s Midtown Phoenix AZ Korean Style Fried Chicken

UPDATE>>>JUST A MEMORY******CLOSED FOR BUSINESS

To me fried chicken can be tasty. It’s usually moist and usually had a tasty crusty coating. Sometimes it might be greasy and sometimes the skin is mushy and gross. It might be tasty at best and usually isn’t my favorite food.

I recently tried Korean Style Fried Chicken from Bink’s Midtown in Phoenix AZ and it was truly FORKING AMAZING and completely unlike any fried chicken I had before.

The skin was crispy thin and crackly. It was not greasy one bit and was spicy, sweet, vinegary with other flavors that seemed very balanced. The interior was also very flavorful, juicy and delicious.

This was the FORKING Best Fried Chicken I ever had.

The Forking Truth

The Forking Truth

 

 

The Forking Search for Natural Flavored Spearmint Leaves Candy for my Dog

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A childhood favorite candy of mine was spearmint leaves. They are leaf shaped gel like candies with a refreshing spearmint flavor. They are lightly coated in crunchy sugar and the gel candy doesn’t seem too sweet, it’s minty refreshing. I remember they were my candy of choice for when I went out to the movies. Each leaf could last a very long time and they seemed the most satisfying out of the candy choices to eat during a movie for me because they didn’t give you that sugar sickness feeling like the chocolate coated mints do when you ate a bunch of them. You could also eat them real slow because they didn’t forking melt.The spearmint leaves came in a white box with pretty spearmint leaves on it and if I remember correctly the spearmint leaves were made by the leaf candy company but many other companies today still make spearmint leaves. They just aren’t all naturally flavored these forking days.

Then one day fourteen years ago we brought home this forking adorable puppy from the S.P.C.A.

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This special puppy one day chewed threw my purse to get to my mint gum and I found him siting there just chewing my gum. (of course I forking removed the gum from his mouth)

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A short time latter I kissed him goodbye as I was leaving to go to work and faster than lightening he stole a mint from my mouth with out me feeling a thing with his quick tongue. Another time after that as I was getting a mint from the cabinet the puppy would bark at me for a mint. After that after breakfast almost every day he’d walk over to the cabinet and bark at the cabinet until someone would give him a mint.

He is grown up and OLD now but is still a dog that is addicted to mints. Often he sits with me while I brush my forking teeth with minty tooth paste.

Addicted to MINTS!

Addicted to MINTS!

You can only give a very small amount of only certain mints to a large dog safely. So I’d only pinch off a small amount of spearmint leaves for my dog. (just so you know most mints and gums today have chemicals in them that are LETHAL and FATAL to dogs) Spearmint leaves are mostly natural. They are only made with corn syrup, cornstarch, artificial coloring and  natural spearmint oil.  (unless you buy the forking ones from Walgreen’s that are made with artificial flavors).

When I moved to Arizona I found out that it was very difficult to purchase spearmint leaves here. Back east every supermarket and candy store all sold spearmint leaves.

Fry’s, Safeway and Walmart all don’t sell spearmint leaves in my area. Years back I also looked for the spearmint leaves at Albertson’s, Bashas, AJ’s and also Target and haven’t found them at those places either.

Walgreen’s does sell the lower end spearmint leaves but they are the ones with artificial flavor that don’t taste so good.

For a while the only place I could find natural spearmint leaves were at Sprouts.

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The Sprouts in my location currently is either out of them or forking stopped selling them to I had to order spearmint leaves on the internet for my dog. If I suddenly stopped giving my 14 year old dog a mint I don’t know what the fork would happen….I think it would be like trying to Forking fry water…….It’s something that can’t be done…..after all you know my dog is really a human trapped in a dog’s body ……So I let my fingers do the forking walking on the internet and I found the mints there so I had to purchase the spearmint leaves that forking way.

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That was my forking search for spearmint leaves around Phoenix Arizona.

As a slight update 8-26-15 I wrote this artical May 25th 2015 and three months latter 8-25 -2015 to the day I found that Natural Spearmint Leaves are now being sold at Walgreens with different packaging and Spearmint Leaves have also returned to Sprouts Grocery Store.

The Forking Truth

The Forking Truth

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