Philly Loves Tropicana OJ

 

I can't tell you how many Tropicana ads I saw in Philly--mostly in the train station. The bottles were in a 7-11. The huge ads in the train station worked on me though. I ended up really wanting orange juice, so I bought a frozen one from Dunkin' Donuts, which is not something I expected to find at a coffee and donut place, but it really hit the spot because I had been craving both orange juice, something healthy, and something icy. I was really happy.

Chocolate Chip Kettle Corn

 The inspiration for this twist on kettle corn:

A kindergarten teacher gave this to me, and it was DELICIOUS!!

Popcorn Indian's Dark Fudge Chocolate Chip Kettle Corn

So I decided to make my own. You could just pop a bag of store-bought kettle corn and then dump some chocolate chips into your still-warm bowl of popcorn, which I did at first. You could also make kettle corn, which is pretty simple, and then dump in chocolate chips. Either way, your popcorn will be sooo good...unless you're a bum like my housemate, Grace, who said it was too sweet. Just kidding. I am picky about how sweet I like things too. You can adjust your sugar in the kettle corn and the amount of chocolate chips you add later. Just plain kettle corn is still awesome.

White Rabbit Coffee Co.'s 20 Degrees Below

White Rabbit Co.
35256 Yucaipa Blvd
Yucaipa, CA 92399

20 Degrees Below

With a name like "20 Degrees Below," it has to be something special, right? That's what I figured, and I was curious and wanted to compare it to Serendipity's Frrrozen Hot Chocolate since an employee at White Rabbit told me it's basically a frozen hot chocolate. Here's what I thought: My first thought was "It's very cocoa-y and mildly chocolatey." You won't be happy if you're looking for a rich chocolate flavor, but if you like mild chocolate flavor, it's good. It's definitely not as rich or flavorful as the Frrrozen Hot Chocolate at Serendipity, but it tastes good. I don't know. Nothing special. I think overall the frozen drinks (ice blended - same name as those at Coffee Bean) have mild flavors (like the Vanilla Bean Ice Blended). I'd be interested in seeing how their peanut butter or other ice blended drinks taste. I guess I prefer stronger flavors, but I do like how these drinks aren't overly sweet, although you can have more flavor without adding extra sugar. Kinda like how you can add more spices to a dish without adding salt.

There's a green straw, but it's not from Starbucks. :P

Domino's Pizza: Parmesan Bread Bites!

Domino's Pizza
Website here.
2.12.12

I hadn't had their pizza in awhile, but it was delicious! Mia, Melissa, and I ordered two medium pizzas (one with pepperoni and the other with olives and roasted red peppers) and got these awesome parmesan bread bits for $1. You can see the details for that deal on their website. Anyway, we ordered food because we were doing work for our conference presentation coming up. I think we were doing TA work too. See below for a look into grad students' lives. Awesome stuff. Papers, binders, laptops, and folders consume our lives. Makes for great bonding opportunities.

Back to those bread bites though....they were SO good!! I could have eaten all 16 myself. They were perfectly salty and flavored with herbs and cheese. Here's the online menu's description: "Oven baked, bite-size breadsticks lightly sprinkled with Parmesan - Asiago cheese & seasoned with garlic and more Parmesan. Perfectly delicious for sharing! Available in 16-piece or 32-piece orders. Add Marinara or your favorite dipping cup for an additional charge."

I was also impressed with their "hand tossed" pizza crust, which I hadn't had before. Sorry...no picture. Here's the online menu's description of that crust: "Our garlic-seasoned crust with a rich, buttery taste."

Makes me want to try their stuffed cheesy bread too.

Maple Bacon Kettle Corn

I'm not a huge fan of bacon, but I do love it in certain kinds of dishes. I've decided that this version of maple bacon kettle corn is not my favorite. :( I had such high hopes because Joy the Baker said such good things about it. I do have to say that I did not follow her recipe exactly. I did not use bacon fat because I used bacon bits. I know...if you don't implement the intervention correctly, how can you evaluate the intervention? Sorry. My life is all about interventions and fidelity checks right now, so I had to throw in that joke. I think I will use that food analogy though when I explain to people what fidelity is! Fidelity is basically how well an interventionist is doing the intervention as it was intended. So, basically, if I didn't follow the recipe exactly, how can I say whether it was truly good or not? All I'm saying is that I didn't like what I did with it. I'm willing to try other versions like Joy's.

I am all for the bacon + maple combination, but I just wasn't a fan of this. I am obsessed with homemade kettle corn though, which I learned how to make through Joy the Baker. I actually just made two batches and added chocolate to make it extra good. Anyway, go try Joy's recipe and let me know what you think!