Most of the items below are from Poppy’s Virtual Piggy wishlist. I left the roughly 1 million American Girls she’d pinned off the list (because she’s working on earning one, so it isn’t going to be under the Christmas tree), and I added a few things that I know are on her list.
Tag Archives: NaBloPoMo 2012
How I’m planning to help my Hostess fan weather this confectionary loss
In eight grade, we went on a field trip to a nearby National Forest park. We were going to have a cookout and spend the day frolicking and running about. Rockford’s mother sent a box of Twinkies with him to share with his classmates. Instead of sharing them, though, he accepted a dare to eat them all. On the bus, on the way to the National Forest. It was a tense 15 minutes or so, everyone in a four-seat radius on the activity bus watching with a mixture of awe and horror as he transformed himself into a Twinkie-consumption factory. He was successful — depending on your definition of the word, I guess — but he’s since admitted that he didn’t feel very good for the rest of the day.
With such a history, it should come as no surprise that the news of Hostess’ closing was a little difficult for Rockford to swallow. What might come as a surprise, though, is that he waited until this morning to try to track down a box of Twinkies. He’s out right now, scouring area stores for a box. To no avail thus far.
While I’m pretty sure the run on Twinkies will be short-lived, I’ve spent a few minutes this morning preparing for our nation’s Hostessless future. Here are a few recipes for homemade confections we’ll be trying over the coming months:
Four recipe for homemade Hostess-brand products
- The folks at Leite’s Culinaria made some amazing-looking homemade Twinkies, and you don’t even need a special pan for them!
- My attempt to make homemade Hostess Cupcakes — the Very Best Hostess Cake — back in 2005 didn’t go so well, but a later decision to make one giant cupcake (a.k.a. A Cake) was a roaring success.
- The Dolly Madison Zingers recipe at Top Secret Recipes uses cake mix, so it isn’t technically made from scratch. But I’ll bet it would taste just fine in a pinch.
- My second-favorite packaged cake is the Ding Dong. The DIY Ding Dong at A Cozy Kitchen looks delectable, as does this Salted-Caramel Ding Dong Cake from Bon Appetit.
Now all I need is a snack-packaging machine and we’ll be ready to face our brave new Twinkie-free world.
Poppy pins her hopes to Virtual Piggy. Literally.
When Poppy was very young — around 2 or so — Rockford and I discovered a phrase that made the in-store gimmes almost nonexistent: Put It On Your Wishlist. As soon as she spotted something that caught her fancy, we’d say something like, “That does look like a fun toy. Let’s put it on your wishlist!” And she was OK with that.
Not only was she OK with it, she was wildly excited about it. Suddenly everything was going on her wishlist. We’d walk through Target to the tune of a constant stream of lisping whispers — “wishlist, wishlist, wishlist” — and we soon discovered why. It was because Santa Claus, she believed, “will bring me all my wishlist!” So the Put It On Your Wishlist plan did have one major flaw, but a good conversation (with a rather sad girl) and several reminders later, it was back in fully functioning order.
Continue reading Poppy pins her hopes to Virtual Piggy. Literally.