Pickles and movies.

This morning the Oscar nominations were announced.  I use to love this time of year.  When Alberto and I started dating we always had seen all the movies nominated, could talk at length about the best performances, we could even supply some basic commentary on Best Score or Original Song.  Fast forward to two kids later, and we usually have a comment that is something along the lines of, "we didn't see one of the best animated movies."  "Really?  It must have come out during dance season or soccer season or (insert whatever season the kids are involved in here).  You can imagine my shock this morning when I had seen not one of the Best Picture Nominations, but four the nominations and only three of the five in the Best Animation category!  True, percentage wise, I still saw more in the animation category, but I chose to manipulate the data to show that I got to see more grown up films then kid films this year.  After all, I work in academia and that is what we do, manipulate research.

Some of my fondest memories of the time when Alberto and I did see movies, is that we could get a pickle at the movie theater, and by we, I mean me.  I moved to west Texas in 1995 and found many things I did not like.  I don't like dust storms, I don't like temperatures above 100 degrees for several days in a row, I don't like fried okra, I don't like barbecue, I don't like flat landscape...you get the picture.  I did find I liked that you could buy a pickle at the movies.  I also understand you can probably do this other places too, but when I was growing up in Idaho Falls, ID, we did not have this option.  The pickles were big, juicy and very fragrant, which probably annoys others in the theater who do not have love for the gherkin as I do.  Those people have issues anyway.  I can remember one of those pickles was big enough to be a meal.  Maybe, in retrospect, we saw so many movies because pickles were an option.  I am apparently not the only one who misses this though:





Pickles and movies go together like Fred and Ginger, Peanut Butter and Jelly or even Harold and Kumar.  You can be assured when the Oscars air on February 26th, I will have plenty of my favorite salty snack!

Harold and his hot pickles

For Christmas, I receive an Amazon.com gift certificate.  I decided why not look for pickles on Amazon.  I ordered some of these:

Harold's Spicy Habanero Pickles

I have two words to describe these pickles, HOT and DELICIOUS.  Did I mention hot?  These are exactly what you would expect from a Texas pickle.  Besides being spicy, they are a little on the salty side (so for pickles that is really salty), crisp and perfect for snacking!  I will be honest.  I bought these pickles because I was enticed by a whimsical label.  I am always enticed by a good whimsical label, unfortunately, this is one of the few times that buying by the label has worked out.  The company that makes Harold's pickles is called Conscious Choice Foods.  I am very anxious to try their other award winning pickles!

Big Pappa Chapstick

A couple weeks ago, I received a free sample of Van Holten's Pickle chapstick!  It was a Facebook campaign that Vanholten's ran in conjunction with Alice.com.  Now some people might question how good pickle chapstick is.  Well it moistened my lips and smelled like my favorite pickle in a pouch.  In short, it is a definite winner!

Even though the smell does make my mouth water, I did not attempt to lick it off my lips or taste it.  I do not think it is flavored like the good old lip smackers that were popular from my youth.  Everyone knows lip smackers are still around and according to Bonnie Bell's website, the big fat ones that seemed so popular in my days at Emerson Elementary, are still around.  Doing my research on this blog entry, I ran across a website that talks about retro things.  In the comments section of the website, most people admitted to occasionally taking a nibble from their lip smacker.  One of the comment's made by  a person with the clever alias of choochoo train admitted to eating a whole watermelon lip smacker then throwing it back up.  I have my suspicions that choochoo train, is not alone.  So as with most good research, it changed the direction of my question and next a googled "eating lip smackers."  There were many tales people recounted about eating their favorite chapstick.  Sometimes by nibble, sometimes by lick.  Then I ran across a very important fact:

LIP SMACKERS ARE NOT GLUTEN FREE

These days we all know people who are gluten intolerant, which makes me heart sad, but I digress.  Please don't eat your lip smackers if you are Gluten Free.  Here is a list of the Bonnie Bell products you may ingest  :)

http://eatglutenfreelikeme.blogspot.com/2010/07/lip-smackers-not-gluten-free.html

So to summarize, as you can tell, I do very scientific research for my blogs and I encourage eating chap stick.  I just hope lip smackers will start making pickled flavored lip gloss.  Until then, Van Holten's chapstick will keep my lips moist and my nose happy.

Pickles and the New Year!

Happy 2012!  A new year, new resolutions and of course new pickles!  As big pickle fans know, Mt. Olive has a pickle drop each year.  This is a family friendly event, so it actually occurs at 7:00 pm.  Here is a link to the 2009 drop:

Mt Olive Pickle Drop

Dillsburg Bourough, PA also has a pickle drop, which I just recently found out.  In fact, Dillsburg actually drops two pickles.  Miss Pickle drops at 7:00 pm est, which is midnight GMT and part of the reason Mt. Olive drops at this time, but Mr Pickle drops at midnight eastern time to ring in the real new year in this small rural town.  This year is Dillsburg's 19th drop.  While in terms of a tradition, that is not terrible old, it does seem to be a tradition the town loves and brings visitors to this small town.

Dillsburg Drop

I didn't really make any resolutions on New Year's Eve.  The year before went well for me and my family.  I am making a late resolution.  I really want to go to a Pickle Festival.  There are several to chose from, so I will have to be thinking what is the most cost effective and time effective location for me to attend.

This summer I will be visiting the Big Apple and might be able to tag a pickle festival onto that, although I know the International Pickle Festival is in the fall.  At any rate, I will figure it out.

I did want to give a shout out to the Better Cheddar.  I have ordered McClure's pickles from them before, but I actually visited the store over Thanksgiving weekend.  I usually buy my McClure's at Williams and Sonoma, where they usually only have a couple jars at a time.  The Better Cheddar had a whole wall!  They also carried the Bloody Mary Mix, the Brine and the Chips!  My mother, who is the most awesome Mom ever, got my some brine for Christmas and I gave jar of the Bloody Mary Mix, to my dear Boodly Mary drinking friend Kristin!  If you are in the Kansas City Area, this store is a must.

http://www.thebettercheddar.com/

Happy New Year all you pickle lovers!

Trader Joe's

This past weekend I took a fun trip down to Santa Fe.  While looking up things to do in Santa Fe, I discovered they have a Trader Joe's.  Denver does not have one.  I was very excited to stock up on two buck chuck and try Trader Joe's pickles.  They are suppose to be quite good.  I purchased one jar of kosher dills and one jar of sandwich stacker type pickles.  When I opened the jar of koshers, I will admit, I was a little scared.  The pickles were very, very bumpy.  Well, despite my apprehension, the pickles were delicious!  They are the perfect snack size for most people and the taste was really good.  They were not too salty, therefore you could taste flavors that you can't taste in a lot of pickles!  A bug thumbs up Joe!

Although the pickles get an A+, I am touch disappointed in two buck chuck.  Two buck Chuck is actually $2.99.  I know the argument, three buck Chuck just doesn't have the same ring. I do believe that in most California stores it is still $1.99 but it was not in Santa Fe.

In honor of $2 Chuck, I found this song by the Beatnik Turtles:
Two Buck Chuck

I hope you enjoy it!

A damn fine pickle indeed!

Let me apologize by saying this review is a touch premature.  Normally, I like to sample a couple of varaties of a brand of pickles before I write a review to make sure my opinion of the brand is not shaped by one type of pickle.  This did not happen with my latest pickle, Brooklyn Brine's NY Deli Pickles.

Brooklyn Brine is a company that was started by two metal band mates who found a mutual love of pickling.  Brooklyn Brine's mission is to make "a damn fine pickle" and I think they have succeeded in doing so.  In addition to cucumbers, they pickle other things, such as fennel beets and asparagus.  The cucumber varaties include, a damn spicy pickle, whiskey sour pickles and the NY Deli style pickles.  As I mentioned before, I had the NY Deli Style pickles.

 I bought these at Williams and Sonoma, while looking for the always sold-out McClure's.  I had read about these pickles on the Pickle Freak blog and thought I should give them a try.  I liked the label and that they are hand packed.  When I read the ingredients, two stuck out that made me immediately think I was not going to like them, sugar cane and apple cider vinegar.  I was wrong.  These pickles were not too sweet at all.  There was a hint of sugar but the apple cider vinegar made the pickles sour in a good way.  There is red pepper and other spices that made these pickles not only sour but a touch tangy.  Delicious!  I can't wait to try the other cucumbers and vegetable varieties they offer!!!

In other news, I want to give a shout out to super pickle.  As you may remember super pickle is my mascot.  He is stuffed pickle I have sitting on my desk at work.  Well this week my daughter went to a dance intensive and I thought she might need super pickle for luck, so I let her take him to New Mexico.  Well, I miss super pickle.  I hope he is enjoying Santa Fe and I hope Claire is treating him right.  I will see you soon Super Pickle!

Pickles and Soccer--a match made

Alberto and I ate lunch at a local deli on Saturday.  Alberto wanted to go there because they had a West Ham scarf in the window.  Let me explain since most American's would not understand why this is a draw.  West Ham United is an English Premier league soccer team.  (Football if you are from somewhere else.)  Alberto is a huge soccer fan and living in Colorado does run across a few Colorado Rapids fans, but rarely runs across other English premier league fans.  Sadly, this is how we pick where we are going to eat lunch.  It was easy for me to agree because they had a pickle on their sign.  How could it be all bad?

I have been to many deli's that show pickles or even have pickle in the name and they are no pickle paradise. Jimmy and Drew's was!!  First, like any good deli, they serve every sandwich with a pickle slice on the side. These are BIG pickle slices.  Bigger than some whole pickles.  We also bought a couple pickles as extras.  They had spicy, which was super delicious and regular.  Alberto, who is not really a fan of spicy pickles, said the regular pickle is the best pickle he has had in years.  As a man who probably eats more pickles than he cares to, I think this is high praise!  I ate a sandwich called the Dilly Capone!  The sign wasn't the only think with a pickle, there was a pickle paining, pickles on the table and even a pickle wreath.  I told my dear soccer loving, pickle eatin hubby that I want decorations like that, but I am scared that I would become the crazy pickle lady.  His reply, "Become the crazy pickle lady?"  :)

My husband posted this picture of me on facebook:

He captioned the picture by saying I was taking my pickle obsession to a whole new level and eating pickles for my meal now.  Silly Alberto!  I have been doing that for years.  (I did order and eat part of the Dilly Capone.)

Overall, this place is awesome and we will definitely be back.  The soccer stuff was cool, the pickles were whimsical and delicious and it was a local establishment which is always good.  Oh yeah, the sandwiches were okay too!  :)