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Taste Test Tuesday — Ben & Jerry’s Faceoff

By KariV on May 7, 2013 in Favorite Things, Taste Test Tuesday

When we go on vacation to the beach it’s tradition to get each of us our very own container of ice cream. And we are very traditional. So this trip was no different. We love to pick out our own ice cream and eat it over the course of the vacation stay.

So of course we decided to turn it into a FACEOFF…and use it as our Taste Test Tuesday. So I must warn you in advance, that this taste test Tuesday is informal and unofficial. We had only my husband & I as the judges and we didn’t attempt to increase the panel (I think we were so into this taste test and we wanted to keep it to ourselves!)

The contestants: “Everything but the…” VERSUS “Half Baked”

Everything but the = A collision of chocolate and vanilla ice creams mixed with peanut butter cups, Heath Bar chunks, white chocolatey chunks and fudge covered almonds.

Half Baked = Chocolate and vanilla ice creams mixed with gobs of chocolate chip cookie dough & fudge brownies.

Wow. Those both sound delicious! Which one would you choose if you had to pick one to enjoy while on vacation?
If you know me at all, it is probably very obvious which flavor was mine. And, while both these flavors were very, very good…there was a clear winner that we agreed upon completely. (And it was MY flavor!)

The WINNER IS:

Have you even TRIED this flavor?! Yum. I was delighted to finish of the entire carton over the course of a few days. 🙂 Sigh. And now we are on an ice cream break. No more until the next vacation.

What is YOUR favorite flavor? I’m saving up ideas for my next carton choice!

OH, and before you go..if you haven’t seen it yet, check out how Ben & Jerry’s placed in our Vanilla Ice Cream Taste Test here:

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The Flower Fields

By KariV on May 3, 2013 in Favorite Things, Inspiration

We just got back from a glorious vacation to Southern California and oh, how I loved the weather over there! But my absolute favorite part of our trip was the visit to the Flower Fields in Carlsbad, California. The Flower Fields are only in bloom in April (thru Mother’s Day) and the flowers grow in beautiful stripes of color on the side of the hill!

I probably took well over 100 pictures while we were there because I was so delighted at every angle of these fields of flowers. The ranunculas are certainly the star of the show and they cover about 55 acres of land.

These pictures don’t even do the beautiful scene justice, but I hope it gives you some of the inspiration we felt while we were there. You are not allowed to walk into the fields of flowers (don’t try it because there are guards in little golf carts watching you!), however there are some green carpets laid down so you can walk into each color stripe of flowers about 5 feet in. That is how we got to take some really fun pictures that look like we are in the middle of the field of flowers:

The sun was shining, the breeze was blowing and it was a perfect 72 degrees that day. Haven’t you always wanted to frolic in flowers?! Opa didn’t want to kneel in the flowers, so he stood there holding a yellow ranuncula…he doesn’t have the same look of wonder on his face, but believe me, he loved these flowers fields like the rest of us did!

The workers at the Flower Fields are busy picking the most beautiful ranunculas to bundle up in a set of 10 flowers. They bundle 12,000 up in a day to be delivered asap to the shops and stores that have already ordered them. 12,000 a DAY!! That’s a lot of flower bundles. And I must admit, I wanted to take a bundle home with me!

They did have other flowers there besides ranunculas. Like this Planter of Petunias. And a trellis garden filled with amazing-ness:

There was also a greenhouse filled with Orchids, a greenhouse filled with Poinsettias, and a maze made out of sweet peas. And of course a complete Nursery of flowers available for sale as you leave. And don’t forget the ROSE garden!

The flowers that grow in Southern California are just amazing! My husband and I have always loved flowers and gardens, and it is such a treat for us to notice all the color and beauty growing in California.

If you get an opportunity, go see the Flower Fields at Carlsbad…it may be the perfect Mother’s Day gift to take your mother (or grandmother)! I hope you enjoyed this tour of the Flower Fields!

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Orange Blossoms (a favorite recipe)

By KariV on April 25, 2013 in Dessert, Favorite Things, Recipes

We have four beautiful orange trees and today they were calling to me. One of my favorite things is to enjoy the fruit from our CITRUS trees here in Arizona. We have a new lemon and lime tree, too, and I’m hoping soon they will produce! But now, it’s time to harvest the rest of these sweet oranges and MAKE something. I went to pick some low hanging fruit and came in with a basket just full of oranges ready to juice, zest, and slice.

Aren’t they beautiful!? Of course, we love our fresh-squeezed orange juice, but today I’m thinking my very favorite orange cookies: Orange Blossoms. My sister, who lives in Utah, made these the other day and sent me a picture…she said “These cookies always remind me of you!” So thank you, dear sister, for the inspiration!

I will warn you now: this post has a lot of pictures! I couldn’t help it…these darlings made such a photogenic subject and I got a little carried away. I even got my husband in on the picture taking (you will see his picture at the end of the post).

I love the simple ingredients: oranges, flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, brown sugar, eggs, butter, and buttermilk. We just happened to have some buttermilk on hand that I needed to use up, but if you don’t have buttermilk you can add a little lemon juice to regular milk (see how to do this here).

{Have you used one of these microplane zesters? It’s one of my favorite tools in the kitchen, especially when I’m working with citrus!}

Mix up the ingredients and drop by tablespoons onto a cookie sheet. Today, I made them regular sized, but if I’m having a ladies’ lunch or tea party, I will make them half this size. And they turn out so cute!

Bake them up and while they are baking, make the orange glaze. It’s a simple mixture of butter, powdered sugar, orange zest, and orange juice. You will want to frost these cookies while they are still warm because the frosting melts and enrobes the cookies a little bit.

I love these little cookies. They are more cake-like and when you bite into them it is just. like. heaven.

Can you see the bits of orange zest in the frosting? There is zest in both the cookie dough AND the frosting, which adds up to a great citrus-y kick of flavor!

Doesn’t this make a pretty picture? It screams luncheon (or tea party) to me! Or the next best thing: which is to wrap them up pretty and take them to some of my favorite people.

OK. That orange slice (out of felt!) and printable is so cute for this little gift! Click here to get instructions on how to make it AND get the free printable!

This is the fantastic photo my husband captured with all the prettiness and citrus colors! I love it.

So, will you go try this recipe and just see if you love these delicious Orange Blossoms as much? And then let me know what you think! Enjoy!

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Taste Test Tuesday — Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

By KariV on April 23, 2013 in Favorite Things, Taste Test Tuesday

For this very important taste test we were in search of The Perfect Reese’s Ratio! I really don’t think you can go wrong with any of these Reese’s options, but in the quest for truth and best taste to report back to you, I just knew that this taste test could not be overlooked!

We tested the original Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, the Reese’s Big Cup, Reese’s Miniatures (wrapped in foil), and Reese’s Mini Peanut butter Cups (unwrapped), all pictured. EDITOR’S NOTE: It was my intention to add the Reese’s Easter Peanut Butter Egg to our taste options, however, when I went to check my stash, I discovered they had all been eaten! (Who would’ve done that?!) So we stuck with the four options.

I think it’s important to show you the difference in peanut butter and chocolate ratios for each.

You can see that the Big Cup has some serious peanut butter! With the Miniatures coming in with not quite as much peanut butter and then originals. Let’s check them out side by side:

It may look like the minis have just as much peanut butter as the originals, but they are actually covered in a thicker amount of CHOCOLATE, with just a bit of peanut butter enrobed in the center.

I do realize that taste tests are very subjective and dependent upon what each individual panelist prefers. But that is why I had a LARGER group to discover the truth for you. And the winner won by an overwhelming majority! (Care to take a guess before I reveal the winner?)

THE WINNER (drum roll, please….)

First Place: ORIGINAL PEANUT BUTTER CUPS ARE THE WINNER!!! Yes. I love that the original peanut butter cup won!

But we did have a few judges who disagreed: one voted for the Big Cup (more peanut butter), one voted for the Minis (more chocolate). There was a bit of an argument on the Big Cup…because even though it was a favorite for one judge, another said it was too rich to eat a whole cup at one sitting. I love it when our judges disagree. 😉

Have you given this taste test a try? Which one is YOUR favorite?

Really, you can’t go wrong with any of them! So, why not buy them all to shake things up a bit. (Reese’s did not pay me or compensate me in any way to do this blog post, by the way!)

Second Place: Miniatures (wrapped in foil)
Third Place: Big Cup
Final Place: Minis

I would LOVE to use the minis for baking (think cookies or cupcakes). And when I do, you’ll be the first to know. Wink.

See you at our next taste test!

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Taste Test Tuesday — Root Beer

By KariV on April 9, 2013 in Favorite Things, Taste Test Tuesday

The Root Beer Taste Test results are finally IN!

We had a little extra fun with this one by offering an online survey before we held the actual taste test. I wanted to see if the results of the survey matched the results of the taste test. Boy, was I SURPRISED!

ONLINE SURVEY RESULTS

The survey began the week before the taste test panel. Thanks to everyone who took our online survey!

And the winner of the survey, with 37% of the votes was A&W Root Beer.
Tied for second place was IBC, Henry Weinhard’s and Barq’s Root Beer.

I thought this was fun because we, as a society, are bombarded with marketing messages constantly. And A&W is a master at their marketing: “A&W Root Beer has that frosty mug taste!” Did A&W win the online survey because of marketing strategy, because it was the best recognized root beer out there? (I would not rest until I found out the answer to this with our live taste test! Yes, I am seriously dedicated to finding the truth for you, dear reader!)

Another interesting note: Barq’s must be working day and night to secure their place in restaurants and soda machines. I see Barq’s more than any other root beer as the choice at the soda fountain. (Although, today MUG was the root beer available at the pizzeria we tried.)

IBC is delicious, as I well know. But I had not heard of Henry Weinhard’s before the survey. In fact, IT WAS NOT EVEN AN OPTION on the survey, but was rather a write-in choice. AND…I had already gathered all the root beer for our taste test panelists, but this was NOT ONE of them! So, what did I do? I ran right out and found Henry Weinhard’s Root Beer to add as a contestant.

TASTE TEST RESULTS

Would our taste test provide the same results as the online survey? Drum Roll, please….

The Winner of our Taste Test was:

A&W Root Beer!! Yes, the taste test reflected the SAME #1 Root Beer as the online survey! A&W is well-loved and the results of both tests showed that.

Note: I searched all over the valley for A&W Root beer on tap. They used to offer it at both A&W restaurants AND at select KFC restaurants. My kids LOVED it when we brought home a gallon of A&W root beer on tap and then served it up in the frosty mugs we kept in the freezer. However, when I called to find it for our taste tests…it was not to be found! The contract with KFC must have ended, because they now serve only MUG rootbeer in their restaurants. 🙁

We had a TIE for SECOND PLACE:

Henry Weinhard’s & IBC Root Beer tied for second place. If you take a look at our online survey: BOTH also came in second place (together with Barq’s…but Barq’s did not place at all with our Taste Test Panelists.)

So far, we are pretty consistent with our choices!

We also had a TIE for THIRD PLACE: (I know, I know…I wanted to hold a tie breaker, but ran out of panelists!)

Mug & Teddy’s tied for Third place. I could not compare to the online survey, but Teddy’s did get ONE vote online.

Interestingly enough, Teddy’s also was one that many judges did not appreciate: They reported that it was “too sweet” or “too strong.”

But we definitely had a DEAD LAST root beer. It was one that was voted as last place by the MAJORITY of the panelists:

Panelists commented that it was “too strong” or had a “weird cherry taste.” So much for using this as a cute Father’s Day gift. (Crafty Bloggers everywhere will shed tears, I’m sure)!

Just look at all those cups! (I used over 100 cups for this challenge…but it was certainly worth it, don’t you think?)
A special thanks to all our judges…I could not do this without you. 🙂

THE WINNER SHALL MEET ANOTHER!

Now that we know A&W is the winning root beer…and we know the winner of our Vanilla Ice Cream Challenge (see the results here)…I think it might be time to introduce the two of them, don’t you agree?

We shall combine the two to make the BEST ROOT BEER FLOAT ever. And we’ll invite our panelists to come and see if they agree. And now, dear reader, I invite YOU to try these at your house and see if YOU think it is the best root beer float you’ve ever had! Then, report your findings back here on this blog post.

Another Successful Taste Test! (I can’t wait for the next one!)