PB&J

Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are further proof of my assertion that salty and sweet should be represented during every dining experience. I tried using this logic on my kids when defending my love of chocolate ice cream with plain potato chips, but they still think I’m weird.

I was unable to find solid evidence of the origin of the popular PB&J. It appeared in history during the 1904 World’s Fair and was later a standard during World War II.

Due to meat being scarce and expensive during WWII, PB&J was originally a necessity; however, it has held its popularity ever since. The National Peanut Board reports that the average kid eats 1,500 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before graduating from high school.

The popularity of the fruit and nut combination has spawned things such as crustless sandwiches and canned PB&J. Yes, canned.

Visit Van Otis Chocolates at their Elm Street, Manchester retail store or www.vanotis.com for some of their handmade fruit and nut confections. None of them come in a can.

Peanut Cluster - Dark or Milk Chocolate
Large, crunchy peanuts surrounded in chocolate

Peanut Butter Crisped Rice
Crisped rice in a creamy peanut butter center encased in milk chocolate

Peanut Butter Cup - Dark, Milk, and White Chocolate
Creamy, salty peanut butter center encased in chocolate

Cherry Cordial - Dark and Milk Chocolate
Maraschino cherry, floating in a liquid cherry center encased in chocolate

Orange Nougat - Dark and Milk Chocolate
Chewy orange nougat with candied orange bits encased in chocolate

Pineapple - Dark and Milk Chocolate
Candied pineapple slice encased in chocolate

Fruit Slices
Sweet and sour, sugar-coated, fruit-flavored jellied slices

Marzipan
Ball of almond-flavored goodness, artfully designed to look like a ripening piece of fruit

The Creams
Raspberry, Strawberry, Orange, Lemon, Cherry
Dark, Milk, and White Chocolate (Limited)
The creamiest fruity centers encased in chocolate

The Jellies
Raspberry and Orange - Dark or Milk Chocolate
Subtle berry-flavored, jellied center encased in chocolate

Partying Israel Kamakawiwo'ole Style

A luau is a Hawaiian feast featuring lots of food and typically, musical entertainment. Many of us in New England have attempted our version of this island celebration with plastic leis, inflatable palm trees, and faux-bamboo tiki torches. I mentioned we’re in New England, right?

We may be short of Pacific breezes, but we do know how to feast. No luau would be complete without the flavors of coconut, tropical fruits, nuts, coffee, and chocolate…even better, a combination of these flavors.

For a limited time, Van Otis Chocolates is offering Tropical Swiss Fudge covered in milk and dark chocolate. This is a staff favorite that tastes like chocolate and rich coconut. What a perfect treat for a luau or a mental-island getaway!

Van Otis is hosting a luau on Friday, June 25 from 11 am-6 pm and Saturday, June 26 from 10 am-3 pm. Join us for hourly giveaways and raffles, wine tasting, a chocolate volcano, coloring contest, and prescheduled factory tours. Most items will be offered at buy one get one free. It’s the biggest sale of the year, so come in and stock up!

Warning: This Article May Contain Traces of Nuts

Our party hosts decided to make this past New Year’s celebration more interesting by having a wine tasting competition. Each guest was instructed to bring a covered bottle of wine from a specific country. The wine was to be accompanied by a food item and guests judged the best red, best white, and best wine/food combo. Wine-themed prizes, such as bottle openers and wine glass tags, were awarded to the winners.

This may give you the illusion of a sophisticated sort sipping expensive glasses of wine while discussing stock market trends. Honestly, it was a bunch of rural neophytes trying to branch out. Most of the crowd had a beer readied to wash away the real potential of a bad tasting vino.


There were some clear winners, and we all agreed that the food accompaniment really aided the standouts. The simplest combinations of red wine and chocolate, and one of my favorites, red wine and cashews were the best.


If you want to impress guests at your next party (or win the unfortunate set of wine glass tags that won’t wrap around your beer stein), strategically place dishes of Van Otis cashews near the conversation clusters. These cashews are extra large, giving them a well-deserved position in the appetizer category. They are also incredibly sweet; there’s no burnt or bitter aftertaste that you experience with most exaggerated shelf-life, retail nuts.

Cheers!

Are You Nuts!?!

Do walnuts in a chocolate chip cookie ruin or complete it?

The marriage of chocolate and nuts would cause some people to yell, “I object!” I recall debating the union at a very early age with my grandmother. Walnuts were a staple item in all of her homemade desserts. I thought they tasted terribly bitter. If I had a nickel for every time she said, “Eat around them…”

Dr. Mehmet Oz, professor of surgery at Columbia University and a regular on the Oprah Winfrey Show, explains that kids have more taste buds which are highly sensitized. A child’s 10,000 taste buds favor bland and sweet foods, finding other foods to be bitter. This is one of the body’s evolutionary safety mechanisms for avoiding poisons found in nature. I wish I had known this as a child. My grandmother might have made nut-free cookies had I been able to argue poison avoidance.

My 3,000 adult taste buds now seek chocolate with hazelnuts, almonds, cashews, peanuts, and other fruit and coconut combos. I still don’t enjoy a walnut and on principle, won’t eat around one.