Whole Foods just moved into my very suburban neighborhood. It's small. The big store is downtown Salt Lake, about 25 minutes away. I once lived across the street from Wild Oats in Denver, which later became Whole Foods. It was paradise to walk across the street for all-natural meat, vitamins, and a quick salad bar lunch. The local joke was that every employee had to be highly tattooed, pierced, and under thirty.
Things have changed. I once had a personal sense of romance shopping there. I assumed the products are healthier, the bulk foods sections well maintained, and the employees highly knowledgeable about wellness and nutrition. My assumptions have no basic in reality any longer.
Our neighborhood store doesn't carry many of the products I like. What no fresh ground cashew butter? The answer from the sparse staff is always, try the downtown store. What, no chocolate-covered espresso beans? Try the downtown store.
Last August I found the most delectable Chauo dark chocolate-coated honeycomb candy
in BULK at Whole Foods in Sedona, Arizona. They don't stock it in Draper, Utah. In fact, they don't stock it in Utah. In fact, they can't order it for me. With a shrug, the store buyer suggested I phone the Seattle store. I followed up with an email to someone who monitors the website and never received a reply. Oh, well. Next time I get to Sedona I'll fill up the car with this heavenly candy and pray the air conditioner holds on the 10-hour drive home. Or I'll learn to make it myself. So there!
What's interesting about my quest is that it's not for healthy food. It's for CANDY. Which I'm not really supposed to eat except in small amounts occasionally. There's a point to this. Virtually all of the processed foods at Whole Foods that contain more than three ingredients contain sugar. It may be labeled as "evaporated cane juice", or cane sugar, or sugar. But it's still sugar.
Yes, they've figured out that sugar sells. Mary Poppins is so right. A spoonful of sugar can work wonders. It sure does for processed food sales.
I spent an entire year (2013-2014) not eating sugar. In anything. No barbecue sauce, homemade salad dressings only, no store-bought spaghetti sauce. Although spaghetti is a problem because of the wheat in the pasta. Instead, use spaghetti squash. I ate no processed foods. NO, I didn't lose weight. Instead I lost allergies. I still love sugar, obviously.
The other problem with staying faithful to Whole Foods is the competition. The nearby Costco and home-grown Harmon's offer healthy meats, eggs, butter, vegetables, and fruit, plus Harmon's has a fabulous bulk section. And the folks there are super helpful. What the competition doesn't have is Whole Foods superb and appetizing collection of take-home items.
I still shop there. But I'm no longer feeling the romance.
Chocolate Brickle Recipe
I’m excited to share this recipe with you. Yet, I hesitate. I have a pure love affair with these treats. They’re a bit crunchy, taste a bit like toffee, are coated in rich chocolate and are salty. So why do I hesitate? Because some folks have a love-hate affair with them. Meaning that some of the gals at Pat’s office request that he not bring them in to work. Not ever. Not ever again. Why? Because when they know the treats are on his desk, they make excuses to go to the 6th floor to visit his treats. Seems they can’t resist eating them. They insist the treats beacon to them – and in English, of all things. The claim is that they put out a siren call. “Come to me,” “Eat me now.” etc.
I think this is a good thing. Could these folks be so self- deprived of such luscious taste combinations that their senses cry out for more? Mine sure do. Which is why I store them in the freezer. That way they need time to thaw before I can eat them. I defrost only 2 or 3 of the broken pieces at a time. And that’s part of the allure. You can’t cut the treats into orderly squares – you need to break them. All those ragged edges and crumbs are disordered and so, even more alluring.
Cook up a batch for your friends and family. Dinner guests will ooh and ahh over your culinary expertise and creativity. They’ll inhale these treats when you serve them for dessert with a side bowl of ice cream or sorbet.
My joy in preparing these treats is out-of-bounds. For a mere 20 minutes in the kitchen, I feel like a true domestic goddess. With only 5 ingredients, you, too, can bake up these heavenly treats.
PS. I’m not a domestic goddess, but sometimes it’s fun to pretend. I’ve only been on one cooking show in my life. (KSL-5 in Utah) I wore a flouncy orange ruffled apron and was outdone by the perky morning talk show host who did all the talking for me. But alas, later that month, the pharmacist mentioned the show when I picked up my Rx for bio-identical hormones. Ah, fame.
Saltine crackers – about 1 to 2 sleeves
1 cup sugar
2 sticks butter
1 tsp. vanilla
3 cups bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil. Arrange saltines in a single layer on the foil. In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, melt butter and sugar, stirring constantly until mixture bubbles, about 2-3 minutes.
Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla, then pour mixture evenly over the saltines. Spread with a spatula to evenly cover the saltines. You don’t need to be precise here, just make sure each saltine gets some sauce on it. Place in oven and bake for 7-10 minutes.
Remove from oven, sprinkle chocolate chips evenly over crackers. Let sit for 1-2 minutes to let chocolate melt. With a spatula, spread chocolate over crackers.Cool for 20 minutes, then place tray in freezer. In 3-4 hours, remove from freezer, peel off foil, and break into treat-size pieces. Store treats in freezer or refrigerator.
Variations:
Use milk chocolate chips. Top the melted chocolate with slivered almonds or chopped pecans or walnuts.Top melted chocolate with crushed Heath Bars or Resse’s peanut butter cups.
Let me know how you would describe these treats and also what you would name them.