Natalie asks:

> Were you and Iris on the food network? I don’t have cable, but my parents swear that they saw a bit with you and Iris in it. I want to believe them, yet I’ve heard nothing of it from your side of the family.

Okay, it’s true. You can view the spot online.

The Power of Food: Feeding Iris

It doesn’t seem to work at all on my Mac, so here’s a Quicktime version if you’re Mac-oriented.

I’m not sure what to say, except “thanks.” To Eric and Judy and the rest of Seesaw Studios, who made the filming painless and even fun; to the Food Network for airing it; and especially to [Shauna James](http://glutenfreegirl.com) for making the whole thing possible.

I’m an enthusiastic consumer of new and limited-edition candy bars, but I rarely write about them, because I leave that to the expert: Cybele May of CandyBlog.

But there’s a new bar that I’m so excited about, I have to sing it loud. (Don’t worry, there won’t be an actual song.) For a long time I’ve preferred Peanut Butter Twix to original Twix. The peanut butter version has always been hard to find, but I grab it when I see it. Now it’s been replaced. This scared me, of course. It’s bad enough that I had to hunt around, but now they’ve killed off Peanut Butter Twix altogether.

Don’t worry! It’s just like when they killed off Peter Petrelli on Heroes. Peanut Butter Twix has been resuscitated in a much cooler version with the candy bar equivalent of a better haircut. The new kid is called PB Twix, or possibly Twix PB. They’ve replaced the vanilla cookie layer with a chocolate cookie. Usually these “endless chocolate” variations don’t work, but this one does. I like it better than the original.

I just stopped at Safeway and bought three PB Twix. You never know when the product might explode.

Wherever taco trucks fear (well, can’t afford) to tread, there is a dearth of cheap, good snacks. But a new stand on the main drag at Pike Place Market offers some little treats in the right size at the right price.

It’s called The Confectional, and it came from New Zealand, where the owner used to live and operate a similar shop. The Confectional specializes in cheesecake, and there are many alluring flavors, but what keeps me coming back is the fact that nearly all of the cheesecakes are available in three sizes: full, individual, and truffle. The latter is two bites of cheesecake enrobed in chocolate, for $1.50. It’s fair to say that I can’t imagine ever wandering through the market and not wanting one of these (so far I’ve tried the mochaccino and the mint cookie). In no way are they elegant or refined: they’re the candy equivalent of a hot fudge sundae, and good for them.

I should give a shout out to eGullet’s seawakim, a talented amateur chocolatier who introduced me to cheesecake in a truffle several years ago.

For reasons that must remain classified at this time, I had to carry a cup of olive oil downtown. The original bottle was too large and I’d put one of those pour spouts on it, so I figured I’d buy a mason jar. Unfortunately, at QFC, they only sell mason jars eight at a time.

Luckily, they had another product made by Ball, makers of mason jars. It’s called Freezer Jars, and I have no idea whether it’s new or old, but it’s awesome. They’re not jars at all. They’re heavy-duty plastic cups with lids that screw on tightly. There is no way these things are going to leak, even if they get a little crushed. The olive oil made it downtown and back without a hitch. I would have felt secure even if it had been fish sauce.

Ball freezer jars are five for $3. And they come with a free packet of pectin and a recipe for freezer jam.

Like the average omnivore, I partake of only a small fraction of the edibles in my ecosystem. (By “ecosystem,” I mean QFC.) In particular, while I eat a lot of vegetables, there are plenty of them that I pass by time and time again, and those that I do make tend to show up in the same forms repeatedly. Like this:

* **Asparagus:** Roasted with olive oil, S&P.
* **Brussels sprouts:** Halve, brown, braise in stock or water.
* **Carrot:** Roasted (baby). Sliced and sauteed with butter, cumin, ginger.
* **Cauliflower:** Slice, roast.
* **Cucumber:** Salad to go under pan-roasted salmon.

…

* **Zucchini:** Slice into coins, brown, toss with grated Parmigiano.

I can think of few vegetables that I routinely prepare in more than one way, and plenty of vegetables that I almost never buy–and I’m not talking about Good King Henry, Iceplant, or Lizard’s Tail, all of which I learned about on Wikipedia’s list of vegetables. Possibly someone made them up.

No, I’m shy when it comes to eggplant, spinach, winter squash, sweet potatoes, and even lettuce. I have a lettuce-related plan, so I’m going to start with winter squash. My usual complaints are that it’s too sweet and too hard to prep. But I have a butternut squash on my counter, plus a recent Fine Cooking recipe for sauteed cubes of butternut squash which looks like it might have enough caramelization and acid to overcome my first objection, at least. I’ll report back.