APB

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.

Veggie veggie combo

My vegetable adventure began with butternut squash. It didn’t go so well. I made a recipe from Fine Cooking for sauteed butternut squash chunks with ginger, garlic, and spices. As Laurie put it, “The flavor is good, but the texture is bland.” I found that any given chunk was either stringy or mushy. Conclusion: I still don’t understand butternut squash.

But then I turned around and discovered a new favorite green bean recipe, one so good that even Iris liked it. (Actually, Iris has shown an unusual willingness to try vegetables lately. I approve, but where is her independent spirit, her stick-it-to-the-man gumption?) The recipe comes from Andrea Chesman’s book The Roasted Vegetable. I can’t say I actually recommend this book. It’s poorly organized; it has no mention of broccoli or cauliflower; and it has a section of granola recipes, apparently on the grounds that the author has some good granola recipes. But the green bean recipe nearly lives up to its title: World’s Best Green Beans.

Green beans and I already get along fine. I tend to prepare them either stewed with tomatoes and garlic or braised with duck legs, shallots, fish sauce, and chiles. I also love Szechuan dry-fried green beans, which I haven’t made in too long. But I’d never roasted a green bean. I called them “frizzled green beans,” and Iris thought the name was funny. We’ll be making these often.

**FRIZZLED GREEN BEANS**
Adapted from _The Roasted Vegetable_, Andrea Chesman
Serves 2, plus Iris

1 pound green beans, trimmed
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
kosher salt

Preheat the oven to 500°F. Toss the green beans with the olive oil and a generous sprinkle of salt. Lay them out on a foil-lined half-sheet pan in approximately a single layer. Roast for 15 minutes. Sprinkle with additional salt to taste and serve immediately.

**NOTE:** I added some slivered almonds in the last three minutes of cooking, and it was a good move.

Cheesy bites

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.

Free pectin

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.

The vegputer

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.