I need to have a conversation with food about this

Every once in a while I play a game with the blogs I read. It's kind of the blog version of the ARG term "down the rabbit hole". It goes a little something like this:

I choose a blog that I read on a regular basis, go to their blog roll in the sidebar, and randomly click on another blog. I keep doing this over and over again until I am so far away from the blog I started with, that I almost can't remember what it was.

One of the blogs that I found in a friend's sidebar was Cookie Madness. I dig this blog because her baking technique appears to be the same as mine - which is to say, we both like to experiment with flavors, have an intuition about what combinations work well together, and aren't slaves to the recipe in front of us.

As far as I'm concerned, presentation can be a necessary part of cooking, and sure, I like things to look pretty on the platter - but it's more important that it taste good. I think that one of the secrets to cooking in general is that you have to be excited about eating the results, or be excited about serving the results to someone. Not because you want to impress them, but because you truly want them to enjoy the meal. Things taste better when they come from the heart. Empty showmanship tastes like shit. There's your pull quote. Ka-kow!

I found an entry where she listed her top ten recipes - and listed on there was something she called "Frito Candy". It was something she threw together because she thought it would taste good. I've done this too - threw together things I thought would taste good as a candy -- but this took it to another level. Kind of like showing Einstein your baking soda volcano that you made for the science fair.

Frito candy is fritos and pretzels broken up and sprinkled with peanut butter cups, then covered with unsalted butter and brown sugar that you have boiled into a caramel, bake that for a few minutes, then top with semi sweet morsels, which you then spread over the concoction as it melts. Leave it in the fridge till it's hard, then break it up like toffee.

The results? Holy. Mother. Of. God.

I added some white chocolate chips to the mix, because they don't melt the way semi-sweet does, so that way, every once in a while you get a lump of yum with your omgyum.

Frito Candy. Slowing your heart down with every bite.

Ka-kow!