I love Lifetime’s “Cook Yourself Thin”. I’ve watched all the episodes and have the cookbook. One of the show’s chefs, Candice Kumai, was on “Extra” and cooked up some lo-cal dishes with Jerry Penacoli:
You can watch full episodes of CYT at Lifetime’s website. They also have recipes and lots of other helpful links here: http://www.mylifetime.com/on-tv/shows/cook-yourself-thin
With the price of ingredients going up, Hershey’s has decided to cut costs by replacing the cocoa butter used in products such as Milk Duds, Krackel and Mr. Goodbar with vegetable oil. They have quietly changed the labeling on the products from “milk chocolate” to “made with chocolate” or “chocolatey” which is the equivalent of a “processed cheese food”. Don’t get me wrong, I love my processed cheese foods like Velveeta and squeezy cheese but I’ve always known they were fake foods. Just like my beloved Pringles. Fake is fine as long as you’re honest about it. The big problem with Hershey’s is that they tried to pass off their “chocolately” products as the originals by only making the packaging changes that were absolutely mandated.
Here’s the thing, I can understand fully that the cost of ingredients is rising – we see that every day when we go to the grocery store. Hershey’s had other options to cope with this like raising the price (which they have also done) or making the product smaller. Of course, neither of those changes could be hidden from the consumer like a subtle change on the label. I think the correct choice would have been to make the product a little bit smaller. Yes, we would complain at first (like we did when Dannon shrunk its size) but then we’d go back to buying the candy and we’d be a little better off because it would be a smaller portion and fewer calories.
Thankfully, Hershey’s hasn’t gone completely over to the dark side. The traditional Hershey’s bar and Hershey’s Kisses are still using cocoa butter. Most critical of all – the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup hasn’t been changed. Below is the story that ran on The Today Show about this. I enjoyed it because Matt Lauer was properly outraged! There’s also a link below to the “Candy Blog” that brought all this out in the open. Warning – Don’t visit that blog if you’re on a diet. There is no way you aren’t heading to the candy jar after reading it. 
I just knew it was all Sam Waterston’s fault! MSNBC is reporting that a new study suggests that watching a lot of crime TV can lead to overeating. Apparently tests showed that, when confronted with things that remind us of our mortality, we respond by eating and shopping.
In a way, it kind of makes sense. Thinking about death is depressing and eating or shopping is a quick way to cheer ourselves up. Having said that, I don’t really think crime TV is the root cause of the depression. Even though they frequently deal with horrible subjects, I think of “Law & Order” (in all its forms) as comfort TV. I know exactly what to expect when I tune in. That’s especially true of the reruns when I already know “who done it”. ”Law & Order” and “Ben & Jerry” are just a way to make me feel better when the world gets to be too much. In other words, I think it’s more correlation than cause and effect.
They have an interesting theory, anyway. The whole article is at the link below:
A 17 pound watermelon was auctioned off in Northern Japan today for $6,100. This comes a month after a pair of cantaloupes (and I mean actual cantaloupes, that’s not a euphemism) sold for $23,500. Apparently these are all very, very special melons. Can you image eating a slice of something that cost $6,100? I’m pretty sure my potato chip loving palate could never appreciate it.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24997464/
While Fredric J. Baur might not have been a celebrity in the traditional sense, I do think that Pringles are a big part of our food pop culture – like squeezy cheese. He was so proud of his creation that he asked his family to bury him in one of the cans. At first it sounds pretty weird but if you think about it, it’s actually pretty cool. I like the idea that the Pringles guy had a sense of whimsy!
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/06/02/pringles.burial.ap/index.html