Peanut Chews

Even I will admit that sometimes my crappy job leads to good things. We've been stuck in New Orleans for three of the past four weeks (and we're coming back here next week) and while I won't discuss how I feel about New Orleans in general right now because it makes me angry, I will breifly discuss the best thing that has come from being here.

I am a choco-holic. I require some chocolate every day to maintain a plesant demeanor. In Charlotte, for example, I have a bag of Dove dark chocolate squares in the "snack drawer" of my desk and I have one or two a day. When we first got to New Orleans, we stopped at a Rite-Aid to get bottled waters and the like and I stumbled across my single favorite candy of all time: Peanut Chews. (Coming in a close second and third: Reese's Peanut Butter Eggs and the Russell Stover Cremes collection.)

Some people may not have heard of Peanut Chews (and I know this because none of the people I am traveling with had heard of them before I made my purchase), but they have been a favorite of mine as far back as I can remember. I've never seen them sold in Charlotte, or anywhere in North Carolina, and actually I'd never seen them south of New Jersey before a few weeks ago. Here they are:

When I was little, my dad's parents used to come to visit us from Staten Island all the time. If we were home sick and my parents had to go to work, they would come. Or sometimes they would just come for no reason. And when they came, they always brought the following three items with them:

1. A giant pot of either Chicken Soup (if we were sick) or sauce and meatballs


2. Delicious fresh baked italian bread from their neighborhood bakery


3. Candy

While sometimes Poppy brought Butterfingers instead of Peanut Chews, it was usually Peanut Chews. And I was obsessed with them. And I still am. They are covered in dark chocolate (heart healthy!) and filled with peanuts and some kind of gooey stuff that makes them chewy. They're delicious. It's hard for me to force myself to only have two a day. I recommend these to anyone who sees them sold anywhere. I don't know much about a lot of things, but I know my chocolate.

And I realize that this is not keeping in line with the "losing 10 pounds" thing, but I do not care. Sometimes the little things are what gets me through the day.