"mm" news and stories

Let it be known that I am a die hard Limited Edition Foods fan. I lived and died by Pepsi Kona, and I essentially redefine myself with each new incarnation of Kit Kat. That said, imagine my excitement when a friend of mine presented me with New Indiana Jones Mint Crisp M&Ms. (While they do not specifically say "Limited Edition", they do imply as much with "Get 'M' Before They're Lost!") One look at these puppies and you know you're in for an epicurean adventure of chilled-monkey-brains-buffet proportions, 'cause these M&Ms are all kinds of divergent from the original.

To wit:

• They are shades of green and white
• In place of the simple "M", some of the candies have mystical graphics (including a skull, a compass, a temple, and Indy's hat)
• They are chocolate-mint flavored
• Their core is a rice crisp

The Vicarious Foodie recently discovered Wild Cherry M&Ms in her local store, and did what any good pastry chef would do when faced with a new product with much potential: she went to work!

VF found a Cooks Illustrated recipe for Chocolate-Chunk Oatmeal Cookies with Pecans and Dried Cherries, and smartly subbed the M&Ms for the cherry and chocolate pieces, but kept in the pecans.

She mentions that in most recipes, her cookies tend to spread out in the oven, but these look gorgeous, like they barely stretched an inch. (Maybe the oatmeal had something to do with it?)

Either way, I commend VF for being innovative. Plus, the chocolate pieces are a great contrast to the brownish cookie.

Here's VF's re-done recipe here.

We've all been there. It's 2 or 3 in the afternoon and you're starting to drag, unable to focus on the computer screen a minute longer. You start to ponder a snack and settle on a trip to the corner store to the local vending machine for a little something sweet. Only when you settle back down at your desk with that bag of M&Ms and crunch into the first one, you discover that it is stale. The next one is just as bad. You sigh heavily and offer the rest of the bag to your cubemate (who is known for his ability to eat anything).

However, thanks to a tip posted on Consumerist, you can now avoid the scourge of stale candy, you just have to know how to read the codes. For Mars and M&M candy, just check out the first three digits of the ten digit code. The first number is the year and the next two represent the week of the year. Candy that expires this week would have the code 815. For Hershey's, they use a letter/number code. This month would be represented by 8D (2008, April).
Just check the codes and never eat stale candy again!

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