"sunflower seeds" news and stories

I wonder when people started covering their nuts in chocolate.* I mean, nuts are already delicious all by themselves, so I wonder what made someone say, "hey, I wonder how they'd taste with chocolate poured over them?" But I guess that's how all of the important modern advances are made, by experimentation.

But let me ask on this special day: what nuts are good covered in chocolate and which aren't? I think peanuts and cashews taste great that way, but I had sunflower seeds covered in chocolate once and I wasn't too thrilled. Have you ever had a nut that you didn't like but did like after it was covered in chocolate?

* Get your mind out of the gutter.

For many of us going "home" for the holidays means ill-fitting gift shirts, drug store chocolate, eggnog spiked with bourbon, abusive grandparents, drunken tears, broken glass, the wail of sirens commingling with Xmas carols, blackouts, stunned girl or boyfriends gaping in mute horror at our ancestral home decor, and nonstop football on television.

Isn't it amazing that a simple few items of nutrition can make this sort of trauma pass like it was a summer night under the stars with the Philharmonic and a loved one by your blanket? Sound too amazing to be true? It isn't, dear friends, gather 'round. I've learned the key to holiday survival, which is to assume that wherever you go, no one will understand your culinary needs. You will need to bring all your weird herbs and foods with you, in little marked packets, for your relatives to make fun of.