I Want Candy!

Anyone who knows me knows that the phrase "I Want Candy" doesn't leave my lips very often. "I Want Chocolate" - well, that's far more common ("I Neeeeeed Chocolate" even more so). Our family avoids food dyes and other chemicals, so most candy is out. The kids are hardly deprived - the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus bring high quality chocolate, and most Halloween candy is traded in for a toy or other present. As a result, their consumption of the usual candy you'll find in grocery stores is limited, at best.

There are, of course, exceptions. Some things just have to be experienced. Twizzlers, sadly, are out. Thank goodness I didn't make the dye=crazy connection until after K was a toddler. A steady supply of Twizzlers helped me get through grad school. Mmmmmm - strawberry twizzlers. Panda black licorice is good, but it's just not the same. I just found that they make a raspberry version - I might have to track it down.

One of the essential candy experiences takes place in the movie theatre. Sure, popcorn is great, but I want my Junior Mints. Chocolate and mint - is there a better combination? Unfortunately, I had to settle yesterday. I took the kids to see the Hannah Montana movie. K and A were excited, C less so. We got our tickets and walked up to the concessions stand in gleeful anticipation of experiencing a Junior Mint-and-Popcorn induced movie theatre coma. But - no Junior Mints! The nerve, I tell you.

K and I looked through the rest of the offerings and I decided on my next favorites - Sno-Caps. K asked what they were and I turned to her in shock. How could I have missed this part of her childhood education? It's already slightly stunted from lack of Swedish Fish and Jolly Ranchers. Sno-Caps are fairly safe (no red dye, but vanillin (synthetic vanilla - yuck!). So first I asked for one box, then decided to play it safe and get two. We made quick work of them. Even C, who mostly lacks a sweet tooth (and can eat red dye stuff without going insane), ate a fair bit. The popcorn was suitably salty and the movie was bearable. It was even quite good in some places. It gives me a lot of hope for Miley Cyrus's career beyond Hannah Montana.

I'm sure I'm horrifying the hard-core Feingold evangelists. I just prefer to do things in moderation. If it won't kill them, why not let them try it? That said, this was A's first and probably last experience with movie theatre popcorn. Midway through the movie, she started coughing. Later, she said her throat hurt, which is the same feeling I get when I consume cinnamon. She had a negative skin test to corn last year, but it looks like her allergy remains. It's the same cough she had with soy milk. When we switched to rice milk, it went away. Oh well, at least she got to experience it once. Next time, though, I'm bringing my own Junior Mints. Some things are just essential to the experience.