Thursday, August 22, 2013

Milky Way Cars, More "Try, Try Again" and M&M Facts for M&M Lovers

Fact: Peanut M&M's fresh off the line taste different.

When peanut M&M's are first coated, the peanut inside is warm and snugs the chocolate around him/her like a cozy blanket.... and as the outer shell cools beneath the candy coating, the internal peanut is SO STINKIN' FRESH as to possibly need slapping!!!!

And that melt-in-your-mouth deliciousness only exists for a short time.... So while the cold, packaged ones are GOOD.... the hot-off-the-presses variety are to-die-for better.


Another Fact:  Holiday M&M's are never as fresh as the regularly packaged variety. This isn't bad, and they're color-coded table-friendly fun, but the fact is they're ordered ahead of time, made, packaged and shipped... Well, how early do the Halloween, Christmas and Easter displays go up in your local supermarkets and Wal-Mart????

EXACTLY!!!! So it's not rocket science, it's barely FIRST GRADE MATH to figure out that they were made long in advance. But the everyday colors, the typical red, orange, green, blue, yellow, brown.... Those bad boys are on the production line every day! SUH-WEEEEET NEWS, RIGHT?????

Now why am I going on and on about M&M's?  First: I love 'em. I try to avoid them except on road trips or when under extreme duress because I CANNOT STOP ONCE I START EATING THEM.

It's ridiculous, a person should have more self control than that, right?

Apparently not.

So here's an excuse to have M&M's in the house... and keep kids and party-goers happy!!!!

Milky Way Cars!!!!


Courtesy of my beautiful daughter-in-law Lacey.... She made a FLEET of THEM for Cousin-Palooza, our annual get the cousins together and celebrate all their birthdays in nice weather day of fun!

Here's what one looks like close-up:



You need: A bag of Milky Way bars (or 3 Musketeers or Snickers)
Chocolate chips or wafers for melting (melted chocolate is your "glue"
M&M's, sorted so that each car has it's unique color code!!! Very Nascar Friendly!!!

First you get somewhat barbaric and saw the legs off a bunch of Teddy Grahams....

Using a frosting bag filled with melted chocolate, cut the tiny tip off the end of the bag.... Use dots of chocolate to "glue" the four wheels, the steering wheel and TEDDY!!! to the car.

Done.

Done.

Done.

These were a huge hit with the little peeps running around here, so cute, so fun, and very easy!!! We decided that for Christmas we're going to make these.... and the Oreo Cookie MICE.... and have a face-off, cars vs. mice!!!!

And then there's this!!!!!

  • Nearly 20,000 free downloads of this delightful marriage reunion story found homes on Kindles two weeks ago... and since then, it's been available for the lovely price of $2.99...

    And people are buying it! What an amazing blessing that is, to have folks trust us enough to grab an independently published novel... one that we love and believe in... and then to come back and buy more of our work.

    I'm touched, happy, overwhelmed, delighted and slightly goofy, but mostly delighted!!!

    Which means I just might eat one of those Milky Way Cars to celebrate!!!

17 comments:

  1. I think I'd be biting off the feet LOL! at first I thought they were shoved in but guess they're not tough enough for that!

    this book may be up next for me..still finishing up some library books that expire soon. been on a mystery kick lately...

    Susanna

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    1. Susanna, let me know what you think when you read it! I hope you love it, kid... and I can't let the urchins bite off the feet, but I can't find a thing wrong with your logic: That's clearly the way to go, LOL!

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    2. reading it now but shhh I'm at work! ;-) of course we ended up busy but still...sometimes ebooks give me a hard time in telling when a prologue ends, etc - guess because I read fast and have the print larger so I miss stuff like that - one minute the dude's told to go see his daughters (and one was 15) and the next thing I know I think it jumped ahead because they were definitely older! :-) though the milk du ds might've distracted me so I missed that part of the page! so far so good- I can understand both feeling the way they did. I don't have much sympathy for a cheating man but in his case I can understand - don't think men handle catastrophes too well and though I don't have one I think they're more in need of physical and constant verbal praise and ,well, losing a kid I don't think I'd have much of that in me to give! and I think men like to feel they're doing something - I know when my friend lost her baby that was born early last year she wanted to sit home and cry and her hubby I think was relieved to get back to work - she's still snippy with him sometimes but I think he feels aarning a living is something eh can do - not so good with the touchy feely stuff.

      ..according to kindle I think I'm a little past 20% along..work stopped cooperating so had to put the kindle down darn it.


      Susanna

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  2. Oh, those are totally cute!!

    We're out of birthdays here but I may just try that for... no reason... I'll have to find a reason otherwise they'll think we're going to have this kind of thing all the time!

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    1. Virginia, aren't they adorable?????

      Make it a science lesson, speed as related to inertia, a body in motion tends to stay in motion... then you can tie that into simple M&M math for the least-un's and wrap up the lesson in philosophy/sociology: Why do we make food in the shape of animals and then eat it? Is this ingrained or learned behavior?

      Come on, honey, we can make this happen!!!! :)

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    2. HAHAHAH! Ruthy, I'm glad I wandered back over here. That just made my morning!

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    3. Forget cutting off the feet. We'd just be biting them off. Virginia, I think maybe it's an anatomy lesson. Or a lesson patterns. I love how they look on the tray all lined up. :)

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    4. Patterning, YES!!!! Missy Tippens, that's perfect for the 3-5 year old set!!! :)

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  3. I still haven't forgiven the M and M company for getting rid of the tan ones. What is with blue?????

    So cute. I must add the pic to my "Food to Creative to Eat" board!

    And congrats on the book. Yeah! Nothing like affirmation.

    Peace, Julie

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    1. Sigh I haven't forgiven Crayola for getting rid of Midnight Blue- that was my favorite color - the first crayon to go kaput when I was a kid - almost every sky was midnight blue...

      I miss the tan ones too..they shouldn't mess with stuff!
      susanna

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    2. Dave just brought me FOUR BAGS OF HARVEST M&M'S!!!!!

      The harvest colors are the best, and I buy them early and freeze them for November because they get the harvest stock in the stores early... but they're perfect for the fall projects my leastun's do and for Thanksgiving... fall gatherings... (as if I gather with anyone, that's too much like work, right????)

      There are tan M&M's in the fall bag.

      I'm just sayin'!!!!

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  4. When I saw the close up of the little car I thought the Teddy Graham looked grumpy then I continued reading and figured out why. Lopping his wee little legs off...that's just cruel. Cute, cute idea though if you turn a blind eye to the barbarism. Love how colour co-ordinated they are too! They'd be great as cake toppers.


    Congrats on those amazon numbers. That's exciting!!!!! And well deserved.

    Now I have to add M&Ms onto my grocery list. I suddenly have a craving. :-)

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    1. Let's start a chant:

      HARVEST M&M'S!!!! HARVEST M&M'S!!!!

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  5. These are just too cute for words. I should make these for my youngest son's birthday, right? It doesn't matter that he's turning 20, does it?

    And I'm all over that cousin palooza. I'll have to convince my children to live close enough to make this happen...if they ever move out...and if they ever get married...and if they ever have children.

    Hmmm. Lots of steps to go through to get to a cousin palooza, but we'll make it happen!

    And I loved Try, Try Again. I'm so glad it's doing well!!

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    1. Jan!!!! thank you for loving Try, Try Again!!! :)

      Big smile here!

      I loved it too, is that weird to say? It was just such a great middle-age story of love and new hope and forgiveness.

      I smile, just thinking about Conor and Alicia because the snark in me totally understood Alicia's mindset... but wanted to make her happy, at last.

      And yes, of course your son would love these! Do it!!! :)

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  6. How cute!! I love them! Just pinned it. :)

    I love the idea of a cousins day. Just love it. Such a great idea, Ruthy. I want to come! Can I pretend to be your cousin?? :)

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    1. Missy, you can come without being anything more than the wonderful friend you are! It started with so many cute grandbabies being born annually, and the birthday parties were eating up weekends... so this is a great alternative.

      AND SO FUN!!!!

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