Junk Food Nation, lots to get to, so here we go!

FIRST: TODAY’S TURKEY HILL FREE COUPON WINNER:

You guys LOVE comment contests. I love them too! Today’s random winner is:

Heather (hhughe___@____________)

Congrats, Heather! – email me your contact info to Junkfoodguy@junkfoodguy.com and I’ll get the free coupon in the mail to you!

SECOND: THE BEST RIPPED PANTS STORIES!

Junk Food Nation, you’re the best. I wasn’t sure how this story contest would work out, but you guys came through in flying colors!  Well, four of you did.  Some highlights:

MP: “I was standing on 2nd base & I spread my legs & I heard a lot RIPPPPPP.”

Colby: “After several warm up sets I loaded more weight onto the bar and proceeded to squat. When I got to the bottom of the movement I heard/felt the dreaded *RIP*.”

Sophie: I won’t quote the story, but basically it (1) being in kindergarten, (2) ripped pants, and (3) having an accident. YIKES.

But the winner….WILL D.!

“I was in my school’s production of ‘West Side Story’ and was a member of the Sharks, who all wore black stage pants. The Jets all wore jeans. During the performance, my pants ripped during a dance (I could feel it during some random kick/lunge) and I immediately stood straight up and shuffled through the rest of the song refusing to turn my back to the audience. Between scenes I changed into my jeans, so I looked like a member of the Jets for the rest of the show.”

Congrats, Will D.! – email me your contact info to Junkfoodguy@junkfoodguy.com and I’ll get the free coupon in the mail to you! Also, THAT’S HILARIOUS. I wish I was in the audience so I could scream at the stage during the show THERE’S A MOLE IN YOUR MIDST GET HIM!!!

THIRD: TODAY’S WAY TO WIN A FREE 1.5 QT OF TURKEY HILL ICE CREAM:

To win today, it’s time to RT RT RT today’s post on Twitter. I’ll be Tweeting some other links to this post throughout the weekend – RT those too!  Plus, BONUS: I’ll be picking TWO MORE winners out of the entries. SO GET TO TWEETING

FOURTH: FOOTBALL PICK’EM TIME

Here’s the tally so far regarding the season long bet between me and the BackUp QB:

	Backup QB Picks	JFG Picks
WEEK 14	7-8 (7 pts: MISSED LOCK)	8-7 (12 pts: HIT LOCK)
SEASON	88-101-6 (104 pts)	99-90-6 (123 pts)

 

My math got screwed up somewhere, but I’m pretty sure the records above are correct. But really, what’s the point when I have a 19 point lead?? I hope you’re ready for this, BQB. Oh yeah, it should definitely be the women’s T-shirt.

The BQB’s lock for Week 15 is Chargers +4.5. “Home dog in a division game, and I get to make up an extra point on Junky.  San Diego’s defense really slowed down New England last week, and Peyton looked positively human against Buffalo.  Denver’s huge game was two weeks ago; they’re in coast mode now, while it’s kitchen-sink time for San Diego.”

My LOCK OF THE CENTURY…OF THE WEEK… is the Detroit -8.  Divisional opponent at home is never a blowout, but I have to believe that if Detroit wants to have a good showing in the playoffs Matt Stafford needs to get clicking with his offense NOW. It doesn’t matter that he had three TDs last week; he needs to repeat that and more this week. Plus, I think Minnesota is starting Teddy Bridgewater, Matt Asiata, Charles Johnson, Jose Canseco, and Rupert Everett. LAY THE POINTS.

The rest of our picks here:

GAME	Backup QB Picks	JFG Picks
Steelers @ FALCONS	FALCONS +2.5	FALCONS +2.5
Redskins @ GIANTS	Redskins +7	Redskins +7
Dolphins @ PATRIOTS	PATRIOTS -7.5	PATRIOTS -7.5
Raiders @ CHIEFS	Raiders +10	Raiders +10
Texans @ COLTS	Texans +7	COLTS -7
Jaguars @ RAVENS	Jaguars +14	Jaguars +14
Packers @ BILLS	BILLS +6	Packers -6
Bucs @ PANTHERS	PANTHERS -6	Bucs +6
Bengals @ BROWNS	BROWNS +1	BROWNS +1
Jets @ TITANS	TITANS +2	Jets -2
Broncos @ CHARGERS	CHARGERS +4.5 (LOCK)	Broncos -4.5
Vikings @ LIONS	Vikings +8	LIONS -8 (LOCK)
Niners @ SEAHAWKS	Niners +10	SEAHAWKS -10
Cowboys @ EAGLES	EAGLES -3.5	Cowboys +3.5
Saints @ BEARS	BEARS +3	BEARS +3

 

The most curious pick of the week is that both the BQB and I chose the Bears to beat the Saints. I have a feeling that game with be somehow laughable.

FINALLY: Today’s junk food: My Peanut Butter & Co. #CandyCaneHack!!

I’ve been doing things with Peanut Butter & Co. a lot on this blog, and this December is no different. This time, PB & Co. wanted me to do a #CandyCaneHack – to make something that combined the deliciousness of PB & Co. with candy canes for the holiday season.

Now, I have to admit, the idea of peanut butter and mint, together, WEIRDS ME OUT. I never understood the mint flavored Jif Whips. NASTY. Still, I’m never one to back down from a challenge. And as my buddy Nick over at On Second Scoop pointed out, the flavor to use to attempt this would definitely be PB & Co.’s Dark Chocolate Dreams.

Ingredients acquired!  Let’s begin this Peanut Butter & Co. #CandyCaneHack. Ok…step one…remove candy canes from box.

Unwrap candy canes and place in sandwich bag…

DONE! Now crush the sh*t out of them.

This is my smashing result from beating the bag with my fist. Yeah, that’s….that’s about right.  I got a wine bottle and smashed them up a bit more, and dumped them into a bowl.

Candy cane pieces are pretty….and sharp. I munched a few of these and I’m pretty sure sliced my gums up. Damn candy canes.

NEXT STEP: Make peanut butter cookies out of the Dark Chocolate Dreams! I used the Martha Stewart recipe, because it barely had any ingredients.

The recipe called for an electronic mixer, but I did it with my arm and a spoon BECAUSE I’M A MAN. Plus, I don’t have an electronic mixer.

HALFTIME. My arm was killing me, and the dough was almost finished….oh crap, I forgot to show you the cookies I laid down!  Here we are:

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, perfect cross hatches!

Actually, the cross hatches were done by the Junk Food Gal. I was originally going to just mash them down with my fingers, but after she started pressing them down with a fork, I squealed and said OOO PRETTY.  Yup, I’M A MAN.

Ok, so HERE are the ingredients post-baking and….AWH I FORGOT TO SHOW YOU THE BAKED COOKIES. Damn these pictures being out of order. Here we go:

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. Truth be told, even though these cookies came out nice, they were crumbly as hell. What did I do wrong? I have no idea. Maybe they needed a little flour?  Dunno.

Now it’s time for the hack!  I had Oreo-visions, or Whoopie-Pie-visions, so I grabbed two delicate cookies…

…slathered the inside with a big lump of Peanut Butter & Co.’s Dark Chocolate Dreams…

…added some candy cane pieces (yes, I’m trying to shatter your teeth here)…

…pressed down…

…SO MUCH PEANUT BUTTER-Y GOODNESS…

…And finished it off by rolling the sides in more crushed candy cane pieces. AND VOILA! A quasi-peanut butter-candy cane-holiday Whoopie Pie thingy!  That’s the name of it. “Quasi-peanut butter-candy cane-holiday Whoopie Pie thingy.” Rolls off the tongue.

My Peanut Butter & Co. #CandyCaneHack is sort of…gnarly. It kind of looks like my sandwich cookie has teeth, no? Scary.

It smelled and looked tasty, however, so I took a BIG BITE…

SUCCESS!  This Peanut Butter & Co. #CandyCaneHack was ACTUALLY PRETTY TASTY. I thought that he mint and peanut butter would throw me off, but it actually was not that bad at all!

The cookies themselves were sort of muted in terms of peanut butter flavor….honestly, they tasted more like a deep cocoa cookie with a hint of peanut butter. As a result, the first taste I got when biting into these was the candy cane minty-ness.  Sweet and crunchy and bright.  Then the minty-ness faded and I got LOTS of dark chocolate peanut butter flavor.  The cookies sandwich was decadent as hell.  Light cookies with heavy peanut butter inside.  Really tasty.

I realized that the flavors never REALLY mixed…I basically got the flavor of candy cane, and then I got the flavor of chocolate peanut butter.  They didn’t conflict because they never really mixed. I was able to enjoy both flavors in one!

Of course, like I said before, these cookies were delicate. The second bite resulted in this mess leftover. I ate the remainder with a spoon.  Still, not bad down to the last crumb.

Hope you enjoyed my #CandyCaneHack, JFNation! Let me know what you thought of it in the comments below.

ALSO, as a bonus, PB & Co. wants to give YOU an online coupon code for their online store: YUMSQUADLOVE. ALL CAPS is important; the code is case sensitive, and gets you 25% off! Check out their online store here.

Enjoy the weekend, JFNation! AND TWEET TWEET TWEET.

Thoughts? Please comment below or hit me up on Twitter @junkfoodguy or LIKE my Facebook Page and message me there. I also have Google+!! Let’s hang out.

Sincerely,

Junk Food Guy