A man in Halifax, Nova Scotia is reported to own 3000 PEZ dispensers, according to the Lethbridge Herald. Scott Ferguson started collecting the dispensers about 20 years ago when he bought some for some young relatives. He thought they were kind of neat so he got some for himself as well. Since then, he has amassed quite a large collection.
Part of the fun of PEZ, I think, is that it’s a candy that’s also a toy. That is a winning combination, bringing lots of fun to kids of various ages. I have heard of people collecting the dispensers before, but have never heard of a collection that large. I’d love to see a photo of all of it!
And you thought Tori’s friend had a lot of these things. Alas, Joyce only has about 200 or so, a mere novice compared to her Canadian counterpart. We all have to have something to work toward, though, so I hope Joyce will step into overdrive in her endeavors.
PEZ Dispensers by ingridtaylar.
Flickr user Gryfon submitted this photo to our Flickr group. What I like about it is the roughness of the edges of the chocolate paired with the regular flatness of the slabs, enabling them to be stacked. The white chocolate in there is a nice addition and really catches the eye.
The vertical positioning is good, being centered on a “third” line. The only way I can think of to improve this photo would be to make the background darker. However, a totally black background may not work because the chocolate would appear to be floating in the ether. I am not sure offhand how to change that. It looks really good as is, though, with the dark but not black background. I am a big fan of shooting against black and printing against white. I wonder how it would look then.
Great job!
Do you want your candy photos featured here? Submit them to the Candy Dish Blog Flickr group. We want to see your candy photos and so does the rest of the world!
It’s time again for the annual Peeps diorama contest sponsored by The Washington Post. This annual celebration of Peeps is very timely this year, as it is sure to bring an extra boost to the Peeps Store at the National Harbor in DC.
Last year some of you submitted your ideas and pictures. This year I hope you will post them on the Candy Dish Blog Flickr group as well so we can see the cool stuff you are putting together. Act quickly because the deadline for entry on the Post’s site is March 1st. Basically you have until the end of the weekend to get your submissions in.
Check out the creativity here. Above is a diorama showing the crash of the plane last year into the Hudson River, in which, due to the skill and quick thinking of pilot Chesley B. Sullenberger, nobody was killed. Look – there’s Sully on the wing, complete with white mustache!
Here is another great one, showing a familiar scene at Georgetown Cupcake here in Georgetown, which has a constant line out the door, it seems. If you remember, that’s where Susan bought the cupcakes for her wedding last year. People do some great stuff with these Peeps contests.
What design would you like to do? Even though the official contest is only open to DC-area residents, you should all go have some fun with the little marshmallow guys. Post your picture to the Flickr pool. We’d love to see what you come up with!
Peeps in Hudson River and Peeptown Cupcake by dbking.
This question struck my funny bone a bit and seemed appropriate to share on today, which is George Washington’s birthday. It is a question a child asked at the Washington Crossing Historic Park in Pennsylvania. The article explains the answer. No, of course he didn’t because Milton Hershey didn’t start his company until 1894 and Washington passed away in 1797, almost a 100-year gap between the two dates.
However, the underlying question struck me as interesting. What was the evolution of chocolate as a confectionery product to that point? The park’s article gives us the answer:
Solid eating chocolate — sweet bars like our candy bars today — were not around in General Washington’s day and neither was milk chocolate — they both came later, around the late 1800’s — but General Washington may have had chocolate to drink.
Early drinking of hot chocolate was probably a rare and an expensive treat.
It was mixed with many types of flavors to make it more tasty, like the following:
* Anise seeds — which taste like licorice
* Ground Almonds and Pistachios
* Nutmeg
* Cinnamon
* Orange flower or rose water
* Peppers — spicy and/or hot
Thanks, folks, for answering that question. So sometime between the late 1700s and late 1800s, chocolate evolved into something like we think of it today. I will have to check further to see what other presidents such as Cleveland, Grant and McKinley enjoyed.
George Washington by jadam.
If you have any of these little guys left over, and I bet you do, you may be wondering what to do with them. Here at Candy Dish Blog, we are hard at work and ready to offer solutions.
- Use them in crafts. Glue them to earring posts to make conversation heart earrings or use them to decorate a Valentine’s themed picture frame.
- Make a conversation heart martini. When you perfect a recipe, let us know and we will post it here.
- Pastel food decoration. Grind them up in the food processor to make pretty candy dust you can sprinkle on cupcakes and other yummy goodies.
- Send them to Susan. She loves them.
- Wrap them in plastic and save them for summer. Extra conversation hearts in February? Who cares. Extra conversation hearts in June? Now you are the hit of the barbecue!
What? You already ate all your conversation hearts? I bet you could still find some in the store at a discount. After all, Valentine’s Week is just now ending.
Conversation Hearts by CraftyGoat.
In this photo Rachel Rappaport, one of my favorite food bloggers, is chopping chocolate to make Ovaltine Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream. I know it’s still a little cold out to be eating ice cream, but I wanted to plant this seed in your head for when the weather improves.
I love the selective focus in this photo. It was taken at f1.8, which offers a very shallow depth of field, giving it a very stylized look. The angle of view is great as well. Diagonal lines are very visually appealing. Great job, Rachel!
Do you want your candy photos featured here? Submit them to the Candy Dish Blog Flickr group. We want to see your candy photos and so does the rest of the world!
Today is the first day back to school after a long weekend (very long if you’re from the Washington DC area). We can thank our former presidents for our lovely little vacation, well and the powers who be for the snow that caused the East Coast’s lovely snow-cation. Anyway, some of us may find ourselves having trouble focusing on this first day back after the break. We may be more excited about catching up with our buddies than catching up on our work.
Neither our current president, nor any past presidents for that matter, would be pleased by our difficulties paying attention. In his back to school speech this year, President Obama urged students to take their education seriously and work hard to meet their goals. Focus is one of the most essential components to being successful in school or anything you choose do. If 90% of life is showing up, most of the rest of it is simply paying attention.
A recent study found that students who chewed gum had significantly better concentration than those who didn’t. It is thus not surprising that research by the Wrigley Company discovered that chewing gum improved student’s performance on tests and ultimately resulted in higher grades. Chew on that!
