Peepin’ Off The Weight

First off, my apologies for not posting in the past couple of weeks. Life has a way of sometimes keeping us from the things we enjoy most, though in the past two weeks I’ve been busy with a much needed and well deserved vacation in Florida, followed by a work trip to Toronto and throw in a visit or two to daughters in Akron and Columbus and time seems to vanish. Easter is this weekend and I’m excited to have the girls coming home if for only a couple of days I know in a month they both will be finished with school for the year and for Sydney her final classes at the University of Akron as she graduates from college and begins to prepare for her graduate studies next year. Talk about time flying by, how could she almost be a college graduate? In thinking about Easter I can’t help but share a wonderful memory I have of my mother and our struggles with weight loss. The struggle is always there, that need to lose weight. I like so many have always been in this never-ending battle with weight loss. I’ve tried every diet that rears its promising head, from grapefruit to cabbage soup and everything else in between, low carb, no carb, South Beach, high protein, Slim Fast, you name it I’ve tried it. The cold hard truth of the matter is that I love food, period. Understand I grew up in a house where we based my mother’s ability to find the grocery store on whether or not the Little Debbie drawer was filled. Several years ago Ma and I decided to give Weight Watchers a try and I must admit I did see results by following their plan of regimented point counting, journaling and weekly meetings. I ended up losing about fifty pounds, it’s all about changing your habits and lifestyle. We joined in January and both of us were determined to be successful no matter what it took. We purchased all the food and restaurant guides, their snacks and gadgets to insure our success. When Easter was nearing we were told at one of the meetings the pit falls of Easter candy eating and our sweet leader gave us tips that would allow us to continue to lose weight and also allow us some sweet indulgence. We were told that one choice we could make would be to abandon our love for Reese’s Peanut Butter Eggs and instead choose 1 or 2 Peeps, everything is allowed she told us in moderation. A couple weeks before Easter Ma and I was at the Gabriel Brothers store in Mansfield, Ohio. Ma loved scouring this store hunting out that one unbelievable deal that she couldn’t pass up. Once in the store we went our separate ways and we both knew we would eventually meet up. After some time I was ready to leave so I found Ma to see if she was ready. I had no items to purchase and saw that she did have some things in her buggy (in Ohio it’s a cart but I’m from West Virginia, so I call it a buggy). There in the midst of the items were four large packages of what looked exactly like giant yellow Peeps. I picked one up from the buggy and proceeded to ask her,
“Ma. What are you going to do with these?” She looked at me like that was the most foolish question ever posed to mankind and replied,
“Oh my gosh David look at what I found and they are light too!” whereas I replied,
“Yeah Ma they are lights but what on earth are you planning to do with them?” again she couldn’t believe that I was being so clueless, she proceeded to explain that the Weight Watcher’s leader had told us that Peeps were a good choice,
“And look… they are light so that means they’re even better for us and we can have a couple more. I got two packs for you and two for me…just keep the girls and Jackie out of them!” I stood there and wondered what was going through her head and I finally started laughing and said to her,
“Yes …they are electrical lights…you can’t eat them!” My mother grabbed a package, turning it over in her hands and was flabbergasted at this atrocity. I could tell she was totally disappointed and completely angry that Sam Born (Peeps founder) would have allowed such an evil trick to be played on Peep loving, dieting Hillbillies looking for a little indulgence. So she tossed three of the packages back on the shelf, except for one pack that she said the girls would enjoy and we left Gabriel Brothers with my mother angry at the Just Born Candy Company and feeling defeated that we wouldn’t be enjoying oversized electrical Peep Lights as an edible treat! Happy Heavenly Easter Ma…we miss your wonderful baskets, pickled eggs and all the joys you brought to every occasion and holiday.
Now. Go try a recipe for Peep S’mores which elevates s’mores to another level. Happy Easter Everyone!

Just Born – Russian immigrant Sam Born came to the United States in 1910. In 1916, Born was awarded the “key to the city” of San Francisco for inventing a machine that mechanically inserted sticks into lollipops. In 1917, Born opened a small retail store in Brooklyn, New York. He displayed in his store window an evolving line of daily made candy, marketing its freshness with a sign that declared Just Born. The original company logo showed a baby resting in a candy measuring scale. Sam Born is also credited with the invention of chocolate sprinkles, known as “jimmies,” and the hard coating on ice cream bars. In 1923, Born started his own manufacturing company in New York City. Irv and Jack Schaffer, Born’s brothers in law, joined the company to help market and sell the confections. In 1932, the trio moved operations to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The company took over a 4 story, 224,396 sq. ft. building, built in 1920, from a bankrupt printing company. Sam Born’s son, Bob Born, joined the company in 1946 and would later become President for more than 30 years. He was part of the two man team that mechanized the three dimensional marshmallow Peeps forming process, allowing a substantial increase in production, before the forming process was started the chick was made by laboriously hand-squeezing marshmallow through pastry tubes. This led Just Born to become America’s largest manufacturer of seasonal marshmallow confections.