Whole Grain Scottish Oatmeal Scone Mix with Currants

Scone makers might want to take notice of a new scone mix available from Bob's Red Mill.

Whole Grain Scottish Oatmeal Scone Mix with Currants is said to contain Northwest Oats, stone ground whole wheat flour, sweet black currants, and premium spices.

A 20oz packet costs $3.46 on Bob's Red Mill website.

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Pita Puffs

Pita Puffs are described as a crunchy baked alternative to oily fried snacks, made from 100 percent pita bread dough.

They're manufactured in Canada by Handi Foods Ltd. and come in a wide variety of flavors:

• Cinnamon
• BBQ
• Mild Salsa
• Ranch
• Super Hot Habanero
• Garlic n Chive
• Pizza
• Original

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Sun Tzu Energy Drink

While the can looks impressive, the product inside is, well, "ho hum".

Looking at the ingredients, Sun Tzu's energy comes from a very basic blend of sugar, caffeine, and taurine. The rest is all show.

In fact, the product's website says describes it as a "novel energy drink", and seems to focus more about Sun Tzu, the ancient Chinese military strategist, than it does on the drink itself.

Sun Tzu is distributed by the same company that distributes "Krank2O", caffeinated water.

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You Go Girl!

Go Girl is one of the latest energy drinks hitting the market. It's marketed as "Beautiful Energy", to those girls who need a little extra "go".

Looking at its line up of active ingredients, it derives its energy boost from the B vitamins, along with a caffeine content similar to a cup of coffee.

Interestingly, the makers of Go Girl claim that many of its users enjoy it with vodka and other "fun mixers". But because their product is "a functional drink that enhances the body and mind", they recommend it for hangovers.

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Hershey's 'N' More Marshmallow

Marshmallow appears to be newest variety in the "Hershey's 'n' More" line. It combines the Hershey's chocolate that we're all familiar with, a cookie, and marshmallow filling.

Creamy Fudge and Caramel are the other varieties.

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Wasabi Weiners

Kosher Today Magazine reports that Abeles & Heymann have introduced a wasabi-flavored weiner, along with a chipotle-flavored weiner as well.

The new spicy varieties of hebrew sausage perhaps demonstrates that gentile dining is embracing a more diversified taste, reflective of the culture we live in today. I imagine the extra "kick" that comes in these new hot dogs is enough to put an extra curl in a rabbi's peyos.

The new wasabi and chipotle flavored hot dogs are already available nationwide and have a suggested retail price of $5.99 per one pound package.

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Bunuelos Ice Cream

The all new Southwest Flavor from Blue Bell Ice Cream is in the unique flavor of Buñuelos. Buñuelos are traditional Mexican desserts that are like a crispy pastry covered in cinnamon and sugar (and sometimes honey). Blue Bell Ice Cream combined little pieces of this traditional Mexican dessert with cinnamon flavored ice cream and a praline cinnamon sauce swirl.

This flavor is only around for the holidays, so visit your local Blue Bell Ice Cream retailer and try some before it's gone.

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Teeccino Herbal Coffee

Looking for a healthier, caffeine free beverage that tastes like gourmet coffee? Teeccino Herbal Coffee may be just what you're looking for!

Teeccino Herbal Coffee uses the term "coffee" but is actually a coffee substitute made from herbs, grains, fruits and nuts that are roasted and ground to brew and taste like coffee without the caffeine. It is available in a variety of flavors including Vanilla Nut, Hazelnut, Almond Amaretto, Original, Java, Mocha and Chocolate Mint.

To try Teeccino Herbal Coffee, a sampler pack is available for $10 including postage or a 8.5 oz can is available for $7.50. To purchase visit www.teeccino.com.

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White Castle Recipe Book

White Castle is the oldest fast-food hamburger chain in the country celebrating 85 years of great food that we can all remember. By the Sackful: A scrapbook with recipes from 85 years of White Castle Craving provides long-time White Castle fans with a book full of memories and recipes.

The White Castle Recipe book can be purchased online for $14.95 at www.whatyoucrave.com or in limited quantities at White Castle locations.

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Norman Rockwell Ice Cream

Norman Rockwell brings back memories of the good old days. Now you can taste that old style goodness in Norman Rockwell Ice Cream made by L&M Creative Foods. L&M Creative Foods developed this line of ice cream "like grandma used to make with the integrity, taste and attention to detail of the past". The Norman Rockwell line of ice cream is now available in a variety of flavors including homestyle vanilla, homestyle chocolate, cookies and cream, butter pecan, rocky road, cherry vanilla and mint with chocolate chips.

These great traditional flavors can be found in the freezers of Albertsons grocery stores nationwide in pint and half-gallon sizes.

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Kellogg's Pops - Lord of the Flies Edition

From what I understand, Kellogg's Pops is new in Switzerland.

And since the Swiss are sticklers for waking up on time, I guess it stands to reason they take their corn pops seriously. With a product presentation like this, who needs Swiss Mix in the morning?

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Sausage Is Our New Friend

New from DRG-Handel GmbH, comes "Olli - Dein Freund fuer unterwegs", which translated means, "Olli, your friend on-the-go".

It's a Fleischwurst sausage sold in a ring for gimmicky presentation. The sausage contains 40 percent beef and 24.4g fat (which is about half of what competing wursts contain). Moreover, the company says the product can remain unchilled for up to 2 months.

But the reason why its our new friend on-the-go, is because it has an easy open design. Based on what I can tell from the product's website (with help from Google Translate), you break the string that connects the ends, and it opens up one of the ends. You squeeze the weenie at one end, and squirms out the other.

It's Olli! Our squeezy-squirmy sausage friend.

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Flavored Toothpicks

I haven't seen flavored toothpicks in a long time!

I remember when I was a kid, and our family would go out to eat, I would always get a toothpick from the cashier's counter just to see if it was a flavored toothpick.

Seems like these days, restaurants don't offer them anymore.

So when I saw news that Recycline Inc. is now offering a line of flavored toothpicks, I had to mention it here.

Preserve Flavored Toothpicks comes in two different flavors, Cinnamint (flavored with cinnamon, peppermint, wintergreen and clove), and Mint Tea Tree (peppermint, spearmint and tea tree flavor).

Recyline's products are found at Whole Foods Market, Wild Oats, and Trader Joe's.

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Organic All Natural Junk Food

This new cheddar cheese product caught my attention for what's described as "Sharp Organic Grass Fed Cheddar Cheese".

The label goes on to say that it contains zero carbohydrates and is "made with organic milk from grass-fed cows carefully aged to the peak of flavor."

So what is "carefully aged"? The cows, the milk, or the cheese?

But this concept of taking a food product that's normally high in salt and fat, and billing it with health food labels like "natural", "organic" and "whole", is silly to me. It's like repackaging a potato chip as "fat free", "all natural", and made from "organically grown" potatoes.

I just find this clash between the health food angel, and the junk food devil, to produce some interesting products and labels.

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Heinz Spaghetti Bolognese

It wasn't so much the thought of canned spaghetti bolognese that caused me to write this, but the fact that the can depicts the tomato-ey noodles on what looks something like melba toast.

Heinz Spaghetti Bolognese is a product of Heinz Australia. Is this how they eat spaghetti down under? Or is this what inspires them to dig into canned MREs?

I suppose product presentation is always something peculiar to look at. First of all, it's always misrepresentative of the actual product. No hamburger ever looks as good as it's depicted. But others still are out of touch of reality.

Have any of you seen the can of soup, in which the label shows a spoon holding a mound of chunky clam chowder, but the underside of the spoon is shiny and clean? How do you pick up soup with a spoon while keeping the underside totally clean?

Or what about that Nestle Dancow powdered milk that shows a kid smiling in approval? Does that really happen?

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