#muths

So, this Christmas, I put together a foodie gift basket as a present. And I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty darn proud of it. If you're still searching the town for Christmas gifts, this is something that could be pulled off really fast. If you have a foodie friend, this is probably the perfect present. I filled it with some of my favorite things from around town:

A $10.00 gift certificate, kindly provided by Dish on Market they have amazing hamburgers and giant mimosas, I highly recommend them, and the location is super conveniant. They also have wild parties. True story.

A package of Muth's popcorn peanut brittle, which I haven't tried yet, but it looks SO good and crunchy I really want to...must resist the urge to eat my present.

A few scattered Muth's Modjeskas, the perfect Christmas Candy, homemade marshmallows wrapped in tender caramel

A duo praline bar from Ghyslain on Market, dark chocolate with hazelnut praline and a white chocolate center, and milk chocolate with pistachio praline and a white chocolate center.

Smoky tomato dressing from Goose Creek Diner--easily the best salad dressing of all time. They sell it in little to-go containers, but I just bought transferred some to a glass bottle and corked it! This could work with any special sauces, provided the restaurant will sell them to you!

THE BEST granola from Please and Thank You, with almonds, coconut flakes, pepitas, sunflower seeds, dried cherries, dried apricots, flax seed, honey, cinnamon butter, vanilla and kosher salt. P & TY is AMAZING, and I have dreams about their iced black tea.

A jar of Spring Valley Farms All Natural Peach Butter which I got from the Liquor Barn off Hurstbourne

Also some apple butter and honey from my family, because we are awesome and we keep bees and make apple butter in a giant copper kettle over a big fire pit every yet. And when I say giant, I mean big enough to theoretically boil a smallish child. There is a lot of apple butter in our garage right now, and my dad sells the honey at a local farmer's market. 

I am REALLY excited about this present. You could choose completely different products--the people I'm giving this to don't drink, smoke or do coffee, otherwise I would have stocked the basket with Sunergos or Quills coffee, Cigars from a local place like Billow or J. Shepherd, and of course BOURBON. 

check out more on Muth's Modjeskas and my unhealthy need to eat a pound of caramel every Christmas right here. 

I am not a candy eater. I am a lover of bacon and cheese and all things salty, so when I eat candy, it has to be the good stuff to even tempt me. Around Christmas, my mouth starts watering for the following three items in particular:

3. Schimpff's Red Hot Hearts

I guess this counts as a Christmas candy to me because it's cinnamon  and also because my family goes to Schimpff's every Christmas Eve (it's in Jeffersonville Indiana) and watch the confectioners there make sugar; they have a big demonstration area, the most fun candy to watch them make has to be the old fashioned ribbon candy! There is also a candy museum attached to the deli-candy shop-candy demonstration-vortex of deliciousness that is Schimpff's. The red hots are made by hand with real cinnamon oil, so some of them are SUPER hot and others are sweet and mild. I could eat an entire tin of them by myself but I never get to because my sisters eat all of them first. 

It's totally unfair. (top photo courtesy of Schimpff's website)

2. Nuts N Stuff's Chocolate Covered Potato Chips

I KNOW RIGHT? It sounds so weird, but it tastes so good. Nuts N Stuff, on Barrett, specialized is weird spices, bulk foods, bunches of coffee and...candy. This is my newest favorite, but ZOWIE is it good. There's something about the golden, super salty sliver of a potato chip covered with a thin swath of super sweet milky chocolate that I just can't resist. I love big beefy alpha males with a secret sentimental side, and I love candy that has a good bit of salty in the palate. 

1. Muth's Modjeskas

I am marginally ashamed to tell you that I actually broke my diet to eat these. I am really, really good about keeping on track with my weight loss (I've lost nearly 110 lbs over the past year and nine months!) so when I tell you that I snarfed four of these babies, in my car, with my fingers sticky with caramel, at the stoplight after I left Muth's, you can kind of gauge how good they are. Modjeskas are a Louisville original, named after a polish actress who came here in the 1880's and so impressed a local candy maker he named a caramel covered marshmallow in her honor. I wish someone loved me that much! The ones at Muth's are made with the original recipe, and they are smallish, pillow-y marshmallows with a fat, buttery caramel coating. (photo courtesy of Muth's website!)

There are certain old time diet myths that have proved to be wrong. Some of them are as follows:

Drink a lot of water to reduce weight

Say ‘no’ to dairy products

Do not eat between meals

Skip meals to lose weight

Don’t eat after 8 p.m

Follow a strict diet plan and drastically cut calories to lose weight

Don’t take carbohydrates because they turn to fats

Go vegetarian to lose weight

Exercise till you sweat