The candy man can
I did some last minute shopping on Christmas Eve. It was a warm, sunny day in December (those words don’t go together very often), and I ran around for some odds and ends before the official start of the holiday.
Only a crazy person would go to the Market District Giant Eagle on Christmas Eve. Well, I am that crazy person. I went in the morning, but it was still a madhouse. There was a shopping cart traffic jam in the produce section. I grabbed a basket and skipped through the store like Little Red Riding Hood, avoiding all the congestion and the three-cart pileup by International Foods.
I bought two vibrant, vermillion Poinsettia plants, a gift card and a loaf of cranberry walnut bread. That’s about as festive as it gets. That’s like a shopping list right out of a Hallmark Christmas movie, for heaven’s sake.
On the way home, I stopped at this little, local homemade-candy place, Applelicious. My mom loves caramel apples and it seemed like a nice addition to her Christmas gifts.
The owner, Paul, was there by himself. He must have been bored because he took me around the shop. I got the Golden Ticket tour.
P.S. There was no river of chocolate or flying glass elevator.
I got to see the vat of caramel where they dip the apple. I got to see the vat of chocolate where they dip the apple again. I got to see the vat of white chocolate where they … you guessed it … dip the apple in white chocolate – for the five people who like white chocolate.
Paul took me into the cold storage room where they kept all the apples. I got to pick from an assortment of apples covered in various substances. The apples had caramel, chocolate and M&M’s, pecans, cashews, etc. I was overwhelmed by the possibilities. I had a Veruca Salt moment. I wanted it all! And I wanted it now.
After I picked the perfect apple, Paul led me to the front of the store and offered me a chocolate-covered pretzel rod, covered in all sorts of confections. If I was picking out a wand at Ollivander’s, it would look just like this pretzel rod. I must have really connected with this candy-covered pretzel, because Paul offered to throw it in for free!
Well, now I had to buy more stuff. The one-on-one ratio made me feel guilty. I didn’t want to walk out with one apple and one free thing.
That’s when I saw them. Chocolate turtles. Not reptiles covered in chocolate. Um. Gross. They were pecans covered with caramel, coated with chocolate. The pecans stick out from the bottom and look like tiny, turtle feet.
They were giant turtles – like 100-year-old Galapagos Island turtles made of chocolate, caramel and pecans.
I got a bunch of those and skedaddled. I had to get out of there before the Oompa Loompas started singing to me about gluttony.