Last year I said that I’d probably cut back on my “endless shrimp” consumption at Red Lobster this year. Well, I was wrong…

We headed down to Red Lobster a few weeks ago for the fourth year in a row and I kicked my personal “best” up to 82 shrimp this year. I could have eaten more but everyone else was bored of watching me eat, so I stopped while I still felt good (and before I got left at the restaurant).

For those of you wondering what the “trick” is to eating that many shrimp (and a salad and biscuits) AND to not feel miserable afterwards, it’s really quite simple. Here’s what I did this year…

1. Ate some Slyders the night before. I think that those bad boys are the key to an iron stomach…if you can handle 7 or 8 of those puppies , you can handle anything. (Side note: while they are small, that’s really twice as many as I’d suggest eating at one time.)
2. Started the day off with a small “meal”…just some bread.
3. Had a sandwich for lunch.
4. Didn’t drink a whole lot at dinner.
5. Ate mostly Shrimp Scampi. You don’t have the breading that comes with fried shrimp and the garlic butter helps.

So there you have it. And I can’t take all of the credit as I’ve watched too many “competitive eating” events this year and have gained tips here and there (thanks to ESPN for thinking that eating is really a sport).

And a word of personal advice. If you start to feel uncomfortable, you’ve already had too much and should really stop eating. It’s really not worth it to needlessly feel sick to your stomach and you won’t enjoy shrimp much for a while after that. Just trust me on this one and don’t do it.

So what will next year hold? I’m making no predictions since I’m obviously not too good at that. But you can be sure that my goal won’t be a number, but rather not feeling bad afterward and truly enjoying my feast of shrimp.

So when is the 2008 Valentines Day candy going to appear? I’m having a hankering for Sweet Tart Hearts and buying over priced flowers, aren’t you?

OK, I’m being a little sarcastic (maybe not about the candy part), but is it just me or are the retailers truly pushing out the various “holiday” merchandise much quicker than before? I began to see “back-to-school” supplies in early July (presumably to make way for the upcoming “seasonal” items), Halloween costumes and candy in late August (at both Target and Wal-Mart) and Christmas merchandise in mid-September (at Target and I’d assume the same at Wal-Mart and other similar retailers). Then in yesterday’s paper I saw Halloween and Christmas items in the Kohl’s ad on the same page. (Apparently fall/harvest/Thanksgiving is all lumped together with Halloween.)

Being a “marketing type” and knowing that Halloween and Christmas merchandise are both huge money makers for retailers, I can understand why you’d want these items in front of customers as long as possible. But it’s a little creepy looking at graveyards, skeletons, zombies, mummies, witches, werewolves, vampires, bats, rats, spiders and disembodied heads in crystal balls while hearing Bing Crosby singing “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” in the background. But maybe it’s just me…

This ad is from the coupon section found in the Sunday Indianapolis Star in October 2007.   Simple, nice use of color, and most importantly, it’s going to “save” me a dollar.  (I ran out of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups today, so it’s time to restock.)

I must admit that the competitive eating circuit intrigues me a bit (and sort of disgusts me at the same time).

With that said, I am happy to see Major League Eater Joey Chestnut beat reigning champion Takeru Kobayashi AND set a new hot dog record (66 hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes) in the 2007 Nathan’s 4th of July Hot Dog Eating Contest. (Apparently Kobayashi had a “reversal of fortune” but was credited with 63 hot dogs.)

How gluttony became a sport AND entertainment is beyond me, but I must say that I’d prefer to watch that over any reality program.

[Photo courtesy of and copyright held by Chris Chin -- Thank you, thank you, thank you!]

Don’t you love the “new” shape of Trix?

If either of these were your first thought, you’re showing your age a bit…

1. What new shape? Are they a different size or something?
2. The old (round) shape is now the “new” shape?

As a kid in the 80’s and early 90’s I loved Trix and ate them all of the time, but when they went to their “new” shapes back in 1992 (fruit shapes like berries and bananas) I stopped eating them because they just didn’t taste the same (even though they claimed they did).

So, while at the grocery store a few weeks ago I spotted a box of Trix that stated “New Shape! Same Great Taste!”. Noticing that the “new” shape was the old round shape, I had to pick up a box to see if the “new” shape also had the same “new” taste of fifteen years prior. To my delight, the old Trix are indeed back and I downed a box myself in a week.

My guess is that some Gen-Xer got into General Mills and convinced them that the way it used to be was indeed better and thus the old shape was back in. And if that is the case, I’d like to know who it was and to thank them personally.

As far as the taste goes, is is possible that they are indeed using the exact same recipe but that the shape and texture determines how we perceive the taste? I know that there are certain textures of foods that I can’t stand (like tapioca), so maybe that is the case. Oh, and color wise, I think that they are still a bit brighter than the previous round shape, but I don’t have a picture of the old ones to prove that.

Bottom line, don’t mess with a good thing and don’t mess with my Trix again! Sometimes you just need to relive those kinds of childhood memories.