Peeps, the marshmallow ones!

My husband and friends spoil me with chocolate on a very regular basis; one of my closest friends bought me 6 high quality bars as part of my birthday present! In some ways, I think I might actually eat more (and better) chocolate now that I am completely dairy free than I did before. Having said that, I am really not too fussed when Easter rolls around. Sure, there are piles of different shaped chocolates to be had, but now-a-days, it doesn't really matter the holiday; there are piles of chocolates around! Whether it's chocolate hearts for Valentines, chocolate bunnies for Easter, chocolates of all description for Halloween and Christmas, we are completely surrounded by more chocolate than any of us need. Provided you need to Need chocolate, of course, but that is another story. Enter: Peeps! My squishy little friends.

Peeps, in case you haven't ever been confronted by one of these fluorescent little fellows, are chick and/or bunny shaped marshmallows (though they do have special, seasonal peeps for all of the above mentioned holidays) covered in various coloured sugars. Some will have additional flavours to them; we managed to find "Party Cake" Peeps today, and they had different coloured speckles on them. My not-sister in Texas called me a hag because she can't get those ones. Still, I can find only green and yellow chicks and pink bunnies, while she can find an array of colours. I'd say that makes us even = )

I am hardly the only person, let alone adult, to be enamoured of these little treats; the Washington Post does an annual contest, Peeps Show, where the contestants use peeps to create dioramas of various settings and this was year 7! The number of images pertaining to Peeps that come up on a Google search is impressive, too. I didn't realize that you could (or that you'd want to) make a dress out of them and I'm not really sure why you would want to microwave a whole box of them, but apparently they explode (and for anyone tempted to do so, the mess it leaves behind is spectacular, so have fun cleaning it up!).

Needless to say, I have already eaten enough Peeps today to have a pretty good sugar buzz going on, but I think I'm going to go have another one, just because I can!