Day 37: One “O” is never enough…
“Everything that is new or uncommon raises a pleasure in the imagination, because it fills the soul with an agreeable surprise, gratifies its curiosity, and gives it an idea of which it was not before possessed.”
A friend of mine recently made me aware of a potentially toxic preservative, TBHQ, that is placed over Reese’s peanut butter cups. Ironically, this chemical is not used in the peanut butter cups sold in China… go figure! In any event, peanut butter cups are one of my unquenchable indulgences. I can make one last oh-so-long, but I must have another to follow… and how difficult it is to stop at just two. Well, now on the heels of this scary news regarding the preservative, I’ve had been to abandon one of my most sinful simple pleasures leaving my Serotonin levels at an all-time low and my heart yearning for a replacement!
Enter today: The limited edition Reese’s Peanut Butter Oreo cookie! Yes, you heard me correctly… just when you thought the simple Oreo pleasure couldn’t get any better, the Oreo cookie has been transformed into an eye-popping, mouth-watering satiable delight!
On this day of the Quest, I remember anxiously grabbing the package in the store and quickly turning the package over to reveal the nutritional content… “Nutritional content”, I thought? This is a Quest; there are no rules for Quest nutrition! But with a quick glance of the calorie and fat content, I swallowed hard and it only took a mere ½ second to forget about the fright I had just seen. A couple miles of running, swimming and walking should absolve me of all edible sins, I thought! There is nothing like the mind justifying a quick delicious indulgence of the Oreo kind.
When I arrived home, I gently placed the bright blue package on the counter as if it were a fragile item needing special attention. I then took two fingers and lifted the tab on the package and slowly but deliberately opened it. I fell into a trance as my olfactory senses were dancing with delight! The scent of the Reese’s peanut butter sent my tongue to lick my lips as I eagerly anticipated that first taste and bite of this indulgence. My mouth watered at the thought of the half chocolate filling and half peanut butter that would give it the perfect balance of sweet and salty flavor. I anxiously reached for one cookie and brought it up to my mouth for the first bite. The scent of Reese’s still had me in a trance but make no mistake, I remembered every second of this sweet treat. It took one bite for me to melt… reminding me of the feeling of a Reese’s peanut butter cup melting in my hands on a hot day and having to lick my fingers to taste the melted chocolate evidence of my guilty pleasure.
The taste was just as I had hoped it would be. It was the perfect balance of flavor. The soft chocolate and Reese’s peanut butter cream with the hard cookie crunch left me in a melted state that would take time to rebound from. But alas, another Oreo moment of bliss was still waiting and I could feel the Serotonin levels rise by the second, confirming that life is short, and I wasn’t going to just stop at one!
Having found a replacement to my abandoned desire of the peanut butter kind, and enjoyed yet another satiating simple pleasure… left in a such a state that all I can do is smile and wonder what tomorrow will bring…
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