Annual reminders

[pbray]

Passing along our ancient family tradition (4 generations so far), I wish to share the following words of wisdom with you.

1) Solid chocolate bunnies are the only acceptable kind. Hollow or creme filled bunnies are impostors and must be treated with all due suspicion.

2) When preparing to devour your chocolate bunny, you begin by picking it up by the legs or body. Swing the bunny firmly until the head impacts with a solid surface, such as a table or countertop. This will stun the bunny into unconsciousness, at which point you may begin eating. I generally recommend eating the head first, because once the brain is gone the bunny will no longer feel pain. Otherwise you'll need to devour the entire bunny before he/she regains consciousness.

Oddly enough one of my earliest childhood memories is of a pink foil-wrapped Easter Bunny given to me by a neighbor when we lived in Hartford, which meant I was no more than 3. I can still remember the dilemma--I wanted the beautiful foil bunny but it would have to be destroyed to get the tasty chocolate inside. In the end my parents carefully unwrapped the bunny for me, then stuffed the foil with tissue paper so I could have my bunny and eat it too.

Comments

[jjschwabach.livejournal.com]

Awww...

And yes, solid chocolate bunnies are the only acceptable format. Hollow bunnies are soulless, and creme-filled bunnies are an abomination.

My mom used to get us sugar eggs, too. Since I had and still have a low tolerance for sweet, mine would always be intact long after the others were devoured. I remember the year they stopped putting paper dioramas inside them and you could only get scenes made of more sugar. I kept that egg, never ate it at all...

[lagilman]

I suppose it's probably Missing the Point to wish that there was a kosher-for-Passover chocolate bunny....

[sylvia-rachel.livejournal.com]

::snork:: I've been looking for one of those for my daughter for about five years now.

Curiously enough I've seen a number of kosher chocolate bunnies in my life -- one wonders what the intended market for those is. (Same people who buy the kosher ham glaze and the kosher dairy sour-cream-and-bacon potato chips, I suppose.)

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Well there are kosher chocolate rabbits made by See's Candies company. Nothing says you can only eat them on Easter.

[sylvia-rachel.livejournal.com]

Well, I suppose if you're having your premises inspected for kashrut anyway, might as well include the Easter Bunny production line, right?

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Make sense to me, it's probably the factory and lines that are inspected rather than individual molds.

Though now I'm wondering if they make chocolate crucifixes and if so, if those are also marked kosher (Oy!)

[sylvia-rachel.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly -- if your production line is certified kosher, that means every element of it has been certified, including, I guess, the Easter bunny moulds.

I can't say I've ever seen a chocolate crucifix, but I s'pose that's not in any worse taste than the chocolate plagues...

[difrancis.livejournal.com]

Or at least a lamb?

[pbray.livejournal.com]

In Albany there's a company that makes mint-chocolate candy lambs. The mind boggles.

[sylvia-rachel.livejournal.com]

You can, however, get kosher-for-Passover chocolate plagues (http://www.toplessrobot.com/Chocolate%20Plagues.jpg) (and chocolate seder plates, too, but that's somewhat less head-shakingly bizarre).

[jjschwabach.livejournal.com]

Snork, indeed. When I was about eleven or so, I saw a newspaper circular from a local (but dying) Upstate NY chain. Across the top of one page, it proclaimed in bold letters, "Passover Hams $1.99/lb!"

(Clearly, it was *not* Wegman's. Another chain.)
And they wonder why they're losing to chains like Wegmans....

[jjschwabach.livejournal.com]

Oh, I missed the chocolate plagues. One can only assume that the tenth chocolate is poisoned.

[sylvia-rachel.livejournal.com]

That would be the logical conclusion, certainly...

[lagilman]

Hah Price Chopper?

(they used to give us grief for wanting to buy matzo. Okay, some towns I could understand that, but Saratoga? Oy.)

[jjschwabach.livejournal.com]

P&C, actually.

Now they have an "International Foods" aisle that contains:
-- La Choy soy sauce and chow mein noodles.
-- Old El Paso Taco Dinner Kits
-- and, (I swear I am not making this up) spaghetti sauce.

In this part of the state, Wegman's is the most ethnic-friendly grocery store, but Hannaford would be the winner around Saratoga.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

I remember someone looking for this last year, and yes it does exist. See's Candies sells kosher chocolate rabbits.

[sylvia-rachel.livejournal.com]

The question however is whether they are kosher-for-Passover chocolate rabbits (in practice what this mostly means is that they don't contain soy lecithin).

Peanut-butter filling is also verboten, but peanut-butter-filled chocolate bunnies are, I presume, seven kinds of suspicious impostorhood in any case ;^).

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Ah, the important distinction.

[sylvia-rachel.livejournal.com]

Yup.

It can be useful for the non-Jewish contingent at times too, I gather: I once met a woman at No Frills while doing my Passover shopping who was stocking up on mass quantities of soya-lecithin-free kosher-for-Passover baking chocolate because she had a soy allergy.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

For the best, really. You don't want them to suffer.

[sylvia-rachel.livejournal.com]

Now that is parental dedication! ;)

[difrancis.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid I bypass all chocolate bunnies in favor of carmel cadbury eggs.

But that reminds me . . . I need to organize a peep joust.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

My holiday was joust free, alas, but that's why they invented YouTube.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

In the end my parents carefully unwrapped the bunny for me, then stuffed the foil with tissue paper so I could have my bunny and eat it too.

Awww.

Although at first I thought you were going to say that was your first memory of unwrapping a bunny and stunning it into submission, thus causing your neighbor to keep their children and pets away from you until you moved.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Well, yes, I'm sure by today's standards I and my siblings would have been on everyone's list of budding serial killers :-)

My grandfather began the custom by routinely eating the heads off of his kid's chocolate rabbits-- Here, dear, have a headless bunny. It explains a lot about the family, it reall does.

[dynastic-queen.livejournal.com]

Solid bunnies only. Can I get an Amen!

[vespican.livejournal.com]

"AMEN" is also a proper response when someone at work reminds you it's FRIDAY!

Dave

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Mmm, solid dark chocolate bunny for the win.