Review: New Pepperidge Farm Coffee Shop Banana Nut Cookies & Reax to the US-Ghana World Cup Game?
Junk Food Nation, I. AM. EXHAUSTED. I’ll get to that in a minute.
TODAY’S TURKEY HILL FREE COUPON WINNER:
No winner today; as I stated yesterday, my Monday RT contest would be lasting TWO FULL DAYS. So, today I’ll be sending out more tweets about the new Limited Edition Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup Oreos. RT those to enter – this contest has TWO winners. So keep RT-ing!
TODAY’S WAY TO WIN A FREE 1.5 QT OF TURKEY HILL ICE CREAM:
As for today’s way to win, we’re staying on Twitter! I’ll be sending out a Turkey Hill tweet on Twitter @ Exactly 12:00pm EST. EXACTLY. RT that Tweet to enter to win! I’ll be picking the winner out of the 1, 2, 12, 46 entries, whatever it is. IT’S THAT EASY. And I’ll announce it on this blog tomorrow. So be on the look out at noon. You’ll know it when you see it.
If you’re counting, with both contests combined, that means I’ll be announcing THREE WINNERS TOMORROW. How exciting.
WHAT DID YOU THINK OF THE US-GHANA GAME?
I am exhausted because yesterday’s viewing experience of the US-Ghana game was like a workout! I watched yesterday’s US-Ghana World Cup game from the comfort of my own neighborhood sports bar, and let me tell you: when a bar that has twenty flatscreen TVs fills itself waaaay past maximum occupancy on a 90 degree day – that bar becomes a sauna wrapped in tin foil inside a sleeping bag covered by an electric blanket on the surface of the sun. Holy crap it was hot in that bar. I was sweating my balls off. The US soccer players kept pulling up lame due to the heat; they should’ve trained inside this bar to get acclimated to the Brazilian weather conditions.
I used a handy take-your-heartrate app on my phone (I’m SURE it’s SUPER accurate), and it said my BPM was 110. 110!!! I was sitting down eating chicken sliders, not running a marathon. THAT can’t be normal. Of course, when you consider the prospect of eating chicken sliders in an Easy Bake Oven…well, then yeah. Maybe I was doing the equivalent of marathon running inside this bar.* (*I know that sentence makes no sense. Moving on.)
Despite the steam-room-like conditions, I’m glad I watched it there. Say what you will – there is NOTHING like being among a huge group of US soccer fans at a bar when a goal is scored. Everyone explodes, high fives, and inevitably some drunk assholes start a huge USA chant. I loved it.
After the game was over, I got both ESPN and CNN alerts. Notice the difference:
US vs. Ghana
OUR NEMESIS! Like Ghana was Slytherin or something.
But whatever – we got the three points and now have Portugal coming up on Friday. I wanna know how YOUR US-Ghana World Cup experience was? Did you watch it out? Did you stay at home, go to a party, get completely wasted, avoid it completely? And what did you think of the game itself? Well played, or did we get lucky? Tell me your experience in the comments below!
TODAY’S JUNK FOOD: New Pepperidge Farm Coffee Shop Banana Nut Cookies!
New Pepperidge Farm Coffee Shop Banana Nut Cookies: The Money Shot
New Pepperidge Farm Coffee Shop Banana Nut Cookies were purchased the same time I bought the Cinnamon Bun cookies. LOVED those. And I love banana bread too – so I have high hopes for these. TOO high hopes? Maybe.
New Pepperidge Farm Coffee Shop Banana Nut Cookies: Cookies like banana bread?
I love banana snacks, and have reviewed PLENTY on this blog. These cookies seem like they ought to taste very close to the Quaker Oatmeal variety. I see banana bread in the background of the image, so I really want these cookies to taste like banana bread. The only snack I thought that has gotten it right was the Stacy’s Chips variety. There’s a lot of expectations with this snack, PF.
New Pepperidge Farm Coffee Shop Banana Nut Cookies: Contains banana puree
New Pepperidge Farm Coffee Shop Banana Nut Cookies: LOTS of nuts
When I opened up these New Pepperidge Farm Coffee Shop Banana Nut Cookies and sniffed, I picked up some banana notes. I could tell there was SOME cinnamon in the aroma, but it was very faint. Honestly, these just smelled like sweet dough. On to the taste:
New Pepperidge Farm Coffee Shop Banana Nut Cookies: Very soft
I bit into one of these New Pepperidge Farm Coffee Shop Banana Nut Cookies and chewed. And my reaction? “……meh.”
These cookies were a standard, in many ways, Pepperidge Farm cookie. The cookie dough itself was sweet and plenty soft. There was a TINY bit of cinnamon taste, but not enough to make the cookie itself taste like banana bread. Instead, I got a lot of just straight up light banana taste. These didn’t taste like banana bread to me, more like “banana cookie.” If that’s a thing.
There were plenty of nuts to help break up the texture, and I appreciated that. The nuts added a much needed complexity to the flavor of the rather one-note banana cookie. The nuts were sort of toasty tasting, so that helped in the banana bread flavor more…but it still didn’t go as far as I would’ve liked.
In the end? These were just ok for me. Not a BAD tasting thing, at all – but as a lover of banana nut bread, I wanted to this to be more like what I’m familiar with. If you love banana bread like me, I think you’ll be disappointed in these.
Shame – the Cinnamon Bun cookies PF made were SO AWESOME! These were not.
PURCHASED AT: Safeway
COST: $2.49 on sale.
Thoughts? Please comment below or hit me up on Twitter @junkfoodguy or LIKE my Facebook Page and message me there. I also have Google+!! Let’s hang out.
Sincerely,
Junk Food Guy
Discuss - 14 Comments
My reax to the game: (1) There is no such thing as a fat soccer player. Those guys must be the most fit mother f’rs (sorry kids, don’t repeat that at home) on the planet. (2) it looked liked Ghana was beating up on the USMNT. Are we a team of shorties?
Ps. US-Portugal is Sunday at 6 pm. Don’t want you to bake at your bar unnecessarily.
@Steve: Yeah, they were just faster than us. Those uniforms were painted on.
You’re right Steve B., I wasn’t rooting for Ghana (I was for the US), but man US should’ve gotten a beating. But its all good, U.S finally got Ghana back for the last two World Cups, and hey, we are rooting for USMNT.
@Collin: Def a fortunate win. ON TO THE NEXT!
I compared my heart rate app to my actual chest-strap monitor and they were identical unless I was really sweaty. Not saying 110 is normal but it’s pretty accurate.
@Jessica: My app is one of those that the flashlight is what reads your finger pulse…never sure if those are accurate. chest strap monitor is def more accurate.
Ghana was a difficult matchup for us. Their high pressure, athleticism and speed made it very difficult. You will see a different approach from Portugal and Germany. We didn’t play well either. But, found a way to win in the end and that’s all you can ask for. Nice to see a couple of local boys do well – Zusi and Brooks. Bradley on the other hand…
@Neil: Yeah, Portugal is down Pepe but we are down Altidore. Nail biter on Sunday…
Being a bandwagon soccer fan admittedly and watching every 4 years and wagering accordingly, what a fun game to watch. And an added note to other sports, love the early start and not having games end at midnight.
Am I the only one that is somewhat irked by the fact that US is coached by a native Deutschlander when they are in the same group?
Complete OCD coming out here on details – on your phone at 8:07pm, how did you lose so much battery so fast? (or were there 2 phones)
@Marc P: The fact that games are over by primetime has been great. As far as Klinsmann coaching our team, I’m fine with it if a new style brings wins. And yes – those were two different phones 🙂
I heard plenty of cheering from the neighbors while at work last night! 😀
@Elisa: You can def tell how the game is by how quiet or loud the crowd is, for sure!
What a great couple of games, first the absolute demolition of Portugal, and later the US’s great victory. And yes, on the soccer field, Ghana is absolutely a nemesis, as the World Cup of 2006 and 2010 both ended at the hands of the Ghanaian’s. Those who want to say that Ghana “dominated” the game between goals don’t really understand the game that much, and that’s ok. But the US was solid as a rock defensively, and the one time Ghana managed to crack the safe, the US re-took the lead within 5 minutes.
Now on to Portugal. A tie would probably get the US through, since they’re currently 5 goals up on Portugal in the goal difference department (+1 to -4), and if Germany clinches advancement against Ghana they may play more of a B team against America in game three, while Portugal would have to crush Ghana to have hopes. That being said, screw the tie, beat Portugal and take on Germany for the group win!
@Sascha – What’d you think of Spain’s elimination??? So surprising