Aunt Jemima Buckwheat Pancake Mix

If I'm going to eat pancakes, I much prefer buckwheats. Aunt Jemima Buckwheat Pancake Mix was a great product to have around for those days when I really wanted some buckwheats.

The loss of this product was inevitable. It's one of many hard-to-find products that I always looked for when traveling. Now I'll have to update my list again.

While doing a bit of research, I found a comment on Amazon.com that provides a way to make the mix yourself. According to the commenter, the recipe is from the Quaker Oats Company, the company that made--and discontinued--Aunt Jemima Buckwheat Pancake Mix. It makes me wonder whether this is the actual recipe Quaker used for their mix. It's possible.

3/4 cup Aunt Jemima Original pancake mix
1/3 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 tsp baking powder

Stir dry ingredients together. Add milk and egg according to the instructions on the box of pancake mix.

I haven't tried this, but I'm thinking about it.

Choco' Lite

Choco' Lite candy bars were around in the 1970s and possibly the '80s. The "whipped" chocolate contained air holes to make it seem light and airy. Nestle discontinued this product long ago, but many people think they've found the modern equivalent. I'm not one of them.

For years, I've noticed that some people say the Aero bar is identical to Choco' Lite, so when I saw one at a specialty store one day, I decided to buy one.

It is absolutely not the same.

Other people say it's the same as Cadbury's Wispa. I haven't tried that one, but I'm already skeptical. I can't forget the Aero bar experience--not that the bar was bad, mind you. It just wasn't the same as Choco' Lite.

This photo of a Choco' Lite wrapper confirms something I knew all along: there was something crispy in the chocolate. More than once, I let the chocolate melt in my mouth so that I could try to figure out what was so crispy. I thought they were itty bitty pieces of crisped rice, but I was wrong; nothing like that is mentioned in the ingredients list. It does contain honey and corn syrup (not HFCS!), so maybe the "crispy chips," as the wrapper called them, were hardened pieces of honey or corn syrup.

Aero bars don't contain anything crispy. If I had to guess, I'd say that neither do Wispa bars.

A lot of people like both of those other bars. In fact, Wispa was discontinued and then brought back by popular demand. This shows that people do like this airy type of chocolate.

Nestle really should bring back Choco' Lite bars.

Pitter Patter Cookies

Pitter Patter cookies used to be one of my favorite after-school snacks. Here is a photo of a package of these cookies, which were made by Keebler.

Pitter Patter cookies were sandwich cookies filled with peanut butter creme. The cookies themselves were crunchy and made with oats. I liked to take them apart, eat one of the hard cookies, and then eat the remaining one with the peanut butter creme.

These were similar to Do-Si-Dos, the Girl Scout version of a peanut butter sandwich cookie. The main difference was that Pitter Patters were much harder and crunchier, whereas Do-Si-Dos tend to be crumbly and somewhat easier on the teeth.

Prontos Chips

In the mid-1970s, Frito Lay mailed out samples of Prontos chips in little boxes, and they were really good. I found a reference to the commercial from 1976.

Prontos were similar to the Sun Chips that are available now; they had the same shape, and I'm pretty sure they were also multigrain chips. They were very salty, and if I remember correctly, they were thicker and crunchier than Sun Chips. When looking up this product, I found that some people say they tasted like bacon. I never noticed that, so I can't say one way or the other, although I doubt I would have liked them if they had. I do like bacon but tend not to like meat-flavored products.

I like Sun Chips but would really like to see Prontos being manufactured again.

Peanut Butter Frost Candy Bar

I discovered Peanut Butter Frost candy bars in the early 1980s. I saw one in a vending machine and had no idea what it was. Because of the name, it sounded good, so I decided to try one.

Peanut Butter Frost was coated in white chocolate, which I normally don't even like. Inside, it contained peanut butter and crisped rice. I think it also had some caramel, but I'm not sure about that. My less-than-perfect memory is also telling me that it came in two pieces about the same size as Almond Joy halves, but again, I'm not sure.

I couldn't remember who manufactured Peanut Butter Frost, so I did some digging and found that it was made by Luden's. I don't think it was available for very long. I know I had very few of them. Too bad. They were delicious!

Keebler Opera Cremes

Opera Cremes were sandwich cookies. That may not sound like anything special, but they were special. One package of Opera Cremes came with two kinds of cookie: chocolate and vanilla. What made them so good was that the creme filling was lemon.

I always gravitated toward the chocolate ones. Chocolate sandwich cookies with lemon creme filling are incredible. It's just such a delicious combination. I don't know why they were discontinued or why they haven't been resurrected. All I know is I would love to see them return to the store shelves. I would definitely be buying them.

Grape-Nuts O's

I always had a hard time eating Post Grape-Nuts. I liked the flavor, but they made my jaws tired, and I was afraid of breaking a tooth.

Grape-Nuts Flakes and Grape-Nuts O's were more my style. Grape-Nuts Flakes have been around since the 1930s, while Grape-Nuts O's hit the shelves in 1999. The flakes are still available, but the O's were discontinued a while back.

Why is it that so many great O's cereals don't stick around?

Grape-Nuts O's were sweetened with brown sugar, and they were delicious. Contrary to their name, they weren't exactly o-shaped. The outside edges weren't uniform; they almost resembled petals--almost. This cereal was crunchy, and it stood up well to milk without causing a major dental hazard.

I really wish Post would consider bringing Grape-Nuts O's back.

Fudge Jumbles

Back in the 1980s, Pillsbury had a variety of boxed dessert mixes called Fudge Jumbles. Each box contained a mix for three-layer dessert bars, all of which contained fudge. I think they all contained oats as well, but I'm not sure.

Fudge Jumbles were quick and easy to prepare. I've seen quite a few recipes, such as this one, that attempt to recreate the magic.

The person who posted the aforementioned recipe decided to try a peanut butter version. I really don't know whether there was a peanut butter version of Fudge Jumbles. I don't think there was, because it's definitely something I would have tried if I'd seen it. In any case, this recipe looks incredible!

Betty Crocker Sour Cream Chocolate Cake Mix

I found Betty Crocker Sour Cream Chocolate Cake mix many years ago, and it made me really curious. I don't normally like products containing sour cream, but something about this mix was calling to me. I had to try it.

I can say without reservation that this was the best chocolate cake mix I have ever had. Even though I don't like sour cream, this product was delicious. I topped it with Betty Crocker Sour Cream white icing, and the combination was outstanding. I bought these products several times over the years.

Then, one day, I wanted to buy a box of Betty Crocker Sour Cream Chocolate Cake mix, and they were all gone. I couldn't believe it! Betty Crocker got rid of the very best cake mix they ever had!

I did find a copycat recipe for this outstanding cake mix, but I haven't tried it yet. I haven't tried this one either. Even Betty Crocker has a recipe for sour cream chocolate cupcakes.

Someday, when I have time, I'll try these three recipes--just not on the same day.

Quiznos Smoked Turkey

I like to get smoked turkey from the deli as long as the quality is good. The first time I went to Quiznos, I was pleasantly surprised to see that hickory-smoked turkey was on the menu board, and it seemed to be a good quality. I tried it, and it was delicious. It was especially good prepared the Quiznos way, toasted with cheddar cheese and herbs.

One day, I was stunned to find out that Quiznos no longer offered smoked turkey. Roast turkey was still on the menu, but smoked turkey was gone.

Since then, I've tried to find out whether it happened everywhere or just locally. I still see smoked turkey on the menu when I do online searches, but it's possible that these are just old menus. My guess is that it was a company-wide decision.

Hungry Jack Frozen Waffles

I'm pretty picky when it comes to waffles. I'm not crazy about homemade waffles, and I've never been into Eggos. However, I really enjoyed Pillsbury's Hungry Jack Frozen Waffles.

I have trouble eating more than a few bites of pancakes, unless they're buckwheat, but waffles are a different story. I could eat two of Hungry Jack's small waffles and then have to force myself not to make more. They were that good. I preferred the regular version but also occasionally bought packages of buttermilk and blueberry for variety.

I liked to have my waffles with unsalted butter and real maple syrup. Usually I just spread some butter on top, but sometimes I melted the butter first and poured it over them before adding the cold syrup. Another good way to have them, especially on cold mornings, was to heat the butter and syrup together.

It's too bad Hungry Jack Frozen Waffles aren't around anymore.

Sam Adams Beer-Battered Fish and Chips at Red Lobster

I'm not a seafood lover at all, and as a general rule, I don't eat fish. However, I occasionally make an exception for fish and chips. I'm not crazy about them, but if they're battered (as opposed to breaded) and not very fishy, I can eat them.

My favorite thing about Red Lobster is the Cheddar Bay Biscuits (TM). I can't just go there eat the free biscuits, though; they wouldn't take kindly to that. That's why I usually ordered the fish and chips when I went there. Unfortunately, that option was taken off the menu several years ago. I couldn't believe it.

Apparently, they're still available in some locations. It just seems to me that they should be a standard menu item.

This move lost me as a customer. I wonder how many other non-seafood-loving customers they've lost for the same reason.

Oreo O's

The other day, I was making a grocery list. It was just a few things for my husband to pick up on his way home from work to get us through the weekend. I was trying to think of a cereal to get--something that I could eat right out of the box instead of adding milk--but couldn't think of anything I really wanted. I decided not to get any.

Later, it came to me. I knew exactly what I wanted: Oreo O's. The problem? They don't exist anymore.

Do you remember Oreo O's? When they were first introduced, they were just chocolate O's with white specks of sugar on them. Later, marshmallows were added to make them taste creamier, and it was just like eating Oreo cookies. Well, I shouldn't say that. They were much better than Oreos. The marshmallows gave the idea of the creme filling, but the O's weren't bitter like the cookies. Yeah, that's right. I think Oreos are bitter. I guess that just reinforces my status as a non-person.

Oreo O's are currently #17 on the list of the 100 all-time greatest breakfast cereals at Mr Breakfast.com, and the list constantly changes, being updated with every vote. Personally, I'd rank it in the top five, minimum. It just might be my absolute favorite, although I'd have to remember every cereal I've ever had to be certain. What I do know is that if it were still around, I wouldn't have had to make it the first food post on my new blog, and I wouldn't have had to settle for an inferior cereal or do without.

I found a petition to bring them back--not that it will do any good.