So last night a couple of us were watching Ohio State in the semi-final of the NIT. I don’t remember how it got brought up, but we started talking about Muddy Buddies. Gabe had never heard of such a creation ( I first called it Mud Buddies, which sounds way worse, but once I explained what it was he still hadn’t heard of it). I told his girlfriend Jenny over IM that she must make him a batch sometime, and was shocked to find out she had no idea what I was talking about. I later told Kate how amazed I was that neither one of them knew what Muddy Buddies were. Her reply? “What are Muddy Buddies”. The engagement was off right then. Kidding!

I have decided I cannot be the author of a blog with readers that do not know the deliciousness of the second best cereal turned into dessert treat (Rice Crispy Treats are first of course). And so that is the purpose of this post. To proclaim and explain the amazingness of Muddy Buddies.

Muddy Buddies are a Chex Cereal based snack.  Muddy Buddies is the official “Chex” term, but they are also known as Puppy Chow or White Trash.  I’m sure the internet is full of different ammounts of ingredients and variations, but it all consists of the same basic elements.  Cereal, covered in a peaunt butter/chocolate mixture coated in powdered sugar.  They are fairly simple to make, and are one of the earliest things I can remember helping my mom “bake” when I was a kid.  Here is a link to the official receipe, but feel free to just have at it an try your own.  I’ve seen some  directions that use Crispix or Honeycomb as the cereal ingredient.  The fun part as a kid is getting to shake the bag in order to coat all the little pieces with powdered sugar.

In my experience Muddy Buddies were usually made during the winter, I guess to represent snow covered goodies.  But they’re delicious any time of the year, any time of the day.  Good luck waiting for them to fully cool before digging in.  And if you just place them in a bowl and leave them out, you’ll be amazed how quickly they disappear.

So there you have it.  Go out and create a batch so that the next time some cool dude asks you how amazing do you think Muddy Buddies are, you’ll have an answer for him.

Mood:  Plenary

Music:  Led Zeppelin – Houses of the Holy

Iron & Wine – Woman King E.P.

Fictional character Peter Griffin once said “you can’t eat all those hamburgers.”  Tim & I begged to differ as this Thursday we Venimus, Vidimus, Vicimus’d our way through a set of Wendy’s, McDonald’s & Burger King double cheeseburgers.  Of course, this was all in the name of science…food science!  We hypothesized, documented, discussed our biases, plotted to take over the world, made schematics and ate!

It’s the bees knees that all these restaurants were within a block of each other and each burger was a dollar or less.  Call me fat, but if I ever need to economically gain 2lbs in a 10min span I know where I’m going.  The rankings are on a scale of 1-10 with a 5 being acceptable/average and 10 being the best.

Aesthetics:

Wendy’s: 3

McDonald’s: 6

Burger King: 8

Wendy’s:  What an UGLY hamburger.  The buns were flat and wrinkly.  It was like a gym locker room where the old guys never wear a towel…yah gross.  Peeling off the pathetic bun didn’t improve the situation, a pinch of ketchup and mayo with no pickles or onions and what a tiny rectangular patty!

McDonald’s:  This hamburger was fairly acceptable.  The bun had a fluffy, consistent texture and a nice golden hue.  The pickles were a bit mushy and the onions were these tiny little diced pieces, yet something was better than nothing.  There was a bit too much ketchup and it was fairly greasy, but wait…What is this?  Is it a slice of cheese so I don’t have to see parts of my bun sticking to the burger (ahem Wendy’s), why yes it is!

Burger King:  They did the unthinkable and made a dollar burger look like an edible meal.  The bun was robust with a great look and feel to it (minimal grease).  The pickles weren’t wimpy and the ketchup and mustard were in good proportion.  The cheese covered the whole patty as well.

Taste:

Wendy’s: 4

McDonalds: 8

Burger King: 6

Wendy’s:  Seemed a bit chewy.  Maybe that’s the “fresh never frozen,” speaking to me.

McDonalds: Has that classic taste to it.  I haven’t eaten a McDonalds’ cheeseburger for probably a decade plus, but the taste is instantly recognizable and it is delicious.

Burger King:  The BK didn’t taste like the signature double whopper I usually get (whether it has something to do with how they cook it or not, I don’t know).  It was good, but nothing really caught my attention.  It simply wasn’t that compelling of a burger even though it has no cons and several pros.  Further testing will have to be done.

Value:

Wendy’s: 0

McDonalds: 9

Burger King: 10

I’m never getting another Wendy’s double cheeseburger.  What a disappointing 98cents spent.  What the hell am I going to do with two pennies…Burn them in effigy!

Burger King inches out McDonalds since it’s 33% bigger, yah we measured, it’s science!

Overall Winner:  It’s a tie between Burger King and McDonalds.  Burger King is a better burger, but there’s something addictive about the McDonald’s taste, because even though I’m full and my tummy kind of hurts, I want another one.

A while back, after seeing commercials for Burger King offering their Double Cheeseburger for only $1, I made the comment that we should do a face off of the big 3 burger companies that offer double cheeseburgers for a buck. Newbs took that to heart, and today when I got off work said we should do it. Why you might ask? Maybe it’s because he’s on spring break and our internet was out all day. Maybe I like to think I’m still in college. Maybe it’s because it was Thursday! Who knows, but we got in the car and headed out. What follows is a deeply scientific study comparing the major burger companies and their offerings of Double Cheeseburgers.

We approached this with no specific goal or method in mind. Just down the road from us in one shopping center, lie all three hamburger joints within 200 yards of each other. America at its finest. After collecting our feast, we headed back home.

Wendy’s
Our first stop was Wendy’s. They call their DS a Snack Attack Double Cheeseburger. And for one point starting out in favor of Wendy’s, their burger is actually only .99 not the full dollar. And if you calculate the savings over the course of 30 years, eating a double cheeseburger every day, you could save just over $100 !! Moving on.
Wendy’s on first unwrapping was definitely the least appealing and sized much smaller. Inside it is mustard, ketchup and mayo – a unique to Wendy’s. Unlike BK and MD, Wendy’s did not include pickles and only one slice of cheese. For all these burgers their owners taste is very apparent. You know when you are eating a Wendy’s burger. The biggest thing that I noticed was missing lettuce. I’m so used to eating Jr. Cheeseburger Deluxes, I miss that crispy freshness.

Wendy’s Stack Attack: 380 calories, 20 grams of fat, weight: 135 grams

Burger King
Moving onto the King. Burger King advertises their burger as being much larger than McDonalds, and they aren’t lying. The BK DC was by far the biggest. A lot of it appears to be in the bun, as it is quite a bit thicker, but overall it’s a much bigger burger. The pickles were much crunchier than McDonalds, and the meat had a very distinct “grilled” taste to it. Probably that “flame broiled” taste spray they tout so much.

Burger King Double Cheeseburger: 570 calories, 34 grams of fat, weight: 189 grams

McDonald’s
Lastly, MickyD’s . This burger was BY FAR the greasiest. You cannot unwrap the double cheeseburger without getting greasy fingers. Everything had grease on it. The wrapper, the bun, the cheese, the air. The MD sandwich was very hard to pull apart, due to the stickiness of the cheese to the bun which was nice to see fully melted cheese. McDonald’s includes onions on their hamburgers, and it gives their burgers a very distinct taste. It’s not a very hamburgery taste, but it’s the taste of McDonald’s. Probably what a roadside gas station and shame taste like. MD DC used to be the single thing I would order at the golden arches prior to their release of the Angus Burger, so I might have a little taste memory bias in this friendly competition.

McDonald’s Double Cheeseburger: 440 calories, 23 grams from fat, weight: 165 grams

In the end, all double cheeseburgers were very tasty, and I’d eat any of them for some quick on the go nourishment on a long road trip. But if I was forced to rank the three, I would definitely put Wendy’s last, and the BK and McDonald’s in the lead, with probably McDonald’s edging out for the win.
Also here shortly we have a first for timjanderson.com a guest post from NEWBS!!

Double Cheeseburger Challenge

On Friday night, Kate wanted to take me out to dinner for my birthday.  We had both heard and seen a new Cameron Mitchell restaurant up at Polaris called Marcella’s and decided that would be a fine choice to try out.  Reading briefly what type of place this was online, I had the idea it would be your typical Italian pizza and wine restaurant, but it is quite a bit more than typical.

The idea of Marcella’s, is somewhat similar to Bucca di Beppo’s.  At Bucca’s if you have a large group, you order a couple of large “family style” dishes that you all share.  At Marcella’s, your typical dish is not nearly as large as a “family style” portion, but the idea of sharing is the same.  Your table is provided with a plate stacker, where multiple entries can be placed, and you are constantly provided with stacks of small appetizer plates.  Since this was our first time with this new experience, we ordered in typical fashion. An appetizer of calamari and then two entries of rizzuto and a margherita pizza which we both shared.  During the meal we picked up on how the actual meal experience was to take place.

The idea is that you keep ordering small dishes that are constantly brought out to you.  The typical time from request to on the table is about 10 minutes.  The ideal setup would to be to go with a party of 4-6 and everyone kinda orders something to share one after the other or two at a time.  Similar to how a Chinese family style restaurant is.  Another original aspect Marcella’s has is serving Italian meats and cheeses.  We didn’t try any this visit, but the couple next to us did, and I would be up for some testing some with a bigger group.  Finally, pricing is very conducive to the type of ordering system just described.  Your typical plate costs about $8-12, which would probably cost about $5 more at your normal fancy Italian restaurant.

A couple other notes.  We were surprised by the attire of the wait staff.  Jeans and t-shirts were the norm.  The environment was very noisy and and somewhat cramped, but it didn’t bother us too much.  It kinda gave you the feeling of “eating in Grandma’s kitchen” – to quote Kate.  Overall, Marcella’s grew on us over the course of the meal, and walking out we both agreed we very much enjoyed it and would love to come back with some more friends.