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Snack Fun in the Summertime

© Shirley Frazier

I confess. Snacking is one of my favorite pastimes, and being a purveyor of gift baskets opens the floodgate to a world of tastes for the willing palate. Gift baskets were built around the concept of packing something for everyone, and food manufacturers are constantly brainstorming and mixing concoctions to find the next new taste sensation, all for your eating pleasure.

Name the flavor or texture you crave most, and you can bet that an appropriate snack exists, waiting to be devoured. Prove it, you say? I'm game. Let's board the snack train to build the perfect summertime basket. Before we leave, I regret to inform you that warm weather has temporarily closed the chocolate station.

All aboard!

The Sweet

Jelly beans represent the perfect tag team. They're eaten in pairs but consumed one at a time. The first becomes lodged between your teeth, and the second one is sent in to rescue the first. This gift basket favorite has come a long way since the bitter, pink beans associated with Easter baskets. One can become a connoisseur of these soft, petite candies, snacking on every flavor from banana to pink grapefruit to pina colada. Jelly beans find a home in every gift basket because they don't melt like chocolate in the summertime.

The Salty

Still can't eat just one? Potato chips are expanding in taste and variety. Some chips are healthy and good at the same time. The supermarket brands are easy to find, but if you take a chance and treat your tastebuds to crisp, thinly-sliced potatoes cooked in high-oleic oil (no saturated fats), the full flavor of each chip runs rampant through your mouth, and you may never return to "Aisle 20."

Potato chips are coated with, among other flavors, cheese, garlic, chocolate, sour cream & onion and salt & vinegar. Its partner, the pretzel, comes long and thin, stubby, ringed and in many flavors. Tortilla chips, the potato chip rival, seeks your attention by touting its multicolor coating and a shape fit to scoop salsas and traditional dips.

The Nutty

Everyone loves the snack that's classified as a convenient, crunchy, on-the-road energizer. Nuts in a shell (pistachios, walnuts, peanuts) or without (cashews, brazils, peanuts, almonds, pecans), coated or mixed, make the perfect finger food.

If you can't find a napkin after consuming the last nut, you have two choices: 1) use the nuts' natural oils as a savory hand lotion, or 2) slide your hands across the hip and thigh sections of your perfectly-creased khakis.

The copyright of the article Snack Fun in the Summertime in Gift Baskets is owned by Shirley Frazier. Permission to republish Snack Fun in the Summertime in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.