Drink Deep from the Well of Knowledge

When I was about 12, I somehow got addicted to Hostess Lemon Pies. I was kind of a picky eater and I didn’t like cherry flavored things or strawberry. I ate lemon flavored everything. I’d only eat lemon flavored yogurt (which back them was pretty hard to find). I was addicted to the suckers, even when we lived in Japan and you could taste every nautical mile of the frozen/melted/refrozen/melted journey over the ocean. Yummy. Sort of like lemon flavored wet cardboard.

That was back before nutritional labels, and like all good neurotic American pre-teens (or tweens as I’m told they are called now), I was obsessed with my weight. I actually wrote to Hostess (with a pen and paper…yeah… old school!) and asked them to send me the calories and fat grams. I got this Xeroxed sheet in the mail that informed me that they had an obscene amount of fat and calories…more than I could have ever imagined. In my mind it was 900 calories and 20 grams of fat (though now they say it’s only 500 and something calories). 

Anyway, so I gave up my beloved lemon pies. Lately though, I’ve been thinking about them. I’ve gotten into 2 random conversations about Hostess pies. When my sister came in town and the topic somehow (was it fate? synchronicity? karma?), we decided to go find some. I didn’t even know they still sold them. I guess I don’t frequent gas stations much..which is true, as I’m a big fan of pay-at-the-pump (or anything else that can help me avoid human interaction). First gas station we went to… pure gold. Slightly different wrapper than I remember, same great taste. Yum-E. Then we repeated the exercise the next day. I’m trying hard not to make it a habit. One day clean so far.

So what this post is really about is that there are a whole boatload of flavors out there. I, of course, am still going to stick to my refreshing lemon, but you should know that there is also pineapple (only in Hawaii…no, just kidding… ha ha, like they use fresh from the Dole plantation pineapples…hee hee), blackberry, apple, French apple, strawberry, and the ever popular cherry.

Their website (http://www.hostesscakes.com/fruitpies.asp) also has some tasty serving suggestions…like heating them up and serving them a la mode. Now, I never thought of that. Honestly, I’ve never thought about eating them any other way then peeling off the wrapper and stuffing it in my face as I peel out of the gas station parking lot. But it’s certainly a thought. Maybe for thanksgiving dinner… paired with a Drake Funny Bone perhaps?