Aside from the occasional beer cheese variety I really don’t eat soup too often. It’s not that I dislike soup, it’s more that I’m just not a fan of the soup eating process. It’s SO slow…. If it was socially acceptable to treat soup like the leftover milk in the bottom of a cereal bowl and just life the bowl up to my mouth and drink it I’d be all over it, but as it is I’m just way too impatient.

Luckily, while checking out the back of one of the cans of Kickin’ Buffalo-Style Chicken soup that Campbell’s sent me recently I noticed that they suggest serving it over cornbread, so that’s how I decided to try it.

Taste-wise the soup tastes just like a Buffalo style sauce and has chunks of chicken, potatoes, celery and red peppers. Eaten by the spoonful it was definitely kickin’ and was almost even a little too spicy for me, although I’m a total wuss when it comes to anything even remotely spicy. Over cornbread though I liked it a lot more. It was definitely one of the more filling soups I’ve eaten.

I’d also be willing to bet that if you mixed this soup with some cream cheese you could make some pretty delicious Buffalo chicken dip. Maybe I’ll try that with the one can I have left. Oh yeah, and if you want to make awesome cornbread at home try using half cornbread mix and half yellow cake mix. You can thank me later….

Wow, it’s only been two weeks since I started my new terrible PR emails column and I’ve already got another one for you courtesy of Home Run Inn Pizza! In case you missed the first one, the whole theme is that I critique some of the PR emails that get sent to me that just don’t seem to make much sense.

I should also probably mention that I absolutely love Home Run Inn’s frozen pizza. Aside from Palermo’s they’re probably my favorite frozen pizza company out there. I’ve even written about them before when I used two of their personal pan pizzas to create a pretty delicious pizza burger.

Alright, so this past week I received an email from Home Run Inn’s public relations person mentioning the company’s upcoming 65th anniversary. You’d think they’d have some pretty exciting stuff planned right? Nope. They’re celebrating by selling a “special” Ghirardelli cupcake….

OK, so you’re a pizza company and you’re celebrating your anniversary by selling cupcakes? How does that make any sense at all? Why not make some kind of limited-edition specialty pizza instead? I love how the email also points out that this information is “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE.” You know, because something as exciting as a pizza company selling a $3.50 cupcake is something that I MUST tell everyone about as soon as possible!

The press release also isn’t very clear on where exactly customers can get these cupcakes, but I’m guessing that you can only find them at their eight Chicagoland pizzerias, so not only do you have a pizza place making a cupcake for their anniversary, but unless you live in or near Chicago it’s impossible for you to even try one of them.

I guess my whole point with this blog post is that some companies feel the need to send out press releases every single time they do anything, regardless of how minor it is. Wow, you’re adding one new drink to your menu? Better have your PR person draft a press release so everyone knows about it! Coming from a blogger, the easiest way to have your press releases get ignored is to send out so many of them for such minor stuff that writers just stop paying attention to anything that comes from you.

Now, this isn’t necessarily the public relation person’s fault. If your client wants you to send an email out about a new cupcake and they’re the one paying your bills you’ve really got no choice in the matter, but this same PR person sends me four or five press releases a week and they’re all equally as pointless. Today alone I’ve gotten one from her letting me know that a steakhouse in Chicago is offering a new gluten-free dessert and another one telling me that the exact same restaurant is now offering cooking classes on Saturdays. They arrived a minute apart from one another…. I have no idea if PR people get paid per hour or if they charge a fee for each press release they draft and send out, but if it’s the latter then this lady must be a millionaire by now!

A few months ago I was sent five boxes of Snackle Mouth granola nut clusters which I proceeded to plow through pretty quickly. Then I got a jar of pecans in the mail from Treat Bake Shop, which I turned into some pretty delicious pecan bacon toffee. Most recently I received even more nut clusters in the mail, this time from What-A-Ya Nuts?!

Like Snackle Mouth they’re available in some pretty non-traditional flavors — flavors like Stark Raving Chocolate, Jalapeño Hysteria, Maple Cinnamon Madness and Cracked Parmesan Pepper, which was my favorite of the four.

Whereas each box of Snackle Mouth Granola Nut Clusters features only one or two different types of nuts you can find almonds, cashews and pecans in every single bag of What-A-Ya Nuts?! I’m not saying that one is definitely better than the other, but it’s just a matter of preference.

If you like a mix of different types of nuts all in one bag then these are probably more your thing, but if you prefer a little less variety you’ll probably enjoy the granola nut clusters from Snackle Mouth a little more. Either way, both companies have some pretty amazing flavors so you might just wanna check them both out!