My Dirty Little Orange Secret

The other day I finally bought "How to Cook Everything" by Mark Bittman. 

Excellent basics book.

Jay, if you're reading this, I know what you're thinking.  And the answer is, "Yes!  I do need another giant-sized cookbook to take up more of the limited space we have in the kitchen!"  I have a bajillion cookbooks too many already, but the reason I got this one is because I think our friend Ellen has it and I'm pretty sure she's made some amazing stuff out of it.  Hopefully I'm thinking of the right book.

Anyway, today I was looking through the dessert section.  Holy crap.  Now, one thing to know is that back in February I cut all sugar out of my diet.  I'm not preaching that this is what everyone should do, but it was the only way to put an end to the crazy sugar fiend I was becoming.  And that doesn't mean I still don't love to bake.  I just need to make sure it's not for me.  But today as I was flipping through the pages,  recipes like Butter-Almond Cake and Grand Marnier Souffle taunted me.  I think I need to have a dinner party and force-feed everyone dessert to get it out of my system.

And as I was looking through the recipes I noticed that no chocolate recipes attracted my attention.  Odd.  Then I started to think about what my very favorite sugary thing on the planet is.  I came to the conclusion that if I could have anything with sugar, it would not come from a bakery or an ice creamery.  It would come off the shelves of the drugstore candy section.  And it will probably gross out a lot of people.  It would be this:

Can't you just smell the chemical-y banana goodness?

Hello.  My name is Joanne.  I'm an artificial banana flavor addict.  And this is why it is better that  I not have sugar.  Because it leads to Circus Peanuts. 
And my final question for you to mull over is:  Love them or hate them?  There's no in-between!