Viva Las Vegas!

February 19, 2010

Taste Tester and I took a quick trip over to Vegas for business this week. Instead of getting drunk and gambling away our life’s worth, we learned a few things about Sin City:

• It is truly awesome to leave the snow shovels and thermals behind to run around outside in a t-shirt in mid-February.

• People actually get tired of the sun there. If this were summer, I’d understand, but it’s winter so they just sound crazy.

• Vegas peeps are really friendly, at least the ones we came across. It’s not that I expected otherwise, but if you only know of Vegas what you get from TV you probably just think they’re drunk and dancing with showgirls 24 hours a day. They’re not!

• Fake NY is weird to see if you’re used to real NY.

Ironically, a cabbie cut us off right in front of the fake NY. I guess it helped make the experience more authentic.

• Family will not take it well if you are newly engaged and decide to fake a drunken wedding photo to tell them that you eloped. I thought it was funny, anyway.

I am still in the dog house for that one.

With such a short trip, we didn’t get to try as many treats as I would have liked but we were at least able to sneak in a few. Arriving jet-lagged late afternoon on Tuesday, we immediately set out for some caffeine at the coffee house chain, It’s a Grind. They happen to have a display of tempting cookies and brownies from Selma’s right at the counter. Selma’s is based in Orlando and Las Vegas and bakes up a nice array of oversized cookies and brownies.

Taste Tester was not impressed by the Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookie and just based on visuals I can’t say I blame him. It seemed as if the cookies had been scooped onto the baking sheet with an ice cream scoop and hadn’t flattened out at all. The pale color looked under-baked and not super tempting. I didn’t try it and chose the Butter Me Up Brownie for myself instead. It’s a brownie with buttercrunch candy mixed in.

Taste Tester unfortunately couldn’t partake in the devouring of this brownie since there were almonds in the peanut butter crunch, which left me the daunting task of killing it off all by my little old self.

I’m not sure if it looks good, but it was good.

It was about an inch thick and full of large hunks of melted and gooey buttercrunch candy. The brownie itself was rich and melt-in-your mouth good. I may have to try recreating it with a tree nut-free buttercrunch so that Taste Tester can try it out. I think if you mix some broken up butterfingers into your favorite rich and moist brownie recipe, you’ll have something similar. Here’s an easy recipe from Nestle.

I have another Las Vegas CPB stop to share, but I think I’ll save it for the next post. Stay tuned! And get yourself a Butter Me Up Brownie from Selma’s in the meantime.