Clever. I think the OP on Youtube calls it the Ultimate Tease. It is!

Here’s my promise to you: if you don’t laugh, I’ll owe you $5. Put it on my tab.

More cartoons:

1. It’s true, a dog always upstages the actors.
2. Nancy and Sluggo-Dogs 2

cartoon of fat women and thin women wanting ice cream

Which is what you’ll become if you eat too many of these. My friend Candy (her real name) says the reason ice cream sundaes are so good is that they combine the hot sauce with the cold ice cream. I had never thought of that combination as the key factor, but I believe she’s right.

Caption: What fat women daydream about, what thin women daydream about: a hot fudge sundae.

More cartoons:

1. Giant ice cream sundae.
2. Best ice cream of the year.

You would think that with a title of (take deep breath) Trader Joe’s Chocolate Pumpkin Pecan Praline Tart, how could they miss, right? Nice cheerful orange label with chocolate dots, attractive looking pie. But I won’t make you wait until the end of the review: thumbs down.

What is the difference between tart and pie? [Pause while I go over to Google.]  Okay, here:

A tart is made with a crust formed in a tart pan or a low, straight-walled pan with a removable bottom. A pie, similar to a tart, is baked in a pie pan that has sloping sides. Both a tart and a pie can have the crust prebaked and filled or baked with fruits, custards or chocolate.

Everything 2 agrees with that. Already, things are not quite right with this TJ dessert. This is definitely a pie, not a tart.

Anyway, it has a sweet crumbly crust. I love soft crusts! But it’s not real chocolate, and it doesn’t taste like chocolate, unless it’s the cheap drugstore kind. The filling has a slightly crunchy filling, of substance, but not chewy.

Pumpkin is one of my top flavors – I’ve never met a pumpkin product I didn’t like! I can taste the pumpkin, feel the pecans, and very vaguely taste the praline. But it doesn’t add up to much together. And at $6.99 each, it’s too expensive for below average. (I bought this last month, when the economy was slightly better. I wouldn’t even buy it now.)

Trader Joe’s doesn’t have the confidence to post photographs of any of the products it sells. Or the PR know how. So no photo from them. The photo above is from Viking Range, which has lots of other yummy looking recipes.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I hate our local TJ in Silver Lake, and wrote a lyrical poem about it in my other blog: http://donnabarstow.com/park_blog/2008/02/28/i-hate-trader-joes-silver-lake/. But I like the one in Toluca Lake, so perhaps I’m not biased after all.

More cartoons:

1. Cherry pie isn’t worth lying about.
2. Milk and Chocolate. A good way to start the morning?

I also don’t like toasters. Too slow.

Or toaster ovens. (What is the point of them again? I think I’m going to toss mine.)

Microwave is fast, but where’s the slightly burnt/toasted edges?

That leaves my big stove. That’s right, I turn it all the way up to broil, put a piece of tin foil down and the bread on top, wait 30 sec, turn it over and put some butter on so it melts just right, and Bob’s your uncle!

Honey is optional, along with the guilt.

And I thought Buster Brown only made shoes! Buster Brown Bread through Flickr Creative Commons Photographs by Derek Farr (Detroit Derek). Thanks Derek!

More cartoons:

1. How to use pop culture to influence your editor.
2. Trader Joe’s does it again. Bad pie, TJ.