DIANA REPUBLIC

I may have mentioned once or twice that I have issues. And if you are new here, well, I have issues. One of my more addict-ish behaviors involves food. I have the propensity to become slightly obsessed with a particular food. It isn’t as if I will eat nothing but mac and cheese for a month (although I see nothing wrong with that). I will just find something and become overly attached to it. It may be serving zucchini at as many meals in as many variations as I can get away with. Eventually Bob will ask, with appropriate sarcasm, if there are any other vegetables in season and I will be forced to diversify. Or it could be eating a piece of Jewel’s triple chocolate cake every night for dessert until none of my pants fit.

I went through a truly memorable stint with Hershey’s Dulce de Leche kisses a couple of years ago. I would still be hooked if they hadn’t discontinued production. White chocolate kisses with dulce de leche swirls: they were perfect little mouthfuls. When they began to go on sale, I realized that something was amiss. I drove all over the north side of Chicago to five different Walgreens in one afternoon to buy out the remaining bags. During a visit to Santa Fe, New Mexico, I saw that they were still available and bought more than 20 bags to bring home with me. There is nothing suspect about that behavior, is there? Eventually my supply ran dry and not even my pleas to the Hershey Company could help. I had to go cold turkey.

More recently I have had a love/hate relationship with Peanut Butter M & M’s. They are difficult to find in single serving bags and at one point I was up to a third of a large bag watching television. I have since scaled down my servings, however, from a third of a bag (WTF was I thinking?) to about a dozen after dinner.

My new obsession is Smoked Cheddar Kettlecorn from Popcorn, Indiana. Just like any good pusher they got me with a free sample and now I am completely hooked. I want to tell you to run out and get some, but I feel that would be irresponsible of me. It is everything the bag says that is is and more: crispy, crunchy, smokey and cheesy. I can eat half a bag on the way home from my dealer, I mean Whole Foods. I have seriously thought about not finishing my dinner in order to save room for popcorn. I have a backup bag at all times. And then Dr. Oz was on Oprah saying something about popcorn being a good source of fiber or something. Granted he didn’t specifically mention cheese-coated popcorn, but he couldn’t have meant plain popcorn.

Hi, my name is Diana and I can apparently become addicted to just about anything.