Everything Old Is New Again

The Twinkie that I once kept in the butter compartment of my mother's refrigerator would have turned thirty this year. Common sense and a matter of propriety kept that snack cake from ever making it this far, but if would have been interesting to compare the old with the new. This July, those golden, creme-filled treats will be back on your local grocer's shelves a mere eight months after they so tragically disappeared. The new "bakers" of these sweet sponge confections have assured us that no labor unions will be involved in the generation of new iteration of Hostess' flagship goodie. This should allow us unfettered access to Twinkies for a good long time. What a relief.
Of course on Al Gore's Internet, one can find page after page of "secret" recipes that would allow one to create a homemade Twinkie, if one were to be so bold. This reminded me of the words my mother said to me about one of my favorite baked goods: her chocolate chip cookies. She told me, "If you like them so much, you should learn to make them yourself." That is precisely what I did. I thought myself very clever at the time, calling her bluff and all. As it turns out, it was a great deal for both of us, since all that pressure to keep the cookie jar full was taken off my mother's shoulders, and I was free to take whatever liberties I might with the ingredients and size of the cookies I baked.
Decades later, I'm still making cookies, but the fist-sized globs of dough I favored in my youth have shrunk to a more discrete one-bite size. After years of eschewing nuts, I have begun to reintroduce crushed walnuts into the mix at the request of my wife. It's back to "Chocolate Chip Classic" at our house.
Which is just fine, since that means that our interest in Twinkies remains primarily one of curiosity. Maybe when July rolls around, I'll bring home a package or two. Not to eat, mind you, just for the sentimental and experimental value.