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Pop a Peep till your cheeks bulge out!

Marshmallow Peeps have become standard-issue fare for Easter revelers. Some like them fresh and squishy, some folks actually freeze them, while others prefer them stale and crunchy. Either way, an Easter basket is not complete without these sugar-frosted pastel treats.

How to eat a Peep is a personal preference. Most people do bit the heads off first, whether the Peep is a bunny, a chick, or even a lamb. Others begin at the feet and work their way up, like some sadistic medieval executioner. I prefer to chomp on the entire creature, all at once. Hey, there's nothing like the brain rush of 1,000 calories of pure granulated sugar, all at once!

(Actually, five Peeps equals 160 calories, but who's counting?.)

However the deed is done, more than 700 million Peeps are consumed at Easter-time alone.

Easter Peeps were introduced in 1953. Since then, the Just Born Candy Company has added Christmas trees and snowmen, Halloween cats and ghost and pumpkins and cocoa bats, giant bunnies for Easter, Valentines hearts, and patriotic stars for the 4th of July. Easter Peeps now come in five colors: yellow, blue, pink, green, white and purple.

Originally, Peeps were produced by squeezing soft marshmallow through a pastry tube, one at a time. The faces were painted by hand. Employing modern automated technology, the Just Born factory in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, each Peep takes only six minutes.

Standing in the Easter aisle at Target on Maundy Thursday (just three days before Easter), I overheard three mothers discussing Peeps.

"Are they out of Peeps already?' one asked.

"They'd better not be," the other answered. "Hallelujah! Here they are!

The third mom squeezed the package. "They feel a bit crusty," she observed.

"Who cares?" chimed the second mom. "They probably all were made in 1976. My kids gotta have em anyway."

Yep, I thought. That would be the Peeps.

Diane Sawyer, Chef Emeril Lagasse, and Ellen DeGeneres love Peeps too. So join the proper population, and pop a Peep! What do you have to lose, except your dental health?

Learn more about this author, Linda Ann Nickerson.
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