Early in my college career, during a break, I got together with some friends to console one of them who had just gone through a nasty breakup. Since High School, we'd had a little tradition for dealing with breakups and other major disappointments that played out similarly to those drinking games where people take a shot for every certain occurrence in a particular movie. We, however, being underage and not really much for drinking anyway, played the game with candy.
The rules were simple: one M&M or Skittle or whatever candy you fancied for every mention of chocolate or candy while we watched Willy Wonka and/or Chocolate until you were so euphoric from sugar, chocolate endorphins, companionship, and Johnny Depp's face, that your sorrows were thoroughly banished.
During one such escapade, one of us had the brilliant idea to dump all the candy into the popcorn bowl, so that the hard candy-coated chocolate treats were deliciously melted inside, and we could have salty-sweet handfuls with fruity, chocolatey, and crunchy confections. I believe that first time, we also tossed in some goldfish crackers for good measure.
"Don't worry!" I told them, "it's basically just a salad- there's corn, which is a vegetable, and fruit snacks, lots of color, and the goldfish are like croutons- totally not bad for you!"
And with that, Chick Flick Salad was born.
For several years, Chick Flick Salad remained a special concoction reserved only for moments of sadness, like the last night before my best friend moved to another country for 4 years, or my other friend moved to yet another country for 2, or again, breakups.
In fact, I had one friend who learned of this tradition when we invited her to partake after a breakup of her own, and I honestly suspect she might have actually dated a few guys just so that she could "break up" with them after one or two dates so that we could have a Chick Flick Salad party. I mostly say this because the conversations after those breakups usually went something like "I broke up with so-and-so.... can we do a breakup party? Make sure there's peanut butter M&M's!"
I told her we could have parties without a breakup preceding them, but the point here is definitely that this salad works emotional miracles.
There's little to the recipe for Chick Flick Salad, and it's open to liberal interpretation- a friend of mine who is allergic to corn used lentil chips instead of popcorn last time- but there are a few guidelines to make yours most successful:
1) Any chocolates need to be candy-coated- otherwise you just get a mess of melty, chocolatey popcorn. Which isn't so bad, but is distracting and messy.
2) If possible, treat yourself to a decent variety of small candies. You can always store the leftovers for your next batch!
3) Add the candy while the popcorn is warm
5) While Chick Flicks are definitely not required, it's not Chick Flick salad if the movie doesn't leave you feeling good. Save your thought-provoking, dark, depressing foreign films for Hummus and carrot sticks or something!
6) Include LOTS of people, and keep the tradition spreading!
UPDATE: I just looked at my Timehop after posting this and found that I introduced my husband to Chick Flick Salad 1 year ago today!
What will YOUR candy choices be when you make it?
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