Hello, readers!

My name is Julie, and when I received the invitation to write reviews for The Impulsive Buy, I was drafting a recipe for “Leftover Halloween Candy Ice Cream.” Now I raise a waffle cone to toast you, my fellow snack enthusiasts in the pursuit of all things novel and delicious. (Anyone want a Milk Dud?)

I live in Pennsylvania, where snow and epic windstorms deter trick-or-treaters and where I work in online higher education. While my days are spent designing educational courses, culinary courses (and lame puns and wordplay) fill my spare time. While my background is in literature and composition, my creative writing pursuits have been dulled by years of composing e-mails that use phrases like “touch base,” “keep in the loop,” and “per my last e-mail.” In an office culture where colleagues call sugar “evil” and moderation “extremism,” sneaking a Snickers bar in my lunch bag feels like a subversive act. I’ve never been much of a rebel, but junk food is definitely a worthy cause.

Food has always played a profound role in my life, serving as the gooey caramel center of some of my most cherished memories. While I love to cook and bake, dreaming of someday infiltrating the Great British Baking Show and reducing Paul Hollywood to tears with my mixed berry layer cake, my 1990s upbringing instilled a deep and lasting love of snacks with cartoon characters on the box.

In the golden age of junk food, I kept a secret stash of Creme Savers under my bed, fought my siblings for the last Froot by the Foot, and knew that any day beginning with Waffle Crisp was bound to be a good one. I still eat more Bagel Bites per capita than the average adult, but junk food blogs like The Impulsive Buy help me to continue chasing the high.

Although my sweet tooth is legendary, I’m willing to try anything twice, especially if it’s pizza. I love novelty items and the small thrill of hunting for treasure up and down the aisles of the grocery store. If there’s a hot trend in frozen food, I want to be the first one to know. While everyone’s at the beach, my summer vacation means a pilgrimage to the nearest Trader Joe’s a couple of hours away in a car loaded with coolers and ice packs. Time for back-to-school shopping? Time to buy every new pumpkin spice item on the shelves! Loving food makes every day a special occasion, even if that only means finding “those hazelnut spread M&M’s I read about” to enjoy later.

What I thought was a weird obsession turned out to be a shared philosophy centered on reveling in the joys of everyday life. I am psyched to share the love with fellow likeminded junk foodies, who can appreciate a limited edition Oreo flavor the way a wine enthusiast savors a fine sauvignon blanc. Maybe together we can form a dedicated tribe to storm the Betty Crocker headquarters and demand the return of Dunkaroos. We’re gonna bring those things back, guys!