For years now, I've been a huge fan of the fact that there are some foods that just get better over time. I remember that as a kid, my mom's spaghetti sauce was always better the second day (and she always made enough for at least two nights worth of meals). These days, when I make ratatouille (which I've been doing on a near-weekly basis in an attempt to use us all the tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and zucchini from my farm share), I try to do it the day before I plan on serving it, so that it can mellow and get silky during the resting time.
The team at YumSugar has put together a slide show of five dinners that improve with time that could be a new source of cooking inspiration. In these days, where we're all pressed for time, it's great to have a selection of meals in the arsenal that can be prepped during a spare moment and then stashed in the fridge, ready to be eaten at your convenience.
I have always been enchanted by homemade versions of brand name snack cakes. I love it when people make their own Ding Dongs, Twinkies and Hostess Cupcakes. Rachel of Coconut & Limerecently posted about her very own Chocodiles, a chocolate-covered Twinkie confection. I've contemplated buying a cream canoe pan in the past and I think now I must, because cream-filled cakes? Enrobed in chocolate? Sign me up!
These particular Chocodiles are extra special, because Rachael's husband made them for her 29th birthday (which was yesterday. Happy birthday, Rachel!).
I realize this topic may be a little more suited to Valentine's Day, but I think we should treat every day as Valentine's Day. Besides, I am a firm believer in the saying that food is love.
Eric over at the Jew and the Carrot was reminiscing with his parents about the home made latkes his mother used to make for his father. This led to the question, posed to readers, of how you might show your love with food. I personally like to make my special chocolate cookies for new boyfriends, and birthday cakes for family and friends. Also, every Christmas I like to make special goody packages for close relatives that live far away.
I think it's so strange that a tobacco company is making a supposedly breath freshening bottled water. That's what a Japanese firm is doing, though.
According to Trends in Japan, Japan Tobacco has come up with this product, which is geared for men (it actually has "for men" printed on the labeling). I guess all the cigarette smoking is causing a nation-wide masculine bad breath crisis. Hmm, I guess Japan Tobacco wants to be the solution as well as the problem.
I guess this situation is not so strange after all. Do know of any other companies with problem/solution products?
Today for lunch, my sister and I did something we don't do very often. We went to an Italian restaurant. Italian just isn't one of my favorite cuisines. After a minute of looking at the menu, she asked me what cannelloni was, at which point I realized I had no idea. Imagine my surprise when I got home and found this post from Baker's Banter. It's a how-to on Sara Moulton's (Sara's Secrets) version of cannelloni, which uses crepes rather than pasta sheets. It looks incredibly delicious, and would probably make a great, easy, special dinner.
According to this article in Wikipedia, cannelloni can be made with either pasta sheets or crepes and still be considered correct. It was really interesting to learn about this dish, especially since it found me rather than the other way around. It occurred to me that cannelloni is similar to baked enchiladas. Now I'm curious if there are similar recipes from other cuisines. What do you think?
Having worked in a bakery setting since I was 18, I've seen my share of groom's cakes. Actually, I had never heard of the groom's cake until I started working in a bakery. Most of them are chocolate cake with a golf or foot ball theme. My best friend's groom went with a caramel cake, which was very delicious. This one really takes the cake, though.
The Black Widow Bakery came up with the best groom's cake I've ever seen. There's not even any fru-fru cake to ruin the manliness of it. It's a meat cake. The layers are made up of meat loaf, with a special glaze filling, and mashed potato icing. The decorations were created with that same glaze, which is made from Worcestershire sauce , brown sugar, and ketchup.
All the details are here. I'm pretty amused by this cake. I actually think it's a really neat idea. Have you seen any really great groom's cakes recently?
I don't know exactly when I discovered The Writer's Almanac, Garrison Keillor's daily show that includes a poem and some highlights from that date in literary history, but it is a vital element in my morning routine. My mom listened to it when I was in college, as I remember her hushing me and running over the radio to turn up the volume one morning when I'd just gotten home for summer break after my freshman year. I started subscribing to the daily email version six or seven years ago, and now I read it before I settle down into my work for the day.
This morning, the poem was one written by Marge Piercy and is called In Praise of Joe. It is a lyrical devotion to the morning cup of coffee and contains delicious praise for coffee in all its forms. If you are a coffee lover, you may see yourself in her words. I know I do.
I love you hot I love you iced and in a pinch I will even consume you tepid.
Judging from Mike's results, it looks like this recipe/technique is a true winner. He served his with a side of vanilla ice cream and says that it was very much like an inside out banana split. He's got plans for fancying it up the next time around, using better chocolate and topping it with a sprinkle of toasted nuts. The picture above is the before shot, click here to see the banana after it's been on the grill for a while.
Over the last few months, the intrepid editors over at Consumerist have done an outstanding job of tracking the trend of smaller sizes for the same price. They call it the Grocery Shrink Ray and they've seen it hit everything from coffee, to peanut butter to yogurt (it also strikes non-edible products such as toothpaste and contact lens solution).
One of the debates that occurs around this topic of shrinking package sizes is whether it would be more honest for companies to simply raise the prices on their products instead of charging the same for a smaller amount. In the face of rising costs, Turkey Hill Dairy has decided to succumb to the dreaded shrinking size trend for their ice cream packages, as prices for ice cream's have risen dramatically in recent days. They announced this size reduction with a heart-felt letter penned by company President, Quintin Frey that was posted on their blog.
Are you feeling opinionated on a range of food topics, notably diets? On the website Opposing Views, you have the opportunity to view experts' arguments for and against low-carb diets, caffeine use, biotech foods, and on becoming a vegetarian. Afterwards, you can post your own comments.
There are so many overbearingly opinionated blogs. What a relief to finally find a site where doctors and scientists debate over hot topics. And, rather than totally ignoring what everyone else has to say, it fosters continued discussion with comments. Also, the site provides news headlines dealing with the various questions.
From all the food-related issues that Opposing Views thoroughly covers, I found the topic on caffeine the most interesting. This is no doubt due to my over sensitivity to caffeinated products. Also, increasingly we hear stories in the news stating that coffee can reduce our risks of diabetes, Parkinson's disease, and colon cancer. Just this past January, the media stated that doctors confirmed that while coffee helps fight type two diabetes, caffeine makes it worse. Such a contradictory study gives one an even stronger reason to check out this debate on Opposing Views.
I grew up in a family that preferred toasted cheese sandwiches over grilled cheese ones. I credit this melted cheese and toast phenomenon to the fact that my mother was always looking for ways to make meals healthier. Butter was typically the first casualty under her command.
However, not knowing that there was a world of buttery, grilled cheese sandwiches out there, my sister and I were perfectly content with the toasted version that our parents provided. These sandwiches were made easier by the fact that we were toaster oven people, making it easy to get an initial toast on the bread before adding a layer of cheese for melting.
There's a new product on the market that could revolutionize the toasted cheese sandwich and make it accessible for everyone, even those who own pop-up toasters. It's called the Toastabag and it is intended to be used for toasting entire sandwiches. I do see some problems with it, though. The most notably the fact that once cheese is melted, it runs to the lowest point. I imagine that if you toasted your sandwich in this gizmo long enough to sufficiently melt the cheese, you'd end up with a puddle of melted cheddar on the bottom of the bag and two greasy pieces of cheese-scented bread. Secondly, you'd never really be able to get a good toast on the bread, as it wouldn't be exposed directly to the heating element. Lastly, unless you've got a wide-slot toaster, wouldn't you be hard-pressed to actually get a full-on sandwich into the toaster slot?
Despite my concerns, I do have to give the Toastabag folks credit for clever thinking. What about the rest of you? Do think this is genius or insanity? Does anyone out there have a Toastabag of their very own?
The day I first discovered the blog Vegan Lunch Box, I sat at my desk and read every single word of the archives. This was back in early spring of 2006, so there weren't too many months to sort through (Jennifer started the blog in September 2005), but I imagine I spent at least three hours reading while I should have been doing work. Even though I'm not a vegan (nor have I ever eschewed the animal products) I loved seeing all the creative ways Jennifer McCann packed innovative and delicious meals for her son to eat while at school.
I remember when she self-published the first version of this book (those copies are now in collectible demand by Vegan Lunch Box fans) and later I was thrilled to hear that she had gotten a deal with a publisher to make the book more widely available. Happily, a copy of the new, De Capo Press version of Vegan Lunch Box landed in my mailbox earlier this week and I delighted to say that all the charm and appeal of the Jennifer's blog translates well into print.
Parents, especially ones with vegan and vegetarian kids, will adore this book. It's also great for anyone who packs a lunch and is trying to cut animal products out of their diet. It is full of creative recipes and inspiring lunch time serving suggestions. If you're trying to shake off the lunch box doldrums this is just the book to help you do that. It's divided into two sections. The first offers up lunch time menus and the second contains all the recipes. The menus always reference the page number where the suggested recipe can be found, making for easy prep.
We're heading into the waning days of summer now. With just a couple of short weeks to go before Labor Day, it's time to start thinking about school lunches. While I don't have any little ones to send off to school quite yet, I know that lots of you do. When I spotted this Lunchbag Round-up over at Teensygreen, I knew it was just the sort of thing that Slashfood readers would be interested in.
They've taken the time to search for lunchboxes of all shapes and sizes in order to help you find the perfect lunch storage devise for your kids. Several of these boxes would be great for grown ups too, as you're never too old to bring your midday meal along with you.
On the days that I stay at work for lunch, I carry my meal in a combination of jars and reusable plastic containers, tucked snugly into a zippered, insulated bag in which someone once mailed me cheese. For those of you who often bring your lunch with you, what's your preferred way to transport your food?
Until today, I was completely unaware that there were rules governing how produce had to look at the supermarket. I just thought that it was the retailers who were only accepting the "pretty" stuff.
However, in Europe there are all kinds of rules that dictate what produce has to look like. It covers the diameter of bananas all the way to what percentage of asparagus has to be green. The produce that doesn't fit those regulations gets tossed out. Recently, the European Commission decided that throwing away perfectly good produce just because it doesn't look perfect is just plain wasteful. Additionally the practice may also be contributing to the global food crisis.
As a result, the old rules are being abandoned on about 26 fruits and vegetables. Due to some opposition, though, not every variety of produce is having the rules changed. The compromise is that strawberries, pears, tomatoes, apples, kiwi, and lettuce must still meet the old guidelines.
What do you think about rules regarding produce appearance?
You may have heard about the recent salmonella outbreak. Or possibly your brain is just generally buzzing about the sorry state of the food safety system here in the United States. I know I've been reading about those topics a lot recently, and I'm quite concerned.
I was happy to learn recently that there is a way to try to help the situation, as there are several members of Congress that are trying to improve the food situation. According to Seasonal Pantry, Representative Diana DeGette has introduced legislation that will improve the traceability of fresh produce. The bill is HR3485 and everyone who cares about food safety should be contacting their representative and asking them to support the bill.
In addition to letting your Congressman know that you want him or her to support HR3485, Seasonal Pantry also has started a petition. If this is something you're interested in, this may be a way for you to walk your talk.
The day I first discovered the blog 
You may have heard about the recent salmonella outbreak. Or possibly your brain is just generally buzzing about the sorry state of the food safety system here in the United States. I know I've been reading about those topics a lot recently, and I'm quite concerned.
Chocolate-stuffed bananas on the grill
Tyler Florence welcomes new daughter
Beware kids' menus!
