Piescrapers are a dessert creation we've all dreamt about but never dared hope we'd actually get to see, much less eat, in real life, but just like the Piecaken and the Pizza Pot Pie this dessert dreams has come true.
And if your piescraper dream involved Aladdin as well then you're going to find this Palace Piescraper creation made by Pies Are Awesome doubly delicious- even though it's almost too good looking to eat!
-Via Geeks Are Sexy
Sunday morning I found ten zucchinis on the railing of my back deck. It had to be one of my two next-door neighbors, because anyone else would have left them on the front porch. I went to Google and found out they were two days early. Trying to get a jump on the rest of the neighborhood.
Every year, millions of backyard gardeners decide to grow a variety of vegetables, including zucchini. Yeah, they'd like a loaf of zucchini bread (they think). But there are many seeds in an envelope, and even if they buy plants, they usually come in at least a four-pack. But even when they only have one surviving vine, zucchini produces way more than you need. What to do with all these vegetables? Give it to your neighbors, even if they don't want it!
"Everyone who has grown zucchini knows that it can be difficult to keep up with the yield. The gourds grow quickly if not picked, and do not freeze or can well," said Dr. Pam Duitsman, nutrition and health education specialist with University of Missouri Extension. "Since you can only bake so many loaves of zucchini bread, many folks find giving their zucchini to neighbors is a great solution. To celebrate the holiday, you are to quietly sneak up to your neighbors' porch, and leave them a pile of homegrown zucchini."
August 8 is National Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor’s Porch Day. The holiday was launched by Tom Roy at Wellcat Holidays & Herbs in Pennsylvania. They have some zucchini jokes and recipes that will help you deal with what you may find on your porch today. Otherwise, you might take some to your local food pantry.
Turtle soup was a high-class delicacy for special occasions in the 1860s, like President Lincoln's second inaugural banquet. When one couldn't afford turtle soup, there was an alternative: mock turtle soup. So what was mock turtle soup made of? Believe it or not, beef was the substitute.
Mock turtle soup, on the other hand, was made with a whole calf’s head, which allegedly mimicked the flavor and texture of real turtle soup. Despite being made with a comparatively inexpensive cut that might have been discarded, it was still considered high-end, and was even erroneously described on menus as being French. It was priced accordingly: On Manhattan restaurant Sullivan’s 1900 menu, for instance, it is one-and-a-half times as expensive as any other soup. It was offered on upmarket tables at the Waldorf-Astoria, The Plaza, and the St. Regis, and in the pages of the White House’s 1887 cookbook, flavored with a medley of sherry, cayenne pepper, lemon, sugar, salt, and mace. There, it appeared right next to the recipe for actual turtle soup.
It seems hard to believe that people valued a soup made of turtle meat over a soup made of calf, but that was a different time. Eventually, people began to prefer mock turtle soup to the original -as they should. Of course, neither is popular today, because we can make soup without butchering our own meat now. Learn more about turtle soup and its alternative, mock turtle soup, at Atlas Obscura.
Just like the Reese's slogan, there's no wrong way to eat a hot dog, and this list at Thrillist proves just how true this expression is. Over on Thrillist, you can learn about some of the most popular styles of hot dogs from around the US -and there are a whole lot of them. One strange example, the Philly Combo:
A grilled all-beef hot dog, split down the middle and laid upon a wide steamed or toasted bun, layered with sweet, vinegar-based coleslaw and a stripe of spicy mustard, and completed -- curiously enough -- with a fish cake.
Or maybe you'd prefer Maryland's crab mac n' cheese dog:
An all-beef hot dog, grilled and nestled into a soft, chewy bun, then loaded with lump crab meat, hot, gooey macaroni & cheese, and a generous dusting of Maryland’s all-time favorite sodium source: Old Bay.
I personally recommend trying a Tijuana/danger dog if you ever get the chance:
A hot dog made of unidentified meat, wrapped in bacon and deep-fried, then tossed into a soft bun and topped with any number of condiments, including (but not limited to) fried onions, mayo, mustard, ketchup, and grilled jalapeños.
Don't miss some of the many other hot dog styles available over on Thrillist.
It's great when parents can contribute homemade stuff to school fundraisers and bake sales, but in order to stay safe and allergy friendly many schools have banned homemade goods from school functions.
And people like the anonymous mother in this story are the ones to blame for this safety hysteria- because she thought it was all right to make brownies using her own breast milk.
Now I'm all for moms using their own breast milk at home as they please, but serving up brownies made with breast milk at a school bake sale is just plain gross- and understandably made parents really upset.
And then the internet joined in and made the whole situation even more gross:
-Via Bored Panda
We know exactly what someone means when they say "bubblegum flavor," because we've tried bubblegum. But if you were to describe that flavor in terms of flavors found in nature, you might be stumped. What flavors go into bubblegum to make it taste that way? The best I could decipher from an article at Spoon University is that it's like "tutti-fruiti."
Bubble gum flavor is one of the secrets of the gum industry, with a cocktail of artificial fruity flavors at the center of it. Homemade versions tend to utilize the more easily available strawberry flavor, but true bubble gum flavor is more complex, composed of multiple notes.
I never thought of fruit when chewing bubblegum, but there it is. You'll find even more information in the discussion thread at Metafilter.
(Image credit: Mary (Mayr))
As a general rule you shouldn't follow in Hunter S. Thompson's footsteps unless you want to live on the edge without any regard for your safety and the safety of those around you.
But every once in a while someone gets the bright idea to do like Hunter did, which usually ends in disaster or bodily harm even if their emulation of the gonzo journalist doesn't involve guns or drugs.
Munchies Denmark writer Kristian Nielsen discovered Hunter S. Thompson's infamous "breakfast" didn't involve guns but did involve drugs (because of course it did), and yet he agreed to "eat" it anyway:
"I like to eat breakfast alone, and almost never before noon; anybody with a terminally jangled lifestyle needs at least one psychic anchor every twenty four hours, and mine is breakfast. In Hong Kong, Dallas, or at home—and regardless of whether or not I have been to bed—breakfast is a personal ritual that can only be properly observed alone, and in a spirit of genuine excess. The food factor should always be massive: Four bloody Marys, two grapefruits, a pot of coffee, Rangoon crêpes, a half-pound of either sausage, bacon, or corned beef-hash with diced chilies, a Spanish omelette or eggs Benedict, a quart of milk, a chopped lemon for random seasoning, and something like a slice of Key lime pie, two margaritas, and six lines of the best cocaine for dessert... Right, and there should also be two or three newspapers, all mail and messages, a telephone, a notebook for planning the next twenty four hours, and at least one source of good music... All of which should be dealt with outside, in the warmth of the hot sun, and preferably stone naked."
Knowing he could never tackle this epic meal alone he recruited his buddy Ziggy Silver to be the Dr. Gonzo to his Raoul Duke:
He told me a story about a rocker who'd given him a guitar the day before, while I poached eggs, fried bacon, made pancakes, and boiled water for coffee. It all began to take shape.
"Shouldn't we have dessert soon?" asked Ziggy, nodding towards an empty plate. In no time at all, six forest snails were lined up inside on the kitchen table. Shortly after, I wasn't cold anymore and my hands were tingling.
"I think it's time for guns now," I said, swaying a little as I stood up with my margarita in hand. Ziggy positioned a carton of juice, stared at me with wide eyes, and shot holes in the target with an air gun. Razor-sharp.
My heart pounded completely out of control when it was my turn to shoot, and I don't think I have ever felt closer to understanding what it was like to live like Hunter S. Thompson.
Read I Ate Hunter S. Thompson's Infamous Breakfast And I'll Never Do It Again at Munchies (NSFW-ish)
Avocados were eaten by animals as far back as the Cenozoic era, and cultivated by humans by 500 B.C.E. Growers developed quite a few fleshier and more delicious varieties, but most of the avocados supplying the current craze are Hass avocados, all descended from one tree that lived from 1926 to 2002.
In 1926, according to legend and the University of California at Riverside, California postman Rudolph Hass brought some avocado seedlings home to grow on his La Habra Heights property. One defied repeated attempts to receive grafts from an existing avocado variety, bore no fruit and sorely tempted Hass to cut it down. But instead, he simply let the tree grow unattended.
It was the Hass children, according to the story, who discovered that the tree had produced a fruit that they liked far better than the others: one with a rich, nutty, slightly oily taste. Hass Sr. apparently concurred. “As I've heard the story, the kids brought the fruit in to him and he said, 'wow this isn't bad,'” Arpaia relates.
At the time, the reigning avocado variety was the Fuerte ("strong" in Spanish), which featured smooth, thin skin and an appealing green hue. By contrast, Hass’ experiment had a relatively unappetizing appearance, with thick, pebbly black skin. But Hass decided that it was what inside that counted—a decision that would change the course of avocado history.
But there was one big hurdle the Hass avocado had to jump through before the public would buy it. The fruit had a black skin, which people have always viewed as a sign that a fruit had gone bad. Read why growers took to the Hass avocado and how they got the public to eat a black fruit at Smithsonian.
(Image credit: Kjokkenutstyr.net via Wikimedia Commons)
Twinkies are far from gourmet, as pastry chefs used to catering to a gourmet crowd are quick to point out, but what keeps them from being gourmet aside from the preservatives and the tacky packaging?
Bon Appetit's Senior Food Editor/pastry chef Claire Saffitz explores the essence of a Twinkie in an effort to make a new and improved version that tastes better and doesn't smell funny.
Can she create a new snack cake that'll crush the Twinkie and put Twinkie the Kid out of a job?
Some kids are born to be foodies and immediately start ordering meals just like adults from the first time they go to a restaurant. But most parents aren't so lucky and end up ordering countless meals for their children that "don't care," "aren't hungry" or "don't want that." Fortunately for those parents, this restaurant has a menu (posted to Reddit by IWishItWouldSnow) to help translate those totally unhelpful requests. Personally, I could go for a "what? I'm not hungry" combo right now.
Perhaps most hilariously, this isn't the only restaurant to offer such a useful kid's menu.
Via Eater
Any list of the 100 best in their field can start an argument, but when a list of the greatest American cooks started out with J. Kenji López-Alt, I knew it was legit. I discovered López-Alt because he has the answers to kitchen questions I search the 'net for, even after decades of cooking. I've learned a lot about food science from his easy-to-read posts at Serious Eats. Many of the cooks on the list have a full article about them linked, which could keep you busy for some time. For example, I discovered the story of Zephyr Wright, who cooked for Lyndon and Ladybird Johnson for decades.
Wright's influence extended beyond the White House kitchen. Back when LBJ was in Congress, the Johnsons would drive back-and-forth from Washington, D.C. to central Texas during legislative recesses. Wright suffered so many indignities on those trips due to segregation customs and laws that she ultimately refused to travel by car and stayed in D.C. year-round. While LBJ built support in Congress for the 1964 Civil Rights Act, he used Wright's Jim Crow experiences to shame reluctant legislators into supporting the landmark legislation. After signing the landmark legislation, LBJ gave Wright one of the signing pens. “You deserve this more than anyone else,” he said.
Which just goes to show that being one of the greatest American cooks does not always focus on just one's cooking. Read the entire unranked list at Epicurious. -via Metafilter
Cooking is easy once you get the hang of it, but getting the hang of it usually means means burning a few entrees, making dishes that taste awful the first time around and/or serving undercooked meat and getting a gut ache.
But thanks to the smorgasbord of information available online newbie cooks can hit the kitchen with a better understanding of what and what not to do and avoid the common mistakes beginner cooks make.
This Brothers Green Eats video is a great primer on the art of cooking, but if you ain't got time to watch a video here's a list of their cooking fixes:
-Via Boing Boing
Frozen dessert on a stick is a wonderful way to beat the heat, even if it drips sticky sugar all over you. But where did Popsicles come from?
The popular origin story for this frozen treat goes as follows: In 1905 in San Francisco, 11-year-old Frank Epperson accidentally left a wooden stirrer in a glass of soda powder and water on his porch one freezing night. The next morning, Epperson woke up to discover he had invented the Popsicle — something he initially named the Epsicle, a combination of his own name and “icicle.” Incredibly, it wasn’t until 1923 that it dawned on him that this could be a money-spinner, and he changed the name to Popsicle, reflecting that it was essentially frozen soda pop (early adverts billed it “a drink on a stick”). Fortunately, no one had a similar brain wave in the almost 20 years Epperson sat on it. But, despite patenting the Popsicle in 1924, he couldn’t quite break even and sold his idea to the Joe Lowe Corporation — which went on to make a fortune from the frozen treat.
Critics found problems with the origin story, both in the details and in the fact that frozen treats on a stick had been around for decades. But no matter, Epperson coined the word "Popsicle," and to this day it's a trademark worth suing over. There are other milestones in the history of the Popsicle, which you can read at Ozy.
Since 1984, July has been designated as National Ice Cream Month, and the third Sunday in July (July 16 this year) is National Ice Cream Day! You can celebrate by learning some facts about ice cream, but the most obvious way to mark the day is to eat some ice cream. Many ice cream companies and some fast food outlets are offering free ice cream, or very good deals, on the best treat for a hot day. See a list of the deals at Uproxx. Unfortunately, the only free ice cream deals available in my town require downloading an app, which probably won't help, since I don't use a smartphone. Your mileage may vary.
Everybody knows sandwiches are best eaten fresh, but sometimes we get distracted, fill up on other foods or forget we made dinner plans with someone from our Improv group and our sandwich ends up neglected and uneaten.
Then when we try to eat it anyway we discover it's dry (or soggy) and tastes like crap, so imagine what a sandwich eaten a year later would taste like...*barf*
Despite the disgusting nature of this premise Andy George of How To Make Everything felt he needed to know what it would take to make a sandwich edible after a year.
So he spoke to an expert on what makes food rot, then set about pickling, smoking, dehydrating and salt curing the makings of a year-old sandwich.
-Via Geeks Are Sexy
