John Gushue . . . Dot Dot Dot

Pasta to Di for

Well, it made me chuckle. It's one of a set of photos here. 

 

Spoon leaves a message for fork

I saw this on my friend Paulo's Facebook feed. 

 

 

Your fried chicken does not look like their fried chicken

An interesting infographic on fast food and advertising from Australia. 

 

It blowed up real good ... in a microwave

My parents bought a microwave oven around 1980 or so, and it was enormous. It took up half the space of a counter, and was about three or four times the volume of the typical oven you can buy today. The advertised wonders of microwaves (cooking meals in minutes, heating up leftovers) were eclipsed for me and my friend Chris by our teenage scientific curiosity: what would happen if you left something in it for a long time?

Our first, and last, experiment involved an orange. We nuked it, and then nuked it again and again. And maybe again. I'm not sure.

By that point, the orange had become quite gross, and it stunk up the joint. Fortunately, not permanently. (The oven wasn't permanent, either; my mom returned it, and didn't come around to microwave use for many years, as I recall.)

The following video is actually a commercial for a company that is also a microwave skeptic, yet also prone for a little experiment or two. Moe's Southwest Grill bills itself for not using microwaves to cook their food. Why? Well, the video explains their cooking principles. 

Breakfast station

The last thing we need is another kitchen appliance, so this one is more of a nod toward something I might be have been tempted to buy when I was hitting out from home in my early 20s. It's the self-contained breakfast station, incorporating a mini coffee machine, a mini-oven to toast bread, and a small hot plate to handle the eggs and bacon. Plus ... it does look pretty cool, in its faux-retro way.

As seen here. 

 

 

The gingerbread AT-AT

Not sure what makes the AT-AT walker from The Empire Strikes Back so likely to bring Christmas to mind, at least for some people, but it does. A couple of years ago, we liked one T-shirt design we bought a shirt for each member of the family. Today, I saw this: a gingerbread recreation. Published here. 

Nothing says 'authentic' like ...

Lord of the Rings pez dispensers. 

Be honest. Don't you think that what J.R.R. Tolkien really had in mind, as he dreamed up the Shire, the hobbits and all the rest, was the candy-related spinoffs? 

Indulgences

"If I can't have too many truffles, I'll do without truffles."
- Colette 

Our good fortune (cookies)

We went out for dinner a while ago at our favourite Chinese restaurant, and found that the messages in the fortune cookies could not have more appropriately served. 

Here, for instance, is Nick's: 

Here's Martha's (and it may help to know that she runs her own business, a consulting practice):

And here's mine ... one anyone, I think, would like to receive.

Best brownies ever

Well, I cannot empirically prove that, but I'll make the boast anyway Not a new batch - was cleaning some things up and noticed this photo from a while back. The brownies did not last long!

It's a bit of a family recipe; my mom called them Three Bowl Brownies, but you can make them in two quite easily - one for the creamy stuff and one for the flour and cocoa. 

Deadly. 

Finally, a Ron Swanson 'meat tornado' cookie

As seen here. 

Turkey leftovers

We haven't even gotten around to buying our Christmas turkey yet, but it's good to know some people already have leftover plans. I noticed this video fom BBC World, featuring Nigel Slater, and got hungry enough to share it. 

Dinosaur cookies

These are cookies we saw at Dean & DeLuca, the uber-upscale food store in Manhattan. A small tin of salt that goes for 10 bucks? They sell it. (Mind you, it's a specialty type of salt. But still.) We had been there before, so when we were in the Soho area last week, I made a point of taking Nick to the cookie counter. Pricey as they are, the cookies are worth it. 

I even got a good joke from the woman behind the counter. "Are these cookies made from real dinosaurs?" I asked with a wink. 

"Only when the dinosaurs are in season," she smiled back. Nice. 

Some things everyone should know about cheese

This was a design entry for Threadless, but it works as an infographic, too. And now you know why Wallace, Gromit and other British folk are mad for their cheese! 

The chocolate crepe in Bryant Park

One of the things Nick enjoyed most during our trip to New York was a stand that made crepes in Bryant Park, particularly a chocolate crepe. To call it delicious is an understatement. I shot this short video, which shows the delight Nick got in receiving, and topping it up with a few (OK, more than a few) sprinkles of extra chocolate powder. 

#junkfoodnovels

A Twitter meme that passed by my eyes last night was called #junkfoodnovels - the challenge being to adjust the name of a book with a not-particularly-respectable food item. Thus, options include The Sound and the McFlurry, Lord of the Fries and Clan of the Gummi Bears. 

I chipped in my own .. not being able to resist this kind of a challenge.

My best shot: Don Quixostess. 

My second-best: Little Dorito. 

Others I tweeted: 

Horton Hears a Yoo-Hoo 
To Have and Have Nacho
Mrs. DalloMilkyWay 
À la recherche du temps perMountain Dew 
The (After) Eight 
Oryx and Cake (although I nod my head to the smarter brain who came up with Oreos and Cake)  
The Man With the Cooked to a Golden Perfection Arm  
The Adventures of Kavalier and KFC 
The Lord of the Ring-o-Los  

 

 

Igloo cake

Whether or not we actually go in, a walk by Bistro Sofia will usually involve a brief stop to see what cakes are on display in the window. Always a nice mood-enhancer! 

 

Unless you're a cheese ...

... age is not an issue. 

As seen here. 

The Venn diagram of cakes and morality

So to speak. I spotted this here.

When you love bacon ..

... you do not necessarily think rationally. To wit:

As seen on Elle's Tumbr.     

The bacon bad sandwich

Meth, ham, feta, bean ... 

As seen here. 

 

My molasses cookie story

 

This is the molasses cookie that kept me going through a round of flat-out typing this afternoon.

It reminded me of something I saw some months back while I was tapping away at a table in a coffee shop. A woman came in and sized up the array of the sweets. "I want something good, but something without sugar," she said. "Oh, look - I'll have one of those molasses cookies."

I almost coughed up my coffee as I overheard that one. As if the brown cookie was somehow like brown rice ...

 

A slice of oatmeal

Martha made several loaves of her multigrain bread yesterday. The secret ingredient is the oatmeal. It's awesome. 

Martha's fortune cookie

After dinner last night - we went out for some Chinese food as we celebrated Martha's birthday - this is the message Martha got when she cracked open her fortune cookie.

For those who know her, and the remarkable work she has done over the years including as the owner of her business for the last six years, this message is quite apt indeed. 

Pumpkin pile

Carving a pumpkin or two is something two of the three of us are good at. (Hint: I'm not one of them.) We bought a pumpkin the other day. It's early, and I'm not sure how well it will last until Halloween, but then again Nick wants to have a zombie pumpkin. We'll keep you posted. 

Martha incidentally is a dab hand with pumpkin puree. That's another thing to look forward, too!