Nov 4th:  Can't get enough Bacon?

 

It started with a customer request to make “spreadable bacon, namely mayonnaise.” the smooth and slightly smoky taste that would henceforth be known as Baconnaise, The Ultimate Bacon Flavored Spread.Put it on sandwiches, salads, dips, fish, chicken, burgers and more.  It's even Kosher!

Also available Baconnaise Lite - With 1/2 the fat and 1/3 fewer calories than regular mayonnaise, Baconnaise Lite will still give you tons of bacon flavor without the guilt. More info

Oct 31: Voting on Nov 4th = Free Food

Chick-fil-A’s Dayton-area restaurants offering free chicken sandwiches to those sporting an “I Voted” sticker on Tuesday, Nov. 4.

Ben & Jerry’s will give voters free ice cream from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Election Night, Tuesday, Nov. 4.

Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, located at 2001 E. Dorothy Lane in Kettering will give one free star-shaped doughnut with red, white and blue sprinkles to customers wearing an “I Voted Today” sticker.

Starbucks will be giving away a free "tall" (12-ounce) sized cup of coffee to anyone with the "I voted" sticker (1/guest).

Oct 27: Creepy Cocktails for Halloween!

Here's some treats of the adult
beverage kind to add a little spice to your Halloween festivities:

Bloody brain
3/4 ounce peach schnapps
Float of Bailey's Irish Cream
1 dash grenadine

Glassware: highball glass
Pour peach schnapps into a highball glass. Add Irish Cream to the center. Top with grenadine and serve.

Black Magic
2 oz. vodka
1 oz. Kahlua
splash of lemon juice
lemon twist

Combine ingredients in a mixing glass
with ice and stir gently. Strain into a glass over ice. Garnish with a lemon twist.

Vampire -A sweet bloody-red cocktail to tempt those creatures of the night…

1.5 oz. vodka
1.5 oz. chambord
1.5 oz. cranberry juice
a good splash of lime juice

Combine all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker and give it a good shake with cracked ice. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Black Devil
4 parts rum
1 part dry vermouth
black olive

Shake the rum and vermouth with cracked ice. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a black oliv

 

Oct 24: Free Ice Cream for Voting!

On 4 November, Americans will take to the polling stations to cast their vote for either John McCain or Barack Obama,
and Ben & Jerry's plans to reward them for doing so.

Each voter who proves their eligibility
for a free scoop of ice cream, either by displaying their "I Voted" sticker,
showing a photo of themselves at
the polling station, or doing the
"I Voted" dance, will be rewarded at a participating Ben & Jerry's outlet.

The free scoops are being dished out between 5-8pm on 4 November,
regardless of who you vote for!  Click for Ben & Jerry's locations

 

Oct 16: Starbucks' Surprise Success: Oatmeal

CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- Starbucks seems to have a slam-dunk new product: oatmeal.  Yes, that mush your grandma pushed on you as a child is shaping up as the company's most successful food launch of all time. Within just a few weeks -- and despite unseasonably warm weather in many markets -- oatmeal has become the best-selling food item throughout Starbucks' entire system, knocking reduced-calorie coffee cake from the top spot.In a drive-thru culture, it's hard to believe that consumers would be willing to pay more for a breakfast that comes with a spoon, several packets and needs to steep for at least three to five minutes. But for Starbucks, the trick is in convincing consumers not to go elsewhere for their food fix. "Who wants to make two stops?" Ms. Gass said. "We're getting existing customers to buy food."

Oct 9: WowBacon

Finally eliminating the insane skill required to cook bacon,
this microwavable pitcher hangs bacon strips upright, broiling them to perfection as greasy fat drips off, making for healthier bacon and much unhealthier "baconade".  Broil a pound of
regular or thick cut bacon in less than 10 minutes!
Mmmmm, microwavable bacon pitcher at WowBacon.com

 

Oct 7th:  Citing the "Feta Cheese Precedent"

Fadi Abboud, president of the Lebanese Industrialists Association, says Lebanon is planning an international lawsuit against Israel for appropriating its national cuisine. Falafel, hummus and tabouleh were Lebanese long before the the Jewish state was founded, Abboud claims. He has prepared a memo that cites Europe's "feta cheese precedent" to support his case.  More info

Oct 3rd:  Bright knives, big city. On Top Chef:

New York, the fifth season of the No. 1 food show on cable,
17 new cheftestants take on the Big Apple and compete for their shot at culinary stardom. Cookbook author, actress and host Padma Lakshmi once again returns to the judges' table, alongside head judge Tom Colicchio, renowned culinary figure and chef/owner of Craft Restaurants, and judge Gail Simmons of Food & Wine magazine.
This season introduces new judge Toby Young, food critic and best-selling author of the book How to Lose Friends and
Alienate People, which was the basis for an upcoming film.  more info

Sept 27th: Home cooks, want to Be famous?

llustrator Mary Engelbreit, whose colorful confections decorate all manner of domestic products, is soliciting recipes from the public for a new series of cookbooks to be published by Andrews McMeel. If your special casserole, or stew, or whatever, is selected, your name and a "short personal story" about the dish will accompany the recipe.

Payment involves not money but an autographed copy of the cookbook and, perhaps even more valuable, vindication of your culinary prowess!

Right now, they're on the hunt for one-pot meals and a category called "Family Favorites." The deadline for submissions is Oct. 8, and the cookbooks are slated for Fall 2009. Visit Engelbreit's Web site for more info.

Sept 18th: A Good Steak Never Goes Out of Style

Get tiny blue plates with huge slabs of steak on them!

The steaks and plates are hand-sculpted, and securely attached to the front of the cuff links. The links themselves are shiny silver base metal, and are 15mm in diameter.

Sculpted by hand from polymer clay, then glazed for a shiny, protected finish. These steaks will be around for a whole lot longer than the real thing!

Prefer meat and potatoes? Perhaps steak on a tie bar? A
set of earrings for Octoberfest? No problem! To order your food cuffs, click here

 

 

Sept 16th: Proper Food Handling After Power is Restored

· Previously frozen or refrigerated perishable foods that have been held at 41° F or more for over 2-4 hours should be discarded and are not be safe to eat, even if thoroughly cooked.

· Frozen foods that still contain ice crystals or remains at 41° F or less may be refrozen.

· Mayonnaise, tartar sauce and horseradish that have been at 50° F or more for over 8 hours should be discarded as they may not be safe to eat.

· Butter/margarine, hard and processed cheeses, canned fruits and fresh fruits, fresh mushrooms, herbs and spices, fruit pies, breads/rolls/cakes/etc., opened jelly/relish/mustard/catsup/taco & barbeque sauces may all be kept.

· A freezer that is half full of frozen food will only hold up to 24-hours and a full freezer will hold food up to 48-hours. Dry ice can be placed in a freezer on boards or heavy paper on top of packages to keep temperatures below freezing. Allow 2.5 pounds of dry ice per cubic foot of space. More will be needed in an upright freezer because dry ice should be placed on each shelf. Dry ice can cause burns – DON’T HANDLE DRY ICE WITH BARE HANDS.

· If raw food has leaked during thawing, clean and disinfect the areas the food has touched using a chlorine bleach solution (½-cap per 1-gallon of water). To absorb any lingering odors, place an open box or dish of baking soda into the appliance.

These tips courtesy of the Greene County Combined Health District.  
For more information call (937) 374-5606.

Sept 10th: Service: Umbrella Today?

Enter your zip and this site'll advise you simply whether to bring your parasol, plus let you sign up for daily text alerts, which you can choose to receive at any hour of the day, e.g., 5am for early risers, or 6pm for people who just want confirmation that they're totally soaked.   Advice you can trust at UmbrellaToday.com

 

Sept 9th: A Race of epic Proportins

Drambuie - The Pursuit's a 100-mile race through the Scottish Highlands, retracing the steps of Bonnie Prince Charlie -- the rebel monarch who carried the secret ingredients for Drambuie liqueur close to his breast as he fled the Duke of Cumberland (nickname: "Butcher Cumberland" -- hence the fleeing). Enter your team of four, and you'll face a staggering array of challenges, including: archery, powerboat racing, climbing/descending a 200ft cliff, white-water rafting, off-road buggy racing, and canoeing the river Ness -- where the real monster will be your hideously chafed underarms. Afterwards, contestants get a blowout gala in the legendary burgh Inverness, home of Macbethian madness, not to mention the world's premier solo piping competition (suck on that, London's Kensington Conference Centre).

Only six American teams get the all-expense-paid, trans-Atlantic trip, but signing up for your shot's as easy as sipping the only Scottish liqueur that's as golden smooth as you are. So smooth, whether it were a rock wall or a rock & roll has-been, you'd be the one doing the spanking.

 

Sept 4th: Foods of the World

  National Geographic's new Foods of the      World  online marketplace truly reveals a wondrously appetizing universe. It showcases, and sells, an array of artisan and specialty products from small purveyors in more than 30 countries: Click on Switzerland to find a "Fondue Cheese Flight" for $30, or an "Asian Spices" collection for $30 when you choose Asia. The "Taste of…" assortments are offered for almost all of the featured destinations, and seem like especially good values. Taste of Latin America, for instance, includes cheeses, sweets and a cooking sauce for $31.

More than a retail space, it also offers background on the various food cultures through articles from the magazine's extensive archives and, no surprise, from the many glorious photographs you'd expect from National Geographic.

August 30th:  Starbucks intervention, courtesy of McDonald's

Every once a millennium a monster fast food chain and its sweaty marketing department comes up with an idea that makes us smile. More often than not they come with, oh, a Colonel Sanders who raps or a large creepy irony-drenched Burger King costume. (We're still getting night scares from the Colonel Sanders thing.)

Anyway, McDonald’s has just done something very clever and fun and addicting,
and we urge you to check it out, since 3008 is a long way off. What we're talking about here is unsnobbycoffee.com. Check it out. The pure joy of it is best discovered on your own. But the overall gimmick (if you don't feel like clicking) is this: You drag words like "highfalutin" and "trust fund" and "snooty" into the empty spaces of a form letter. You fill in the name of your friend who likes fancy coffee. The letter explains they spend too much money on coffee with funny names. You print it out. You are performing, in McDonald's words, "a snobby coffee intervention."

In case you need it spelled out, McDonald's is gearing up to take a chunk out of Starbucks and this is how they're promoting it. Good luck, Ronald.
The Internets fun is fun. Futile. But still fun.

Courtesy of Chris Borrelli  & The Stew

August 27th: Cocktails for the party faithful

Bars and restaurants in Denver are making the most of the Democratic National Convention with politically themed cocktails. Watching the conventions will be
much easier with these libations:

The Blue 'Bama - A dash of Sprite and club soda, some blueberries for garnish, It's even served "on ba-racks."

Right Wing Johnny - a blend of Raspberry vodka, cranberry juice, Cointreau,
freshly muddled raspberries and served "uptight."

Rodham Sock 'em - Sto lichnaya vodka, lemonade concentrate, ice, blend and served frozen in a red wine glass, garnished with a lemon twist and a rock candy swizzle stick.

August 21st:  Label Reading- Whiskey vs Bourbons

 

 

August 14th:  A mentor in the  Kitchen

Ever tried a new recipe only to get stuck halfway through because of some complicated instruction you don't understand? Or maybe you made a new cake recipe, but it flopped and you just don't know why?

In times like these, a call to Mom or Grandma could save the day. But what if neither of yours is a good cook? (Or she just isn't available?)


A new mentor program BakeSpace.com which bills itself as a social networking site for home cooks, could be the answer. Accomplished cooks sign up in a category to offer advice. Just go on the site, find a topic, such as cupcakes, and send a e-mail to the mentor.