For some Friday fun check out this link from Mormons Exposed, a site that sells calendars filled with whimsically and scantily clad Mormons? trying to bridge cultural and religious boundaries. The Hot Mormon Muffins Calendar, pictured below, also promises delicious monthly muffin recipes from hot Mormon mothers.
Hot Mormon Muffins Calendar 2010
[via Thaindian News]
Big Mac by Phil Dragash on Flickr
After 16 years in the North Atlantic nation of Iceland, McDonald’s is closing its doors. All three McDonald’s outlets are shutting down, likely forever. Jon Gardar Ogmundsson, owner of Lyst, the firm that runs Iceland’s McDonald’s franchises, explains that the logistics of providing McDonald’s meals to an isolated island with a population of 300,000 are quite costly. Many of the ingredients are imported from elsewhere and this fact, combined with the falling krona, makes fashioning a big mac incredibly expensive.
Lyst predicts that, were the franchises to stay afloat, they would have to raise the price of a Big Mac to 780 kronur, or USD 6.36. According to The Economist’s “Big Mac Index” for February 2009, even the most expensive Big Mac’s, sold in Norway, Switzerland, Denmark, and Sweden, were priced at USD 5.79, USD 5.60, USD 5.07, and USD 4.58 respectively. To cut costs, Lyst plans to continue to run the franchises under a different name and rely on more domestic, Icelandic products.
[Bloomberg link via Rachel Lauden]
For those of you who can’t drink regular milk and need/want to avoid too much soy, almond milk can provide a refreshing and deliciously nutty alternative. Boxed almond milk works just fine, but is expensive and sometimes rather flavorless. As a remedy, Instructables offers up a simple almond milk recipe you can try at home. Despite it’s simplicity, it involves some days of straining and mushing through cheese cloth — but it provides delicious rewards.
[via Life Hacker]
Young Almonds by Steve Wilson on Flickr
Oooh Donut! by mhaithaca on Flickr
stl today reported last week that coffee and baked goods chain Dunkin Donuts would be returning to Saint Louis. In fact a press release, issued by the company in February 2008, outlines plans to open 100 new stores nationwide over the next few years, including 5 in the St. Louis area.
Massachusetts based Dunkin Donuts is the leading retailer of brewed and iced coffee in the U.S.; the franchise sells more than a billion cups annually and around 2.7 million cups daily. Founded in 1950, Dunkin Donuts is also the largest coffee and baked goods chain internationally, with over 7,200 sites in 31 countries.
I grew up in Boston, so Dunkin Donuts was an inevitable and memorable part of my childhood…so was this commercial…
Farmer's Market Vendor and Customers, Sacramento, by Robert Couse-Baker on Flickr
Want to find out about a farmer’s market in your area? Check out Factual, a new open source data tool. Although the site is still in beta, a few pretty complete data sets exist, including information about the locations, hours, etc. of various farmer’s markets throughout the U.S.
Factual was founded by Gil Elbaz, co-founder of AdSense (think Google ads). This guy’s an information nut. I love the idea of easily built, easily accessible data sets and I’m hopeful that soon there’ll be something for the little information nut that lives inside all of us.
If you have an urge to contribute to Factual or to start a new table, foodie or otherwise, leave a comment — I’ll be excited to see how the site develops.
[via Freakonomics]
Acorn by Paul Garland on Flickr
In a New York Times Science Section Q & A, a reader asks, “can humans eat acorns?” The surprising answer: yes! In fact, acorns were enjoyed by many Native American groups. The catch is that this potentially nutritious food needs to be processed before consumption. Raw acorns contain lots of tannins, a type of bitter, stringent chemical found in plants.
Although tannins are present in many foods (e.g. wine, tea, nuts, chocolate, and even some fruits), acorns have such high concentrations of tannins that eating unprocessed seeds may result in indigestion and diarrhea. Tannins need to be leached out by soaking acorns repeatedly in boiling water.
If anyone has ever eaten acorns and can give some tips about how to prepare them, leave a comment.
Forget corn dogs, this is a treat that could send me to hot dog heaven (undoubtedly followed by indigestion hell). In Seoul, hot dog vendors are selling hot dogs on a stick, dipped in batter, and coated with crispy french fries. I’m shocked that carnivals in the US haven’t picked this up.
French Fry Coated Hot Dog courtesy of The Last Appetite
[The Last Appetite link via BoingBoing]
If you’ve got a more refined palate, SF Weekly’s got a list of 10 top Gourmet Dogs. Personally, I’m not sure if I’m down with a chicken sausage “marbled with spinach” being labeled as a hot dog or topping processed meat with foie gras. Still, several of the dogs on this list, such as the New York City Hot Dog Company’s Greek Dog, with hummus, sun-dried tomatoes, feta, and olives, are in the right spirit and sound down-right delicious.
Lastly, in the Travel Channel’s “Hot Dog Paradise” article, they pay homage to Newark, NJ’s Jimmy Buff’s, whose pizza, hot dog, sausage combo could almost give a french-fry-coated creation a run for its bun…almost.
Anybody who’s ever decorated with fake skeletons or dressed up for a Halloween bash knows that October 31st is not all about crummy candy. Here’s a collection of non-candy treats, eats, and feats to get you geared up for the holiday.
For some food-filled Halloween fun, crafts-y parents can follow the instructions for wacky kid’s costumes from the Good Eats’ costume designer.
I couldn’t resist putting in this LA Times slide show of Halloween recipes for kids. I’m embarrassed to say I’ve actually prepared pumpkin face quesadillas for a grown-up Halloween party. I love cheesy holiday-themed recipes, so if you have some more to add, I’d be excited to hear them.
And these are the spookiest bento boxes I’ve seen! [via WebSpinstress Gothic Halloween Blog]
Halloween Bento by Mushmo on Bento Challenge
I’m out with a nasty cold, so no posts for a while. In the meantime, I’ll be eating lots of hot soup.
Congrats to one of my culinary heroes — Alton Brown celebrates 10 years on Good Eats in a new book: Good Eats: The Early Years
Cows have been blamed for producing large amounts of methane, a greenhouse gas. Can researchers at the University of Missouri help cut cattle emissions while cutting costs for farmers? The story is picked up by Science Daily.
Cows by docman on Flickr
According to Fooducate, the chocolaty spread nutella is now being marketed as having health benefits, but what can that mean for a food whose first ingredient is sugar?
On a recent TED talk, architect Carolyn Steel answers the question, how do you feed a city? [via Freakonomics]
In his New York Times Magazine article, “Against Meat,” Jonathan Safran Foer discusses vegetarianism from a family-centered perspective.
