General – Page 3 – Food Follies

Papaya Henge

My old digital camera stopped working, so that traumatic event became the excuse I eventually used to buy TWO new digital cameras! The first one, which I received yesterday, is another 5MP point and shoot. Very small, great size to slip in my purse, goof off with, take people photos with, etc. To test out the macro function, I created Papaya Henge from a bag of mixed dried fruit that John donated to the cause.

The other digital camera, which should be arriving sometime tomorrow, is bigger, blacker, heavier, more impressive, has one of those large glass lens thingies for wide angle and telephoto shots, and can shoot super-macro shots from ONE centimeter away from the subject. With that camera, you’d be able to see the little papaya druids chanting in their macrolithic Papaya Henge! For now though, you’ll just have to use your imagination.
[Tags: fruit, macro, photography, papaya, stonehenge]

Tuesday is Pancake Day!

Stop by your local IHOP (International House of Pancakes) for a free short stack tomorrow! As they say: “Join IHOP to celebrate National Pancake Day (also known as Mardi Gras, or Shrove Tuesday) on Tuesday, February 20, 2007. From 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., weâ€™ll give you one free short stack (three) of our famous buttermilk pancakes. All we ask is that you consider making a donation to support local childrenâ€™s hospitals through Childrenâ€™s Miracle Network, or other local charities.”
[Tags: pancakes, ihop, charity, free]

Wheel of Food

Here’s a neat little flash app: Wheel of Food! Looks like it pulls local restaurant listings (depending on the zip code you’ve specified, and all listings if you used ‘food’ as a search, but try ‘chinese’, ‘hamburgers’ etc. too) and then it spins the wheel and picks a place for you. If you don’t like what it picked, grab a spoke with your mouse and spin again. Neato!
[Tags: flash, local, food, restaurant, dining]

Nice Pear

I was just playing around with my watercolors and painted this pear. Then I thought, “Hey, that’s a nice pear!” True Story! Of course, when you put it on a t-shirt, it’s POSSIBLE that it could take on an additional meaning, but I’m sure that’s the farthest thing from your mind, right? Heh.

The “Nice Pear” design is available on a variety of tshirts and sweatshirts in our shop – CLICK HERE to see them all, and get a nice, juicy pear for yourself.

[Tags: humor, funny, tshirt, fruit, pear]

Meatlifting

Thanks to Mrs. Picasso for the link to this bizarre story about the number and kind of people who actually steal meat from grocery stores, which hath been dubbed Meatlifting.

I actually wish I found this more surprising but with the cheapest hamburger in our area of California going for $2.49/pound (only if you buy at least five pounds too), on some level I sort of understand it. Funny that it was second to people stealing cough syrup to make meth.
[Tags: meat, stealing, shoplifting, food, meatlifting]

It’s an egg, it’s a frittata, it’s… Omelette Man!

And Omelette Woman! Streaking around the globe, folding egg concoctions in half, maintaining fluffy texture, and making sure omelette lovers everywhere are satisfied with gooey cheese and half-moon shaped meals!

Okay, really, John just makes fantastic omelettes. They’re not overloaded with ingredients (I hate crunchy things in my omelettes!) but they’re cheesy, consistently fluffy, and he always gets them folded so perfectly, so I started calling him Omelette Man, which then evolved into a clothing design (for his superhero identity of course.)

There are a number of different styles of tees and sweatshirts available in both men’s and women’s styles, as well as an apron of course. I’ll have to get a few of these so that when one’s in the wash, John can still make breakfast without having to cook in his common street clothes! *grin* Just click on the tees above to check them all out.
[Tags: omelette, food, breakfast, egg, tshirt]

Stilton….. Perfume????

Apparently, the people who make Stilton blue cheese have launched their own perfume. No kidding! Really! “It claims to ‘recreate the earthy and fruity aroma’ of the cheese ‘in an eminently wearable perfume’.” Now, I’ve always said if they could make a scent like a food such as baked bread they’d hit paydirt. This isn’t even close to what I was imagining though.
[Tags: stilton, cheese, blue cheese, perfume]

Why Don’t I Remember?

It’s a stupid thing, but I always forget. You can’t butter toast with a fork. Well, you CAN, but it’s extremely annoying and takes forever – the butter starts melting and sticking and will go BETWEEN the tines instead of across the toast surface. And I know this because every so often I’m too lazy to get up and get a butter knife from the drawer when I have a fork right in front of me. Yes, it’s my own fault – LOL.

Busy Busy Busy

(I used the wisk image to the left because it made me think of being busy – LOL.) We’ve actually been doing some good cooking and eating lately, but we’ve been missing the step where we take a moment to sit down and write about it for some reason. For instance, I made another lasagna the other day, with homemade noodles, and it came out terrific. In fact, we’re still eating the leftovers, which are just as good as the original, of course. And we’ve been baking bread, and learning what effect ‘tired’ yeast has on it. And John made a delicious chicken concoction, which he keeps meaning to write up. See?

Also, we learned that our turtles (that we recently acquired from John’s brother who couldn’t keep them anymore) LOVE meat, despite the fact that a lot of turtle experts say that they become more vegetable oriented as they get older. (Maybe nine isn’t ‘old’ to them?) Even cuter… they will take the food from our hands, in a gentle but still ‘turtle darting their neck out’ sort of way. We’ve given them chicken, tuna (which made a mess in their water – maybe we’ll try a more chunk and less shredded kind next time), and hamburger.

Also, our black lab seems to like the raw pasta dough. She always lays under the table when I make it and then looks all hopeful if it appears I’ve got a bit left over – go figure.

Anyway, we’ll get back to posting more fully again soon, I’m sure. Thanks for checking in!

Another Reason to Love Tillamook!

“Dairy farmers whose cows provide milk for the second largest producer of chunk cheese in the nation (Tillamook) voted Monday to ban a Monsanto Co. hormone on schedule, rejecting pressure from the chemical company…. Rick North, spokesman for Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility, called the Tillamook ban a victory for consumers. ‘They’re not only doing the right thing, they’re doing the smart thing,’ North said of the co-op vote. ‘This should be great for their business.'” (full article)

This is terrific news, IMO. Tillamook already has some of the best cheese we’ve yet tasted on the west coast, and now it’s going to get even better! Mmmm… cheese….