Colors and your appetite

A little psychology mixed with food, delicious. There are colors that appeal and stimulate appetite and there are colors that suppress it. These colors have changed over time and the colors discussed today are accurate as of now.

Red is an appetite stimulant and that's why you tend to see red in so many restaurants. Interestingly enough, red usually signified danger, poisonous, or lethal with animals in the wild. Still, we find it appetizing.

Blue is an appetite suppressant. This is due to the lack of blue foods in nature. Most grown foods that are labeled as blue are actually purple. Weight loss plans suggest eating off of a blue plate because it's proven that you'll eat less. Other programs go as far to tell dieters to put a blue light in their refrigerator to fight the munchies. The last M&M color to be added was blue because the M&M company was aware of the scientific facts about blue. The public isn't aware that they don't like blue though so the color won in a vote and was added to the M&M bag.

Purple in black are said to be appetite suppressants as well. Although we eat naturally purple foods, purple food coloring is just unappealing.

**Disclaimer:
I understand that you might not agree with these. Just remember that they're not my opinions, it's all scientific fact.

क्रेच्कर जैक!

Cracker Jacks grew up with popcorn in America, almost. Popcorn was first noticed in 1827 and became popular around 1835-40. Cracker Jack joined the pop culture scene in 1908. Jack Norworth wrote the song, "Take me out to the ball Game" which advertised Cracker Jack(C.J.) at, well, ball games, of course! In 1912 the C.J. company introduced their famous prizes into packages and in 1918, Sailor Jack was also introduced to the scene with his dog Bingo. When World War II came around the Cracker Jack company had to stop importing their once intricate whistles and trinkets from the enemy(Germany and Japan). This brought men like C. Carey Cloud, a prize designer at the C.J. company, into the picture. Unfortunately, Cloud's story is a tragic one, he designed a line of plastic figures representing different jobs of the time and he made the mistake of designing a plastic sea captain that consumers mistook for Joseph Stalin. Or at least Stalin-esque. Poor Cloud, a designer of 102 different toys in 28 years was let go as the company tried to pull themselves out of their sticky rut. And now you know why there are only crappy scraps of paper at the bottom of your C.J. bags.

Fun fact: During the second World War Cracker Jack's prizes focused on propaganda. One prize was even a picture of a hanging Hitler. Imagine finding that in your bag of tasty popcorn at a ball game with dad!

For those of us who have never heard of Cracker Jack, it's toffee covered popcorn with some nuts. Oh, and it comes with a prize. Well, "prizes." If you want to see some of the earlier real prizes check out this site. Those aren't all of the prizes, just some examples, of course.


For those of you who are confused about my title, apparently my Blogger headings only come in Alien language now. Grin and bear it, my friends, grin and bear it.

Triple Crown Pizza

Pizza Hut or Papa John's? Perhaps Little Caesar's or Cici's. Dominoes? I'm a Pizza Hut fan, best crust and I've ordered many veggie pizzas where the veggies were cooked but they were still crisp on the inside. No soggy veggies! By God, they're miracle workers! And just when you thought it couldn't get any better you find out they have this pizza they call the Triple Crown Pizza.

It's in the shape of a, you guessed it, crown. The crust is stuffed with meat balls and cream cheese balls. The top of the pizza has three cheeses, pepperoni, mushrooms, black olives, onions and green pepper. Although I'm sure you can have other combinations this is how it is meant to be eaten.

This bad boy is a whopping 230 calories a slice. Totally worth it, I bet, but that's only because I have this I have this insatiable love for meatballs. The cream cheese doesn't hurt either.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy mother's day to all of the mommas out there. [: I hope everyone celebrated their mom's accordingly, I did. I decided to make mine breakfast after we got home from church. I made sausage, biscuits, and gravy and it was pretty awesome.

This meal plan should have taken about half an hour maybe forty-five minutes but I took about two hours which was damn embarrassing. My step-dad took me to the store to get the ingredients and I came home and began cooking. Naturally, I started with the biscuits and also naturally I made a huge mess with the flour. For those of you who bake you likely know that there are two main types of flour, all-purpose and self-rising. I'm a bit ditsy and used all-purpose instead of self-rising which made my biscuits look like this. I'm sure you can tell which ones rose and which did not.



After this mistake I had to start over and make a new batch. I don't have self-rising flour and for those of you who don't already know, if a recipe calls for self-rising and you only have all-purpose, add about 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder for every cup of flour and also add some salt. I messed up here as well and measured out tablespoons instead of teaspoons. I had to dig out the baking powder and hope that I'd taken the right amount out. At this point my mom had to intervene and help me make breakfast because it was already lunch time.

While I was doing this I had made the sausage and my step-father had previously insisted that the patties were cooked all the way through and after some arguing, I reluctantly took the patties off the stove and set them aside. To my mom's horror, the patties were not cooked all the way and she had to make that as well as the gravy, which she almost ruined.

All in all it was a great mother's day. Tell me about your guys' mother's days.

My sincerest apologies.

I send out my sincerest apologies to all of the terribly blunt things I've commented in some blogs. If you haven't noticed, I tend to speak first and not think about others sensitivities. I like to think of it as at least I'm honest. I just want you to understand that I treat others exactly how I'd like to be treated, which is honestly. My intentions were not to offend anyone but to simply give advice. You don't have to take it, it is but a mere offering.

Furthermore, I would to ask everybody for some advice. (I'm so excited, I've had this question stored for weeks xD) Give me ideas on topics. I'm open to anything and I appreciate a good, healthy challenge.

This blog is rated mature.

Today we have a sexy blog. Aphrodisiacs have been common in ancient cultures for as far back as you can study and it's no surprise considering they were obsessed with sex. Throughout the semester I've typed up a few blogs explaining different ways food affects your body and I think you're ready to learn the art of love and food.

First you need to understand why aphrodisiacs are considered so as well as how they came about. An aphrodisiac is something that arouses sexual desire. We're going to be discussing food aphrodisiacs. Aphrodisiacs were originally classified as such if they promoted sexual desire or fertility or if the shape of the food resembled the male or female genitalia. The ancients (and I presume people in today's time) would eat the fruits in sexually stimulating fashions.

Some foods that will stimulate your lover and your self are the ever popular chocolate, preferably dark, red wine, oysters, and the like. I'm not too into the common stuff so I'm going to skip it and maybe I'll come back to it.

The avocado is considered a sexual stimulant. It has a sensuous texture and the Aztecs called the avocado tree "Ahuacuatl" or testicle tree, because the hanging pairs of avocados resembled, well, testicles, of course. Sweet basil is supposed to boost fertility and stimulate sex drive. It also produces a general sense of well-being for body and mind. This one's a little strange, asparagus. I've mentioned before that asparagus can make you smell and taste funny so be careful. The Gourmet Sleuth says to "feed your lover boiled or steamed spears for a sensuous experience." I'm sorry but I have to take time to point out how strange this is. A spear of asparagus sounds dangerous, first off. It's frightening, to be quite blunt. Picture: "Do you like your asparagus boiled or steamed?"(<- in the sexiest voice your mind can muster) or "Hey, let me feed you these spears of asparagus. Oh yeah, you eat that steamed, bumpy, phallic shaped, green vegetable!" (<- cue whipping) Yeah, no. The asparagus is not gonna do it for me, personally. Coffee is another popular stimulant, mostly because it alerts your mind and body, making for a good long time(perhaps all night), if you catch my drift. Open figs look like the female genitalia and is traditionally thought of as a sexual stimulant as a man would eat it in a very sexy way in front of his woman(likely a demonstration). Honey is considered to increase potency. Freshly married couples would often drink lots of mead(a honey based drink) on their honeymoon. (I bet I just blew your mind.) This one's a bit far-fetched sounding as well, mustard. Lemme begin by pointing out that mustard is a terrible sounding word. When you say it the word just drops down heavy and has all kinds of sharp turns, not sexy at all. Then you have to think about the taste. Mustard is pretty awkward tasting for a sexual stimulant but it's supposed to stimulate sexual glands and increase desire. Next up we have what are described as, "Both invite love and are described in erotic literature as fruit nipples," the raspberry and strawberry. (That quote is directly from the first site featured below, by the way.) Dip some strawberries in dark chocolate for a really sexy time. [;

Well, my readers, if you want to know some more aphrodisiacs try this place. Or you can check some other places. I hope you enjoyed my blog. By the way, I am not promoting that you guys go out and stimulate other teenagers by brainwashing their bodies with sexually stimulating food. (I'm just teaching you how to do it in style for when the opportunity arrives.) Stay safe.

Quiche

So last week I spaced out and totally forgot about blogs hence I only posted one. I had a topic though and it fit into the theme I'd decided on. The theme for last week was home cooking. Last Saturday I made quiche for my family. I'd always found quiche to be this amazing, wonderful, and impossible thing but as it turns out, quiche was disappointingly simple to make. Not that it wasn't still fun. I made the quiche in a pan that was originally designed for large cupcakes.

First off, I'm going to start by explaining these pans because I find them very important. With your standard large cupcake pan you can make single servings of baked goods. You can make really tall cookies, little pies, and quiche for one. This helps when you only want to make enough for one or two people and you don't particularly want leftovers. The opportunities with these pans are endless.

Now, on to the quiche. I used my favorite pan, the large cupcake one. I made a gluten-free crust with gluten-free baking flour which is just a mix of different gluten-free flours. Then I made some bacon and set it aside where my mom chopped it for me. While my mom chopped I sauteed some chopped spinach in the bacon grease. When this was all good and done my mother and I sauteed some chopped mushrooms in butter. When you've prepared all of your ingredients you can put equal portions in to as many cups as you need to use. Then I sprinkled some cheese and began to prepare my eggs. If anyone recalls, there was a blog done on substitutions, those don't apply here. Please do not use applesauce or bananas instead of eggs. You can but I've never tried it so I'm not making any promises on taste or texture. We (my mother and I) prepared the eggs as if we were making your standard scrambled eggs. Whip some eggs with milk and then add salt and pepper. When this is complete you once again distribute your prepared ingredient into your cupcake pan. All that's left is to wait. We baked our quiche in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit and then raised it to 400 degrees Fahrenheit but that's only because we were in a hurry, you could easily cook yours at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, it would just take longer.

The KFC Double Down

You couldn't say you didn't expect this. For those of us who have yet to have been informed, the KFC Double Down is a new bunless chicken sandwich presented by KFC. Some call it a heart attack, others call the paramedics, regardless it is the ultimate sandwich, in my professional opinion. (Yes I'm a prefessional. I'm paid in the laughter and smiles on delighted childrens faces when they read my blog.) This baby is a whopping two pieces of bacon smothered in the Colonel's special sauce that's pressed between two pieces of cheese (Monterey Jack and pepper jack) all smushed between two (have you caught on to the double concept?) pieces of chicken on either side. This bad boy comes in the traditional fried chicken or for the healthier, lamer food connoisseur there's the grilled chicken version. If you're looking to eating this sandwich you're looking at 540 fried calories or 460 grilled calories. Either 32 fried grams of fat or 23 grilled grams of fat. And lastly, 1380 grams of tasty fried sodium or 1430 of lame grilled sodium. I suggest that only healthy people with healthy arteries eat this meal because it might be your last otherwise. Don't believe my nutrition info? Read it and weep, my friends, read it and weep.

Being the awesome people my boyfriend and I are we recreated this sandwich. (This is also partly due to the fact that we couldn't find a ride to KFC on Friday night but this was better anyways.) So we went to Publix and got the ingredients and my gift to you, I'm going to teach you how to recreate the one Amani and I made. Our ingredients did vary from the ingredients listed on this site and if you'd like to recreate the exact think then you should follow the actual site instead. We went to Publix and first sought out two fat pieces of good ol' chicken milk sacs (breasts). Then we hunted some bacon and here we used beef bacon rather than the traditional pork. We then needed cheese so we went to the deli man. He basically refused to slice us some Monterey Jack and pepper jack and forced us to buy a higher quality cheese. Then he proceeded to tell us that we sounded pathetic and how the cheese we wanted was garbage. We ended up getting Havarti and using two slices of it on each sandwich. We took the fat chicken breasts and sliced down the middle so they were thin and we fried them in a simple batter with flour, cornmeal, seasoning salt, and garlic powder. The bacon was cooked in a pan regularly. Now comes the sauce. We didn't have paprika so we used chili powder instead. Mostly mayonnaise and ketchup with some of "Frank's Red Hot Sauce" which Amani informed me is really more hot sauce than buffalo sauce. We added some garlic powder and the recently stated chili powder and then smothered it on our sandwiches. The difference between our sandwich and KFC's? Ours likely contained more nutrition. The chicken, cheese, and bacon were all of higher quality. Not a bad way to spend a Friday night.

Corndogs!

We all know what a corndog is, yes? For those of us who don't know, a corndog is a cor flour batter covered hotdog on a stick. A whopping 460 calories a pop. Since the corndog there have many variations of other;s take on the corndog. My personal favorite is the sausage covered in blueberry pancake batter. A breakfast essential. But this is a completely different take on things that surprised even me. It starts as a banana on a stick and it ends as a banana on a stick covered in funnel cake. And funnel cake is NOTHING without it's trusty sidekick and spice of choice, powdered sugar. I'm not going to lie, this sounds gross. Unless you drizzle some chocolate over it. That would be so delicious. Or if you took some chopped strawberries and some chopped bananas and put them on the stick together and covered them with funnel cake and topped with chocolate and some powdered sugar. Delicious!

Share your ideas for a new kind of corndog or you corndog experiences. [:

A different kind of sushi.

Holland is an interesting place. Legal marijuana, the red light district, need I say more? Well, they just got much more interesting. The Dutch have a traditional delicacy of raw herring. Herring is a fish, in case you didn't know. They eat it raw after the head's been removed and the body's been cleaned and cured with salt. They eat it with raw onion and/or pickles. It is consumed by grabbing the fish tail first and letting it slide down your mouth gradually. This fish is also consumed in sandwich form.

On the Dutch holiday of "Vlaggetjesdag" (little flag day), the first catch of the year is auctioned off for charity. The highest recorded bid was 40k euros. These first fish usually go for tens of thousands of euros.

You too can be an optimum pooper.

Today's topic: natural laxatives. Defecating is incredibly important for your body and mental health. Everybody's different so to find out how often you should be moving your bowels you can ask a gastroenterologist. Constipation is a very unfortunate thing some people have to go through some times. It is when there is a lack of bowel movements and fecal matter builds up in the intestines. This is quite obviously undesirable in a number of ways.

I'm going to help you avoid constipation. Foods that can cause constipation are ice cream, cheese, meat, snacks (chips, pizza, etc.), and processed foods (frozen mashed potatoes, frozen dinners, etc.). Understand, I am not trying to frighten you away from all of the delicious foods in my blog, constipation results when you have an excessive amount of these foods. (Imagine all the sad, lonely girls who binged on ice cream after they were dumped by the boyfriend who didn't like them in the first place. Now think about what probably happened. Best day ever, huh?) Oh, and by the way, not exercising causes constipation. So if you don't exercise you're not only in danger of gaining weight but you're prone to having some problems on the throne to your kingdom. Talk about the ultimate wimp.

If you ever do become constipated, do not drink cold beverages or eat cold foods as that slows the digestion process. (I'll write up a blog about the difference between hot and cold foods in another blog.)

Finally, we are at the part where I teach you, young grasshopper, how to become an optimum pooper. Natural fruit juices are fantastic for working your bowels. For the best results you should drink them at night or in the morning. Prune juice is popular for this as well as coconut juice. I found a site that says you should mix orange juice and olive oil or pear juice with apple juice. (Those both sound unexpectedly interesting.) More juices are apple cider vinegar juice, carrot juice, spinach juice, grapefruit juice, asparagus juice, and lemon juice and hot water. (Watch out for some of these, remember, you are what you eat and if you eat asparagus, your sweat will have an asparagus smell just like if you eat more citrus, you'll smell sweeter, but that's another blog.) Fiber is GREAT for your bowels. Fruits, vegetables, and nuts can be natural laxatives as well. I stated earlier that not exercising causes constipation, it would only be logical that exercise will create the opposite effect. Lots of water is great lubricant, as graphic as that sounds, it is. (You'll thank me when you don't get rug burn from your feces!) Basically, if you eat healthy, you poop healthy, simple as that.

A quick note

Check out my poll, it affects you. [: Potentially.

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Barbacoa

Today in class Mrs. Stoklosa asked us about food and our family and I brought up barbacoa. Max asked me what it was traditionally made out of and I told him but I didn't get to finish answering him so this blog is for Max and anyone else who was interested in barbacoa.

Where barbacoa originates is a bit fuzzy. There are some who say it originated in Mexico and others who claim it originated in Barbados. Wherever it originated, they had the right idea. I'm going to discuss the mexican style barbacoa simply because that is what I'm most familiar with. The barbacoa described today in class was barbacoa de cabeza. It is the barbequed meat from the cow head, most often the cheeks. Barbacoa can also be pork, which, at this point, is called a carnita. Barbacoa de cabeza is served more often in Texas rather than Mexico. In Mexico they make a more traditional barbacoa with, more often, lamb. It can also be made with fish, goats, chicken, and the previously stated types of barbacoa. Traditionally, you would eat barbacoa on a warm corn tortilla with some guacamole and/or salsa for added flavor.

Nowadays the term barbacoa has become a loose term for meat steamed until it is tender. I blame the whole tex-mex scene for that. Barbacoa should be kept the delectable, traditional food it is.

Growing up I ate barbacoa every Sunday from a little Mexican bakery. I did not add guacamole or salsa because the meat is delicious on it's own. If you ever go to Texas I would most definitely recommend eating some traditional barbacoa. I've also had lamb barbacoa and it was most delightful, another recommendation.

A new kind of ice cream sandwich

So I was perusing the internet when I came across quite the interesting specimen. An ice cream sandwich that instead of between cookies, it's between Poptarts. When I saw this my first instinct was to gravitate towards it because the picture was so cute and pretty but then I honestly though about it and all of the different combinations. There are close to thirty different flavors of Poptarts and countless flavors of ice cream. If a bakery or ice cream shop teamed up with Poptarts or made a Poptart from scratch and converted it into an ice cream sandwich snack, they could very easily make a fortune.

Our next Poptart creation is an "apple cranberry pie." This is an apple pie with chopped cranberries and walnuts topped with crumpled brown sugar Poptarts as a crust covering the pie. This idea also has a lot of unhealthy and perhaps disgusting potential.


Finally, we meet "PB&J banana sammies." These things seem to be one of the worst ideas. A wild grape Poptart sandwich with peanut butter and bananas inside. I like Poptarts but they've gone a bit far with their new creations. Yuck.

Cheese puffs, what are they?

Cheese puffs came about right before the 1940s and by the 1950s they were a popular American snack. The original cheese puff comes from the Flakall company that actually produced flaked grain feed for livestock. The cheese puff, like many delicious foods, was not made on purpose. Edward Wilson, the flake operator at the company noticed that workers poured moistened kernels into the machine to reduce clogging. As the flaking machine ran continuously it became heated and the moistened cornmeal came out of the machine puffy ribbons that hardened when they hit the air. Wilson took some of these ribbons home and added oil and the flavor to make our beloved cheese puffs.

After this, the company started another flaker up just to produce what they named Korn Kurls. You might be better acquainted with Frito-lay's Cheetos. Cheese puffs, as fun and interesting as they are, are really not that great for you. They lack fiber and protein and are a snack high in fat and calories.

Let's learn about the human body and how food affects it.

You are what you eat, we've all heard it but who takes it seriously? Foods are actually made up of complex chemicals that affect your body type, personality, and emotions. Needless to say, eating healthy is the best way to go. I understand that there are already two health blogs and you're likely assuming right now that this is going to be the same stuff. Actually, I don't think so. Upon reading the two health blogs I have to admit that they're not bad necessarily, just lacking in information. If you're going to write about something, do it right, dammit. ;]

Today, I am starting with foods that will boost your memory. My mother believes that she needs to take me to a professional because, to her, I appear to have a serious memory problem, in actuality, it could be a lack of these foods: blueberries, apples, spinach, red onions, broccoli, red beets, purple, red and black grapes, cherries, eggplant, and rosemary. Most of these foods have been known to play a role in the prevention of Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative brain disorder's. Onions have been a staple in Indian food for years and has been considered a folk remedy to boost memory for centuries. Red onions are the best but yellow and white onions contain a good level of quercetin as well. Quercetin is one of those chemicals I mentioned earlier; it's the one that's good for your brain.

Need a boost of energy? Try oatmeal, which is also very good for diabetes along with cinnamon. Lentils, bananas, and chocolate are also good for some energy. For a delicious treat, try chocolate dipped bananas? You can even take it a step further and try some crushed, roasted almonds on top because that's a great energy boosting foods too.

Finally we have our happy foods. Foods that prevent and reduce depression and stress. As a teenager, I know other teenagers (you might too!), and there are a lot of tragic sob stories out there. These foods will get that annoying energy leech off of your back. Vitamin C. Vitamin C is not only great for a healthy immune system but reduces stress. Nuts, any nuts (get your mind out of the gutter, you lecher!), are a great mood-booster. Then we have the not always so fun leafy greens, but hey, they work. Salmon, mackerel, and sardines are fantastic for lowering your risk for depression and (check it out!) memory loss. Dried cherries will also bring a little sunshine into your life while boosting your mood, energy and memory.

Food is so wonderful. It's delicious, it's gross, it's slimy, it's crunchy, there are so many words to describe food! You just have to remember that when you eat too much bad food that is not good for you, it affects you. Your body and your mind. You are what you eat and if your body isn't happy, you won't be happy. You're a team, act like it!

Cheesy turtle bacon burgers :3

Like turtles? Like cheese? How about bacon? Try this on for size then. These little cuties seem to be on a lot of forum websites but I have failed to find a history. Ohwell, what you really need to know is, "what is a bacon turtle cheeseburger?" I'll tell you. :]
Our hard shelled friends start as a lone batch of hamburger meat that's just waiting to be molded. You take some kosher hot dogs(not that it matters, I would use the one's with cheese in the middle)and you cut them in half and mold the hamburger meat around them so that they're sticking out where arms and legs belong. Then cut a little piece off and give your turtle a head and a long skinny piece for a tail. Next, cover your meaty fetus in cheese. I would not recommend shredded cheese. And now you're ready to make your "bacon weave" around the cheese. Cut your uncooked bacon into squares and place them in a vertical-horizontal-vertical pattern on the burger, effectively covering all the cheese. Poke toothpicks through your burger to hold it together with your turtles arms and legs and bake. Enjoy~
Just to further specify, this is a burger wrapped in cheese that's wrapped in bacon with hot dogs sticking out of it. Right now you're probably foaming out of the mouth. Either from need or disgust. If you are indifferent to this meaty work of are then you have no soul, obviously. If you've already seen this then congrats, you've seen it, you should still be affected. Every time I read about this I feel thick, like my blood is hardening but I want it so badly. SO badly. Although, this is not nearly as bad as the feeling I get when I think about the deep-fried coke. Not nearly as bad at all. It's the cinnamon sugar that really does it, it's just too much for my mind to handle.

My take on the cookie(:

Today I made cookies and no, not the potato chip ones, although I will! These cookies are chocolate chip with both milk and white chocolate and some dried cranberrys. These cookies are also gluten-free. Throughout the time I've been on the gluten-free diet, I've learned that not very many people even know what gluten is and out of ignorance, which isn't necissarily their fault, they try to convice me that I shouldn't be dieting because I'm too thin. Today, my friends, I am going to educate you, if you don't already know. Gluten is a mixture of proteins. It is found in wheat grains and gives dough it's elastic texture. In a nut shell, it is in all wheat products, and just about everything else you'll find in your grocery store. I have Celiac disease which is just a harsh way of saying that I have a permanent intolerance to gluten. Instead of eating regular cake I have to eat gluten-free cake and gluten-free cookies. This can be a serious problem to me most times because as hard as a lot of companies try, their gluten-free products are disgusting. Fortunately we have kind, talented bakers who can make delicious gluten-free products over in the Betty Crocker Kitchen.
Today I tested out Mrs. Crocker's cookie mix and let me tell you, it was heaven. I have not had a more real tasting cookie in months. Betty most definitely beats Bob's Red Mill mixes by twenty. I don't know twenty of what exactly, just twenty.

These were my first gluten-free cookies by Bob's Red Mill. Because gluten gives dough it's elasticity, the dough tends to come out crumbly and dry. Forming these cookies was like building a sandcastle, which is really bad on my terms.

This is what Betty's cookies looked like before they were cooked, like regular cookies. Already I was excitd. XD When they were finished baking they were a little grainy but that's a given because of the lack of gluten, it happens. For the most part the cookies met my standards. The milk chocolate chips were the perfect combination with the cranberry and white chocolate because they balanced out the taste and kept the cookies interesting. The worst thing a chef can make is someting that will bore the consumer.

I give these cookies a five star rating. I think every cookie-holic should try these.
At the end of the semester, I think I'm going to have a poll where I'll make something and brng it in for the class to try. It won't be bacon ice cream because I unfortunatly don't have an ice cream maker but there are other interesting things I can make. What do you think, would you guys be up for it?

What's that flavor!? (Ice cream edition)

Maple bacon ice cream. When I first decided to write this blog I was going to do a background on it and explain what it is but that would be SOOO boring. So I'm going to arm you with the knowledge to be able to make it yourself. First thing is first *consuming any raw or uncooked meat is dangerous and can be toxic. It is strongly advised that you cook your bacon thoroughly.
Now that that's out of the way, you can start by cooking your bacon, 1/4 of a pound. (The recipe I'm going to give you will make about a pint, probably a little more, by the way.) The bacon should be cooked crispy because soft bacon just screams, "I'm going to be smushy and slippery in your ice cream!" After you prepare your bacon you can set it aside on a paper towel to absorb the excess fat. While preparing your bacon, if you can multitask, you can put 1/2 cup of maple syrup in a pot and reduce(boil it down) to about 3/4 of the 1/2 cup. Please do not do this unless you can keep track of it. If you blame me when your pot catches on fire I will show your parents my warning personally. After your maple syrup is reduced you're going to whip it in a bowl with 4 egg yolks, and 3/8 of a cup of sugar (it's half of 3/4 a cup of sugar if you eye it in the measuring cup). The mixture should be light in color when you finish. Now take the pot you cooked the bacon in and wipe in out and pour in 2 1/4 cups heavy cream and 3/4 cup of whole milk. You're going to heat it until it's hot but don't let it boil. If you don't watch this it will boil over and you could burn yourself. Or you could just make a really big mess. Just never walk away from boiling milk or cream, okay? Add 1/2 a cup of your milk and cream mixture to the egg mixture and mix them. When that's done you're going to mix what you just stirred into the hot milk and cream. Get out a strainer because you're going to be straining this mix into a bowl that's placed over another bowl that's filled with ice. This is to make sure that your ice cream does not over cook. When your almost ice cream is cold, stick it in an ice cream maker and let the machine do its work. Finally when your ice cream is done and made, you stir in the bacon and let it freeze overnight. Today's blog was a little different but hey, we've all gotta try new things. Enjoy!~

Today's topic? Why, popcorn, of course.

Popcorn, a favorite snack to many dating back 5,600 years ago. That's right, 5,600 years ago. Popcorn is one of the oldest snack around. It's said to have originated in Mexico. Some of the native tribes believed that contented spirits lived inside of each popcorn kernel and when their houses were heated, the spirits would become angrier and angrier, shaking the kernels. Then, when the heat became unbearable, they would burst out of their homes and into the air in a disgruntled puff of steam. There was a method of eating the popcorn where they popped it on the ear and ate it like regular corn, only popped! The natives also made popcorn beer and popcorn soup. Explorers Columbus and Cortez have recorded seeing the natives wear popcorn on corsages, necklaces, and headdresses. They were always munching on popcorn and Columbus even describes the treat being sold to his crew. I'd say it was a hit.
Before the Europeans arrived to North America, popcorn had spread globally to India, China and Sumatra. When the colonists arrived they fell in love with popcorn. The natives would bring it to feasts and it was served at the first Thanksgiving.
The first puffed breakfast cereal was actually popcorn. Colonists ate it with sugar and some cream.
When the great depression hit, popcorn consumption rose due to how cheap it was, it was one of the few luxuries that Americans could afford. In the mid 1800s-1920 some of the popular popcorn flavors were: orange & lemon juice, rose, peppermint, honey, vanilla, molasses, and sugar. Popcorn balls have been around forever as well. A party book from 1912 gives tips on throwing a "Popcorn Frolic." It was not unusual at the time to throw a popcorn party. They decorated the house with popcorn, played popcorn games, gave away popcorn gifts, and, of course, consumed popcorn.
Today we have places like Austin popcorn where they make over forty gourmet flavors of popcorn. Popcorn, as it turns out, is rich in history.
I found some bacon popcorn and thought I'd share, lol, it's only because I love you guys. :3

Have a pet?

So you have a dog or a cat and you have to feed it, right? And I'm going to assume that you go to the store and buy a bag of dry food or a can of wet food but do you know what you're really feeding it? I bet you don't. In most cases the food you get is all the parts we don't eat. They take the cow or chicken (or fish) and cut off the parts consumed by humans and take the rest of the animal and make your pets food with it. In some cases there will be cancerous parts thrown in along with the rest of the parts not fit to be consumed by humans. Recently more and more people have started feeding their dogs following the BARF diet which is Bones and Raw Food. Turns out that the healthiest meal for dogs is raw meat and some bones along with the occasional grains and veggies. But today's topic is dogs and cats so we're going to be discussing the fruits and vegetables best fit for your pets. Now *remember, feeding your pets too many fruits or vegetables can give them diarrhea so please be smart about how much you are feeding your pet if you do try this. First thing you need to know is NOT to feed your pet grapes. Not only can they choke on them but grapes and raisins can have a toxic effect and have been known to cause kidney failure. If your pet has allergies then you should feed it cooked potatoes but please refrain from feeding it raw potatoes because those aren't good for any pet. Tomatoes can lower the risk of cancers. Papaya and mango are a good source of vitamin C and for arthritis and other anti-inflammatory conditions because they have a cooling affect on the body. Dogs have a natural love for watermelon and it contains vitamins A, B6, and C. Bananas are are great because they'll change bacteria in the intestines from harmful types of bacilli to beneficial acidophiles bacilli. Pumpkin is like Pepto bismol for your pet. It'll cure constipation, diarrhea, upset stomachs, and indigestion. If you have an obese pet you can feed it some pureed pumpkin over it's food and it'll eat less because pumpkin will give your pet the feeling of being full. Broccoli will boost your pet's immune system and carrots will provide healthy eyes, glands, and skin. A lot of the information you found here for your pet also can apply to you, maybe you guys can enjoy dinner together one evening. [; Wanna know some more fruits and vegetables for your pet?

You knew it was coming-- SPAM!

WELCOME! Eaters of spam(:< And no I'm not talking about the stuff you send to your junk folder on your e-mail. Spam was actually around before the internet. Yes, there was a time before the internet. (*Shock!*) Do you know what Spam is made of? Cause I do. It's made up of chopped pork with ham, salt, water, modified potato starch, sugar and sodium nitrite. That's Spam Classic, by the way. Spam is a product of Hormel and it comes in a few different flavors. You can purchase your Spam with bacon in it (yes, our friend bacon is everywhere, it's so great, my heart is swollen with love), Spam with cheese in it, Spam light (for all of you watching your figure), Spam singles if you want an easier and quicker Spam sandwich (the single come in light too! No fear, dieters, no fear!), low sodium Spam, hot and spicy Spam, golden honey grail spam, spreadable Spam (I cringe at that thought, spreadable spam... *shudder*), and the even grosser sounding Spam garlic. Spam has been in your local grocery store since 1937 and even though it might not be so popular in your household in Guam the statistic is that more than eight cans of Spam are consumed by every person each year. Spam is sold in over 50 countries meaning that's is a pretty popular dish. There's even a Spam fan club. (You had to know it was coming) They like Spam in the Philippines so much that in February 2004 they opened the SPAMJAM Cafe. That's right, a Spam cafe. This cafe features items such as Spam heros ( a sandwich with Spam, tomato, and cheese), Spam burgers, Spam clubs, Spam spaghetti, Spam baked macaroni, Spam nuggets, and Spam Caesar salad. Spam, it turns out, is much more interesting than most people would have guessed. Who'da thunk it?
Oh, and Spam has a mascot. Spammy the pig, although he's not really around anymore. Hey, mascots gotta retire too!
EDIT: I forgot! They also made a special edition Hawaiian Spam with pineapple in it. I'm not going to lie, that sounds delicious, no joke.

Are you feeling sweet or salty?

Sweet or salty, what's your flavor? Stuck in the middle? Here's a tip, try some potato chip cookies. And here's what's really great about them, you can make them without having to go to the store! (most likely) All you need is flour, butter, sugar, vanilla extract, and some potato chips. Simple as that! I'm not crazy either, there are a surprising amount of people who have tried this tasty snack and liked it. I can't really give credit to anybody for being the original creator of this cookie because it's like the waffle cone, a lot of people thought of it and it just sort of happened. You may Google and find a creator but I will not acknowledge it if you decide to get smart with me. :P Want to try making this unique treat? Click here. (:

In an ingredient bind?

Have you ever started baking a cake or some cookies but forgot to check the recipe and later while mixing ingredients you find that you don't have enough eggs or there's no more milk? No worries, this blog is for you. Our first substitution is apple sauce. This can be used in place of oil or eggs and lately it's become more popular for getting back into shape. According to many websites you can't taste the difference. (This is a substitution for baking, so I probably wouldn't use it to make my ravioli.) Another substitute is the banana. You can use it instead of eggs in cake, muffins, and the like. This is a discovery found by a lovely friend of mine and it's hasn't failed yet. There seems to be a trend in fruit here and my baker's knowledge tells me that you can probably also substitute eggs or oil for pear sauce as well.
Milk can be substituted with cream (Warning, remember, creamer tends to be SWEET), fruit juice, or water (not recommended, but entirely possible). Don't have cornstarch? Use 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour, potato flour, or rice flour for every tablespoon of cornstarch. That's all you're getting for now, just the basics. Hopefully this was helpful, these facts have definitely gotten me out of a few baking binds.
*REMEMBER: Substitutions may change the outcome of your product in small or very drastic ways. I tried to give you the ingredients that will change your recipes minimally.

BACON?!?!?!?!?!

Ah, yes, bacon. This is a subject I plan to touch upon many times in this blog because there is a lot to write about when we are faced with this delectable food. I assure you will be both amazed, shocked, and maybe slightly disgusted. I'm going to start you off easy and today we're discussing the Bacon-of-the-month. This is a club by Americans, for Americans. You pay for a membership to have a pound of bacon delivered to your doorstep every month. And this isn't your plain old hickory smoked pig either, it is quality artisan bacon. The guy who runs this shenanigan, he knows his bacon too! There are bacon charts where they store their bacon to identify what kind of bacon each slice is (what part of the pig it's from). Apparently each bacon slice is like a bacon fingerprint. Serious business, man.
When you sign up you not only get a pound of bacon every month but they give you cool bacon merch as well. You'll receive informative notes on all bacon selections, discounts on The Grateful Palate bacon products, a club membership card, members only monthly bacon comic strip (That's right, members only!), a bacon of the month club pig ballpoint pen, a little rubber toy pig, a free bacon tee shirt, a recipe each month using the bacon selected, and last but certainly not least, a bacon nose! It's a bacon enthusiasts dream come true!
Want to join?(:

So I think I started my blog wrong.

I have gone through a few blogs, including Mrs. Stoklosa's and it seems they all had in common what I was missing, an opening statement. Because I seemed to have missed it, here it is now. Welcome! To my blog(: It's about food if you haven't noticed. Throughout the time I write this I plan to tell readers about all the good stuff I find that's food related. It may be disgusting, very average, delicious, or maybe even a humorous story, one thing in common all of the posts will have is that they're edible in some way. You've already gotten to taste test my blog with the previous posts on food, hopefully you enjoyed them, until next time. [;

Forget the baby, check out that afterbirth!

Placentophagy is when a woman eats her placenta. Weird, right? Well it's not all that unusual. Many animals eat their placentas, including monkeys. Recently, more and more women have started to follow this funky trend mostly for the nutritional value. Eating a placenta is said to aid in postpartum depression. The placenta is high in progesterone which is a steroid hormone that supports gestation and oxytocin which stimulates contractions of the uterus and the ejection of milk. Mmm-mmmm!
Placentas can be cooked, surprising like any other meat. You can stew them, make them into a burger, bake them, fry them, or even bbq them! Some women even drink them in shakes. In most cases, the placenta is dried out like jerky and eaten as such or dried and ground as a lovely seasoning to sprinkle over your food as you would salt or pepper. A majority of women choose to have the dry ground placenta put into capsules to stretch out their nutritional value (and probably to pretend they're not eating their placenta). If you would like to eat your placenta then you must have a special placenta cook come to your house (by law it must be in the placenta owner's house) and prepare it. Have no fear, she will probably use her own tools and they make sure to keep her work area clean. And it's not recommended that you go buy a slab of placenta on amazon because as your own placenta is good for you, another woman's placenta can be dangerous. Placentas are full of blood and can carry diseases, yuck. Want more info:http://pregnancy.about.com/od/placenta/a/placentarecipes.htm

*While looking up info on placentas, I found out that they can also make your placenta into a teddy bear! Akward....

McDonald's needs a new burger, one with "everything".

So today I was spending time with my boyfriend and we decided to have some good ol' McDonald's when we got out of school. We get there and ask each other if either's hungry or not, deciding whether or not to eat at that very moment. We then came to the conclusion that we could always make room for food so we proceed to ordering. I know what I want. I always know what I want because I get the exact same thing every time I go there. Amani, my boyfriend, doesn't know what he wants so I decided to be helpful by naming items off of the menu to him, simple suggestions. He usually gets some chicken sandwich so I suggest that first and he says he's not sure. Then I suggest a tasty looking mushroom and swiss angus which also got me turned down. Apparently he didn't like the idea of mushrooms at all. So I suggested the bacon angus, I mean, bacon on a burger, sounds good, yes? Not to Amani, there was something wrong with it, I can't even remember. The regular angus maybe? Nope, he wanted bacon AND lettuce. So I suggest the big 'n tasty. Nope, still no nibbles from my stubborn bull. We were standing at the counter for 20 minutes trying to decide what he wanted. Finally, he cries out, "Why don't they have a burger with everything!?" So I took pity on him, bought him two burgers, a big and tasty with added bacon and a McChicken. Then I took the chicken off of the one sandwich and stuck it on his big 'n tasty burger. They forgot to add bacon, but he settled for what he got. Ridiculous, but I love him. And all the while, the faithful employees stood at their post at first irritated at the time and complexity ordering a simple meal was for us and then they seemed quite amused. In the end, I'm sure we just confused them, hence the forgotten bacon strips. Ohwell, it was fun.

Deep-fried Coke

Here's something that my boyfriend showed me thinking I'd find it interesting and boy did it blow my mind! Deep fried Coca-cola. It's down-right artery cringing scary. This new delicacy was founded, of course, at a state fair. Ah, state fairs, they bring us some of the greasiest, worst food you could possibly ever have and still, people will go specifically for the food. Not that I wouldn't. [; This concoction is Coca-Cola flavored batter deep-fried and drizzled with Coke fountain syrup. Then you top it off with whipped-cream, cinnamon sugar, and a cherry. Mm-mmmm good! My stomach is curdling and my throat feels greasy just thinking about it. Again, that won't stop me. I do plan to go and try this "thing" one day in hopes that it's not as absolutely dreadful as it sounds.
This treat came from none other than.... *drumrollllll* da da da DA! -- TEXAS! The lone star state were everything is super-sized, even the people! (Except for me, I was a fairly active child growing up there and escaped my large fate just in time. It is a truly compelling story that I shall save for another time in another blog.) The deep fried Coke won the founder, Abel Gonzales Jr., the creativity honor at the second-annual Big Tex Choice Awards Contest. So here's to you Abel, the man who Made soft drinks much more than something that will quench your sugary thirst but rather something that will shat on your arteries and block them from their thirst for blood.

Microwaveable Pork Rinds.

Yes, yes, you read correct, pork rinds, a favorite salty snack to many are now microwaveable! As convenient as it's buttery, lovable cousin, microwaveable popcorn. For those of you who don't know, pork rinds are deep-fried pig skins. It sounds gross but it's honestly not so bad, and healthy. Pork rinds have been classified by nutritionists as a healthy junk food. A serving of pork rinds is actually higher in protein and lower in fat than peanuts. There are 9 grams of protein in pork rinds and 0 carbohydrates. Now, pork rinds DO have 5g of fat but over half of that fat is monounsaturated. In other words, it's the good kind of fat that we associate with olive oil.
Now that you've been educated on the basics of pork rinds, there's one last thing you should know. Until just the other day, I had no clue that this silly sounding snack could be microwaved. No one in my area seems to have been informed of this possibility either. Well, they CAN be microwaved and in fact, it's even healthier for you! With a whopping 65% less fat, 33% less sodium, 32 mg less cholesterol, and 40 less calories than their traditional deep-fried brothers.
But wait-- there's more! Are you a long time pork rind lover? Well, they also make flavor seasonings for your pork rinds. Never have a plain old pork rind again, they're the rinds of the future, I tell you.