orange yogurt muffins

this is one of my all time favorite recipes. i thought it was lost forever, but it miraculously resurfaced and was mailed across state lines to make its way back into my recipe book. i'm not sure where it originally came from, but it was given to me by my old boss at the bed and breakfast i used to work at. these muffins are delicious! next time you feel like baking give these a try. you won't regret it.

homemade by ikea.

words cannot express how much i want this cookbook from ikea. even if it's all in swedish and i can't make any of the recipes, the photographs are so gorgeous i really don't care. check out the video below for a cool making-of. and be prepared to get hungry.

IKEA – Homemade is Best. from Forsman & Bodenfors on Vimeo.

human shaped robot

Human Shaped Robot has some amazing prints for sale. check it out. the meat hair is only the beginning.

reblogged from gastronomista.

the children are our future.

this kid is slightly annoying, but he sure as hell knows more at age 11 than i did.

hamburglar, 1977.

when i was a kid we had a bunch of these amazing mcdonald's drinking glasses. sadly only one survived (from the odd mcvote '86 series), but luckily i salvaged it from the reckage that is my childhood home. it is a prized possession, as you might imagine. as luck would have it, i was recently browsing through an antique store, and i came across a small collection of other vintage mcdonald's glasses. being who i am, i just couldn't pass up the opportunity to give mcdlt a friend. especially since it's the hamburglar. i would burgle hamburgers too, if i ever got desperate. although, probably not from mcdonald's. i'm more interested in their paraphernalia.

red velvet fried chicken.

*photo by Anthony Mylott for NY Daily News

i love red velvet cake and i love fried chicken. together? i'm not so sure.

if you are a brave soul in San Francisco, check out American Cupcake to find out how this chicken tastes for yourself.

happy birthday, andy warhol

east end brewery.

here i am in pittsburgh. i've only been here about a week and i've already unpacked and decorated the walls. on top of that, i've been to a few prominent food and drink establishments around the city (notably the "dirty o," primanti brothers, and the east end food co-op). but most importantly i made a venture to the east end brewing company, conveniently located just minutes from my current residence.

the brewery is located in a very nondescript building a bit off the beaten track in pittsburgh's point breeze neighborhood. at certain times during the week they are open for "growler hours." at these designated times anyone can walk in off the street and chat up whoever is tending their storefront and sample some of their tasty beer. you can also walk away with a very reasonably priced growler ($10 + $3 bottle deposit). i myself went with the fat gary nut brown ale.

if you ever find yourself in pittsburgh, the east end brewing co. is definitely a stop worth making.

also good to know in relation to pittsburgh beer: saturday september 11th is the fourth annual big pour event sponsored by construction junction. for a flat fee of $55 you get to sample beer from over 30 craft breweries and taste food from 20 restaurants, as well as enjoy live art and music. what a deal!

monsanto's charity.

Monsanto has donated millions of dollars worth of hybrid seeds to Haiti. call me crazy, but i don't trust them.

here's what they say.

here's what the news says.

here's a response.

and here's a vanity fair article that i've linked to before to help paint a clearer picture of what Monstanto's real motivations might be.

nicole gastonguay

Polaroid
Originally uploaded by Bnice2mice

there is something about crocheted and knitted food products that i absolutely love. Nicole Gastonguay creates some especially amazing examples of fabricated foodstuffs, among many other delights (check out her robot!). the pickles and polaroid above are just two of my favorites.

lock jaw.

i heard about this story courtesy of the most recent episode of Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! sometimes you really can have too much meat. the best part, in my opinion anyway, is that they've taken this guy's unfortunate eating experience and turned it into a contest and publicity stunt. america!

jamie oliver at TED

i like you jamie oliver. i like what you're all about. not just the naked thing either (although i do miss your show on food network).

i respect jamie oliver because he doesn't just talk about sustainability or eating locally- he really backs it up with his cooking. lately he's become the poster boy for school cafeteria reform. and it's about time someone took up that torch. i know my high school lunches consisted mostly of dressing drenched "salad," chocolate chip cookies, and potato chips. not exactly well rounded. oliver is taking his mission public in america in his new show Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution (which airs on ABC, friday nights at 9pm).

below is a video of oliver's speech from TED earlier this year. for more about TED, check out the documentary from 2007 (which showcased the year al gore presented what would become An Inconvenient Truth).

food party.

i just discovered that a show called Food Party exists of IFC. it's insane!

check out this clip and see for yourself:



i have always had a soft spot for anthropomorphic food.

tim burton and skin fruit

this past week i made it into nyc to see a few museum exhibitions. aside from the whitney biennial, which i'll get to later, i visited moma and the new museum.

it's been a little while since the tim burton retrospective went up at moma, and i'm glad i held off on seeing it. if the crowds last wednesday were any indication, it must have been an absolute madhouse when it was brand new. i'm not really the biggest tim burton fan to begin with, but i wasn't all that impressed with the show. for me it was just a bit too crowded. it seemed like they went out of their way to fill all the space available to them. all that did was to make the whole scene overwhelming. it would have made more of an impact to include less and let each piece have its own space.

moma also had marina abromovic performing "the artist is present." i'm also not a huge fan of performance art in general, but abromovic is pretty impressive. some of the things she puts herself though in the name of her art are very intense and to be admired. this piece is no exception.

before this trip i had never been to the new museum. my first impression is that i really like their bathrooms and elevators (lime green!). the show they have up now, skin fruit, is curated by jeff koons. and as someone who aspires to be a curator one day, my sensibilities were offended. i think koons should stick to making art and let other people organize it. the show wasn't cohesive and it wasn't interesting. mostly it seemed like koons picked a bunch of pieces that he really liked for whatever reason and tried to throw in as much nudity and overt sexuality as possible. which isn't necessarily a bad thing- except that in this case it was. and there were a few pieces that i really loved (specifically the janine antoni piece, kara walker, tim noble and sue webster's black narcissus,
and a few others), but altogether it really didn't work for me.

so my recent art adventure was kind of a bust. but i did get some pants that fit and i finally got to eat shake shack. and yes, it is all its cracked up to be!

hot beef balls.

i generally don't like hot pockets. this commercial makes me sure that i don't.

budweiser golden wheat

i just saw this commercial on tv and decided it was just weird enough that i needed to share it.



i don't know about you, but i don't like thinking about my beer macking on wheat, or anything else for that matter.

new orleans.

last week i went on a wonderful adventure to new orleans, partly to visit my TFA brother, and partly to see what happens at Mardi Gras.
i came back to new york after a slight case of food poisoning with a head cold and a lot of pictures.

despite my illness i had a great time in new orleans and i would love to go back one day to see more. i thought everything about it was beautiful- even the ugly parts. and besides Willie Mae's which did a number on my stomach, the food was great too. and who doesn't love a city with drive thru daquiris? and the oldest bar in america? truth be told, during my stay in NOLA i had more experience with the bars in the area than the restaurants, and that right there is reason enough to go back! i wouldn't trade in my Pimm's Cup at the Carousel bar for anything, but i am a bit disappointed that i never got a cup of gumbo. well, as fas as i'm concerned it's never a bad thing to have a reason to keep traveling.

for pictures click here.

BBQ

this is what i ate for lunch today:


courtesy of Big W's Roadside BBQ

they have two delicious size options for sandwiches listed on the menu: sensible and roadside. i ordered the unlisted "smallest" size. needless to say it was plenty.

if you ever find yourself in eastern dutchess county ny, it's definitely worth a stop.

burgervetica.

this is great. it combines two of my favorite things: font and food. and we all know how i feel about burgers.

courtesy of Gastronomista.

goats.

i've been thinking lately that i would benefit from a big change in my life. for example, wouldn't it be wonderful to pick up for a month or so and go milk goats somewhere out west? i think so. growing up on long island and spending most of my adult life in classrooms or art galleris hasn't exactly given me a hands-on appreciation for the land. youtube, however, has given me a great appreciation of goats (at least of the fainting variety). i would like to channel this sentiment into practical experience. also a plus: i love cheese. goat milk makes great cheese! wouldn't cheese making be a valuable life skill? absolutely. and goats are adorable. who wouldn't want to hang out with such cute old man looking animals all day? until i come to the decision to make my goat milking dreams a reality, i will live vicariously through adorable, if not totally educational or helpful, youtube clips of goats being great at being goats (who fall over).

and so can you!




*note: my desire to farm with goats is not limited to the ones who go all stiff-legged when startled, but they do make for the most endearing videos.