While last year's national turkeys pardoned on Thanksgiving by President Bush found homes in Disneyland, this year a farm animal rescue group is petitioning President Obama to send the turkeys to them instead.
Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen, N.Y., started an online petition, asking the president to let the national turkeys find homes in their turkey shelter instead of in the Magic Kingdom, Mother Nature Network reports.
"Historically these turkeys have been actually sent to farms where they're supposed to live out their lives, but they don't live very long lives," Farm Sanctuary president and co-founder Gene Baur told Slashfood.
"At Disneyland they don't' know how to properly care for them, and they feed them in such a way that they become overweight, which is what typically happens to these birds," he said. "We're hoping the president will send them to Farm Sanctuary where they will get the best care possible."
A Costco executive told the Associated Press that it is no longer carrying Coca-Cola products in its stores after a dispute over pricing with the Atlanta-based company.
Neither Costco nor Coca-Cola officials returned calls from Slashfood, but a Coca-Cola Co. executive told the AP the company wouldn't comment on the ongoing negotiations. The official said the company wanted to work out its differences with Costco "in a spirit of fairness." In addition to Coca-Cola soft drinks the company makes Sprite, Squirt, Dasani water, Full Throttle energy drinks.
Fast-food chain Carl's Jr. has stopped the ad campaign for its Chicken Parmesan Sandwich after Italian-American groups complained about the mafia-themed commercials.
The California Italian-American Task Force and the National Italian-American Federation praised Carl's Jr.'s parent company CKE for its decision not to buy more TV slots for the ads, which feature mobster and garbage man characters that critics said showed negative Italian-American stereotypes, Nation's Restaurant News reports.
In the ad, a man sits in his car eating the Carl's Jr. Chicken Parmesan Sandwich as marinara sauce drips out of his mouth and down his shirt. When two mafia goons approach the car, the man plays dead. Fooled by the sauce dotting his shirt like blood, they leave him alive assuming someone else killed him before they arrived.
"NIAF was pleased to see the positive steps taken by Carl's Jr. Restaurant to remove negative, inaccurate and unfair characterizations in their recent commercial advertisements," Jeff Capaccio, the group's regional vice president for the Far West, told the paper. "These advertisements only fuel further incorrect assumptions about an entire ethnic group."
One of the most tender and juicy hams you can serve your guests this holiday season is just a click away. Honey Baked Hams are bone-in hams that have a sensational honey crust that produces a sweet taste throughout the meat. A must-have in many Southern households for the holidays, these hams are an ideal Thanksgiving turkey alternative. A variety of honey baked and glazed hams can be ordered online -- making both shopping and cooking easier for the busy host. Slashfood rounded up some of the top online sites for ordering honey baked ham this holiday season.
The HoneyBaked Ham Company offers whole and half honey-baked and glazed hams online. You can even order complete meals with side dishes like green bean casserole, potatoes au gratin and southern pecan pie.
Chicago's Allen Brothers, whose steaks are served in steakhouses like Morton's and at Lawry's the Prime Rib's four outposts, offers honey-glazed hams and ham dinners.
The Holiday Ham Company has whole and half-hams online, along with side dishes, seafood, turkey and steaks.
Smithfield Marketplace has a variety of hams in addition to its honey baked ham, including brown-sugar and wine-glazed hams.
Officials in Kansas say 48 customers sickened by salsa at a Mi Ranchero Mexican restaurant in August may have been the victims of a revenge plot by a former employee.
Nation's Restaurant News reports that Arnoldo Bazan, 30, and his wife, Yini De La Torre, 19, were charged in U.S. District Court for allegedly mixing Methomyl, a poison used in pesticides, with the salsa in a Mi Ranchito restaurant. De La Torre is the niece of Mi Ranchito co-owner Rulber Dela Torre.
Officials said the alleged poisonings are tied to Bazan's firing from the Mi Ranchito in Olathe, Kan., and his belief that one of the owners was responsible for the loss of his vehicle, NRN.com reports.
Initially, investigators suspected faulty water lines created toxic acid which sickened the chain's patrons. The indictment against the couple, however, indicates a plot to hurt the chain's bottom line.
The world's bartenders and classic cocktail devotees are swallowing some bitter news.
The global supply of angostura bitters, a unique-tasting herbal additive to cocktails like the Manhattan and the Old Fashioned, is drying up after its manufacturer's financial woes caused a production shutdown at the sole plant that makes it in Trinidad and Tobago, the Guardian reports.
Patrick Sepe, chief executive of the US distributor, Angostura USA, told the Guardian that production halted in June and is just now getting back on track. "There has been a shortage," Sepe told the newspaper. "You can't just turn on and off supply of bitters. It's not like producing bottled water; it's a very delicate, intricate process."
Mixologist Scott Beattie, author of the cocktail how-to "Artisanal Cocktails," told Slashfood that for most bars, the angostura variety, invented in 1924, is the only type of bitters stocked and that a shortage will have an impact on cocktail drinkers everywhere.
And in the spirit -- and to celebrate Veteran's Day -- next Wednesday, several major casual-dining restaurants -- including Applebee's, McCormick & Schmick's and Golden Corral -- are offering free food to the nation's military vets and active-duty personnel, USA Today reports.
Outback Steakhouse is offering a free Bloomin' Onion appetizer and a drink to vets and current military personnel on Wednesday. Krispy Kreme is giving away donuts, and even Home Depot and Lowe's are getting in on the action offering 10-percent discounts to military.
Kraft Foods Australia launched a new Vegemite product earlier this year, asking aficionados to name the jars of Vegemite mixed with cream cheese. When the name -- Vegemite iSnack 2.0 -- was announced in September, Vegemite protests erupted on the Internet where fans blasted the name as "uStupid 1.0" and "un-Australian," the New York Times reports.
Four days later, Kraft announced it would hold another vote from a pool of more conservative choices including Vegemate, Snackmate and Vegemild. Vegemite Cheesybite was chosen through online and telephone voting. This is a very important issue if you're a fan of Vegemite, the "salty, gooey yeast paste" that Australians eat like Americans eat peanut butter, the Times reports.
Look out Two-Buck Chuck. The home of the Slurpee and the Big Gulp is launching a line of value-priced wines targeting consumers looking for a boozy bargain during these tough economic times.
7-Eleven plans to sell a $3.99 Cabernet Sauvignon and a Chardonnay under the proprietary "Yosemite Road" label at its stores in the United States and Japan.
"The consumer is really pinched as far as discretionary income," Kevin Elliott, senior vice president of merchandising and logistics of Dallas-based 7-Eleven, Inc., told the Associated Press. "We're seeing a lot of success in products that really resonate on a value basis."
It's hard enough as it is to get the kids to eat their salad. But Tracy Grimes will have an even tougher time getting her 4- and 8-year-old kids to nibble their greens after she says she found a tree frog in a bag of romaine lettuce she bought from a Kroger supermarket in Sterling Heights, Mich., last Friday.
Grimes, of Troy, Mich., told Slashfood she noticed something moving inside the package as she was getting ready to make a salad for dinner.
"I didn't know what I was seeing but sure enough, I looked a little closer and there was a small light green tree frog, happy as can be, crawling around, living life in the bag of lettuce," she said Tuesday. "I just sort of gasped a bit, and then I stared and just remember thinking 'That's not right.'"
Emeril Lagasse is expanding his culinary empire this month with his first hamburger joint.
Burgers and More by Emeril will bring the world-famous chef's signature flair to the basic burger. It's slated to open Nov. 22 at the Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem, Pa.
"I really want to be the real thing," Emeril told Slashfood at the restaurant's unveiling at New York City's famed Carnegie Deli. "This is not going to be the dollar menu here."
Community service has gone to the birds. Or, for some critics, at least the Chicago legal system has after a judge told a defendant he could either do 100 hours community service or bring him some jerk chicken.
When Darrius Logan plead guilty to misdemeanor battery and criminal trespass charges in August, he told Associate Judge Robert Livas that he'd already worked 100 unpaid "community service" hours at Uncle Joe's Jerk Chicken, a South Side Chicago Jamaican restaurant chain. The judge told him to come back in two months with proof he'd completed the community service elsewhere or to bring back enough chicken to feed the court room, the Chicago Tribune reports.
"If you walk in with enough chicken to feed everybody, I'll accept these community service hours," Livas said, according to court transcripts from Aug. 4 obtained by the Tribune. "If you don't, I'm not taking any of them."
Taking on the Bistro Burger. Photo: Jennifer Lawinski
What do "dessert nachos" made of cookies and cakes, deep-fried dumplings and a loaded double cheeseburger have in common?
They were all on the menu for the This Is Why You're Fat "Eat and Tweet" challenge to celebrate the launch of the popular blog's new book of the same name (tag line: where dreams become heart attacks).
This Is Why You're Fat tweeted the locations of six Manhattan food trucks and the first person to send in pics of all six fattening treats won a party for 25 friends from the food truck of their choice and a copy of the "This Is Why You're Fat" book by blog founders Jessica Amason and Richard Blakeley.
There was nothing Yum-O about the cockroach that dropped in on Rachael Ray's lunch earlier this week.
The Food Network star was serving up some "sizzling soft tacos" to a group of sixth graders at New York City's Public School 89 when the uninvited guest crashed the party. A reporter for the New York Daily News noticed the six-legged bug scrambling across the table, and then watched as Charlie Dougiello, Ray's publicist, swatted the vermin away.
Ray, who was at the school to introduce her new healthy lunch menu, told the Daily News that she missed the whole thing. "I did not see that. It's unfortunate if there was [a bug]. I think that these schools strive to be the best across the board; I'm sure that includes cleanliness."
KFC Free Grilled Chicken. Photo: Jennifer Lawinski
Everybody likes free chicken.
And anyone who walked through the doors of KFC Monday got one free piece of grilled chicken in the chain's third "UNFry Day" promotion. KFC is touting the grilled chicken as a healthier alternative to its fried varieties and has launched a Web site for its "Grilled Nation" of "UNfried" chicken eaters.
The previous promotions proved so popular, restaurants ran out of chicken and had to provide rain checks. This time, things seemed to be moving in an orderly fashion.
Slashfood hit the busy lunch hour in downtown Brooklyn, N.Y., where diners lined up -- sometimes up to 20 deep -- for free chicken.
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