Philadelphia Magazine writer Jason Fagone spent one year profiling some of the most divinely outsized personalities in the world of competitive eating. While Akron house painter Coondog O'Karma makes a midlife grab at glory via rapid-fire pizza consumption, Bill "El Wingador" Simmons attempts to reclaim Wong Bowl supremacy from 90lb Sonya "Black Widow" Thomas, and day trader Tim Janus dons the mantle of the mysterious Eater X, it all comes down to one shared hunger. They all want to win the Mustard Yellow Belt of International Hot Dog Eating Supremacy back from the Japanese who'd dominated the Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog-Eating Contest nearly every year since 1997.
Back in July of 2001, that would mean beating the record of 25 1/8 set the previous year by Kazutoyo "The Rabbit" Arai.
"If you think cutesy pink Valentine cupcakes are too sentimental and passé then wait until you check out these Bleeding Heart cupcakes. Instead of being cutesy hearts, they're almost gruesome, and the best part is that they actually bleed jam!"
This Valentine's Day, the Piggly Wiggly chain encourages you to Say It With Beef. Say exactly *what*, we're not entirely certain, but we're more than delighted to hear how that works out for y'all come 2/14. Oh - and there's a chance for you to win a $5,000 diamond necklace. $5K would buy one heck of a lot of hamburger, come to think of it...
Here it is just a few hours from the start of New Year's Eve and I suddenly realize that I don't have anything to eat tonight. Well, OK, I do have plenty of food in the house I could have, but I haven't made any plans to make any special meal or order Chinese food or anything else. I sort of just woke up today, went to the store to buy some soap, and then came home. I have no idea what I'm having for dinner tonight. It just might be chicken soup.
I have the liquid part of the evening all set though. I'm planning on gin and tonics for the evening, or perhaps Negronis if I get a little adventurous. I also have a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon if I'm in the mood for that.
What are you eating and drinking tonight? Are you planning a special meal or something easy to make or are you ordering take out? Are you popping champagne at midnight?
How appropriate: National Champagne Day falls on New Year's Eve! I'm sure it's just a coincidence.
I don't think I'll be drinking any of the bubbly tonight. My roommate actually bought a bottle of Korbel, but it was to celebrate the New England Patriots going 16-0 the other night. Tonight I'm not sure what I'm drinking yet, but rest assured, I'll be drinking.
We've fallen a little behind on our cookie of the day posting, mostly because we thought that you might all be a little overwhelmed by the avalanche of sweets and treats that have a way of filling our homes around the holiday season. It's taking all my willpower right now not to go and cut a slice off the chocolate and caramel covered apple that is currently hanging out in the fridge.
If you aren't totally tired of cookies, I came across a recipe a couple of days ago and spoke to me. I haven't tried it out myself yet, but it's from Julie at Noshtalgia and her recipes tend to be pretty darn reliable. It's for Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies, a style of cookie that is good any time of year, not just around the holidays.
I spent Christmas hanging out with my family, doing some cooking and generally vegging out. It seems that my friend Eric spent the day with his family, stymied by a Wilton Pre-Baked Gingerbread House Kit. He and his three year old nephew started the kit as a way to do something fun together and by the end were ready to toss it in the ground in frustration. Did anyone else try this kit this year? Was it fun for you or did you have as many problems as Eric and his nephew did?
Yesterday I mentioned that my mom and I worked in tandem to create an apple crisp for dessert on Christmas. We both compromised a little on our traditional method and I think our team work was a success, as I do believe that this was one of the best apple crisps every (although my dad pointed out that the best one is typically the one right in front of you, so I could be a little biased).
You see, I like to use mostly oats in my topping and she likes to use mostly flour. We came together and used about half oat flour and half pure rolled oats. The combination gave it a sense of pastry with the crunch and seeming-virtuousness of granola. I cut the pieces of apple a little smaller than my norm under her tutelege and I convinced her to season both the apples and the crumble topping. We both agreed to use toasted pecans in top instead of walnuts. What turned out was a dish that was tender and sweet without being overwhelming. It felt like it could be a really decadent breakfast item (and would be great with plain yogurt instead of the vanilla ice cream we ate it with). Check out our recipe after the jump.
We hope you had a great Christmas yesterday and are in the middle of very happy holiday week. You probably have some leftovers from the last few days, and that probably includes candy canes. I always have almost a box left on my kitchen counter every December.
I've looked around and found some recipes that include candy canes or are shaped like candy canes, including these Candy Cane Cookies from Better Homes & Gardens and these Candy Cane Cookies from Betty Crocker. Here's a recipe for Candy Cane Cheesecake, which sounds interesting.
Yesterday my mom and I made a big apple crisp and roasted off five huge sweet potatoes (which are destined for this dish). She is letting me have my way with the sweet potatoes, but the apple crisp was more of a tricky compromise. I've made a lot of crisps in my day and have developed a technique that I really like. However, that method relies on a food processor, which is a piece of equipment that my mother doesn't have. So we went back and forth, melding my mental recipe with the one she often follows from an old, favorite cookbook.
Later today I'll be chopping vegetables with my dad, making stuffing and getting the bird into the oven. I look forward to doing this kitchen dance with him every year, and happily, we've gotten to the point where we can anticipate each other in the kitchen without words. It's a joyful thing.
I hope that all you Slashfood readers out there are having equally nice days as I am, full of cooking, eating, drinking and laughing.
I was going to mention that today is National Eggnog Day, but we've already talked about it being National Eggnog Month and I didn't want to overnog readers. So I won't even mention that today is National Eggnog Day.
Here's a recipe for Sticky Toffee Pudding Eggnog from Food & Wine. It's a little twist on the traditional egg nog recipe. As cook Eben Freeman explains, it's both a drink and a dessert, because it's rather thick (as was traditional eggnog back in the day). This might be good to make for tomorrow. Your family and friends might be surprised at the caramel taste mixed in with the Cognac, dark rum, and cream.
So winter officially greeted us the other day and the cold is here to stay for the next couple of months or so. We all have our own drinks to warm us up in December, January, and February: hot chocolate, coffee, tea, cider, etc. And some people go the booze route (The Booze Route - there's a good name for a band). The folks over at the Guardianbooks blog have dived into the novels of Charles Dickens and found out he's really the place to go to if we want to get ideas for winter drinks.
Besides recipes for hot punch (from A Christmas Carol), you also get info on how to make Wassail (from The Pickwick Papers), Purl (from The Old Curiosity Shop), and something called Smoking Bishop, which is from A Christmas Carol and features a lot of red wine. God bless us everyone!
I first spotted this recipe on Tastespotting and knew instantly that it had my name written all over it. I am a sucker for baked goods that incorporate herbs and so this one called to me (I also have a recipe for Lemon Basil cookies that I want to try). I made some adjustments to the recipe. It didn't come together easily, so I added several tablespoons of milk. For the first time in my life (I normally reduce the amount of sugar in things), I actually added more sugar than the recipe called for, because when I tasted the dough, it tasted like there was hardly any sugar in it at all. I was happy with the way the cookies turned out and I loved the fact that it didn't hurt the dough at all to hang out in the fridge for a full 24 hour period. Check out my adapted recipe after the jump.
Philadelphia Magazine writer Jason Fagone spent one year profiling some of the most divinely outsized personalities in the world of competitive eating. While Akron house painter Coondog O'Karma makes a midlife grab at glory via rapid-fire pizza consumption, Bill "El Wingador" Simmons attempts to reclaim Wong Bowl supremacy from 90lb Sonya "Black Widow" Thomas, and day trader Tim Janus dons the mantle of the mysterious Eater X, it all comes down to one shared hunger. They all want to win the Mustard Yellow Belt of International Hot Dog Eating Supremacy back from the Japanese who'd dominated the Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog-Eating Contest nearly every year since 1997.
Here it is just a few hours from the start of New Year's Eve and I suddenly realize that I don't have anything to eat tonight. Well, OK, I do have plenty of food in the house I could have, but I haven't made any plans to make any special meal or order Chinese food or anything else. I sort of just woke up today, went to the store to buy some soap, and then came home. I have no idea what I'm having for dinner tonight. It just might be chicken soup.
I was going to mention that today is National Eggnog Day, but we've already talked about it being 
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