"WhatGeeksEat" news and stories

Don't lick your screen, this is only a picture. Vanessa at What Geeks Eat made these brioche cinnamon rolls, combining two already-wonderful baked goods into single super-treat.

Thanks Vanessa for adding this picture to the Slashfood Flickr pool.

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I use canning jars for everything*. I use a pint-sized one to hold my morning coffee and another for my oatmeal. I store grains, beans and pastas in the quart and half-gallon ones. I use wide-mouth ones for leftovers and for those days when I decide to take apart an entire melon for easy eating. When my water bottle goes missing, I don't worry, I just fill up a jar and tuck it into my bag. I have new jars, bought by the dozen in the grocery store and old ones, picked up at thrift stores and rummage sales.

There have been others who have been jumping on the non-traditional food storage in jars bandwagon lately and it thrills me down to the bottom of my jar-loving heart. Vanessa at What Geeks Eat recently tucked four colorfully layered "Dinner in a Jar" into her deep freeze. She stacked chopped green beans, cubed zucchini, quartered Roma tomatoes and a bunch of chopped chard in a wide-mouth quart jar, for use in future soups and curries. What an ingenious way to use the summer abundance to make dinner easier in the midst of winter!

Back at the end of July, Gourmet did something similar, suggesting that instead of making sandwiches to take along on a picnic, that instead you pack your meal in a jar. Make a layered salad that with colorful veggies for a feast for the palate and the eyes!

*Including canning. I've done more than at least two dozen jars of jams and fruit butters so far this summer.

It's the fourth Friday of August and my office is dead quiet. Half the staff is out on vacation and the other half is surfing the internet, trying to pass the minutes until it's time to go home. Here are some of the things I've been reading to make the moments fly by until the end of the day...

1. Could organic booze be the secret to avoiding a hangover?
2. Joy the Baker and What Geeks Eat both whip up homemade doughnuts.
3. David Lebovitz asks, "Are you a melon washer?" (I'm not).
4. Speaking of melons, Culinate waxes poetic about the noble muskmelon.
5. Looking for a greener way to do your grocery shopping? Check out the iZip Tricruiser.
   
6. If you grew up in California, then you probably have memories of getting ice cream cones at the Thrifty Drug store (now Rite Aid). They used a cylindrical scoop to dole out their ice cream and Kate has finally found one that replicates that experience.
7. Looking to spruce up that hot dog? Marie at Make and Takes has some fun ways to make hot dogs even more kid-friendly.
8. Looking for ways to keep your fruit budget out of the stratosphere? Follow Sweet Juniper's lead and do a little urban gleaning.

All I can say is Vanessa and Dave, next time you make this for dinner, would you invite me over? What a delicious and beautiful meal of pistachio encrusted lamb and roasted asparagus! Best of all, the corresponding blog post over on What Geeks Eat (have I mentioned how much I love it when there's a blog post to go along with the pictures you all upload to Flickr?) informs me that it's a local meal. You can't get much better than that!

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The CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) season is starting to pick up and so many of us will now be getting boxes and baskets of gorgeous fresh produce on a weekly basis (Scott and I are splitting a share with a friend and our pick ups started last week - delicious!). I don't actually know if this picture, from What Geeks Eat is actually a CSA share, but it has that look, since it's a large amount of beautiful, fresh produce (I guess it could also be the result of a trip to a Farmers' Market). Regardless, it's a beautiful picture that has a way of getting me even more excited for season of fresh eating that is now upon us.

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