• Artificial sweeteners aren't for diet products anymore. The Times outlines the ins and outs of sweeteners, and how they're not only entering our cooking but are also ripe for mixing with regular sugar.
• Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson talks about his vegan lifestyle and how sometimes he slips (but only to be polite).
• Delicious and buttery biscuits: How the Southern tradition moved out of the home and into our freezers.
• We try to keep our kitchens clean, but sometimes bacteria are so very welcome -- especially when you're making homemade yogurt.
• A sad love letter to Charles, a restaurant that disappointed, from Frannie Von Furstinshow.
• The Times investigates New York's burger scene, from wagyu, to a tasty side of french fries -- Flip, Black Iron Burger, and City Burger.
• Empanadas are pretty much the national food in Chile and can be made at home with a quick dough and tasty filling.
• A comforting recipe for Roasted Pepper Tacos with Cream -- "soulful, easy and deeply flavorful."
• Bouley Market is on its way to getting a cheese room, and gears up to sell restaurant-quality vegetables.
• In case you don't have enough gadgets, King Arthur Flour and Crate and Barrel offer shiny new products.

Question: what if Hershey went from using cocoa butters in their chocolate to using vegetable fats and artificial sweeteners?

That's what might happen. They're asking the Food and Drug Administration to change the standards in which chocolate is made and classified, to "modernize" the making of chocolate. Hershey isn't the only company asking the question, it's everyone.

This is sacrilege! We all know that chocolate, even when its high in fat and calories, has a lot of health benefits too. And if people want to have diet chocolate or a chocolate substitute, there are plenty of products already on the market. Changing the taste of Hershey chocolate would be like changing America, damn it!

Check out this site to record your protest.

It's important to drink responsibly, so those who have been using diet sodas as mixers to cut calories in drinks might be interested to know the results of a new study. Australian scientists compared the rate of absorption for sugar-sweetened alcoholic drinks to artificially-sweetened drinks (like vodka and coke versus vodka and diet coke, for example). They found that artificial sweeteners led to a higher rate of alcohol absorption by the body, meaning that drinkers felt the effects of the alcohol more quickly and more strongly than those who used sugar-sweetened mixers. Drinkers who had "diet" mixers had a greater concentration  of alcohol in their bloodstream and would feel more drink, even if they had consumed the same amount of alcohol with a sweetened mixer.

Scientists worry about people's health because of this finding. When the mixers used to make drinks are "diet," people tend to drink more because they know that the calorie count is lower. When drinking, it is better to try to keep track of how you're feeling than simply the number of drinks you've had. And if you want to watch calories, try following every drink with a large glass of water. It's calorie free and will probably have you feeling much better in the morning.