Choosing colors that go together can be as important to eating as getting dressed in the morning, as evidenced by this lovely photo from Nicole of Pinch My Salt. After making a batch of bagels, she decided to used one as the foundation for a grilled turkey burger with cheddar, basil and roasted pepper. While bun purists may be scandalized, the rest of us are slack-jawed in the presence of the appetizing awesomeness of the burger's color scheme, which is as bold and vibrant as a country's flag. Even the poppy seeds complement the yellow, red and green -- which, in turn, complement a mysterious and sudden craving for a turkey burger, grilled and served on a bagel.

[Via Pinch My Salt]

On one of the first gorgeous Saturdays of the spring, did Brooklyn foodies run to the park for picnic lunches or line the bars for springy cocktails?

Sure, some of 'em did. But 3,000 others, according to organizers, crammed the multicolored '70s-esque hallways of John Jay High School, aka P.S. 321, for a day of workshops, eats, panels and vendors called the Brooklyn Food Conference, promoting what a bright-yellow pamphlet trumpeted as "Local Action for Global Change."

Food world celebs roaming the halls included chef Dan Barber, speaker and TV host Anna Lappé and author-activist Raj Patel (whose classroom was so stuffed a volunteer had to turn fans away). Some attendees, all of whom attended for free, were a bit starry-eyed over certain sustainably-minded speakers. About Patel, local CSA organizer Meredith Modzelewski sighed, "I'm in love with him now."

Find out more and see photos after the jump.

Writing in Slate, Jewish food maven Joan Nathan ponders the bagel, that thick steering wheel of boiled dough that's such a cultural touchstone for American Jews. Now, a new book, The Bagel: A Cultural History delves into the subject, sussing out the bagel's ancient roots and exposing amusing details of the bagel's role in 20th century life.

Apparently, breads with holes have been around for centuries. Italians had hard crackers called taralli, Romans had something called buccellatum and the Chinese something called girde. Egyptians, Nathan adds, had their own - you can see the doughnut-shaped rolls in hieroglyphic displays at the Louvre. Polish Jews may have invented the modern bagel, when the Polish king first allowed Jews to begin commercial baking (they had previously been banned) and a baker made a round bread in his honor. Bagels found their way to the Lower East Side by the 19th century, and they burst into the non-Jewish American consciousness in the 1950s, when Lender's frozen bagels were invented. Today you can get them in Dunkin' Donuts stores from Albuquerque to Bangor.

At That's Fit, they're always up on the latest dieting and health news, so it's no surprise that they were the first ones to mention that an ex-contestant from Donald Trump's The Apprentice is promoting a new all-bagel diet. Brent Buckman (not to be confused with Bren, from season 3) from season 5 says that he lost 110-lbs on his diet, which involved eating 4 bagels a day, each toasted and spread with low fat margarine, and a few slices of deli meat at dinner. Once a month, you are allowed to have a "cheat" day and eat non-bagel foods. Exercise is recommended, but optional

If you restrict your calorie intake, you can eat virtually anything you want and still lose weight. It might not be a healthy diet, but it will probably be a diet that works.

Brent is an attorney in Florida and you would think that he would, at some point, have been informed of the value of eating fruits and vegetables in addition to bagels. The daily calorie count on this diet is in the 1200-1800 range, but if you want to lose weight, there are far more interesting foods that you can eat than bagels alone.

When I heard that Noah's Bagels and Einstein Bros. Bagels, which are owned by the same parent company, are introducing Candy Cane Bagels for the holidays, it didn't sound like an appealing concept. Cream cheese and peppermints? Not the best combination, especially not where breakfast food is concerned. Fortunately, the bagels are not mint-flavored at all, but merely shaped like candy canes. They are made of red and white potato doughs that are twisted together and bent into a hooked candy cane. They have a very light coating of powdered sugar, added partially for looks and partially to give it a little something to stand out from the ordinary bagels where flavor is concerned.

The company says that the bagels "taste as good as they look," but I'm not entirely sure that most bagel fans will like their look -- or the sugary coating -- when given the choice between one of these and a regular bagel. They are very cute, however, and would probably be well received at an office holiday party.

Dunkin' Donuts has been trying to change its image all year. Some say "if it's not broke, don't fix it." Others, like the firms that now own the company, don't really subscribe to that theory and concentrate of fixing things anyway. In this case, they're planning to add non-breakfast items to their menus. But consumers first have to adjust to the idea of Dunkin' Donuts as more of a fast food restaurant, and less of a coffee shop. To that end, the company is rolling out some breakfast sandwiches that look much like the ones available at other quick service restaurants.

The Sausage Supreme Omelet Sandwich is made with eggs, sausage and American cheese on a bagel and the Supreme Omelet has bacon, cheeses and eggs on a croissant. At least they didn't try to come up with a Dunkin' Donuts version of the Luther burger, which might have been a tempting choice since they are known for their donuts.

Has anyone tried these yet?

A BLT is a sandwich made with bacon, lettuce and tomato and despite the fact that it has only three ingredients, it can really shine when the sandwich is well put-together with high quality components. In this case, Johanna, The Passionate Cook used some sesame seed bagels to create one of the finest sandwiches we've seen in a while: the BLT Bagel. It is topped with a mouthwatering combination of crispy pancetta, flavorful vine-ripened tomatoes, spring onions, cream cheese and german mustard. It seems like it would make a better choice for breakfast, than for lunch, if only because there is no way you could resist eating a sandwich that looked this good for that long.

A bagel lover can spend days, even weeks, trying to find a toaster that will comfortably fit extra-wide bagel slices. With most toasters, you end up having to stuff a bagel half in a too-small slot, which inevitably results in a bagel that is burned on one side. And that's all after you contend with those plastic "bagel slicers" that squish the bagel more effectively than they cleave it. The Westinghouse ToasterSlicer both toast and slices - and it is designed specifically for bagels.

The bagel is loaded whole into the slot at the back and, after pushing the machine's "slice" button and closing the slot, the bagel pops out fully toasted (and sliced!) from the other end after a few minutes. It can also toast regular bread, but it is more of a single-purpose gadget. But if you eat a lot of bagels, it is a gadget that would certainly come in handy! It's $43 at Overstock.com.

The bagel shop Finagle a Bagel is offering a special bagel to honor the new Red Sox center fielder, Coco Crisp. No, not the cereal - that's his name. A spokesperson for to company says that the bagel is meant to honor the team as a whole, but one look at what goes into it, and it's pretty apparent that it relates to Coco Crisp more than, say, Trot Nixon. It is a bagel with cocoa powder, chocolate flavoring and chocolate chips, rolled in a crispy cereal coating. The bagel was introduced just over a week ago and has sold out daily. It will be available for 2-3 months.

One of the most popular and long-lived old wives' tales is known as the "5-second rule". The "rule" stipulates that food that has fallen on the floor is still safe to eat if you pick it up within five seconds of it hitting the ground. It has been around for many, many years, propagating itself on school playgrounds across the country and possibly even the world. Variations exist, shortening the rule to 3 seconds or expanding it to 10, but the basic theory remains. Unfortunately, it isn't true, as the Sacramento Bee's Lisa Heyamoto found out.

While some people, from 3 to 93, will continue to believe in the truth of this tale, the reality is that most surfaces are covered with germs and bacteria and floors are no exception. Drier foods, like cookies or a bagel, are less likely to pick up unsavory particles than wetter foods, like meat and cheese. Of course, we are all coming into contact with bacteria every day, whether we're cleaning our counter with a kitchen sponge (bacteria breeding ground) or giving our pets a pat. There is very little that can be done to avoid all contact. Ms. Heyamoto reminds us not to believe that we're "safe" when we follow the rule, but that your comfort level with what your food comes into contact with is subjective. The kitchen floor? Sure. The sidewalk outside your office? Perhaps not.

You can't go wrong following the other food rule: "When in doubt, throw it out!"