Meat. It's what's for ... wearing? If you've got a ton of salami and bacon, some clear vinyl and about six hours to kill, then yes. The lovely ladies of Craftzine stumbled across this creation, crafted by one Jia Jem for her "Aqua Teen Hunger Force"-themed birthday party (she dressed up as Meatwad, the show's cartoon meatball). While the dress proved to be a hit with just about everyone but vegetarians, it was a one-wear affair, and no, she didn't eat it after she wore it.
Raw meat apparel isn't exactly new: The Canadian artist Jana Sterbak once made a gown using 50 pounds of raw flank steak, and the folks behind Hats of Meat have been crafting their eponymous chapeaus for a few years now. But this meat dress appears to be the most wearable, if only because it has a zipper and vinyl strips around the hem to catch all of the drippings (oh, the glamour).
Regardless of whether or not you yourself are tempted to don, say, prosciutto pants, this dress is bound to inspire some strong reactions. What do you think: Is the meat dress an inspired creation? A greasy abomination? Or the perfect answer to the perpetual conundrum of what to wear?
OK, let's be honest. Who hasn't thought she could do better than the people behind the Sweethearts slogans: "Call Me"? "Cloud Nine"? "Amore"? Please.
The folks at the New England Confectionery Co. have heeded your collective cry, so it's time to take to the Internet, poets, lovers and sugarcrazed civilians! In February 2010, every single one of those hearts will be named not by stuffy boardroom types, but by us commoners.
What's in it for you? Oh, you know, one lucky toothless person will win 1.6 million sweethearts that say whatever she wants them to say.
There's a DIY project (from Tasarim) making the rounds that's perfect for sharing your bread with your feathered friends. As you can see above, a simple wood shelf has large holes for the crumbs to fall in, which get collected, and directed down a tube that sails straight to a bird feeder.
I'm not entirely convinced that there are birds out there would you patiently wait below and not just fly up a little bit and peruse the board themselves, but this idea could still be handy in the kitchen, and for those who don't have hungry birds. Just make it into a larger crumb catcher. Cut slats into a simple board like that, and make a box base for it. Then you can easily and quickly collect all your scraps, and really make the use out of your bread. When you've got a bunch, just grind it into uniform breadcrumbs.
Corks are one of the classiest pieces of garbage that can be made into something nice. Rather than throw them away, people fill ornate jars with them, make walls and bulletin boards with them, and even make trivets. But you can also make trays with them.
See, a friend of mine used to work in a restaurant, so he scored bag upon bag filled with corks for me, which were further compounded with the corks I was collecting myself. It bothered me to think of how many went in the trash, so I wanted to get crafty. My bright idea: Make cork trays. They're pretty, they've unique, and they provide a foodie double-service -- making the most of your waste while also making something new to present your food on.
What could be more appropriate for a wine and cheese gathering than cork trays?
Oh, how I love a good DIY, and it's not that I happen to love sitting in my garage all weekend making things. It's that I am now on a very strict budget and can't go around dropping $150 at Dean & Deluca on a highly coveted spice rack!
A reader over at Apartment Therapy sent the blog her DIY Spice rack project that in the end, cost all of $40, and that's with the spices included! The shelving is from Ikea, the metallic tins are from Bed, Bath & Beyond, and the spices from a local spice store. I am sure that any of us could put something like this together, and what makes this even better than the Dean & Deluca version (aside from the incredible price differential) is that you can customize it to exactly what you like.
About a year ago, someone (probably an forgotten food blogger) tipped me off to the fact that you can buy volume lots of vanilla beans on eBay for cheap. I hopped on board that particular bandwagon and bought a ridiculously large number of beans for nearly no money. I shared some with my mom and used fresh vanilla in all my baked goods. I found myself with lots of used, fragrant bean pods and kept tucking them into my sugar jar to scent my sugar with vanilla goodness.
It turns out that Melissa, over at Traveler's Lunchbox, and I were doing almost the same thing at the same time, including occasionally running into the problem of needing unscented sugar and only having vanilla-fragranced stuff on our shelves. Only she did something much more clever than I did (I hate to admit that many of my used pods landed in the trash). She started tucking her used bean pods into a bottle of light rum, thinking she'd make infused booze for future cocktails. Only the alcohol in the bottle started getting darker, until she realized that she had created her own vanilla extract, just as good (or possibly even better) than the best quality stuff that you can buy in the stores.
You too can make your own vanilla extract. Just take a stroll on over to Melissa's post and see how she did it. She includes tips and sources for inexpensive beans. Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I need to go and bake something that requires vanilla, so that I can start my own bottle of extract.
Several summers ago an older member of my church invited me over for dinner. She was turning the running of a committee over to me and wanted to discuss the details over a meal. She offered me a glass of mint-infused water with my plate of pasta salad, homemade bread and sliced tomato (dessert was a plate of cookies that she admitted to having purchased). The meal was generally memorable for it's tasty simplicity, but the thing that stuck with me the most was that mint-infused water. I asked her how she made it and she said that simply kept a bunch of mint in a pitcher, continually refreshing the pitcher with water as the level decreased.
The last few months have been my summer of mint, as several of my friends have large patches of it in their yards and gardens and like to pass along large bunches of it to me. I have made mint-flecked salads, tossed it with melon and a sprinkling of sugar and have kept a pitcher of mint water in the fridge steeping in the fridge. I have found that on the days when I want a slightly stronger mint flavor you can increase the intensity by gently bruising the leaves. A single bunch of mint can flavor a water for up to a week (if it starts to look slimy, it is time to change it). It is refreshing, inexpensive and has helped me kick the juice/sparking water habit almost entirely.
As we've admitted before, here at Slashfood we are all a little obsessed with Peeps. Love them or hate them, it is hard to escape the little marshmallow treats, especially at Easter time. In the past we've torched them, used them in recipes and looked at how to make your own using a Williams-Sonoma kit.
Now, the Evil Mad Scientist has sent us this recipe which eliminates the marshmallow altogether but adds a few unexpected twists. Using a meringue base and adding saffron strands for added oomph, I'm fairly certain these "Peeps" will be unlike anything you have ever had before.
Continuing with the industrious, DIY-style posts of a few days ago, here's a Make post with instructions for a meat dehydrator made from a milk crate. Of course, there are a few other components, like a PC fan, t-shirts, some bicycle inner tubes, and some sleeping pad foam. Amazingly enough, I think I have all of that stuff around my house. Not all of it is technically mine, but who would care about their useless bike and an overheated computer when they've got fresh jerky? Coincidentally enough, the Make page links back to the culinary commandos at Instructables. Thankfully, they're still using their skills for the forces of good, or at least jerky.
Continuing with the industrious, DIY-style 
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