Several weeks ago, I covered my co-worker's wedding in Louisville, Ky., and raved about how she doubled her wedding cakes as centerpieces. It got me thinking: Everyone attending our wedding knows that both Jon and I are serious foodies. I want to incorporate food into our decor too, but I don't want to overdo it (and believe me, that wouldn't be hard!).
With the cost of food eternally increasing, I need to come up with other ways to incorporate our passion into our cocktail hour and reception. With the help of eBay and Amazon, I think I'll be able to pull it off. I have a vision of filling up old crates with bright, white hydrangeas and placing them by the bars.
Taking that idea one step further, I started a search on eBay for wine crates and stumbled across an antique Dad's Root Beer crate, which just so happens to be one of Jon and my father's favorite root beers. Five days of bidding and this puppy was mine!
When it comes to beer-related gifts, vintage and kitsch are king. Bargain shoppers can rejoice with plenty of original and exciting items to be found at reasonable prices... if you're willing to put in a little elbow grease. But thanks to the fact that we live in modern times (Take that, previous generations!), online shopping provides an easy replacement for trips to every local secondhand store in a five mile area.
Idea #1: Think small. Just glancing around my apartment, I have plenty of simple beer-branded items that give me a smile. When I want to play darts, it's Miller High Life against Miller Genuine Draft. Not my favorite beers, but fun Wisconsin kitsch! Most websites that sell dart flights have beer flights available. When I open a bottle, my Brooklyn Brewery wall-mounted bottle opener is my go-to guy -- another online purchase. And tossed all over the apartment are coasters we picked up from various trips to different pubs and breweries -- a quick web search can save you the trouble of travel and have them sent right to your door. All these things are simple gifts for under $10.
The worst things about religious portents is that they are so hard to interpret. When Mary shows up in a tortilla or Jesus makes Himself known in a sliced cantaloupe, are these divine figures endorsing the food or warning that we should probably not eat it? Is an Elvis portrait in a ham steak a sign that he wants us to enjoy pork or is it a veiled commentary on the King's acting skills? If Judy Garland talks to me through my Rice Krispies, is this a sign that I should become a female impersonator or just a warning that I need to start taking my medication again?
Tough questions.
These sorts of conundrums recently gained further relevance with the emergence of a slab of toast that bears the image of Sarah Palin. The starchy message from heaven, which is currently going for $31 on eBay, is not particularly easy to interpret. Does it mean that the famed moose-hunter and Republican vice presidential candidate is divinely inspired, or is it a sign that her message is full of empty calories? Are we supposed to consume her platform, making it part of us, or is the universe telling us that she is toast? Either way, I'm taking a good, hard look at my waffle tomorrow--just in case John McCain decides to make an appearance!
A lot of people have come across an odd shaped piece of food and thought "boy that looks like such and such." We just received a tip about exactly that, and boy is it funny.
Someone found a strawberry that they think looks like the United States. I guess it kind of does, you just have to use your imagination. Where things start to get really funny is this person decided to sell it on Ebay! Not only that, it's up for bid until March 22, though the sales description does say the berry has been frozen.
Bidding starts a just 99 cents, so this interesting piece of fruit could be yours for a bargain. Of course there is the matter of $20 shipping!
In case there was ever any doubt, I've come across further proof that people really will do anything for a Chicago hot dog. The next time you get a craving, look no further than eBay. An enterprising individual recently sold a "Complete (non-eaten) Soldier Field Hot Dog (wrapper included)" along with a ticket stub from the NFC Championship. Wow, I am glad he specified that it was non-eaten.
Yes, the requisite question was asked. Q: Does this come with mustard, onions, relish, celery salt, and a pickle spear? Sadly, it didn't. Nothing but a bun and a wiener, so it is really only a pretend Chicago dog. However, the seller did have some friendly words of advice:
Who needs a wedding cake when you can have a hot dog from the 2007 NFC Championship Game to break out on special occasions?
Who indeed, dude? Who indeed? I'm fairly certain most prospective brides would completely agree with you too.
In case you were wondering (and I know you were), the item sold for $6.49 plus a $20.00 charge for overnight shipping. The hot dog was to be frozen and shipped out late in the day to minimize thawing time. Whew, that's a load off my mind. Wouldn't want it to go bad or anything.
You really never know just quite what you'll find on eBay these days. Take this Super Mario nutcracker that's being auctioned on the Canadian eBay site. I'm not sure if Canadians are any more obsessed with video games than Americans, but it's pretty safe to say that this is the only Super Mario Nutcracker out there.
Standing just over a foot high, the hand-painted plumber sports a snazzy red and blue uniform and, of course, his signature moustache. The Mario Nutcracker's creator is selling it for $20, plus $15 shipping. He claims that it's the first in a series of pop culture nutcrackers. The next one might be Chuck Norris, he adds.
An enterprising Seattle waiter with a Foodsaver snatched up leftovers from Britney Spears and Kevin Federline and has put them up for auction on eBay.
Hard as it is to believe, as of this writing there have been only 40 bids. The top one thus far exceeds $200. I myself may purchase these items, before some evil scientist grabs them and clones the celebrity couple.
The seller claims to have acquired Britney's half eaten egg salad sandwich and K-Fed's corn dog at a music industry party he worked a few months ago. I wouldn't plan on eating these items though, the seller notes they're strictly for memorabilia purposes not consumption.
Update: The winning bid was for $520 from Golden Palace Casino, the same guys that bought the Virgin Mary grilled cheese sandwich and other weird food things.
Earlier this month, we saw "Snakes on a Cake." Now a man in Wellington, Florida, has burned the Snakes on a Plane insignia into a piece of toast, according to the Sun-Sentinel. One can't help but be reminded of the Ft. Lauderdale woman who found the Virgin Mary burned into her grilled cheese sandwich several years ago. Like her, snake toast artist Gregg Prior is going the same route and listing his toast on eBay. So far there have been 31 bids and the current price is $160. "Snakes on a Plane, I thought what better a way to show the world what I can put on toast," Prior told local NewsChannel 5. Indeed, a noble medium for a noble subject.
Getting a reservation at El Bulli, rated as the best restaurant in the world, can be very difficult. The restaurant not only has limited seating, but is open for only 6 months out of the year. Most diners have to plan at least 6-12 months in advance just to try to get a reservation - and once you have it, you're going at whatever time it's for.
Oh, you didn't know that Aunt Bessie was going to be ill when you made your resevation last July? You can't make it to dinner?
Evidently, one member of a party of four diners could not make the trip, so the remaining three are auctioning off the final seat at their table on eBay. The winner of the auction must find their own travel to Barcelona and accomodation while there, but they get to have dinner at El Bulli - which normally costs €170/$215, without wine - on June 17th at 8pm. Bids start at $1,000 and the auction ends on June 14th.
You can view a photo set of a recent meal at the restaurant here to get an idea of what you're in for.
For those of you swooning over Nicole's recent post about kitchen bling,
maybe you can do a bit of penance here with this Pope John Paul II bottle opener ... a.k.a. "The
Popener."
When my old roommate came back from a bit of work in Rome, she brought me a John Paul II bottle opener, straight
from the Vatican. At the time, I was not happy. What kind of girlfriend brings a bottle opener back from Italy?
While I would have preferred something I could wear or eat or sell at a vast profit on eBay, I came
to love this bottle opener with time. Every Sierra Nevada I
cracked after a long day at the office became holy. Every Brooklyn Brown Ale became the equivalent of
20 "Hail Marys."
If you want one, you had better get cracking. While they're currently on sale at romegiftshop.com for $14.99 (free St. Peter postcard included!),
can a Pope Benedict XVI bottle opener be that far off?
Dr. Pepper has been planning to add other flavors of soda to its Soda
Fountain line since the release of it's Diet and Regular Cherry Vanilla Dr. Peppers in 2004. This month marks the first
release of its new flavor: Dr. Pepper Berries and Cream . The new flavors we wildly successful during test marketing and
their rollout will continue through June, at which time they should be
in stores nationally. Several packs of the new sodas are already for
sale on eBay. The official launch started when the company released several in Plano, Texas, where the
headquarters of Cadbury Schweppes, the company behind Dr. Pepper, is located.
The can is empty and dates from 1960; but really £650 (US$1340) seems rather a lot
for a piece of tin.
A chap from Independence, Missouri is selling the can on Ebay and claims it is the 'holy grail' for antiques
dealers and collectors. The can is emblazoned with a picture of Oban harbour and forms part of a series covering
Scottish beauty scenes. The series was replaced a couple of years later with picutres of female models.
I wonder if it has been sold as I have looked on ebay
and can't find the can.
Yep, what you see here is a box of Kellogg's Mini-Wheats (with raisins) date-stamped Sept. 11, 2001 and emblazoned
with an ad for American Airlines. The starting ebay bid is $100,000. There's only two days left on the auction
and, amazingly, nobody has placed a bid. In the seller's defense, 50 percent of the proceeds will go to a 9/11
children's fund and the rest will go to
charities in the seller's area. The description says "THIS IS A MUST-HAVE FOR ANY SERIOUS COLLECTOR!!!!!!"
It's that time of
year, the time to look back on the stories that made 2005 great. Our countdown begins with God, who appeared several
times this year in food.
Grilled cheese, fish sticks and cinnamon buns.
This may sound like the
lunch menu at the local high school, but in fact these are all food items on which people claim to have found the
likeness of God. Suprisingly, God shows up in mysterious ways on a number of food items.
When it comes to beer-related gifts, vintage and kitsch are king. Bargain shoppers can rejoice with plenty of original and exciting items to be found at reasonable prices... if you're willing to put in a little elbow grease. But thanks to the fact that we live in modern times (Take that, previous generations!), online shopping provides an easy replacement for trips to every local secondhand store in a five mile area.
A lot of people have come across an odd shaped piece of food and thought "boy that looks like such and such." We just received a tip about exactly that, and boy is it funny. 
In case there was ever any doubt, I've come across further proof that people really will do anything for a 
You really never know just quite what you'll find on 
An enterprising Seattle waiter with a Foodsaver snatched up leftovers from Britney Spears and Kevin Federline and has put them up for auction on 
Earlier this month, we saw "
Getting a reservation at 
For those of you swooning over Nicole's recent 
The can is empty and dates from 1960; but really £650 (US$1340) seems rather a lot
for a piece of tin.
Yep, what you see here is a box of Kellogg's Mini-Wheats (with raisins) date-stamped Sept. 11, 2001 and emblazoned
with an ad for American Airlines. The starting ebay bid is $100,000. There's only two days left on the 
It's that time of
year, the time to look back on the stories that made 2005 great. Our countdown begins with God, who appeared several
times this year in food.
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