• Chef David Rocco takes on the scourge known as school lunches.
• Yum: merging food and booze, like Wine-Soaked Potato Salad, or the featured recipe: Pumpkin and Coconut Mousse with Candied Ginger.
• Cape Vessey aims to turn the goat cheese naysayers into fans.
• Chef Michael Smith's Lentils with Local Apples.
• Can you crush addiction with wine making? San Patrignano -- a winery in Italy -- thinks so.
• Jean-Georges Vongerichten hits Vancouver.
  

The Cheesecake Factory is not known for serving health food. In fact, their giant portions can turn even healthy fare into things that you should think twice before eating. Many concerned with calories will ask their waiter to put half of the portion into a to-go box at the same time that the main course is served, which prevents the diner from overeating their pasta, salad, etc. The main thing to avoid there, unless you're not giving the least thought to what you eat, is the cheesecake. Although tasty, their massive pieces often have more than half of your daily calorie requirements. CSPI wrote, in their Nutrition Action Healthletter this month, that the Cheesecake Factory Godiva Cheesecake (pictured) has 1,000 calories and 41 grams of "bad" saturated fat. Unfortunately, they didn't enlighten the readers as to how much fat in total is in the cheesecake, but they did provide a colorful analogy to help picture just how bad it is: "it's like ordering a Pizza hut Personal Pan Pepperoni Pizza - topped with 10 pats of butter - after dinner."

Yum.

If you're willing to toss your diet out the window for a few days (or want to share with a large crowd), you can order this cheesecake online. For a healthier cheesecake, try a vegan version or stick to a bite-sized tart that will give you portion control.

Gmail got a little inspiration from all of those spam e-mails and created their spam recipe folder, offering up hundreds, perhaps thousands, of span recipes. They don't take into account the content of those e-mails, which as we all know, seems to be about viagra more than half the time. The recipes get a little more inventive if you consider their contents and start making viagra-themed spam recipes. Whether you actually want to attempt any of them is a matter of personal preference, but a giant viagra mousse (above) or some dyed-blue spam tempura in the little blue pill's signature diamond shape would probably be a hit at parties whether people actually opted to taste them or not.

And you might want to pick up some viagra gelato for dessert, too.

Il Buddino are single-serving sized molds that are shaped like little Buddhas. The small, flexible molds hold 125mL each and come in sets of four with one of each of the colors shown above. To use them, simply suspend the mold upside down in a glass of any kind (not included) and fill with pudding, gelatin, mousse or ice cream and freeze or refrigerate before serving. Turn the pudding out onto a plate, squeezing the mold slightly to release it, once it has thoroughly chilled. The molds are microwave and dishwasher safe, but not oven safe, so you won't be able to bake any Buddha cakes with these, but they will make a fantastic presentation the next time you're entertaining. Order here.

[via Moco Loco]

For the Mom who's a fashionista as well as a chocoholic, these chocolates from Moonstruck Chocolate Co. could be just the right thing for Mother's Day. Each of the eight truffles in the ribboned box is shaped like a little bonnet. Handmade and adorned with tiny edible flowers, the adorable confections come in four flavors: raspberry frappe, summermint tea, lemon mousse and orange mousse, all of which are fittingly summery. It's $24 for eight candies, but they're so unique that it's a gift Mom will surely appreciate.

Yesterday, I talked about the Cook's Illustrated review of egg white substitutes, which concluded that you are best off working with real, fresh egg whites. The pre-packed, pasteurized egg white substitutes didn't hold up when whipped as well as the real thing. There is one more type of egg white substitute that is known for its ability to whip up, though: meringue powder.

Meringue powder is a mixture of dried, powdered egg whites, cornstarch and gums, which help if bind together. Some powders include sugar, but the majority do not. When mixed with sugar and water, meringue powdered can be reconstituted and beaten to soft or stiff peaks. It can be used to make royal icing, baked meringues, and even angel food cakes, which I have tried with good success. It can not be substituted for egg whites in other recipes, though, only in recipes which call for beaten egg whites. Meringue powders, other than being used for frosting, are best used in recipes where the egg whites would have been uncooked, like in some mousses and sorbets. Keep in mind that meringue powder can have a sort of starchy aftertaste from the cornstarch, so don't reduce the amount of sugar or other flavorings in the recipe you're using unless you want to add another flavor to your dessert.

According to the weather channel, the majority of you readers are experiencing some pretty chilly weather right now. March will hopefully be the last big push of winter weather, but it is still a few weeks yet until spring officially begins. Cold weather is a good excuse to wrap yourself up in a huge quilt - with or without someone else - and cozy up to some truly decadent food. No one wants to go out for their chocolate fix in weather like this, so stay in and make a sinful Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake with the recipe posted by Belly Timber. The cake is made of a hazelnut sponge cake, topped with rich chocolate mousse and finished with a coating of ganache. It does take some time to set up, but one look at the finished product and it is easy to see that this chocolaty perfection will be worth the wait.

I admit, I'm a little suspicious, but Heidi from 101 Cookbooks is known for her reliability. She claims that her entirely vegan recipe for Amaretto-spiked Chocolate Mousse is so good, you won't have to tell anyone but the vegans. She calls for silken tofu, chocolate soy milk, vegan chocolate chips (like Sunspire), Amaretto and almond extract. It does sound pretty easy: bring the milk to a simmer, melt the chocolate chips in a double boiler, blend everything together, and chill. I can't wait to try it on my vegan friend with the sweet-tooth.