"stores-and-shopping" news and stories

Target $3 Appliance Deals Include Toasters, Coffeemakers

by Slashfood Editor, Posted Nov 13th 2009 @ 11:15AM

Target plans to slash prices on toasters and coffeemakers, selling the appliances for $3 on Black Friday, the huge day of sales the Friday after Thanksgiving, according to one of the chain's advertisements.

Gotadeal.com obtained a leaked circular for the Target Black Friday appliance sale, which revealed $3 Chefmate appliances -- from toaster ovens to coffeemakers and sandwich makers, CNN reports.

A Target official did not confirm the prices to CNN. The flyer will officially be released the week of Nov. 22.

[Via CNN]

Filed under: Business, Stores & Shopping

7-Eleven Pizza, Wings Added to Hot Food Menu

COMMENTS 20

by Sarah LeTrent, Posted Oct 16th 2009 @ 2:30PM

Hot Food Display, Photo provided by 7-Eleven.

7-Eleven is taking a "big gulp" out of the fast food industry. The convenience store will sell pizza and chicken tenders in 1,400 stores nationwide to offset lagging tobacco sales.

The new hot food program offers items such as whole or by-the-slice four-cheese and pepperoni pizza; chicken tenders; sausage, egg and cheese breakfast quesadillas; hash brown potatoes and three flavors of chicken wings.

The chain will be able to serve the pizzas using high-speed TurboChef ovens, which combine radiant heat, microwave and convection cooking methods to cook foods 12 times faster than the standard oven, the company says.

Margaret Chabris, a spokeswoman for 7-Eleven, told Slashfood Friday that each oven is equipped with a credit-card sized card that automatically programs the method and the cooking time for the various menu items. The ovens cook a 7-Eleven pizza in 90 seconds and the wings in 3 minutes.

Filed under: Stores & Shopping, Fast Food

Drink for the Cure

COMMENTS 0

by Gretchen Roberts, Posted Sep 29th 2009 @ 2:00PM

Photo: Riedel.

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and now you can support the cause in style with Riedel's limited-edition pink glasses.

Crescendo ($70, pictured) is a set of four glasses, each in a different delicate shade of pink. Since they're stemless, the glasses are great for non-alcoholic drinks as well as white wines, and they're dishwasher-safe.

Pink Vinum Rosé ($59) is a set of two pink-stemmed glasses specifically designed for rosé wine. They're also dishwasher-safe, and the color of the wine isn't distorted, since the pink tint is limited to the stem.

Riedel is donating 15 percent of their pink sales to Living Beyond Breast Cancer, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering all women affected by breast cancer to live as long as possible with the best quality of life -- now that's something we can all raise our glasses to. Order online or find them at Bed, Bath, and Beyond.

For Slashfood readers who don't want to drink pink, the Pink Ribbon Shop is offering "Around My Mother's Table: Stories and Recipes Celebrating Lives Lost to Breast Cancer" ($16.95), the Breast Cancer Awareness Pink Ribbon Cookie Cutter, and more.

Filed under: Stores & Shopping, Health & Medical, Drink Recipes

New Food Products - Fancy Food Show

COMMENTS 0

by Slashfood Editor, Posted Sep 1st 2009 @ 4:54PM

Thousands of new food products hit grocery and specialty store shelves every year and someone's got to sample them all. We munched our way through food trade shows and local supermarket aisles in search of the most delicious snacks, candies, mixes, condiments, drinks, ingredients and ready-to-eat entrees the world has to offer.

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Fancy Food Show Favorites

3 days. 4 editors. 185,000 new food products. 8 favorites each. It's a tough job, but Kat Kinsman and Kristyn Pomranz of AOL Food, Marisa McClellan of Slashfood and Heather Tyree of Epicurious munched their way through the 54th Summer Fancy Food Show* in search of the most mouthwatering edibles on the market. Flip through to find your new craving.

*Don't let the name fool ya -- it's been around since 1955. Some of our faves are just about as "fancy" as Heinz ketchup.

Mari's New York

Getty Images North America

Fancy Food Show Favorites

Mari's New York

(Kat's Pick)
DOCKSIDE KEY LIME CAKE
On my, ahem, second trip back to this booth, I heard a story that made me weep into my Key Lime Cake. A regular customer once called to make a special order for a Saturday arrival. The shop made sure he knew that the delivery service added a weekend charge, and he said it didn't matter. This cake was for his dying wife, they'd enjoyed this Florida favorite together for the past 30 years, and by gosh, he was going to get it to her. After sampling an intensely tart, moist and luscious morsel for myself, I can only imagine that she departed this earth one happy, satisfied soul.

Dockside Market

Dockside Market

(Kat's Pick)
TEXAS SASSY PICKLE SAUCE
America, meet your new favorite condiment. Maury and Brenda Smeyne's signature sauce is an artfully balanced blend of slightly sweetened bread and butter-style pickle brine with a kiss of pepper and I haven't found a single darned food on which it doesn't taste amazing. From burgers and bloody marys to cut veggies and plain ol' tortilla chips, the sweet-sour-salty Texas three-step sasses up the flavor of just about anything edible. Yeeee-haaa!

Texas Sassy

Texas Sassy

(Kat's Pick)
FIRECRACKER DARK CHOCOLATE BAR
Snap, crackle, pow! This bar is like a little chocolate powder keg packed with smoky, spicy chipotle pepper, salt and plenty of giggle-inducing popping candy. As the confection is held on the tongue or against the roof of the mouth, the chocolate melts, slowly revealing both heat and an audible, palpable explosion as the candy emerges. It's a multi-sensory extravaganza that's just begging to be shared with a fellow chocolate fiend. Bring on the fireworks!

Chuao Chocolatier

Chuao Chocolatier

(Kat's Pick)
SWEET LEAF CHERRY LIMEADE
Fresh cherry limeade is a drink of which I'm so fond, I served it at my wedding. So, as you might imagine, my bar is set pretty darned high. I was utterly gobsmacked to see Sweet Leaf sail right on over it. Their tart, tangy organic blend is the essence of summer, squeezed and saved in a bottle for enjoyment the whole year 'round. I'm not saying I'll give up making my own in peak cherry season, but it's refreshing to know where I'll be getting my fix come wintertime.

Sweet Leaf Tea

Sweet Leaf Tea

(Kat's Pick)
FAT WITCH BROWNIE MIXES
I'm sometimes hesitant to write about my favorite local perishables, 'cause I figure it's just cruel to taunt folks without easy access to them. The hex has been lifted, though, and soon everyone across the USA will be under the spell of wickedly rich, moist and naturally delicious Fat Witch Brownies, conjured up in their very own kitchen. Head witch Patricia Helding spent two years formulating brownie mixes that would allow home cooks to mimic at home what she's been whipping up to rave reviews in her Chelsea Market bakery since 1991. Though they won't be in stores until August, jump on your broomstick and sign up for advance notice at her website.

Fat Witch Bakery

Fat Witch

(Kat's Pick)
CYPRESS GROVE TRUFFLE TREMOR
Cypress Grove's Humbolt Fog and Purple Haze have long been my go-to party cheeses, but this truffle-studded addition to the herd totally got my goat. A luxurious cake of chevre is shot through with a knee-weakening allotment of earthy truffle, making for a flavor balance that's simultaneously rock solid and earth shattering. They're really not kidding around.

Cypress Grove Chevre

Cypress Grove Chevre

(Kat's Pick)
LITTLE WINGS BUFFALO WINGS CHIPS
It takes a lot for a chip to stand out from the crowd, but this snack is a superstar. From the multi-grained crunch and ear-warming Frank's Red Sauce-based spice to the intriguing creamy blue cheese drizzle, every single flavor and texture element was in perfect harmony. Consider me a groupie.

Rock-n-Roll Gourmet

Rock-n-Roll Gourmet

(Kat's Top Pick)
WHITSON'S MOIST CHILI SEASONING
Sarah Whitson Bourbon's booth was far from the fanciest looking at the food show, but once she lifted the lid from her crock pot, the heady scent of the seasoned meat within was all the décor she needed. Her grandfather developed this soulful, savory blend of spices at his Denton, Texas store in 1932, and while the company has changed hands several times, she's reclaimed and revived it, staying true to his original formulation. I realize that "chili" is in the name, and I've no doubt of their claim that it "makes unsurpassed Frito Pie," but I'm pretty sure it could make my couch, a subway platform or a sweat sock taste delicious if applied in sufficient quantities. It's that darned good.

Whitson Chile Products

Whitson Chile Products

(Kristyn's Pick)
INGLEHOFFER SWEET HOT MUSTARD
Spicy or sweet, sweet or spicy? It's the never ending conundrum faced by a society of die-hard mustard consumers. Sometimes we want the fiery burst of a solid mustard seed, other times we want the crystallized smoothness of sweet, sweet honey. Inglehoffer Sweet Hot Mustard has magically, seamlessly blended the two flavors, and the effect is flooring. The mustard is definitely hot, but the spice is sealed with a kiss of sweet, confounding the brain and delighting the tongue.

Beaverton Foods

Beaverton Foods

Filed under: Edible Gifts, Taste Test, New Products

Does Your Digital Camera Have a 'Food' Setting?

COMMENTS 8

by Emily Farris, Posted Jul 22nd 2009 @ 1:00PM

Tomato and Olympus camera. Photo: Emily Farris.

These days, food porn seems almost to be giving the old-fashioned kind a run for its money. Everyone with a digital camera and an appetite fancies him or herself an amateur food pornographer, which is to say there's a lot of bad food photography out there alongside the good stuff.

Camera companies are catching on to the trend and trying to make a buck, with digital point and shoot models that are manufactured with food photography settings, like this Olympus which has a "cuisine" option, and this Sony, with its "gourmet food" mode. Chances are good that if you purchased a camera recently, it has some kind of food photography option and you don't even know it. If your food photographs are less than porntastic (like the tomato shot here), it might be worth your while to consult your camera's manual or look online to find out.

If you don't have a food setting, don't rush right out to buy a new camera that does.

One pro shutterbug's opinion, after the jump.

Filed under: Stores & Shopping, Food News, New Products