Seriously? I don’t think I would, but I know people who would in a heartbeat. If I were going to, though, the highest-up ones would be my choice… those ones on the bottom are too likely to have gotten licked by people’s dogs or children. (And if you don’t think people would let their children lick food items for others’ consumption, hang out near the peanut-butter machines at Whole Foods sometime. Eeeeew!!!)

Eat Me Daily has the pictures: Edible Doughnut Installation: Jennifer Rubell’s ‘Old-Fashioned’ at Art Basel Miami Beach – Eat Me Daily.

Super-cute muffin ad from Australia. (And they’re right! American muffins are huge!)

Remember when pizza places used to have little plastic “tables”?
My dolls had a ton of adorable little end tables which had previously served time keeping the lid from collapsing onto a pepperoni, mushroom and sausage. Removing those was a sad day for toys, but a triumph for ecology.
The Green Box is a triumph for ecology that creates toys, instead of removing them!

The “Green” Pizza Box | So Good.

It’s a box! It’s four plates! Now it’s a smaller box! The really exciting part about this, for me, is that my refrigerator is too small for regular-sized pizza boxes. I always end up having to wrap my pizza on a plate or in tinfoil.
I really hope my local pizza places start using the Green Pizza Box!

When I made mashed potatoes on Saturday night, I made tons—far more than two people could possibly want—because Leftover Mashed Potato Cuisine is awesome. Sunday night, after digging out the driveway from under our latest Sunday Morning Snowstorm, I layered the leftover potatoes into a glass baking dish, layered a very small amount of cheese (1/2c at most, probably 1/4c) on top, layered frozen broccoli, chopped fresh carrots, vegetarian apple-sage sausages and frozen edamame on top of that, and finished it off with another layer of mashed potatoes and another 1/3c mozzarella and cheddar. Bake for ~30m covered until the inside is hot, then broil for 10m and serve with toasted garlic bread.

This is where I would put a picture if I’d thought to take one. oops. Next time, Gadget!

Yum! Leftovers never tasted so good. Next time, I should add spices, and maybe layer the cheese underneath the potatoes so the potatoes get browned instead. I’ll have to try it out, since now I know that making mashed potatoes with the KitchenAid mixer really is that easy.

Danger! Danger! The Bovine Threat Level is “Rare”. You have been warned.

Thanks to SteveOuch for the warning. Hope your books are recovered from the Banditos soon, Steve.

So, between Cake Wrecks and Photoshop Disasters, my mornings are well supplied with schadenfreude, but this doughnut really takes the cake (so to speak). The ad would be a Photoshop Anti-Disaster if the real thing weren’t so sad. Go art director! Beautiful soft focus, appetizing-looking frosting, nice coloring and good background color.

Maybe we need to talk with the bakery staff.

Oddly, this video was on John McCain’s blog with the title “Obama’s Pie Problem”. I’m not sure I understand why—so the man likes pie? I like pie too. I nearly bought pie at lunchtime, because I am a sucker for pumpkin pie. (I did not, because I’m trying to be good and lose weight.) Other than a guaranteed job opening for a pastry cook at the White House, I’m not sure what Mr. Goldfarb was after with this one. It’s fun, though, so here it is:

My favorite farmstand, Verril Farm (in Concord, MA just off Rt 2) lost their building to a fire last Saturday:

However, the really nice people were still working hard selling pumpkins, corn, and lots of other produce with surprising cheerfulness from a temporary stand:

They still have veggies and scones and other baked goods, and are grateful for people who come by. I’m disappointed that I couldn’t get one of their awesome sandwiches or some coffee, but my chocolate-chip-cherry scone was very good, and I was glad I stopped.

Despondent at the news that not only did Hershey buy Jolly Rancher, but they closed the Wheat Ridge factory and got rid of Lemon Jolly Ranchers, I decided to create my own candy.

I got some Lime Oil from my local confectioner (who happened to have some that needed using soon) and combined a tablespoon of it with four cups of sugar, half a cup of water, and an eighth teaspoon of cream of tartar.

The resulting candy was hard-crack when I took it off the heat—both the thermometer and the cold water test indicated so—but when I poured it into the paper “moulds” (greased baking cups and some paper plates when those ran out) it crystallized a bit. It was hard-crack, though, since the drops on the stove and the table were perfect little clear drops. Next time I will go buy some parchment paper and grease it more, and then drop the candy by small spoonfuls onto the paper, so I get proper lozenges. At least now I know that it’s not sour enough, and I want some citric acid to add. We stuck some small cookie cutters in the soft candy as it cooled—I will probably try that again. I think it also needs either more lime or more citric acid—or both!

In most of the Denver area, there are no diners. There are Einstein’s Bagels, Village Inns, Dennys’, IHOPs, and so on. There are no chains smaller than large regional. There are few independent restaurants. As we drove last week from Denver to Kremmling, we saw many Starbucks and few local coffee shops. Boston is similar: lots of chains, though a few local businesses thrive. In New York, independent shops and restaurants are very common. There are certainly chains too, but enough independent restaurants that most people do business with them regularly. Why?

Most readers know that I’ve been looking for good diners in Boston for a long time. The Deluxe Town is nice, but its menu is thirty pages too short to really count. Now I think I’ve figured it out: big chains have figured out marketing and memetics enough to capture lots of market. But they can only be so dense before they overload people. A Starbucks every few blocks is one thing; heavier concentrations draw complaints. If there’s a McDonald’s on this block and a Burger King next block, people will be turned off to see a McDonald’s on the next block further. As a result, there’s a maximum concentration of each big chain.

Further, there’s only enough national population to support a certain number of national chains. When each of those are at their maximum sustainable density, but there’s still enough population to support more business, then something like the thriving diner culture I’m looking for comes into being. In New York, under the further influence of particular immigrant communities, that became diner culture itself. New York City is the densest population center in North America. The diner culture grew there and has spilled over into the surrounding suburbs.

As the number of supportable big chains increases, and as big chains diversify (each with a burger place, coffee/milkshake place, burrito place, etc.), they’ll find ways to pack more densely and attack the remaining diner space. They’ll also find ways to support more national chains. I don’t hold out much hope that the diners I love will come to Boston. But at the other end of the spectrum, Kremmling had no visible chain businesses. With only a thousand people, franchising doesn’t make sense: people do their own thing. The local coffee shop looked pretty good.