Benjamin Franklin did not say that God gave us beer because He loves us and wants us to be happy -but he might have thought it! Beer goes way thousands of years and has always been an important drink. After all, for most of human history, water wasn't safe. John Green tells us all kinds of interesting things about beer, in the latest mental_floss video.
They might both be mad men, but only The Doctor has a box. Of course, if there's one great place to have your mind blown that doesn't involve traveling through space and time, it's 221B Baker St. This great double fandom gingerbread house was created by Twitter user Wholock.
It's a perfect gingerbread house for fans of these two great BBC shows, but it's really exciting for all those fangirls out there who find these two men to be the sexiest men on television.
If you’ve ever revealed to friends and family that you’re a budding artist (or in some cases merely expressed an interest in art) you’re probably expecting to receive a bunch of art supplies this year, whether you need them or not. If you’re tired of adding to your ever growing collection of superfluous art supplies then you’d better put these sweet sets on your list.
Created by Nendo Design, these edible art supply sets include chocolate paint tubes filled with various yummy creams like caramel and honey, and chocolate pencils you can shave to add a touch of deliciousness to another dessert. They’re a sweet way to support an artist without adding to their already cluttered lives.
Via Beautiful/Decay
Sesame Street continues their series on delayed gratification starring Cookie Monster -and their series of movie parodies we all can enjoy! The latest episode is their version of Lord of the Rings in which Cookie Monster stars as "Gobble," must bake the "precious" cookies without succumbing to the temptation to eat them before they are done. Can he control himself long enough to accomplish his quest? And by the way, Gandalf looks pretty cute as a Muppet, don't you think? -via Gamma Squad
We just covered the world's largest gingerbread house, which is on display at Texas A&M University, but if just one house isn't enough to impress you, then you can't miss the world's largest gingerbread village created by New York Chef Jon Lovitch.
The incredible creation consists of 152 houses and 65 trees. It weighs over 1.5 tons, made up of 500 pounds of gingerbread, 400 pounds of candy and 2,240 pounds of icing. Unsurprisingly, it cost over a few thousand dollars to complete, but that's a small price to pay to live forever in the pages of the Guinness Book of World Records.
Master pancake artist Nathan Shields is getting into the Christmas spirit. Here are the 8 traditional reindeer with Rudolph to lead the way. His glowing red nose appears to be a bit of strawberry.
P.S. Be sure to check out this Rudolph pancake that has marshmallows, bacon and chocolate. It's always time for bacon.
The Muppets' Swedish Chef is serving up his Swéédéé Méétéé Bøøls at a Food Truck Festival when celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay shows up. A challenge? It's a food fight! At least Ramsay does his own bleeps in this -after all, it is the Muppets! -via Boing Boing
(Unrelated photo via Joe)
Poutine is a Québécois dish consisting of gravy and cheese curd over French fries. It’s popular in Canada, where it’s eaten as fast food and a comfort food. McDonald’s restaurants in Quebec sell it. But now the company plans to make poutine available in all McDonald’s outlets throughout Canada. A serving will cost $3.99
I’ve had poutine once. It’s not available in restaurants in my part of Texas, so I had to make it myself. That wasn’t easy, as I could find cheese curd at only one specialty food store. It was delicious! I promised my wife that I would save half of it for her, but…well….
Someday, I’ll make it up to her.
-via Nag on the Lake
Preparing a holiday meal is a pain in the neck, and often results in the cook(s) being reduced to a frazzled, grumpy mess. But is it worth all the hassle and bad vibes? Wouldn’t you love to simply crack open a tin full of holiday meal and dig right in? Well, your prayers have been answered, the Christmas Tinner is here!
Packed full of layers of goodness, this colorful ready to eat can of Christmas cheer will make meal preparation a snap, and there’s something for everyone so your friends and family members will have their ferocious holiday hungers sated the easy way.
Via Geekosystem
We've already featured a few cool cakes from the Bake Christmas Wish Fundraiser for the Make A Wish Foundation (like the Hogswatch and Frozen ones), but when they are all so fantastic looking, it's hard not to keep posting them. This particularly lovely gingerbread Hogwarts Castle from Harry Potter was created by Mimicafe Union in New York and it looks just about as magical as the one in the films.
This second photo shows just how impressive the detailing is on the castle.
If you've ever eaten at a serve-yourself buffet, you're probably glad to see a transparent sneeze guard between other people's faces and your food. Surprisingly, the sneeze guard isn't all that old. While smorgasbord restaurants became popular in America in the late 1930s, the sneeze guard was patented in 1959! It was the invention of restauranteur Johnny Garneau.
“Being the germaphobe that he was, he couldn’t stand people going down the Smorgasbords smelling things and having their noses too close to the food,” Barbara Kelley, one of five of Garneau’s children says. “He said to his engineers, ‘We have to devise something—I don’t want these people sneezing on the food.”
It's a comforting thought to know that the guy who owns the restaurant in which you are eating is a germaphobe. But while the sneeze guard was Garneau's most famous innovation, it wasn't his only one. On one of his restaurants, he delivered drinks to patrons at the other end of the bar by model train! Read about Garneau and how he developed the sneeze guard at Smithsonian's Food and Think blog.
(Image courtesy of Barbara Garneau Kelley)
Disney’s newest animated smash hit Frozen has inspired artists from all over the world to try their hand at making something shaped like one of the stars of the film. The favorite subjects so far are, of course, Olaf the Snowman and Sven the reindeer, mostly because both characters are just so darn cute!
UK cake wizard Laura Miller liked the characters so much that she decided to immortalize them in batter and sweet fondant for the Bake a Christmas Wish fundraiser, and they look good enough not to eat! She even included a process photoset so you can get an idea of what goes into making a cake look this adorable.
Via Cartoon Brew
Love Sriracha? Love bacon? Then you'll love the new burgers from Southern California burger chain Slater's 50/50 (known for the all bacon burger and the nacho burger). Their new Sriracha burger features a half bacon and half ground beef patty combined with Sriracha, topped with Sriracha-filled coleslaw, pepperjack cheese, Sriracha-glazed bacon, Sriracha mayo, mushrooms sauteed in Sriracha and a nice drizzle of Sriracha just to make sure you mouth is on fire.
The burger hits the menu on December 9th, so if you just can't get enough rooster sauce, head out to Slater's and try it for yourself.
Many of you will undoubtedly see this cake and wonder why the heck Death is suddenly dressed like Santa Claus and what all this "Hogfather" nonsense is. But, if you're familiar with Terry Pratchett's Discworld, then you'll not only recognize this cake, but also immediately recognize how amazing it is.
The cake was made by Ciccio Cakes for the Bake A Christmas Wish fundraiser to help raise money for the Make A Wish Foundation. You ought to check out more of the fundraiser's great cakes, which includes a fantastic Frozen one as well.
Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website or at Facebook.
The world-famous, beloved, and OMG sooo delicious Oreo cookie celebrated its 100th birthday last year -on my birthday, March 6th! Coincidence? No food in the universe has given me the amount of joy and pleasure during my lifetime as Oreos and milk.
Oreos are the best-selling cookies in the world. They were the best-selling cookies of the 20th century, and this honor has carried on strong into the 21st century.
In 1912, consumers wanted an English-style biscuit (cookies are called "biscuits" in England) and the Oreo cookie was created to meet this demand. The "Oreo Biscuit" was first developed by the National Biscuit Company, today known as Nabisco. The Oreo was originally created and launched as an imitation of the Hydrox cookie manufactured by the Sunshine company in 1908.
The first Oreos were manufactured at the company's Chelsea factory in New York City, located on 9th Avenue, between 15th and 16th Street. Today, this 9th Avenue block is known as "Oreo Way."
In the early years, Oreo buyers had the choice of vanilla cream filling and lemon cream. The lemon cream centers were soon abandoned and the vanilla cream center has remained the Oreo trademark.
An Oreo is 29% cream and 71% cookie. The Oreo design features 12 flowers encircling the Oreo name. It takes 90 minutes to make a single Oreo and each cookie has 90 ridges.
Who coined the word "Oreo" is unknown; in fact, the name itself is shrouded in mystery.
