There's something so satisfying about a great piece of art, but sometimes you just don't want to hang a Van Gogh on your wall. Sometimes you just want to lick it. For those days, there are these Art History lollipops from Etsy seller LIQNYC.

Of course, if you prefer the pop art of comic books over the fine art of the masters, you might prefer these classic comic book designs instead. The shop carries plenty of other designs as well, including creepy eye pops, space designs and even zombies, so whatever you're into, why don't you just lick it already?

Did you know an In-N-Out manager can earn up to $350,000 a year? Or that each location has a secret secret menu that no one can order but the employees? These are just a few of the fascinating things you can learn from this Thrillist article revealing secrets about the chain from a manager. In case you're wondering, he suggests that the best burger you can order at the restaurant is the double-single, two burger patties, one slice of cheese, chopped chilies, chopped onions, and one tomato slice. The bun gets a spiral of mustard and a squeeze of lemon juice.

It's worth mentioning that in another Thrillist article, they make a pretty compelling argument that being a manager at In-N-Out is better than being a lawyer. They have some good points, you can make similar money, you don't need to pay for college and In-N-Out not only offers killer benefits but also sends managers and their spouses on vacations to international destinations every year.

Even if you don't want to work at In-N-Out, you can still learn the inside secrets in this Thrillist article.

Even if you don't eat it, you must admit that old fashioned ribbon candy is beautiful and takes you back to the Christmases of your childhood. Watch as the folks at Lofty Pursuits (previously at Neatorama) make it the old-fashioned way.

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Watching a confectioner make candy is mesmerizing. They make it look so simple, but we all know that without the expertise and the specialized equipment, this project is impossible. But you can buy the candy at Public Displays of Confection. -via Digg

Tye Lombardi at The Necro Nom-Nom-Nomicon (previously at Neatorama) shares a recipe for coal that you'll want to find in your Christmas stocking, because it's a sweet treat!   

One of the highlights of my holiday season is the annual visit from my good friend Krampus.  While you mortals are eagerly awaiting the big guy in his red suit, I prefer his much shaggier, much darker companion.

We have spent many a long winter night munching on penta-graham cookies and sipping hot cinnamon and orange tea sweetened with these inky black lumps of sweet indulgence.

For many people, getting coal is a symbol you’ve been naughty, but for us denizens of hell, it’s how we sweeten all our drinks!

The ingredients are things you have around anyway, except for possibly the black food coloring. Try this recipe out any time, and you just might want to make plenty to give to your naughty and nice friends next year. -Thanks, hearsetrax!

Preparing cute (and often cartoon character shaped) meals for kids is a popular pastime among parents these days, but some of their edible art creations really stand out from the rest.

That's because food artists like Laleh Mohmedi have a knack for combining custom shaped ingredients on a plate to form fantastic likenesses of famous characters.

Laleh's creations are made to look like her son Jacob's favorite characters, which means the faces are every bit as fresh as the ingredients used to make them.

The Melbourne-based food artist shares pics of her work on Jacob's FOOD Diaries blog, Instagram and Facebook, where she also shares some of her experiences in the kitchen with the funny little guy who inspired it all.

See Mom Prepares Healthy Meals As Cartoon Characters For Her Son here

(Image via kimberleyshaw20)

There's nothing quite like a shot of fresh cut grass. Or smoked salmon. No, really, those are real flavors of vodka and they're only two of the thirty five insance flavors featured in this Supercall article. While most are a little odd, but at least charming (bubble gum or cinnamon churros), there are others that are utterly terrible sounding -like tobacco or the naga chilli that measures in at 250,000 scovilles. 

See the full list here

Pizza and burgers are two of the most incredible junk foods in the history of snacking and while there are plenty of cheeseburger pizzas out there -they're usually a poor combination of both with just hamburger and pickles thrown on top of a pizza. 

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But this pizza by Hellthy Junk Food truly combines the two foods -with a bacon cheeseburger complete with pickles, ketchup and mustard surrounded by a pepperoni pizza. You can learn how to make this monstrosity for yourself, but make sure your heart can handle such a monster meal before daring to consume it. The recipe is here.

Via Incredible Things

Here's a recipe so easy the kids can do it -and they need something to do during Christmas break. Christmas Grinch Popcorn would also be perfect to much on while watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The popcorn is coated with green candy and decorated with M&Ms, hearts (three sizes too small, of course) and red Grinch eyes. Get the recipe and instructions at Kitchen Fun with My Three Sons. -Thanks, hearsetrax!

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Andrew Rea's YouTube cooking show Binging With Babish specializes in creating recipes featured in television shows and movies, like eggs Woodhouse from Archer or the incredible prison pasta sauce featured in Goodfellas. But by far the most disgusting and utterly insane creation he's made to date is the dessert breakfast pasta Will Ferrell eats as Buddy the Elf. This disasterously disgusting recipe involves spaghetti in tomato sauce covered in chocolate chips, M&Ms, marshmallows, a chocolate Pop Tart, maple syrup, caramel sauce and Hershey's syrup. So how is it? From the chef's response, I'd guess it's just as bad as you might imagine, if not worse. You've gotta give it to Will Ferrell for seeming to enjoy it as he shovels litteral handfuls into his mouth.

Via Laughing Squid

Everybody loves having a steaming hot mug of cocoa during those cold winter months, but over the years the convenience of always having instant hot cocoa mix on hand has taken a lot of the flavor out of our mug.

These instant mixes also include lots of unnecessary additives and preservatives that further muddy the flavor, so Alton Brown decided to take hot cocoa mix back to basics with this recipe:

Instructions

-Via Alton Brown

Not everyone likes ice -some people prefer pizza rolls and if you find that you want frozen snacks more often than you want ice, you might want to try this brilliant life hack. 

(Video Link)

When you think about it, it's kind of amazing that people haven't done this before.

Via That's Nerdalicious

We all get gifts we hate at some point or another, but this year you can trade in those unwanted, unreturnable presents to Burger King and get a Whopper instead. The offer only applies at one specific location in Miami and a few locations in Brazil and London. Don't worry though, if you can't make it there, you can always take a photo of your unwanted gifts and post them on Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #WhopperExchange and you could get some kind of Burger King gift instead. All the unwanted gifts will be donated to charity. 

Via CBS

In Australia, a traditional Christmas treat takes the cake… out of fruitcake and puts those candied fruits in a Down Under version of Rice Krispie treats! Watch how to make the delicacy called White Christmas.

(YouTube link)

Fruitcake may be maligned stateside, but its Australian second cousin—known as a White Christmas—is so beloved, most Aussies have likely cooked up a batch in their childhood (there’s no baking required). Essentially, a White Christmas is a coconut Rice Krispies square studded with candied cherries and raisins. The reason why you don’t find the dish in America is because the essential ingredient, hydrogenated coconut oil (Copha is the household brand) is difficult to source in the U.S. This recipe substitutes white chocolate in place of coconut oil. Note: Rice bubbles = Rice Krispies.

The recipe in the video from from Steve's Kitchen is in the YouTube description. White Christmas is only one of the dishes described in a an article at the A.V. Club called 7 global Christmas food traditions Americans should adopt.

Brush up on the origins of your favorite eats! 

1. Popcorn

More than 4,000 years old, the earliest popcorn kernels were discovered in a Mexican bat cave once occupied by the Cochise Indians. The practice of popping corn was common among Native Americans: Ancient crumbs have been discovered in Peruvian tombs, while Cortes found Aztecs using it to decorate necklaces. Up north, colonists stumbled upon the snack at the first Thanksgiving in Plymouth, where the chief’s brother carried a batch in a deerskin bag.

2. Gum

Chewing for recreation became fashionable among colonists after they saw Native Americans chomp on the gummy resin of spruce trees. By the 19th century, Americans were chewing on paraffin wax, which today is used in candles and crayons. But gum as we know it really dates back to the Maya—who chewed dried sapodilla latex, called chicle. This came to Staten Island with the exiled Mexican general Antonio López de Santa Anna in 1869. He tried peddling chicle as a replacement for rubber tires, but local businessman Thomas Adams realized it had potential to be more fun: He invented the Chiclet.

Strawberries go well with chocolate. Chocolate goes great with peanut butter. Strawberries and peanut butter make a good PB&J sandwich. So the three must taste pretty good together, right? Sure they do; Little Debbie made a snack cake with all three once. There are plenty of food triads like this, that we've used to concoct new recipes. But mathematicians have been seeking a different outcome, called the incompatible food triad.

That conundrum goes like this: Can you think of three foods where any two of those foods taste good together, but all three combined taste disgusting?

Like so many long-lasting mathematical mysteries, this one is more difficult than it sounds. Thus far, it has stymied at least four generations of academics, who have not been able to come up with a group of foods that definitively fit the bill, nor a way to prove that it can’t be done. George Hart, an engineering professor and mathematical sculptor, has been chewing on the Incompatible Food Triad for 36 years. “Is there a theorem that says if a and b are good, and b and c are good, and a and c are good, then a and b and c must be good? That’s something that, on the face of it, seems reasonable,” he says. “But then when you look for an argument, a truth, you don’t find one.”  

It's not that people haven't tried. Read the history and progress of the search for the incompatible food triad at Atlas Obscura.