Gingerbread men are an icon of the holiday, but more for their fun distinctive look than for their taste. In fact, many people, myself included, think they are just too dry and cardboard-like most of the time. Fortunately though, these little cookie men have finally been offered a little bit of help in the flavor department with the help of Oh Bite It, where you can find a recipe for deep-fried gingerbread men. In the good old fashioned tradition of "everything's better deep fried, I can't wait to give these suckers an oil bath in my own home.

Via That's Nerdalicious 

These days, people typically chop down evergreen trees to serve as their family Christmas trees. This is a modern convenience that is a substitute for the original practice: cooking and assembling a bacon tree. Amy of the food blog Oh, Bite It! shows us how to follow the old ways and make the classic decoration/breakfast.

You'll need 3-4 pounds of bacon. Cut the strips in half, then bake them in muffin pans. Pile them into the shape of a tree, using vanilla or maple cake frosting as an adhesive. Add a bit of decorative flair, such as sprinkles or (my suggestion) even more frosting.

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Here's a recipe that is so easy it's a perfect activity to do with the kids. If you count bread mix as one ingredient, it's a three-ingredient recipe, made with egg whites, Nutella and bread dough. It not only looks tasty, but its star shape is festive as well. -Via 22 Words

The ol' visualizing 200 calories treatment is applied to typical Christmas food and drink here. To those familiar with counting calories, this shouldn't be much of a surprise. It does do well to illustrate how many calories can be ingested by partaking in alcoholic drinks, particularly rich drinks like eggnog. But with all that extended family interaction, I wouldn't dream of suggesting people stick to water. We all tend to cut back once January hits, anyway. 

See more of these 200-calorie Christmas fare photos at The Atlantic.  

I want to leave my mark on the world--to do something significant that will leave an impact on others for generations to come. And, to the best of my knowledge, no one has ever made cupcakes flavored with pickled pigs' feet.

Last year, I told you about 10 wonderful ways to eat pigs' feet. Among them are pickled pigs' feet. These are a Southern delicacy. To my great fortune, my parents are from the Deep South, so I was raised on this marvel of pork flesh and vinegar.

When I grew up, we ate them straight out of the jar with a knife and fork. They are fine this way, but they can also be a dessert. These cupcakes have pickled pigs' feet inside, both in the cake and the frosting. They're my latest contribution to our Don't Eat That, John! gourmet dining series.

If you want to try something new for Christmas dinner, you might try something very old. However, you’ll need to have a particularly carnivorous guest list.

The first known suggested menu for Christmas dinner was from 1660 book The Accomplisht Cook by Robert May. May was a chef to the nobility, so let’s assume this menu is supposed to feed a lot of people. It’s a list of 39 dishes, in which 35 or so of them are meat. Then there’s salad, quince pie, and custard. There's also something called “Made dish in puff paste,” whatever that is (probably meat). Otherwise it’s a flock of geese, chickens, swans, ducks, turkeys, pheasants, and other birds, plus venison, mutton, rabbit, pork, beef, and fish -and a few other animals. Read the list, with some information about some of the more obscure recipes, at mental_floss. In case you were wondering, there are partridges on the menu, and pears, although not in the same dish.

A “literal LOL” happens when a bake shop clerk writes down instructions for a custom cake, and then the decorator takes them a bit too literally -as in writing the instructions on the cake in icing. Jenn Yates at Cake Wrecks went through her archives and has posted a two-part list of the best instances that have appeared at Cake Wrecks. See them in part one and part two.

And if you’re a 12-year-old boy at heart, you might also want to check out Cake Wrecks' Top 12 Unintentionally Erotic Cakes.

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2014 was a good year for adventurous eaters, especially those who don’t snub offerings from fast food restaurants.

The fast food inventions created in 2014 were quite unique, with original hybrid tastes we've never seen before delivered to our tastebuds by cross branded creations worthy of waiting in that long drive thru line.

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We were introduced to a breakfast food idea we can actually create at home- The Waffle Taco, and we got to see what a taco would look like on a bun thanks to Del Taco:

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Those of us lucky enough to have Australian stomachs got to try Pizza Hut’s Doritos Crust pizza and KFC’s Popcorn Chicken Nacho Box:

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King Frederick inspects the potato crops.

1. POTATO PUSHER

The potato came to Europe in the late 1500s, but it wasn’t met with a warm welcome. Disregarded by most, it was first used only to feed livestock. But Frederick the Great of Prussia saw the tuber’s potential. Sure, potatoes tasted bland, but they were versatile, cheaper than bread, and easy to stockpile. He introduced them to his army in 1744 and later freely distributed them to peasants during famine. The people weren’t convinced. In fact, the town of Kolberg was so put off that it responded in a letter: “The things have neither smell nor taste, not even the dogs will eat them, so what use are they to us?” To change public opinion, King Frederick employed some reverse psychology and established a royal potato field patrolled by soldiers. Soon, curious citizens were slinking around at night with stolen potatoes to plant in their gardens -exactly what Frederick wanted.

2. THE RICEMAN COMETH

Thomas Jefferson knew how important healthy farms were to his fledgling nation, and he didn’t mind getting his hands dirty to keep his country strong. By summer 1787, the American rice industry was starting to crumble. The rice was mostly grown in swamps, and the stagnant water was a breeding ground for mosquitoes that made nearby workers sick. During his tenure as minister to France, Jefferson found the farmers’ solution: a dry, upland variety of rice grown in Italy. There was just one problem: Italian law forbade “the exportation of rough rice on pain of death.” Jefferson, however, used his power to declare the rice independent, secretly filling his coat pockets with the unhusked varietel before making for the border.

3. CROSS YOUR TEAS

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Like the legendary Prometheus, Johnny Di Francesco stands before us, offering humanity a chance to boldly advance forward. He's a chef in Melbourne, Australia and the inventor of this marvel: a pizza that has no fewer than 99 different types of cheese.

To make the pizza, he melts together 94 different cheeses into one pot, which then cools. From this solid block of mixed cheese, he composes the cheese body of his pizza. Then Di Francesco adds portions of fior di latte, buffalo mozzarella, ricotta, raspadura, and goat cheese. It's so beautiful that I could cry.

-via Daily of the Day

Maika Keuben is busy with so many Cthulhumas preparations. She’s got her tree ready and a wreath for the door, and now she’s baked Cthulhumas cookies! Dozens and dozens of chocolate cookies with peppermint-flavored icing, all in the image of the dreaded elder god Cthulhu.

At first it just sounded like wind in the trees, but beneath that there's the guttural whisper of an ancient voice saying "Into the kitchen with you, there's unspeakable baking to be done." Now my throat is sore from the endless chanting, my clothing and hair covered in flour, sugar, slime and soot (don't ask), and I can't remember the last time I slept through the night, but I wouldn't dare complain. The Great Old Ones demanded Cthulhumas cookies, so cookies I did make. So very many cookies.

The process of making these cookies is documented in an imgur gallery with plenty of pictures and hilariously Lovecraftian narration. The confluence of holiday cheer and despair, of delicious and dreadful, is irresistible.  

Look at this amazing cake! It’s got multiple references to events that happened in the TV series The Walking Dead. This image has been passed around Pinterest and Twitter for months with no reference to the artist who created it, although they deserve a golden spatula. It’s just one of the many Walking Dead-themed cakes in a collection at Uproxx. Who knew there were so many ways to incorporate zombies into cakes?

Chef Thomas Keller owns the renowned Bouchon Bakery in Napa, California. Oliver Bernardino is a 23-year-old pastry cook in Vancouver who idolizes Keller and would love to work for him. Instead of sending a letter or a resume, Bernardino spent 70 hours baking and constructing an exact replica of the Bouchon Bakery out of gingerbread!  

"I wanted to make something that I was truly inspired by, and would motivate me to bring out my best work," says Bernardino. So he meticulously studied the Bouchon Bakery cookbook, his own photos from the visit, and info on the Web to replicate the look, down to tiny details like a table stacked with Keller's signature TKOs, blue apron, and a roll of green painter's tape and a Sharpie, used in Keller's kitchens to mark containers. "It's a take on what I thought their version of a 'plate of cookies for Santa' would look like," he says. Other replica elements include a macaron tree, a stack of baguettes, and the bakery's signature yellow awnings. "I was also really happy with how the benches and garbage bins came out," he says.

Bernardino’s gingerbread bakery is now on display in an exhibit called Gingerbread Lane at the Vancouver Hyatt, to benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Read more about it and see pictures from all angles at San Francisco Eater. -via Messy Nessy Chic

Vat19, who brought us the gummy peppers, offers a 26-pound gummy candy in the form of a python. The Gummy party Python measures 84 inches long and packs in 36,000 calories. Of course, you don’t want to eat it all yourself, do you? It’s said to contain over 300 servings, which is some party. It could make a good gift for the right person -the candyholic on your list. The Party Python comes in two flavors, but both are sold out right now (they expect more December 17th). You can see more pictures and a video at the product page. -via Geeks Are Sexy

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In this video, Alton Brown demonstrates what he believes to be the perfect shape in which to cut raw potatoes prior to them being cooked and mashed. Of course, everyone should follow his advice. Because he's Alton Brown, and he sees all. -Via Laughing Squid