And, I hasten to add, a heavily-used litter box. This might be a good time to change the litter or dig in with a knife and fork--your choice. Congratulations to Susan Quick, the first place winner of of the ugliest cake contest at the Sonoma County (California) Fair. If you have a cat person in your life, bake him/her a cake like this one.
-via I Own the World | Photo: unknown
Did you know today is National S'mores Day? Here at Neatorama, this is a real holiday with a lot of clout -which means celebrating the day to its fullest. Sure, fair weather s'mores fans will probably make a basic s'more and reflect on campfire memories from their youth, but if you really love the sweet treats, then you know there's a lot more you can do with graham crackers, chocolate and marshmallow than making a nice warm sandwich. In fact, we've compiled enough recipes for you to eat s'mores all day -including for breakfast, lunch and dinner!
Pancakes
By working some marshmallow and chocolate chips into your pancakes as they cook and then covering them with marshmallow, graham cracker crumbs and chocolate chips, Bombshell Bling made a reasonably healthy breakfast loaded with all the makings of heaven. To really maximize your s'moreness, you could also try spreading Nutella and then marshmallow fluff on top of the pancakes before quickly popping them under the broiler for that toasty marshmallow magic.
Crepes
For a more traditional French take on s'more pancakes, Bombshell Bling suggests trying your hand at s'mores crepes. These are, just as you may expect, simply crepes loaded with marshmallow fluff, chocolate syrup and graham cracker crumbs, but when it comes to s'mores, simplicity is often simply amazing. Again, if you really want to up your s'mores game though, try making your crepes with graham flour.
Waffle Sliders
For those who prefer the delicious nooks and crannies of a waffle over those flat old pancakes, Mom on Time Out suggests making s'mores out of Eggo minis dipped in chocolate. Granted, you lose the graham flavor, but that delicious, buttery waffle taste more than makes up for it.
French Toast
Here's another twist on a breakfast classic -French toast stuffed with toasted marshmallow and chocolate and crusted in crushed graham cracker. BS in the Kitchen even went so far as to only use the roasted marshmallow skins since the rest of the mallow would be too much gooeyness.
Cinnamon Rolls
What's better than a cinnamon roll? How about one loaded with chocolate and covered in toasted marshmallows? This recipe by Steph's Bite By Bite sounds utterly amazing, but the pictures are even more mouth watering.
S'moreception
Don't bite into that beetle just yet! I know that's your immediate response to seeing a giant stag beetle. Who wouldn't start salivating over such a treat? But what you're looking at are actually breads baked and colored to resemble the cute little bugs.
Twitter user @tono_donoyukko saw these on sale at a bakery in Japan. They're priced at about $2.74 USD each, which is much more expensive than an ordinary stag beetle.
You tell the bakery what you want on a cake, and they faithfully write every instruction down, and then pipe your words onto the cake.
Jen at Cake Wrecks runs into this kind of thing so often that she has a semi-regular feature showing the latest failures to communicate. This latest post has some real doozies, of which this is just one.
(Photo: @TeamSobelman)
Forty-five years ago, humanity reached beyond the barrier of this world and touched the surface of another celestial body. And it was Americans who accomplished this unprecedented feat.
Some people say that America can no longer do great things. But they are wrong. When it comes to building Bloody Marys, Americans are not only constructing alcoholic marvels, but doing so at a stunning pace.
Sobelman's, a bar in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has pushed the envelope of human achievement by inventing the Chicken Fried Bloody Beast. It contains "cheese, sausage, pickles, olives, onions, mushrooms, asparagus, scallions, shrimp, lemon, Brussels sprouts, tomatoes, celery," and a whole fried chicken.
-via Nerdcore
(Photo: Baker's Donuts)
Baker's Donuts is a bakery in Sacramento, California. Susie and Randy Hem, the owners, call their latest treat "ice glazers." It's an adaptation of a simple treat that she used to make for her children on hot summer days: ice cream wrapped in ordinary bread. This can be only improved by replacing the bread with donut dough.
Every day, the Rems make eight dozen glazed donuts for ice glazers and inject them with ice cream when customers buy them. They often use exotic flavors to entice interest. Sactown magazine reports:
The unique ice cream flavors come from Pittsburg-based Magnolia Tropical Ice Cream, which uses California milk and fresh fruit in their recipes.
“We have an Asian-American background, and we used to eat [Magnolia ice cream] when we were younger,” Douglas Hem says. “A lot of Asian-Americans and Filipinos love that brand, because it’s very rich and creamy and not watered-down.”
The shop has also fulfilled customers' requests for other wild and crazy spins on the ice glazers, like red velvet doughnuts stuffed with vanilla ice cream, ice cream-filled cronuts topped with Trader Joe’s cookie butter, or tropical-flavored ice glazers sprinkled with Fruity Pebbles cereal.
-via That's Nerdalicious!
How many times have you enjoyed a gummy candy of one sort or another and wished that they were available in hot pepper flavors? Wish no more! Vat19 has gummy candy containing jalapeño, habanero, and ghost pepper! They’re still candy, with candy flavors. The candy shaped like a jalapeño pepper is green apple candy, the habanero is orange, and the red ghost pepper is cherry flavored, yet they have the heat of pepper powder or oil -and they are pepper-size, too. And they are sweet: the first ingredients are corn syrup and sugar. Spicy Gummy Peppers are available in a three-pack, one of each flavor, for $9.99. Don’t mix them in with your other gummy candies. -via mental_floss
Now it seems obvious: all pizzas should be cooked with a layer of chocolate chip cookie on top. But in the dark times that preceded Michael J. Hudson's discovery, we did not have such marvels.
It all began when the DiGiorno's brand began packaging its frozen pizzas with tubes of chocolate chip cookie dough. Like Bell with the telephone or the Wright brothers with the airplane, Hudson saw possibilities where others did not: the cookies and the pizza need not be baked separately.
Thank you, Mr. Hudson, our modern Prometheus. You have given humanity a great and delicious gift.
-via That's Nerdalicious!
Last month, Jeff Miller and Meg Strouse of Thrillist attended the Orange County Fair in Costa Mesa, California. They partook of the outlandish foods that have become central to county and state fairs, trying out delights such as deep fried pecan pie and bacon-wrapped Jack Daniel's churro.
What got my attention and made my mouth water are these corn dogs sold by Pickle O' Pete. They're made by coring a whole pickle, sliding a hot dog inside, dipping the combination in corn dog batter, then deep frying. Delicious!
Over 46 million Americans buy their groceries through SNAP, the program that used to be called food stamps. A lot of those groceries are processed foods, which bothered NYU food studies grad student Leanne Brown. Those on such a tight budget have a hard time stocking ingredients for meals found in cookbooks, so Brown developed a cookbook based on ingredients that are inexpensive, widely available, and easy to store. Good and Cheap aims to reach those whose food budget is as low as $4 a day per person, and it’s available free online.
So what are Brown's secrets to eating well on $4 a day? It's about stocking the pantry with cheap basics to build meals from: things like garlic, canned vegetables, dried beans and butter.
She also emphasizes flexibility, and avoids prescribing strict meals and methods. That means lots of options for substitutions, especially when it comes to the produce aisle, where prices can fluctuate based on season and availability. Each meal is priced out by serving.
Earlier this week, Deborahmichelle Sanders, 63, of San Francisco, Calif., turned to the cookbook and found an intriguing recipe: cornmeal crusted vegetables with an Asian-inspired peanut sauce for dipping.
Since she couldn't afford the suggested beans or peppers, she tried carrots. The result? "It's so wonderful," she tells The Salt.
Read more about the cookbook at The Salt. Then you’ll want to read it yourself. The book is available online here or to buy through Brown's website. -via Metafilter
There’s nothing better than a cone of cold, fruit-flavored ice cream on a hot day, unless it’s a cold, fruit-flavored ice cream cone that changes color as you lick it! That’s what Xamaleón does. The name of the ice cream, “Xamaleón,” is meant to resemble “chameleon,” according to the ice cream’s inventor, Manuel Linares. Linares is a former physicist who opened an ice cream shop in Blanes, Spain. He’s not giving away the secrets of the color-changing ice cream, which tastes like a combination of fruit.
What we do know is the ice cream is made with natural ingredients like strawberries, banana, vanilla and almonds. Additionally, Linares sprays what he calls a “love elixir” on the ice cream after it’s scooped to help accelerate the reaction. We probably won’t know the whole story behind Xamaleón until Linares secures a patent for his creation, which is pending.
I wouldn’t worry too much about secret ingredients; it’s probably something like this. Read more about the color-changing ice cream at Discover magazine. -via Digg
(Image credit: Manual Linares, Cocinatis)
Tomato sauce, cheese, pasta, and meat are a filling meal. But Garfield needs to polish off his supper with a bit of dessert. Ashley, the CenterCutCook, has just the recipe for him. The crust is made of an entire package of crushed Double Stuf Oreos, followed by the creme, then chocolate pudding, then Cool Whip, then mini chocolate chips.
-via Thrillist
It's all the elegance of a fine Japanese restaurant with the convenience of a state fair food stand. This is the spicy tuna corn dog, a creation from the Culinary Bro-Down. The first step is to get tuna rolls from "your cheapest, dirtiest local supermarket." Don't worry about food safety because you will deep fry any parasites into submission.
Next, shove a wood stick inside. Then roll it in a batter made of cornmeal, furikake, ginger, and sriracha. Deep fry and serve. You can use chopsticks, but you won't need to because it's a corn dog.
-via Foodiggity
About 200 people gathered in Paju, South Korea, near North Korean border, to launch balloons. Fifty balloons were inflated and released carrying a total of 770 pounds of Choco Pies. It was both a political act and a gift to the people of North Korea, who have recently been barred from consuming the pies.
The pies, which are produced in South Korea, are wildly popular in North Korea. Fearful that the treats would encourage an uprising, Kim Jong-un reportedly banned Choco Pies from the country earlier this month. The pies, which have become something of a political statement, are viewed as a symbol of capitalism and represent a taste of the world outside North Korea.
South Koreans have sent DVDs and photographs by balloon before, to counteract propaganda in North Korea that the South is poverty-stricken. See pictures of the balloon release at Mashable. -via mental floss
(Image credit: Tomomarusan)
Ripe peaches in season are wonderful, and really don’t need to be dressed up to sell. But when you are competing with other peach vendors, a little sex can make a big difference. In China, vendors are putting panties on their peaches, inspired by the upcoming Qixi Festival, which is like Valentines Day.
China News reports that these unusual peaches are called "Ripe Fruit" (蜜桃成熟時), a name evoking obvious sexual connotations. The panty peaches were first developed by a fruit vender in Nanjing, with each pair of underwear slipped on each sexy butt by hand. As SDChina reports, the peaches are from Yangshan, in Wuxi, an area that's also famous for its lingerie and garment industry.
They may be cheeky, but they aren’t cheap. A box of nine peaches will set you back the equivalent of $80. See more peachy pictures at Kotaku.
