cheap thursday: spend $0 on food this month.

Good way to save money: Use what you already have. For instance, one of my high-school friends' dad was an orthodontist, and when you went to their house, anything that had broken was mended with that translucent pink resin stuff they use to make retainers. Broken toilet handle? Weird pink glob. Missing cabinet knob? Weird, lumpy pink glob. It was disgusting — but thrifty!

Anyway, this is less disgusting: the Eating Down the Fridge Challenge. Starting Monday, March 9, the idea is to do absolutely no food shopping for a week — the challenge ends Sunday, March 15. Doesn't sound like long, does it? But remember, that includes going out to eat — no buying your lunch or breakfast; if you're really hard-core, skip that morning coffee stop.

No dinners out either. (C'mon, it's only a week!) The point is to use up all that stuff that just sits in your pantry and freezer, taking up space and eventually getting thrown away. In my case, that includes a lot of dried beans, a lot of weird canned vegetables, and a lot of impulse buys from Dong-A and the Laxmi Plaza market, so it's gonna be all Third World up in my kitchen next week. In fact, a mental perusal of my cupboards is making me think I might try to do this for a month instead of a week (as indicated by the headline) — though I'll probably need to build in a fresh-veg allowance halfway through.

Here's the FAQ. Comment here if you're taking the challenge, too — maybe we can help each other out. Now, can anyone send me a recipe that uses adzuki beans, Spanish capers and Trinidadian curry blend?

sorry to burst your bubble, dudes.

(RT @ClaytonCollege)

top chef (spoilers!): don't you worry 'bout fabio none, chickens.

Yes, it's v. v. sad that Fabio got pack-your-knives'd. But we think he's going to do just fine. On Tom Colicchio's BravoTV.com blog, His Craftiness sphinxes, "We have not heard the last from Fabio." Hmm. What can he mean.

Over at Amuse-Biatch, they calls it like they sees it: "That Fabio Viviani is getting his very own show seems as much an open secret as it does a teleological necessity (television was invented so that Fabio could go on it)."

So long, Fabs. So long, "hot, shirtless" Jeff. That leaves us with two baldies and a hoot-hoot. Hootie-hoo. Whatever.

cheap thursday: brain juice on a budget.

An anonymous coffee connoisseur writes:

Dear Salivation Army,

I love my morning cup of coffee and have been a regular customer of local roasters Volcano's, whose African coffees and blends are divine, especially the Cafe Del Dopocena, which costs around $15 a pound.

But I can't justify the expense right now, and so I've turned to Dunkin' Donuts coffee beans, which cost around $7.95 a pound — but many of the stores (like the one on Aloma Avenue in Winter Park) offer a 2-for-1 special for $10.99 that's not always advertised. That brings the cost down to $5.50 per pound. And it really does taste good – take it from a snob. There's something about those light brown arabica beans and their spicy aroma, and I prefer to buy whole beans, grind them fresh every day and brew them at home.

Still, it pains me not to be supporting a local roaster. Do you know of any local coffee shops that have prices to compete with DDs? Or if there's something wrong with the Dunk?

Java Jane

ethos gets saucy.

Every Thursday starting this week, Ethos Vegan Kitchen hosts Beer & Pizza night. Get a hot slice from their new large pie and a draft of one of the Orlando Brewing beers they have on tap for $6 — that's Cheap Thursday material!

Also, WPRK is this month's Ethos charity — not that I've heard anything about it on WPRK (hello, PSAs?) — so drop your change in the jar to support the voice of Rollins College. They're arguably the best station in town and they're trying to raise dollars to improve online streaming.

local food tastes best.

Don't forget! Tonight from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. —  Audubon Park Community Market in the Stardust parking lot (1842 E. Winter Park Road, Orlando 32803).

At the produce tables you can find local, organic collard greens, avocados, grapefruit, strawberries, radishes, bok choy, and papayas.

Go! Go! What are you waiting for? Also on hand, some prepared foods from local vendors:

Audubon Park Foods

• southwest black bean salad
• Florida grapefruit slaw
• mung bean spread (high protein)
  

• organic black eyed peas, Florida collard greens, creamy mashed potatoes and jalapeno corn bread
• black bean mushroom burgers on whole wheat buns served with Florida grapefruit slaw
• 7 bean and vegetable soup

color me caffeinated.

A must-have product for imperious bosses and hey-while-you're-uppers: The MyCuppa color-matching mug, a cup with Pantone-like swatches inside for proper milk ratio.

Now when you ask for milky tea or dark and strong coffee, your devoted servant will be able to bring you exactly what you desire. Coffee- and tea-wise, that is. No promises on anything else.

Available online from Suck UK.

who wants some nice homo sausage?

Now here's a product that sells itself. Market research, baby!

Here's Umamimart's story of Homo Sausage.

skinny chicks scarfing hot apple pies.

Really? McDonald's is sponsoring New York Fashion Week. Hello, McLean Deluxe!

Seriously, I'm sure they have enough trouble with the toilets at the tents — to put this kind of temptation in front of a captive audience of scarf-n-barfers is just cruel.

Thank God there's no Project Runway this season — imagine hearing Heidi congratulate you on showing at "McDonald's Fashion Week." Maybe you could also get a photo spread in TV Guide, instead of Elle? (The prize Saturn is already janky enough to fit right in.)

now OW staffers have one less place to drink.

Harvey's and Manuel's on the 28th, both in the bank of America building at Orange and Livingston, have closed. I've been hearing rumors of this for weeks — and if I have, then reputable food editors in town must have too — but I've hesitated to report it until it was official.

Now it is — Valentine's Day was the last supper for both of them.

Manuel's has closed once before, becoming a rental-only event space, so don't count them out permanently. I know it's a bad time for restaurants, but those are two great rooms.

this situation is not as cute as it looks.

"I would like to eat you now!"


Photographers in parkas: crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside.

very vegan valentine's dinner.

I wish I had known about this event sooner — but if there are any hungry veggies out there looking for a Valentine's plan, Christina from Infusion Tea writes: 

u r my top chef.

Delightfully named gastroblog Eat Me Daily reports that this year's conversation hearts have a food-inspired theme.

for those who don't like chocolate (yes, they exist).

The ladies at The Splendid Table sent recipes for a whole Valentine's Day dinner in this week's Weeknight Kitchen e-mail (sign up here), but the panna cotta with mango looks especially good — and, if you accept that food can be sexy (I do, but some find this a ridiculous concept), panna cotta is a very sexy dessert. I've posted the recipe after the jump, but do give The Splendid Table website a visit; it's a gem.

If you'd rather not make it yourself, Bice at the Portofino Bay Hotel serves a wonderful panna cotta (see my review here), and both SEA Thai (see OW review here) and Pilin Thai (my review here) offer wonderful sticky coconut rice with mango.


read the full post here.

st. valentine: the original psycho ex-boyfriend.

Rejected by his mistress, he carved out his still-beating heart and handed it over as a token of his love. The original bad boyfriend, no? (And he was sainted for this behavior WHY exactly? He must have had a lot of good works built up to offset the mistress, not to mention the, um, carving.)

In honor of this psycho, restaurants want you to pay for lots of champagne and chocolate on their special Valentine's Day promotional menus.

So. Most "dining experts" would be listing all the special Lovers' Menus à Deux being offered around town tomorrow, but I will not. Suffice it to say, Valentine's Day is like New Year's Eve or Mother's Day: If you plan to go to a restaurant, chances are you will a) need to make a reservation and/or b) get roped into or at least offered a special package-deal menu.

Nothing against the restaurants here; I know restaurant staffs are working hard and a special meal out can be a real treat. (And if no one eats out, all the restaurants will close, and we don't want that.) But equating spending a lot of money — whether it's on a soufflé or long-stemmed roses or a Build-a-Bear — with love is kinda ... well, cheesy.

This year, of all years, seems like the time to reel it in a little and maybe make a gift or cook dinner together. There are some really good ideas ...
 
here, (homemade chocolate pudding)
here, (natural red velvet cake, no food coloring)
here, (chocolate and cacao-nib cookies)
here, (romantic breakfast in bed)
here, (chocolate souffle cupcakes w/soy milk, tofu, and miso)
and here. (really cool, free e-Valentines cards)

... so leave your credit cards alone. End of sermon.

(Actually, one more thing: It should go without saying, but, y'know, even if you're just hanging out with your besties or home alone, it's still nice to treat yourself to a little something extra-special, instead of inhaling a drugstore heart-shaped box of chocolates.)

cheap thursday: soup is good food.

Over at the adorable and frighteningly comprehensive blog The Kitchn, "February is soup month." One of the many good points of soup is that it's pretty cheap, and we're all about cheap. On Thursdays.

Editor Sara Kate enumerates some of the other benefits in her thus-far-in-Soup-Month posts: cooking it will warm up your kitchen (nice on chilly nights); you can make soup from almost anything; it uses up leftovers; it's a perfectly satisfying one-pot meal; and most soups can be made vegetarian or vegan with some simple recipe tweaks.

If the embarrassment of tasty recipes at The Kitchn overwhelms you, visit the Noodle Soup Oracle, and it will generate noodle+broth+ingredient combos for you. Looking good to me: "Glass noodles in vegetable stock with sesame oil; topped with grilled, flaked salmon, broccoli and pickled chilis." Soup: chaos theory in a bowl.

If even that's too much thinkin' for you, here's a Mollie Katzen recipe for an amazingly delicious soup — no one I've ever served it to has failed to comment (and that includes a Pat Greene potluck!) — and, yes, it's cheap. Happy souping.

the trader joe's song.

When, Orlando? When?

and speaking of going down, mr. georgia peanut is going straight to hell.

This peanut guy, Stewart Parnell, is probably going to jail, but definitely going to hell. After samples tested positive for salmonella IN AUGUST, he had them sent to a different lab, which then gave them a negative result — now e-mails have surfaced in which he urged his plant managers to "turn them loose." Appalling.

"Jeff Almer said his 72-year-old mother, Shirley, survived two bouts with cancer only to die in December after being served peanut butter on toast in a Minnesota nursing home," reported the Washington Post.

MSNBC reports that "decorated Korean war vet and Duluth native Clifford Tousignant died after eating tainted peanut butter last month." The peanut butter was sent to school cafeterias and nursing homes; children and the elderly are most susceptible to food-borne illnesses.

Nine people have died so far and more than 600 have been sickened; victims' families spoke on the House floor Tuesday, where Rep. Greg Walden, R-Oregon, pulled an Erin Brockovich by offering Parnell some of his own product.

May I point out here that I'm sickened, too — sickened that a Republican, the party of "no government oversight, let the market work everything out," is the one wagging his finger? Parnell is the very picture of a good capitalist, impatient about the delays testing caused because it was costing him money. Now he's pleading the Fifth.

Have fun in jail, Parnell — I hear they eat a lot of peanut butter there.

top chef: leah's going down.

And I don't just mean on Hosea. (Ba-DOINK!)

'K, I know I said I wasn't going to post about Top Chef, but I just watched last week's episode at lunch (my DVR went crappo last Wednesday; my extreme vexation with this state of affairs illuminated my pathetic social life, but that's for the PERSONAL blog) and OHMYGOD Jamie got pack-your-knives'd? Are you SERIOUS??? Leah has been the sand in the spinach from day one, and her poutiness reached its zenith last night when she just gave up in the Quickfire. Granted, apparently Jamie's dish tasted like ass, but as Tom Colicchio said, at least she knew what she did wrong. Unlike Little Miss Poutypants, who also served a fail. Leah had better get eliminated TONIGHT.

Also, at some point in the episode I noticed that there were an even number of male and female chefs left, and I was thinking how cool that was, but now, the two women who are left are no way going to win. Probably won't even make it to the final four (though Carla is showing hidden French-technique depths) ... unless the producers insist on keeping Leah "I've never cheated on a boyfriend before" around.

Oh and Eric Ripert? Total nerd. So cute.

fifi's patisserie becomes sanctuary diner.

Popular brunch/lunch spot Fifi's Patisserie will reopen Feb. 27 with a new name, new menu and new price point. Located in the Sanctuary condo building on Eola Drive, it will be transformed over the next two weeks into the Sanctuary Diner, serving classic diner food with an "eclectic twist" at slightly lower prices than Fifi's French bistro fare. In this economic climate, SK Restaurants demonstrates good timing: People love comfort food when they're stressed out.

i eat your skin.

These people really, really love their favorite foods. Enough to wear them for life.

Food Tattoos pool on Flickr

Way too many cupcakes, though. Cupcake tattoos are the Cori Yarckin of food tattoos.

this is why you're fat.

OK, call me a copycat, but I couldn't resist reposting this link. Erstwhile OW staffer, honorary brigadier-general in the Salivation Army and general chaat enthusiast Jason Ferguson just posted a link to This Is Why You're Fat, and I'm speechless. It's just ... repulsive. Side-splittingly nasty.

Corndog pizza. French-fry-encased hot dog on a stick. The Jabaconageburger with Cheese ("a cheeseburger patty topped with bacon and sausage between two Jamaican beef patties"). It's like Michael Phelps' dream snack bar.

(left, "Mega Double Stuff Oreo"; below, "Giant Breakfast Burrito: A seven pound breakfast burrito stuffed with potatoes, eggs, onions, and ham bits, lots of cheese on top and smothered in red chile")


More pictures below, by popular demand: The Jabaconageburger With Cheese and what I'm going to call the Corndog'Za.

to moldily go ...

  >   

florida prisons go on a diet.

Holy budget crunch! The AP reports that, due to "the rising cost of bread, milk and other staples," food-service company Aramark will no longer provide meals to Florida's prison system (the third-largest in the country, incidentally).

Almost exactly a year ago, however, Reuters filed a statement from SEIU labor leaders, who had called for an investigation of Aramark's state contract, alleging that the company charged for "phantom meals" and pocketed the difference.

The upshot of it is that prisoners will be getting cornbread instead of sliced bread at some meals, fewer sweetener packets and orange juice from concentrate. (They were getting fresh orange juice? No way!) But to my mind, what's interesting is that all* the current reporting on Aramark's loss of the contract is focused on Florida's budget shortfall (i.e., this story), reprinting the AP's shallow take instead of digging into Aramark's Halliburton-like tendencies.

And whose idea was it to privatize the prison food service, btw? Florida's old pal  Jeb Bush, taking a page out of the same playbook Dick Cheney was spoon-feeding to Dubya.


* Almost all. With their usual skill, the St. Pete Times filed a thorough and well-written article pointing out that "Florida turned over most prison food operations to Aramark Corp., even after Ohio had scrapped a similar experiment with bad results."

new ben & jerry's flavors: obama, "yes pecan!"; bush, "cluster fudge"

(The very cool cartoon above is from LA Weekly's Mr. Fish Catch of the Day blog)

Joining such venerated statesmen as Stephen Colbert and, erm, Willie Nelson, President Barack Obama now has been immortalized in frozen-dairy-product form with the launch of Ben & Jerry's newest flavor, Yes Pecan!, "an inspirational blend" of "amber waves of buttery ice cream with roasted nonpartisan pecans." (Glad they managed to stay away from chocolate and/or Oreos.)

Liberal hippie jokesters that they are, they also asked America to name a flavor for George W. Bush. (See Snopes alert*, below)

The entries so far:

1. Grape Depression
 
2. Abu Grape
 
3. Cluster Fudge
 
4. Nut'n Accomplished
 
5. Iraqi Road
 
6. Chock 'n Awe
 
7. WireTapioca
 
8. ImPeach Cobbler
 
9. Guantanmallow
 
10. ImPeachMint
 
11. Good Riddance You Lousy Motherfucker ... Swirl
 
12. Heck of a Job, Brownie!
 
13. Neoconpolitan
 
14. Rocky Road to Fascism
 
15. The Reese's-cession
 
16. Cookie D'oh!
 
17. Housing Crunch
 
18. Nougalar Proliferation
 
19. Death by Chocolate ... and Torture
 
20. Credit Crunch
 
21. Country Pumpkin
 
22. Chunky Monkey in Chief
 
23. George Bush Doesn't Care About Dark Chocolate
 
24. WM Delicious
 
25. Chocolate Chimp
 
26. Bloody Sundae
 
27. Caramel Preemptive Stripe
 
28. I broke the law and am responsible for the deaths of thousands ... with nuts


* I got this many-times-forwarded e-mail this morning and the story's everywhere on the Internet but I'm not finding any credible source saying Ben & Jerry asked for these entries. Duh.

the only thing better than a dead immigrant is a chocolate-covered one.

Oh, those pesky Hungarians overrunning Slough. Gives death by chocolate new meaning, though.

 





+
    








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audubon park market reopens bigger, better, localer, luvvier.

Audubon Park Community Market, the veggie market that's popped up here and there around town for the last year or so, has relocated itself to the space in front of Stardust Video & Coffee (and newcomers BoldHype and Shag'd) every Wednesday from 4pm to 9pm.

In addition to organic produce — locally grown where feasible — they're adding organic prepared foods, bike repair and local music! (So far, so good.) Also: chair massage, gardening experts and locally made products (right on right on) like jewelry, bath oils and — wait a minute — the Feb. 11 market will feature "awesome vagina love stuff" by "VulvaLoveLovely." Now, who can argue with that? Nobody doesn't like Muffy Lee!

OK, we've gotten sidetracked. The point is this: Get your ass over to Stardust and buy some veggies from these people. (And eat them, too, don't just let them rot in your crisper.) It's easy to park, it's good and good for you, Park Ave CDs is a hop-skip-and-a-jump, there are alco-beverages to be had — or coffee, spoilsport — Terri Binion is playing at 7; what more do you need to know?

Oh, and last-minute update: Brooklyn brother-and-sister indie folk duo This Frontier Needs Heroes is playing inside Stardust at 8, so you can take your new vegetables on a little date.

(awesome veggie alien by Till Nowak, via Daily-Design)

you're gonna need a bigger cup.

Via Designboom, Pablo Matteoda's "Sharky" tea infuser — best used with red tea, I think.