If you weren't scared of the California Raisins long ago, this might do the trick. Here's a face-painting homage to the ubiquitous mascots of the 1980s. It will take a moment to figure out what's face, what's background and what's a shirtless man. Repeat watching may be necessary.
| Strawberry Cream ... a nice pie, if you can find one |
Yes, Monday, September 28 is National Strawberry Cream Pie Day. There are lots of places in town to find cheesecake with strawberry sauce (including Winstead's) or baked berry pies, but strawberry cream pie? I feel fairly confident that the Village Inn Family Restaurant in Mission -- that great cream pie palace -- would have it.(Image via Flickr: tracer.ca)
It's nice to know you're not alone when it comes to the irrational fear of waking up next to The King -- the ever-smiling mascot for Burger King.
In the recent blog post "Creepy Kings," Kansas City Star/Sports Illustrated writer Joe Posnanski gets at the heart of why The King's mirth is so anxiety-inducing:
The reason you don't want to go to bed before him is because he will be in your eerily darkened room when you are mostly naked and he will blow an airhorn in the middle of the night or team up with someone to dump feathers on your head while he blows a leaf blower at you. And then the King will laugh and laugh and laugh without moving his mouth.In essence, he is a pranking boogeyman to Posnanski -- and that sounds about right for a mascot with a frozen smile.
"Indeed, they are being pitched as affordable luxuries. In an age when discretionary, feel-good spending is at a nadir, cupcake bakeries are trying to persuade people to trade up from cheaper sugar-delivery vehicles (such as, say, a doughnut)."He feels that most Americans are not in a mood to upgrade. Yet, America is all about affordable luxury. That's why Starbucks exists today and Walmart advertises its genuine Steak House Steaks as something you can afford without a special occasion. In a culture of individuals, we want our food purchases to make us feel unique -- and a fancy cupcake sits perfectly in that niche.
A recent post about sodas gone by the wayside led me to the soda aisle to see what colored and flavored offshoots are surprisingly still around. Green Tea Ginger Ale is apparently still going strong in its first year -- or is on the way out: a single two-liter bottle was all that remained on the shelves of Target.
When I came across Mountain Dew Voltage, I figured I owed the drink a chance. This would be my first mistake. Introduced in 2008 as the winning flavor in a "dewmocracy competition," the blue-hued soda is described as "Dew charged with raspberry citrus flavoring and Ginseng."
Creativeone, a user on YouTube, has a series of videos in which he tries Mountain Dew products. His experience tackling Mountain Dew Voltage should have been telling:
"I like it, I really do...My eyes are watering...I can kinda feel it going down my throat...feels like a sizzly feeling."
The Missouri State Fair is in full swing (the last day is August 23), but driving to Sedalia isn't on the top of your list.
So get inspired by The Kitchn's State Fair Food Week, and take that gas money and apply it towards a deep fat fryer. It's time to recreate the state fair experience in your kitchen. The beauty of the recipes below is that even when you screw up, the fat content is so high they are still likely to taste pretty good.
We love frozen custard in Fat City and recently did a "battle of the frozen custards" using samples from the best-known national frozen custard chains: Culver's and Sheridan's. We also explained the difference between frozen custard and soft-serve.
Since today is supposed to be gruelingly hot, I'm going to make a devotional pilgrimage to one of the local frozen custard vendors for a cup of something cold and creamy.
(Image via Flickr: Red Oak Kid)
Bookworms unite! A new Facebook group "People for a library-themed Ben & Jerry's flavor!" boasts more than 6,400 members.
Among those who want to see book-inspired ice cream flavors, the top entries so far are the "Gooey Decimal System" (dark fudge alphabet letters with caramel swirls in hazelnut ice cream), "In the Stacks" (butter pecan with fudge swirl), and "Library Loan Shark" (butter rum with little butter-flavored sharks).
The New Yorker has come up with several flavors to add to the list including: "Twilit" (pale-white lemon sorbet with red shoestring licorice and the hair of Robert Pattinson) and "Chick Lit" (fat-free peach-mango swirl with pieces of Chicklets chewing gum).
If you're feeling inspired, you can submit your flavor suggestion to Ben & Jerry's directly or request that the company resurrect a flavor from the flavor graveyard.
You'll also finally have a chance to enjoy ice cream at the library when the The Wimpy Kid Ice Cream Truck Tour rolls into the Kansas City Public Library's Waldo Branch (201 East 75th Street) on August 14. The event, which runs from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., features free ice cream treats to promote cartoonist Jeff Kinney's Diary of Wimpy Kid: Dog Days. Just tell your boss it's market research.
In the right hands, cheese can go from a humble cube to an astronaut sculpture made of cheddar. Popped Culture argues that those hands belong to sculptor Sarah Kaufmann, who has provided the centerpiece for everything from tailgates to a likeness of Miss Rodeo New Mexico.
Kaufmann is naturally from Wisconsin, where she has turned a commercial art degree and a marketing business into a promotional cheese-carving career.
Her structures are semi-permanent, provided they can be stored at the proper temperature. But a recent Kaufmann exhibit to commemorate the first moon landing met the same fate as fondue: Visitors to the Neil Armstrong Air & Space Museum in Wakoponeta, Ohio, "were audibly and visibly disappointed" when they encountered the base -- all that remained after the air conditioning unit shut off automatically overnight.
In addition to cooling concerns, Kaufmann also has competition from fellow carver Troy Landwehr, who seems to relish building oversized sculptures including a 700-pound Mt. Rushmore and a 1,200-pound Statue of Liberty. Why can't guys just stick to a sensible, table-top centerpiece?
If this is the first time you've heard of anything besides butter sculptures, you're missing out on a whole world of food-based art. There are artists who work in biscuits, potato chips, melons and chocolate. Should you need something more permanent, there are always wire sculptures made to look like cheese.
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