THIS JUST IN: Lifehacker Coffee Shop

Hey, very cool round-up post from Lifehacker today with links to all the things you love to eat at your favorite coffee shop but are too lazy to get out of your pajamas to go get:

Lifehacker Cookbook: Homemade Coffee Shop Addictions (picture courtesy Lifehacker)

Foodie Weekend

Having company over for the weekend. Can't decide what to make. Would it be wrong to serve these for dinner?

Smores IceBox Candy Bars link and picture via Joy the Baker

How to get my two of my favorite foods together, shrimp and chips? How about this fabulous sounding (and looking) dip from an American master, Tom Douglas:

Shrimp Dip with Potato Chips via Yum Sugar

I've been eyeing this recipe for a week. Should I give it a spin or not?

Grilled Apple Salad with Cider Vinaigrette via Slashfood

Did you know Necco wafers have gone all natural? I'm not sure if that's better or worse in regard to you know, the fact that it's candy and all, but still. I'll tell myself that it means that I can eat Necco wafers for lunch 'cause they're full of beets:

Necco Wafers via Slashfood

Speaking junk food, just in case you can't get enough of me, I have a post on the OSU Student Health Services Blog today:

Twinkies really are like crack!

I'm not saying Twinkies are crack, I'm just sayin' to keep the Narcan handy when ingesting.

Regards for a most excellent Friday! ---IcedLatte

Another crazy day in Flu-ville

Image via Wikipedia

Oh, Ethel, bar the door. Cookies and scotch aren't going to get me through this flu season. It's OCTOBER, for crying out loud. There's no flowers in March to look forward to. No cherry blossoms. There's only more flu. February. It's MONTHS away, yet it seems like it's already here.

It's like a NEW DISEASE was discovered. "Flu? Flu? I HAVE THE FLU?????" No, wild dogs aren't going to consume your head. You are not being consumed by flames. For 99% of you, it's just the flu. You are going to feel like poop for days and then you will feel better. And next year you can say, "Dr. Latte, you were right. I should get a flu shot." I was once naive, too. But then I had the flu. In medical school. On call. On OB call. Did anybody send me home as I spewed evil juices all over pregnant ladies? Ah, medical education. Nothing like it.

Despite my recent permanent resident alien status in Flu-ville, I chanced upon a few decent recipes and food interludes. Here's one. For those nights when you think, Hmmm...Should I get Chinese take-out or just eat more potato chips at the counter, how about eating potato chips at the counter while you make your own Chinese? SKINNY Chinese?

From Slashfood, "Takeout Vegetable Fried Rice"

Not feeling like Chinese? How about Indian? Pakoras? From a blog in my very own Central Ohio backyard--Hungry Wolf--a most enchanting trip down Pakora Lane. Not a recipe. An Indian snack vignette:

Taste & Create, Pakoras

A bit of Central Ohio navel-gazing, but delicious, Navel-of-Venus gazing, also from Hungry Wolf, a locavore dinner with a most intriguing cast of characters. Now, blogging is Class A, 100% navel-gazing. For moi, the food blog, is a notebook I browse like a cookbook. What should I make? What sounds yummy? What is interesting but probably too much work? I put it on the blog. If I like whatever it is, if it survives my own kitchen test, I put it into a real-life notebook. Well, a file. I have a lot of recipe files.

But what is cool about navel gazing for me, anyway, is all this local stuff! Who knew there was a winery in Johnstown? I do now. That plus a whole lot more. It's so intriguing, it's so virtual, but I'll be converting my new virtual knowledge to calories soon at a wine or cheese shop, farmer's market, or bakery nearby:

Locavore Dinner at The Winery at Otter Creek.

Went out for sushi this weekend with some dear friends. Had my favorite, spicy tuna. Could it be that the magic is in:

Spicy Sriracha Mayonnaise?

Well, golly, I might have to find out and become quite addicted.

Meanwhile, back in Central Ohio, I mull over the Slow Food movement. Ha! I have a 20 minute Speed Racer food movement every evening in my slap-dashery to get food on the table for us all. There's nothing I love more than cooking for a day with nothing else to do, whipping up a some braised protein and a perfectly chopped vegetable fraggonarde (I made that up) while tippling a sipple of thistle but it just doesn't happen in my life, which is mostly neatly divided into 20 minute chunks. 2o minutes to get coffee and breakfast ready, check calendar; 20 minutes to get kids ready; 20 minutes to get me ready; 20 minutes to get to work; 20 minutes per appointment for nine hours; 20 minutes to get home; 2o minutes to make dinner, blah blah blah. Where does the all day braise fit into that exactly? I'm not sure, but I'm going to take, ah, 20 minutes and read about it in my own town:

Slow Food Columbus

And I'm going to check that website monthly (must add to-do item to reqall) so that I never miss another fabulous event. Unless I'm busy crazily cutting everything in my house into chunks 1/20th of original size.

When slow food fails to slowly ooze deliciously from my own two hands, though, I will enjoy it prepared by others. How about breakfast? Nick, at Breakfast with Nick conveniently published his favorite breakfast items, many (most?) practically in my back yard:

My Ideal Breakfast

And that, friends, is it for tonight. I have to go attend to my colleague, Dr. House. He needs my help. Some poor soul, sick with a dread fake disease, about to be examined and tested in an excruciatingly ridiculous but hilarious quest for diagnosis. Sure, most of the cases would be figured out in 5 seconds in a decent lab, and sure, the rest of the cases would never happen, but oh, the preposterous fun.

Later!

The world needs fewer opinions and more thoughtful expertise

Clear-headed, sensible thinking from Cook's Magazine's Christopher Kimball, today at the NYTimes. He writes about the demise of Gourmet; the sentiment is apt for journalism, punditry, book-writing, name it, really.

Gourmet to all that.

reBlog from IcedLatte: Medical Marginalia: On the subject of fatness

I found this fascinating quote today:

I just picked up 309 pounds of glorious marbled frozen hand-raised beef. It is residing in my freezer to be dispensed to people noble enough to partake of my beast. To counteract my beef, however, I have some ideas:IcedLatte, Medical Marginalia: On the subject of fatness, Jul 2009

You should read the whole article.

Food Information You Can Use

WOW! This effort knocks my socks off. Cheap Healthy Good has done it again. Yesterday they posted a compendium of food charts, checklists, and wallet-sized guides that knock my socks off! It's FABULOUS. I am anxious to start working my way through the list, and can't wait to get to the "$45 Emergency Menu for 4-5" from Hillbilly Housewife. But first there's

• Wallet-Sized Medical History
• Food Safety Guidelines
• Foot and Fitness Journal
• Wallet-Sized Portion Size Guide

and many, many more. Check it out:

Information Central: 32 Free Food Charts, Checklists, and Wallet-Sized Guides