I’m not sure if a bacon-poptart sandwich qualifies as actual food, but I’ve saved up enough assorted links for another foodie post, so here you go:
You know, there’s not much a fella can do in outer space except kick Klingon ass, bang alien babes and drink himself silly in between shore leaves. Those wussbags on the Enterprise-D only ever drank synthohol, but James T. and the boys liked themselves a bender now and again. BuzzFeed came up with some Star Trek-themed cocktails that might suffice when you’ve run out of Romulan Ale (and I don’t mean this vile concoction). I think I like the “Dammit Jim, I’m A Doctor Not A Mixologist” martini the best. And someone at Duke University took time out from poring over that lacrosse team sex guide to post a Star Trek drinking game you can use as an excuse to try them out.
After you’ve sobered up, or maybe to help you sober up, you might consider making a little home-made mustard. It’s actually dead simple to make a basic mustard; all it takes is cold water and ground mustard seeds. This post on The Atlantic’s food blog explains the things to try, things to avoid, and a little history of the origins of prepared mustard.
Molecular gastronomy continues to dominate the forefront of cuisine, but, as the New York Times reports, Harvard University has turned the discussion around to use the precepts and techniques of molecular gastronomy to teach principles of chemistry and physics to undergraduates. World-renowned chefs such as Wylie Dufresne and Grant Achatz participate in the classes, and at the end of the semester the students will stage a sort of culinary science fair demonstrating their projects. Best of all, the class is being posted to Harvard’s YouTube channel for anyone who wants to follow along.
If the high-falutin’ world of molecular gastronomy and Harvard Yard is a little too chi-chi for you, maybe you should just stick to Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. But alas, dear proletarian, even that humble fare has gone upscale with a new line of “homestyle deluxe” mac-and-cheese dinners, which are helpfully reviewed in this YumSugar post. I have to say, having read the review, if it takes half an hour to make this packaged product and it STILL tastes like salt and cardboard, you might as well make it from scratch.
One more reason not to bother with non-stick cookware: Teflon gives you high cholesterol. Lucky for me, I gave up eating Teflon right after they told me it would kill my parrot. I don’t have a parrot, but if I did, he wouldn’t have to be nailed to the perch because I had Teflon-coated pans, PLUS his cholesterol would be normal.
Lastly, if you are old enough to remember the cooking shows of the 1980s, you might remember Southern cuisine expert Nathalie Dupree. Before Paula Deen threatened to kill us all with butter and cream, Nathalie was one of a group of TV chefs who rode the wave of popularity of Southern cuisine on the strength of the Cajun food craze. Though she hasn’t had a regular TV gig for a while, she’s still writing cookbooks and teaching cooking, and now she’s decided to throw her hat into the political ring and run a write-in campaign against Evil Republican Jim DeMint in her home state of South Carolina. The official Democratic candidate running against DeMint is the weird and possibly dangerous Alvin Greene, so Dupree is actually one of several write-ins hoping to cream DeMint (see what I did there?).
