Food Blog of the Week
Kalyn’s Kitchen
This gorgeous South Beach Diet-based cooking blog just celebrated its third birthday, with good reason. The food is simple, healthy, colorful, and beautiful to look at. Like a, um, rainbow. But, y'know, on a computer screen.
Food Book of the Week
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
I just finished a series of novels by lady authors, including Zadie Smith’s White Teeth, The Emperor’s Children by Claire Messud, and Betty Smith’s defining volume. And I gotta say - Betty blew the other women out of the water. The best parts, at least in terms of this blog, were her descriptions of turn-of-the-century Brooklyn food: the penny candy, the sweet buns, and the enormous variety of dinners her mom could whip up with some bread and water. So good. (Incidentally, there aren’t enough people named Betty these days. It’s got verve and sass to spare - let's revive it!)
Food Comedy of the Week
C“rice”is in the U.S.: Food Shortage on The Daily Show
Global Food Shortages from The Colbert Report
You can always count on Comedy Central late night. Here, TDS and TCR provide two fantastic accompaniments to yesterday’s article about the food crisis. The underlying message is “Don’t panic,” but the overlying one is “Hee.” Oh, and watch closely for the debut of the Cannibal News Network. (Thanks to Serious Eats for the links.)
Food Organization of the Week
FreeRice.com
It's a word game! It's a philanthropy! It's both in one! Each time you answer a FreeRice vocabulary question, you donate 20 grains of the stuff to the U.N.'s World Food Program. (Thanks to reader Autumn for the suggestion.)
Food Quote of the Week
Peggy Hill: You're 12 years old, and drinking a beer.
Bobby Hill: I didn't even like it.
Hank Hill: Now you're just trying to get me mad.
-King of the Hill
Food Tip of the Week
To quickly hull a strawberry, push a drinking straw up through the bottom. It will push out the stem and the middle part in one fell swoop. (Thanks Betty Crocker!)
Untried, Cheap Healthy Recipe of the Week
Grape and Feta Salad with Rosemary at Serious Eats
In which a few simple ingredients meld in their purest forms to create something much greater than the individual parts. Whether it’s teamwork or communism I’m not sure, but man, it looks good.
Food Video of the Week
Rock Lobster – B-52s
Last year, a few of us decided that all bad news needs to be delivered in Fred Schneider’s voice. Not only would this ease the blow, but it would make everything HILARIOUS. Try it out for yourself: “You’ve got … a SPLINTER!” Don’t you feel better now?
Extra Special Totally Unrelated Bonus of the Week
Concrete Blonde covering Leonard Cohen’s “Everybody Knows”
Man, I wish more people knew about Johnette Napolitano. If she’s not the greatest chick rock singer ever, then she’s definitely in the top two (Ann Wilson being the other). In this 15-year-old 120 Minutes performance, she just belts. BELTS. Watch. Love.
(Photo courtesy of Alles Bleibt Anders.)