News-Record.com

Personally, if I saw this at the bottom of my cup of tea, I wouldn't be able to sleep for days.

From the Web site:

"And, be sure to check Gift Wrap if you would like your Deity Gift Wrapped !"

Whether you're throwing a fancy blow-out or cuddling on your couch with your honey on Oscar night, food is a key ingredient to enjoying a night of snarking Oscar fashions, yelling at the TV and waiting with baited breath for Jon Stewart to create controversy.

The easy way to do this is to pretend you're at a theater -- break out the popcorn, the candy and the hot dogs. (And you might even be able to feed a dozenor so guests and still not spend what you would at an actual theater!)

For those who want some movie-themed recipes, check out Dinner and a Movie, where you can search for recipes by movie.

For those who want to add a little kick to the party, here are some movie-themed drinks.

And don't worry about calories -- you don't have to look good in a slinky dress all night when you're sitting at home in your stretchy sweatpants!

So I'm sitting here watching Giada de Laurentiis on "Everyday Italian" on the Food Network, and it's enough to get a person all hot and bothered.

We have soft-focus extreme close-ups of firm, juicy ... tomatoes. Of dripping, squirting ... lemons. We pan down Giada and her cleavage-enhancing blouse (seriously) as she massages ... dough and generally has her way with the food.

We have cheesy instrumental music to set the mood, as Giada intones softly that you shouldn't beat the cream too much. She breaks out her vibrating kitchen toys and different flavored oils to use on the food.

"You could eat the actual stalk if you wanted to."

"It's puffed up, but not too much."

"This is what I like to drizzle over my 'broccoli.' "

"Up next, I'm going to fill my tart."

I tell ya -- It's almost enough to make me run to the kitchen to experience the sensations for myself.

But first, I'm going to watch Essence of Emeril.

The Savory Notebook has a round-up some great-looking Italian recipes from different food blogs (yours truly included). Check it out for the pictures, if nothing else!

Mike over at the Bargain Blog found a deal on shrimp at the Teeter through Thursday. Don't know what to do with them? Let Laurie over at ...slowly she turned guide you: She has recipes for Thai Chicken Shiitake Soup, which she says you can substitute shrimp in very easily, or for Minced clam bisque (plus shrimp).

It is really sick that I want one of these?

If you are a cook:

Name one dish (and a recipe or where to find the recipe):

A) You absolutely adore.
B) You are indifferent about, but would recommend
C) that you wouldn't feed to your evil stepmother (or other abhorred person)

If you are not a cook:

List a restaurant (along with city, type of food):

A) You absolutely adore.
B) That you are kinda indifferent about, but would eat there again.
C) That is so bad that you wouldn't even take your hated stepmother to it

Mine are:

The Florida Sun-Sentinel has a fun, time-wasting game up on their site. Post your best scores!

You know how you tell your kids not to play with their food? Well, someone's mother or father forgot, and this is what happened. (The site is in another language, but you should be able to enjoy the pictures.)

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Someone took the time to figure out what mixture of white and milk chocolate would produce the most realistic-looking skulls. From the Web site: "You've combined my two favorite fetishes: Skulls and Chocolate!"

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I can't peel an apple all in one take -- who knows how this person manages to peel oranges in these different shapes.

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"Honey, where are the red peppers I bought yesterday?" "Um, I needed them to make the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria."

The Gateway Grizzlies are selling a doughnut burger. And they consider it a bargain at $4.50, calling it a dessert and meal in one.

From ESPN.com:

The ballpark sandwich will include a hamburger topped with sharp cheddar cheese and two slices of bacon -- all between a "bun" made of a sliced Krispy Kreme Original Glazed doughnut.

If you can find a (loop)hole in your cardiologist's advice, calorie counters predict the monster will set you back about 1,000 calories and 45 grams of fat.

OK, I'm a geek, so I think it's really neat that today is "Pi" day -- 3.14. For those of you who have been out of math class for many years, pi is the "ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter," and it is always 3.14.

From mathforum.org:

"For the sake of usefulness people often need to approximate pi. For many purposes you can use 3.14159, which is really pretty good, but if you want a better approximation you can use a computer to get it. Here's pi to many more digits: 3.14159265358979323846."

So, anyone got any favorite pie recipes or tips? Send them my way!

Pi(e)-related posts:
Men and cooking, with strawberry peach pie
The most expensive pie
Pie in the sky: Greensboro Restaurant Week

Every cook needs to have a few quick, easy dinners tucked away in her or his arsenal for those nights when you have only half an hour to whip things up. Any of the following ideas for ways to serve chicken breasts fits the bill. Add a vegetable or two and rolls, and you have a fast meal without losing creativity.

For each of the following, use a chicken breast for each person. Cook at 350 degrees, uncovered, for 30 minutes. Don’t be afraid to cut into the meat to make sure it has lost its pink entirely.

This is what happens when you leave for a few days for a friend's wedding: The links to weird food on the Web pile up.

First, we have pictures of roasted alligator, just in case you ever wondered what it looks like. For the vegetarians, there's an alligator alternative. And just because it seems to go together, we have an article about a roadkill connoisseur and his upcoming recipe collection.

Eggs are the building blocks of many great recipes. It could only stand to reason that they make good building blocks, period.

Want to be able to tell if your fruit is genetically engineered or organic? Here's a guide to reading the numbers on the fruit stickers.

For those of you who work at McDonald's, or who have ever worked at a McDonald's, you might get a kick out of this Livejournal community, where employees trade recipes for things you can make with ingredients at the fast food restaurants.

As soon as I found this recipe for Peeps, I thought of one of our editors, who insists that Peeps be stale when she eats them. Personally, I wouldn't eat them one way or the other after reading this experiment done by bored college students, but someone must with the millions I see popping up in stores every Easter. At least with this recipe, you can make sure that your Peeps actually have eyes that are edible.

Health Magazine just released its list of the five healthiest foods: olive oil (Spain), soy (Japan), yogurt (Greece), lentils (India), and kimchi (Korea). Is anyone shocked that the United States didn't have a contender?

P.S. Interesting fact from the article: "Koreans eat so much of this super-spicy condiment (40 pounds of it per person each year) that natives say “kimchi” instead of “cheese” when getting their pictures taken."

Apparently not to be outdone by Sean Combs and his Cooking Showdown, Coolio has decided to enter the cooking show arena. And he's bringing the strippers.

According to ContactMusic.com,

Coolio is planning to do all the work himself. He says, "This won't be your average cooking show - it'll be Coolio with food. I'll be cooking, talking, rapping, dancing and singing. "There will be a four-piece band, a DJ, and strippers - all in the kitchen. I'm going to change the way they do cooking shows." Coolio came up with the idea for his own TV show after years of perfecting his culinary skills. He adds, "I love to cook, and I'm pretty damn good at it. My enchiladas cannot be beat, my fried chicken in on top, my spaghetti will kick your spaghetti's a**, and I can put every Chinese food restaurant out of business with my egg rolls."