What party guest wouldn't enjoy being handed a cold drink with a set of false teeth in it?
Actually they're ice cubes made in molds to look like false teeth.
Or how about ice cubes shaped like large diamonds?
It's WorldWideFred.com which has some unique items for sale. Now if I only had some money to spare.
Good news for Thai and Chinese food fans. The Thai House restaurant is open for business again after a long summer vacation. If you haven't tried it in a while, the food there is still very good.
Here's even better news, at least for me. My fortune cookie told me "You will never need to worry about a steady income." And those things don't lie, so I've got that going for me.
But actually, I don't worry about a "steady income." I worry about "No income."
Actually, it wasn't just because of the name, Cocaine. Or was it? The Texas Attorney General says the problem was that the drink was being marketed with claims of health benefits that couldn't be substantiated. Excerpt:
By marketing the product as a dietary supplement with curative qualities, the defendant made unsubstantiated claims that it could help treat depression, lower cholesterol, prevent hardening of arteries and protect nerve fibers from glucose damage. Only manufacturers of FDA-approved drugs may make those claims – but the claims must be supported by legitimate scientific research.
The distributors didn't show up for court, and a permanent injunction prohibits them from selling or giving away the product in Texas. So with this new prohibition in place do you suppose there will be an underground market for it?
There are about a zillion dietary supplements on the market which provide little or no benefit to the consumer as a result of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 that removed herbs and supplements from FDA regulation. (See Neurologica Blog.) So in the case of "Cocaine" it was really just in the advertising. If "Cocaine" sellers had taken a cue from the dietary supplement sellers and chosen their words more carefully then the Atty Gen would have had to come up with some other reason to ban it. But, of course, it wouldn't be because of the name.
This site is going to be inactive for a few days. I've left behind some food pics which, hopefully, will be sufficient until the weekend.
(This was just some of the delicious food that was served at the annual HospiceMidland volunteers' celebration on 9/13/08. YUM!)
If it looks good then that has to be at least half the game in the restaurant business. So feast your eyes on these meals.
The photos in this post were taken the other evening at Abuelo's in Midland, Texas.
Inspired by The food pornographer. "Food at its porniest."
Note, however, this disclaimer at the bottom of the menu (pdf). It's almost enough to take your appetite away, isn't it?
*Consuming raw or undercooked meats, poultry, seafood, shellfish or eggs may increase your risk of foodborne illness, especially if you have certain medical conditions. This item may be served raw or undercooked.
That salmonella outbreak has store owners skittish about selling tomatoes, and there were probably tons of the things taken off the shelves. What happened to them? Did they go to the hog farms? What a waste.
So what does a frugal shopper do with those tomatoes bought before the ban? Soak, slice, dice, spice and simmer.
First, give them a thorough washing with tap water. And if that's not enough, soak them in a vinegar bath. Given enough time vinegar will eat up a pocket knife, so surely it will kill a few tiny little bacteria. For some suggestions on what to do with the leftover vinegar, see 62-little-known-uses-of-vinegar.
Anyway, on to the chopping block. Slice up some jalapeños for some additional protection against the bacteria, and you can never go wrong with garlic sliced Goodfellas style.
Put it all in a pan, throw in your favorite spices, and cook over low heat until it's bubbling and saucy. There you have it: Rehabilitated Tomatoes!
Pour the sauce over some pasta and serve with a glass of wine. There's probably not enough alcohol in the wine to kill any germs that survived all of that, but it couldn't hurt. What you see here is the above described tomato sauce over fusilli and served with steamed broccoli and salmon loaf. Yummy yet healthy.
Now if only those local growers will start harvesting and selling those delicious home grown tomatoes!
Added later. I should mention that I did the cooking and eating several days ago, and aside from needing a power nap, there have been no side effects. So either it worked, or the tomatoes weren't infected. Also, on this same general topic, Eric's method of tomato sterilization might be a bit of overkill.
Time for something a little bit different now that we've finished off the Thanksgiving turkey.
Our special today is a military meal ready to eat. It consists of a warm veggie burger topped off with barbecue sauce layered between two pieces of wheat snack bread. Spice it up with Tobasco sauce as needed. It's served with side dishes of potato sticks and succulent raisins. To wash it down, beverage packets mixed with water produce refreshing glasses of tea and orange drink. For dessert, a cinnamon scone and two pieces of gum. Bon appétit!
The most fascinating part is the flameless heater. It consists of a packet containing magnesium, iron and salt which when exposed to a small amount of water generates an exothermic reaction producing heat. More specifically, from the freepatentsonline.com:
...said powder mixture includes approximately 7.5 grams magnesium 5 atomic weight percent iron supercorroding alloy, approximately 0.7 grams inert filler, 0.5 grams NaCl, and approximately 0.3 grams antifoaming agents. ...
To use the heater, the top of the bag is opened and water added until the water level reaches preprinted fill lines on the bag. The water passes through the holes in the pad cover and by wicking through the paperboard, wets the pad and initiates an exothermic chemical reaction. The reaction takes the general form of: Mg+2H.sub.2 O.fwdarw.Mg(OH).sub.2 +H.sub.2 +heat (and steam).
... When activated with 45-65 milliliters of water, the heater generates enough heat to raise the temperature of an 8 ounce food package 100.degree. F. above its starting temperature within 12 minutes.
After all, who wants a cold veggie burger?
Right about now you are probably asking, "Where can I get some of these?" And since it says on the package, "U.S. Government Property. Commercial resale is unlawful," one has to wonder how they came to be available for commercial resale. The story that was told to me was that the military training maneuvers in the vicinity of Ft. Bliss at El Paso often involve trips into the desert. And they take plenty of MREs with them. But once they finish with the training they dump the uneaten MREs to lighten the load for the trip home. Later, the story goes, someone collects those discarded MREs and makes them available for sale to the public.
Back to the question of where to get them. I've seen them for sale at gun shows, and I admit to being a little bit bothered by the fact that government property is being pilfered like that. But do an ebay search for MRE and see just how many are available for sale. Are they thieves or just low paid soldiers trying to make ends meet? And since so many are doing it there must be a comfortable collective sense that there's nothing wrong about it. Whatever the answer, hopefully this is as bad as it gets and some of our more important military property isn't walking off base to get sold at market prices.
