What's It Called?

Every time that I have tried to have a conversation about one certain food I find that it is nearly impossible to talk about due to the confusion over its name. This breakfast dish is made by cutting a hole in a piece of bread and frying an egg in the hole. Usually then it is flipped and it makes a nice little breakfast treat. The thing that I find fascinating about this food is that almost every person that I talk to about it tells me that there family had a different name for it than any other I have heard before. On Wikipedia the page is called "Egg in a Basket" but here is the list of names they give for it:

egg in a the basket
bird's nest
bull's eye eggs
cowboy eggs
egg-in-the-hole
egg(s) in a frame
eggs in a blanket
elephant egg bagel (when made using a bagel rather than bread)
frog in a hole
toad in a hole
gas house eggs
moon eggs
Sunshine Toast
Alabama eggs
Rocky Mountain toast
Magic Egg

To this I could even add other names that I have heard, particularly "Spit in the eye," and "One eyed toast."

I don't know why there are so many names for this food. I couldn't really even figure it out from googling many of these names. However, I think that even if we don't know why, it is fun to imagine how this relatively wide-spread food has changed and adapted so many different names over time.

Sexy Food Mascots

So here's the link to the article I mentioned in class today: The Top 5 Sexiest Food Mascots. Sadly, the Jolly Green Giant does not make the list. In fact, no male mascots do. Each image in the slide show provides a picture of the mascot, along with a story of how that mascot came to be and why she is so sexy.

Seeing these images made me realize how objectification of the female body reaches even to animated women and inanimate objects. For instance, follow the link to see the mascot for Sunmaid Raisins. She is fairly voluptuous and walks in such a way that her hips sway sexily from side to side. The mascots also fulfill a potential desire for different cultures or ethnicity with the Chiquita Banana girl and the Land o' Lakes girl. Finally, I don't know if I'll ever be able to bite the candy coating off a green M&M again without thinking that I'm stripping their sexiest mascot.

I guess this further shows that sex sells - especially when it comes to food.

http://foodbeast.com/content/2011/04/21/top-5-sexiest-food-mascots/6/

California, Here I Come!

It's the last week of classes, and I will be home in ten days! One of the first things that come to mind when I think about going home to California is In-N-Out, the California chain of fast food burgers. In-N-Out is known for its simple menu of burgers, fries, shakes, and fountain drinks. But the best worst kept secret about In-N-Out is the Secret Menu.

The Secret Menu offers options such as the Protein Style burger, in which buns are replaced for lettuce. It's a much healthier alternative to a regular burger, though not nearly as filling, or satisfying. I'll be honest, one time my sister and I ordered regular cheeseburgers, and then went back for seconds with a Protein Style burger.

In addition to burger alternatives, the Secret Menu also has French Fries options. A popular menu item are the Animal Style fries. The sauce that is used for the fries is poured on top of the golden fries, and grilled onions are also topped on. I've never tried the Animal fries (they look like a heart attack in paper boat), but I've heard great things about them.

Check out the Secret Menu below. There are even pictures!

http://www.badmouth.net/in-n-outs-secret-menu/

More Fun with Food and Science

During lunchtime on Wednesday of this week, the Chemistry Department will be having their annual Freeze-Off. During this event, teams of chemistry students create their own ice cream flavors and make the ice cream using liquid nitrogen. (This works because liquid nitrogen is extremely cold.) The flavors are tasted by a panel of judges and the team with the best ice cream wins. Making the ice cream is a lot of fun. It involves mixing cream, sugar, and whatever flavorings you choose into a big bowl and pouring liquid nitrogen over it. After a lot of stirring, you've made ice cream. They also serve hot dogs and hamburgers along with samples of the ice cream. I and the other students from my chemistry class this semester have a team this year and our ice cream is going to be amazing. I don't want to reveal our secrets so I can't say what our flavor is going to be; however, after tasting the ice cream that we made during our trial run, I can promise that it's going to be delicious. This end of the year party for chemistry students, professors, and anyone else who is interested in chemistry (and ice cream) is a great way to end the semester. It will take place in the science quad during lunch on Wednesday (4/27) and is going to be a lot of fun. If you have time, stop by and try some ice cream!

Kitchen-Sick

While I definitely miss my family sometimes I think I miss my kitchen even more. Whenever I go home I go through the entire contents of the fridge and pantry marveling at all the different foods I can eat. It's so nice to be able to make my own meals instead of relying on the dining halls! Since it's Easter Weekend I thought I'd share one of my favorite Easter recipes with you guys.

Scalloped Pineapple

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 1/4 cup milk
• 4 cups white bread cubes
• 1 can (20 ounces) crushed pineapple

Preparation:

Cream together butter, sugar, and eggs. Stir in remaining ingredients and blend well. Place in a buttered 11x7-inch baking dish; bake at 375° for 15 minutes, then at 350° for about 50 to 60 minutes.
Serves 6 to 8.


My mom has made this every Easter since I can remember and it's always my favorite side dish. I think my mom first had it at a church potluck and since then it has long been a family favorite. It may sound like a strange combination of flavors, but, it's delicious! The closest thing I can compare it to is a sweeter, less savory bread pudding. We've always had it with ham but it'd also be delicious with ice cream!

VegNews Is In Trouble

On the New York Times website, I stumbled upon this article about a Vegan magazine called “VegNews” that used pictures of meat. As I was reading the New York Times article, I was chuckling a little because I was confused as to why a Vegan magazine would ever use pictures of meat? Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of a VEGAN magazine? In one of the pictures a slab of ribs was made to appear meatless by airbrushing out the bones. Also, hamburgers, hotdogs and ice cream appeared as meatless or diary free.

Once the news leaked about what VegNews was doing, readers used Facebook, twitter, blogs and other online forums to express their anger. Even though I am not a vegetarian or vegan, I understand their anger. One reader expressed her/his feelings pretty well, she/he said “to have craved any of the foods featured here, because now I feel I was craving animals.” The magazine company is hoping this will not hurt their image or turn readers away but how could it not? If I were a vegan, who had just heard about this, I would think twice before purchasing one of these magazines again

Here is the link to the Times article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/19/science/earth/19vegan.html?ref=nutrition

Juice

When I was a kid my mom always had this weird thing about juice. I was allowed to eat candy and chocolate, but juice was one of the few things that could not be found in our house. I decided to do a little bit of research on this matter and I found that juice is actually a controversial topic for many people.

The first article I came across was this one. This is an article written by the editor of a newspaper in Virginia about how juice is actually just as bad for us as soda. Here is a chart that was in the article that pretty much says it all.

Basically, the chart shows that most juices have as much sugar, carbohydrates, and calories as sugary soda. And the interesting thing here is that the author is not just talking about high fructose corn syrup welches juice. Even 100% juices that are "all natural" and have "no sugar added" have this much sugar in them.

Here is an article I found that shows the other side of the controversy. Interestingly, although this site goes through the benefits of 100% juice, it is sponsored by the Juice Products Association. According to them Juice is not associated with being overweight and some juice in a child's diet is good for them.

So it seems like there is a lot of information out there on this subject. Obviously, I just picked two articles that I found first and there is a lot more information out there than just this. Initially I think that I agree with the first article, and my mom, but, as we all know, sometimes it is hard to disagree with our mothers, so I think it is also important to understand both sides of the controversy.