Free Republic

LEXINGTON — Drive down Main Street on a sunny summer day and brightly colored pig statues smile at you from every corner — fat pink pigs in wild costumes, standing tall and waving welcome. Roll down your window and you’ll know why Lexington is, for many, the barbecue capital of the world. You can smell the pulled pork, spice and vinegar for miles. It’s the smell of Southern tradition — secret family recipes, waitresses who smile and call you “sugar.” But these days, in many of the city’s most popular restaurants, customers say the air is sweeter for what you...

How Gilroy turned a potent Italian bulb into a culinary staple and the country's biggest and smelliest food festivalTHIRTY YEARS AGO, a group of American food writers trooped into a packing shed at Gilroy's Christopher Ranch off Highway 101. Greeted by the pungent aroma of millions of garlic cloves being processed in the building, the journalists sat down for a garlic-laced lunch that included scampi, calamari, pasta and pepper steak. Together with the Fresh Garlic Producers Association, an industry trade group, Christopher Ranch founder and former president Don Christopher hosted the journalists to showcase Gilroy garlic. Gilroy was then the...

Kirstie Alley When the formerly svelte actress gained quite a few pounds post-"Cheers," she seemed like an ideal candidate to endorse Jenny Craig. All she had to do was tell women she got back her formerly fabulous figure thanks to Jenny. There was just one problem -- she couldn’t stop gaining weight. So unfortunately for Kirstie, she was replaced by Valerie Bertinelli, who was soon seen on TV fitting into her "skinny jeans" again.

(Pabst touts ascent to No. 1 American-owned beer maker) Pabst Brewing Co. doesn’t operate breweries anymore, but it wants to be the first choice for every red-blooded American beer drinker. The company, which owns dozens of beer brands and contracts with MillerCoors LLC to create most of its brews, is staking its claim as the largest remaining American-owned beer maker. Just days after industry giant Anheuser-Busch Cos. announced its sale to InBev, a European brewer, Pabst is conducting an online survey, asking customers about it. “Did you know that after this sale is completed, Pabst Brewing Company will be the...

It was supposed to be a healthy snack. But a bunch of cut-price supermarket grapes became poisonous after they were infested by a pair of false widow spiders. Ceri and Rose Williams suffered numbness, head aches and high blood pressure after eating the fruit they purchased in Tesco. Mr Williams, 52, and his 45-year-old wife had already started munching on the two £1 bags of fruit when they noticed that something was moving inside. A quick rummage revealed that two spiders, one alive and one dead, had already made a meal out of the Moroccan-grown grapes. Mr Williams also spotted...

A vintner is alleging that the man who wants to open a retail wine store on North Santa Cruz Avenue in Los Gatos told him "God will punish" him if he spoke out against the application. Entrepreneur Rahul Ravulapati, who owns a winery in Livermore, says he never threatened anyone and accused the vintner, Fred Faltersack, and other Los Gatos wine makers of discrimination. "These people are blackmailing me," Ravulapati said after the July 9 planning commission meeting, where commissioners unanimously recommended against approving the permit. The dispute started last month when Ravulapati called local vintners to ask if they...

It is a sport folks.As seen on ESPN the World Hot Dog eating Champ Joey from San Jose California kept this years title in the USA. Well today he at over 8 pounds of rib meat. King Vanity had a blast watching the panal of grown men compete for this years Smoking At the Ocean rib eating Championship Belt. He visited with all the contestants post contest and enjoyed their grunting in abdominal pain. Other contestants were World Champs in eating Jalepenos, Captain Crunch, fried Asparugus and much more. Can you imagine downing jars of Mayonnaise? It is true.

Coffee giant Starbucks Corp. has released its first list of store closures since it announced a major downsizing July 1, and five of the eight California locations to be shuttered are in the Inland area.

McALLEN - Barack Obama's statements that he would consider renegotiating the decade-old North American Free Trade Agreement are drawing criticism from Rio Grande Valley business leaders. The treaty, which removed most trade and investment barriers among the United States, Mexico and Canada, has quickly turned into a point of contention between Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, and his Republican counterpart, John McCain, whose pro-free trade stance calls for even more NAFTA-like trade blocs - specifically with Colombia and South Korea. Obama has routinely denounced the treaty as a deal that "put special interests over workers' interests," as he said...

It's County Fair season in Wisconsin -- when you can ride a Ferris wheel, win a giant stuffed gorilla at a ring toss, watch a "spine-tingling, death-defying" daredevil show, share a funnel cake with your family and watch sparkling clean hogs snore in a pen, all in one afternoon. It's the kind of fun that is hard to come by at any other time of the year. But it's something else, too.At the heart of most fairs are boys and girls who spend months, sometimes even years, raising cows, pigs, sheep, guinea pigs, birds and a variety of other animals,...

Parlez vous Francais? No? Now might be a good time to learn. Chicago, it seems, is experiencing a bit of a French incursion. And according to one imposing Frenchman, Christophe David: "It's growing. And it is not finished." Which sounds rather threatening. David, who is executive chef at the elegant, 3 1/2 star restaurant NoMI, where he was sitting in a patch of late morning sunlight recently, drinking green tea, was one of the earliest arrivals in a mini-battalion of French chefs who've been under surveillance by fooderati since arriving in town. If you've ever eaten his visually arresting, contemporary...

Coupon clipping has a dark side.Counterfeiting is on the rise, and in defense, some store owners in Madison (WI) and elsewhere are refusing to accept coupons printed on home computers. "Counterfeits can be devastating, " said Bud Miller, executive director of the industry-sponsored Coupon Information Center. "A single instance can easily cost the manufacturer a million dollars if it's distributed on the Internet."That's why the 12 Woodman 's stores in Wisconsin and Illinois don 't accept coupons printed from the Internet, said president Phil Woodman. "We just don 't accept them because there 's too much fraud and theft, "...

America's Regional Hot Dog Styles Posted by Jenn Sit, July 2, 2008 at 5:00 PM As we head into the 4th of July weekend, hot dogs are everywhere. They're on our grill and on our plates. They're on our TVs (the annual hot dog eating contest on ESPN). And this being Serious Eats, they're on our mind. Let's discuss. We bring you Serious Eats' definitive guide to America's regional hot dog styles. Sonorans (Tuscon and Phoenix, Arizona) Bacon-wrapped hot dogs are grilled, then nestled in steamed bolillo rolls and topped with pinto beans, chopped tomatoes, onions, mustard, mayo, and jalapeños....

While Minnesota families are paying more for just about everything, the Minnesota State Fair is asking all food and non-food vendors not to increase their prices this year. "We know how the economy is and we know that the costs of doing business are rising," said Brienna Schuette of the Minnesota State Fair. In a letter to vendors the fair suggests boosting profits by offering "family pricing" for multiple items, and even offering smaller portions. "Some of us might appreciate because we do so much eating at the fair," said Shuette.(sic) George Wozniak has co-owned the French Fry stands at...

Growing up in Manitowoc, WI, Sarah Kaufmann's favorite pastime was drawing. She didn't care what she was drawing, as long as she had a pencil or crayon and some paper. At the time, Kaufmann had no idea those countless hours spent filling sketchbooks would one day help her become a famous sculptor. Most sculptors use stone, metal or wood for their creations. Kaufmann, however, has chosen a medium much closer to the heart of Wisconsin. She's made quite a name for herself chipping away at cheese. Yes, Sarah "The Cheese Lady" Kaufmann is a cheese sculptor. Kaufmann was at Sam's...

Hollywood, CA (BANG) - Sharon Stone has been offered a free brain scan. Animal rights group PETA are determined to discover why Sharon "demonstrates a lack of empathy" towards animals by wearing fur, and so have written her a letter telling her they would be willing to pay for the scientific scan.The letter reads: "Scientific studies suggest that the prefrontal regions of the brains of people who lack empathy might be underdeveloped. Here's our offer - would you allow PETA to pay for a scan of the prefrontal region of your brain to determine if comments and actions that seem...

July Fourth is a celebration of outdoor cooking, as well as our nation's birthday. It's time to brush off the barbecue and throw masses of processed meat on the grill. As we all stand around waiting for the fire to die down so that we can make s'mores, it's also a time to ponder the notion that the barbecue is a ritual 700,000 years old or more, and it might have something to do with our big brains.

Diver catches giant crab   A giant crab with a shell 12in wide has been caught by an Aylesbury diver off the UK coast. The crustacean, weighing 17lb and with a claw span of 9in, was found by diver Paul Worsley during a recent diving trip in Lyme Regis, Dorset. Douglas Lanfear, who runs the dive boat Blue Turtle, said he was amazed at the size of the crab. He said: "It was truly a monster. It was the biggest crab I have ever seen in all my years and there were fishermen who have been working here for...

APPLETON, Wisc. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) - A couple telephoned police in the middle of the night after finding a man in their basement covered head to toe in barbecue sauce. "He told the officers that it was urban camouflage," said the homeowner. This happened in Wisconsin. The homeowners say they woke up to whistling sounds. The husband grabbed his shotgun and headed toward the basement where he found the sauced-up intruder. He held him at gunpoint until police arrived. The guy told officers he covered himself in barbecue sauce because he wanted to hide from the government. He now faces burglary...

Austin, TX (AHN) - Watermelon rinds could be the new natural aphrodisiac, new research has shown. Researchers from Texas A&M's Fruit and Vegetable Improvement Center say the fruit's rind can have a Viagra-like effect.The flesh and rind of watermelons contain citrulline, which reacts with the body's enzymes when consumed in large quantities. The compound is changed into arginine, an amino acid that benefits the heart and the circulatory and immune systems. Just like the popular Viagra and other drugs meant to treat erectile dysfunction (ED), it also helps relax and dilate blood vessels. Researchers are now working on breeding watermelons...

From flickr, via...THE DEVIL. Either that, or it's from a Google cafeteria in New York. Apparently they serve Krispy Kreme bacon cheeseburgers, a.k.a Luther Burgers.

When you're out of Schlitz, you're out of beer, according to an old ad campaign. And, as Milwaukee-area beer lovers are discovering, a lot of places are out of Schlitz, at least in the bottled form. Within days of the Schlitz 1960s formula being brought back to Milwaukee, the beer was largely sold out - snapped up by both older guys who remember the beer from back in the day, and younger drinkers curious about the fuss. A new shipment is coming to liquor stores and taverns beginning Wednesday, but it will be relatively small, said Mike Merriman, president of...

How do you keep the ice out of ice cream? Antifreeze. A UW-Madison scientist has discovered an edible antifreeze that can keep ice crystals from forming inside ice cream containers, a real turnoff to late night snackers who just want their fix of Rocky Road without digging through a layer of frost. According to the UW-Madison news service, food science professor Srinivasan Damodaran mixed gelatin with papain, a natural enzyme from fruit that cuts proteins into smaller pieces. When blended into ice cream, the antifreeze works to keep ice cream smooth. Frozen foods get crystallized because of temperature fluctuations, such...

NORTH CANTON, Ohio — A simple change to the design of the gallon milk jug, adopted by Wal-Mart and Costco, seems made for the times. The jugs are cheaper to ship and better for the environment, the milk is fresher when it arrives in stores, and it costs less. What’s not to like? Plenty, as it turns out. The jugs have no real spout, and their unorthodox shape makes consumers feel like novices at the simple task of pouring a glass of milk. “I hate it,” said Lisa DeHoff, a cafe owner shopping in a Sam’s Club here. “It spills...

COLLEGE STATION -- A cold slice of watermelon has long been a Fourth of July holiday staple. But according to recent studies, the juicy fruit may be better suited for Valentine’s Day. That’s because scientists say watermelon has ingredients that deliver Viagra-like effects to the body’s blood vessels and may even increase libido. “The more we study watermelons, the more we realize just how amazing a fruit it is in providing natural enhancers to the human body,” said Dr. Bhimu Patil, director of Texas A&M’s Fruit and Vegetable Improvement Center in College Station. “We’ve always known that watermelon is good...

A teenage girl riding in an all-night bicycle race suffered severe injuries early this morning when a bear attacked her on a trail ... Police officers with shotguns escorted medics into dark woods to retrieve the girl... "She was cut up and bit pretty good," After the mauling, the girl used her cell phone to call 911 but was unable to communicate... Another rider who came along found her sitting on the ground and said she could utter only one word: "Bear." He then used her phone to make another call for help. Sinnott said he didn't arrive in time...

WASHINGTON -- Food prices could rise even more unless the mysterious decline in honey bees is solved, farmers and businessmen told lawmakers Thursday. "No bees, no crops," North Carolina grower Robert D. Edwards told a House Agriculture subcommittee. Edwards said he had to cut his cucumber acreage in half because of the lack of bees available to rent. About three-quarters of flowering plants rely on birds, bees and other pollinators to help them reproduce. Bee pollination is responsible for $15 billion annually in crop value.In 2006, beekeepers began reporting losing 30 percent to 90 percent of their hives. This phenomenon...

Okay, I'm waiting for Republicans to go on the attack here. If Democrats hold up drilling, aren't we then, in theory, using up more of the world's existing supplies? When is the GOP going to get clever here? This is such an easy position to take. By not drilling, we are using more of our foreign neighbor's supplies, an argument the Dems have used against us for decades. Also, ethanol taps into our food supply. If we use our food to make fuel, then we have less food to feed the poor. That's downright "evil"! Another dacades old Dem argument....

In an era of McNuggets and McChicken sandwiches, this bird brings new meaning to the term “fast food.” (A brown hen has taken up residence outside a McDonald’s in Temecula and, try as they might, neither the employees nor the customers can catch her.) That’s like a dog hanging out in front of a Chinese restaurant in Peking. Sure everything seems OK, until they catch you. Next thing you know, you’re the number 12, extra spicy, on the menu. (It has been almost four months...

Crime, I don’t condone it, but sometimes you do feel sorry for the perp. Take for instance this story of an animal lover looking to provide for his pets. ( TOKYO (AFP) - A Japanese animal-lover on welfare went to extremes to provide for his many pets by robbing convenience stores while wearing the mask of a dog, police said Monday. Takaharu Kawata — branded by Japanese media as “The Dogman” — was caught on a surveillance camera wearing an oversized black-and-white canine mask while brandishing a knife.) OK…I feel I need to step in here. Please take a look...

Extreme weather has virtually wiped out Door County’s cherry crop for this year, which not only means slim pickings in orchards that attract thousands of tourists each summer, but also a loss of an estimated 350 to 400 seasonal jobs for workers who harvest and process the iconic scarlet fruit. At a time when epic rains and flooding have wiped out berries and vegetables in other parts of the state, Door County’s loss may seem surprising because it is attributed to an opposite extreme: a three-month drought last summer, followed by a January that brought rain and wild temperature fluctuations....

University of Georgia researchers have developed an effective technology for reducing contamination of dangerous bacteria on food. The new antimicrobial wash rapidly kills Salmonella and E. coli O157:H7 on foods ranging from fragile lettuce to tomatoes, fruits, poultry products and meats. It is made from inexpensive and readily available ingredients that are recognized as safe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The new technology, which has commercial application for the produce, poultry, meat and egg processing industries, is available for licensing from the University of Georgia Research Foundation, Inc., which has filed a patent application on the new technology....

Back in 1985, I'm five years old and staring into my lunchbox. All around me, children are ripping into packs of Monster Munch. I've got yesterday's quiche and a mushy tomato. And there's something soggy at the bottom, possibly a homemade rock bun, but I can't be sure. My lunchbox was a testament to my mother's thrifty habits Today, it would be celebrated as a resourceful meal made from leftovers. Back then, I didn't give a hoot about food waste and packaging. I wanted pickled onion crisps and a Penguin bar. It wasn't that my parents were tofu-munching hippies who...

Dodge City — Earlier this month, more than a hundred thousand South Koreans demonstrated against newly elected president Lee Myung-bak as his entire cabinet offered to resign. At the root of this massive protest was not a declaration of war against North Korea, a boycott of the Chinese summer Olympics, or even escalating oil prices. It was a treaty allowing U.S. beef imports. Beef production accounts for more greenhouse gas emissions than automobiles. Its insatiable demand for feed grains has raised world food prices to levels beyond the reach of the world’s hungry and the relief agencies that support them....

This is a total personal (vanity?) thread, but I have searched Google, and can't find the exact answer I'm looking for. For many years I have learned to never eat dairy and shellfish within a certain timeframe, because it will make me very sick (nausea and all the other unpleasant things that go with it). I ate shrimp for lunch yesterday, and after many hours (4-5 is my usual minimum) I ate ice cream. I still got ill, although not as severely as I would have, had I not heeded my usual rule. I now know I will have to...

An ailing economy that has seen price increases at gas pumps and grocery stores now is hitting consumers where it really hurts: the Friday fish fry. Fish fry operators throughout the Milwaukee area say the rising cost of fish and other products is hurting the profitability of their wildly popular Friday night dinners. Especially hard hit are those restaurants that depend on Icelandic cod, a perennial favorite that has jumped 50% in cost because of the depressed value of the U.S. dollar.Some fish fry operators are holding down their prices for fear of losing customers, while others have tried switching...

WASHINGTON - Droughts will get drier, storms will get stormier and floods will get deeper with a warming climate across North America, U.S. government experts said in a report billed as the first continental assessment of extreme events.

London, England (AHN) - The Home Office has launched advertisements to warn 18- to 24-year-olds about the consequences of binge drinking. The TV ad that says "You wouldn't start a night like this, so why end it that way?" shows a young man injuring himself, being violent, urinating on his shoes and pouring a takeaway meal on his shirt just before he was about to go out. Another ad depicts a young woman smearing her make-up, tearing her clothes and putting vomit on her hair. Advertisements in the internet also show aftermaths of a binge-drinking session where a man smashed...

Ancient Italian villages are being turned into a new kind of hotel, where the rooms are spread out across town and you share the streets with residents. One of the best of these alberghi diffusi is Sextantio, in the Abruzzi mountains. by Reid Bramblett | July/August 2008 issue On the day he found Santo Stefano di Sessanio, the ancient Italian village that would change his life, Daniele Kihlgren was lost. He had set out on his motorcycle to explore the Abruzzi mountains, two hours east of Rome, and was trying to locate a back road from the ruins of a...

Star Prairie, WI - Chako isn't the kind of dog that's likely to find a home through the local animal shelter. An aging Siberian husky, incontinent and partially paralyzed, he needs round-the-clock care that his owner, widowed, and with arthritis herself, can no longer manage. But Chako has a home, along with dozens of other aged or maimed or once-abandoned animals, on a 40-acre spread along the Apple River in western Wisconsin. Chako lives at the Home for Life Sanctuary near Star Prairie, the final residence for an eclectic menagerie of dogs, cats, bunnies, birds - even an African desert...

Saw an advertisement for Sam Adams Summer Ale. Ordered one up with my pizza. Interesting flavor - kinda fruity and it sort of tasted like a malt beverage rather than a lager. When I read the label it said it was made with wheat. Would those of you with more experienced palates explain to me the difference I was tasting? Would the wheat change the flavor that dramatically?

A&M research seeks a birth control pill for the multiplying animals. By Michael Graczyk ASSOCIATED PRESS Friday, June 13, 2008 GILMER — Broad areas of grazing land at Pete Gipson's farm bear plow-like scars. But it's no out-of-control machine that's left disjointed ruts and holes amid long grass ripped from the earth. He and other ranchers and farmers in Texas and the South are waging an uphill battle against herds of voracious feral hogs. The beasts, up to 3 feet tall and 400 pounds, devour feed intended for livestock and tear up pastures at his 300-acre Red Cap Farms in...

The teabag is 100 years old this year, but not everyone is celebrating. The perforated paper sachet transformed a time-consuming afternoon ritual into a five-second quickie, and saved the tea industry by fulfilling the modern imperative for convenience and instant gratification. But many tea drinkers believe that the invention has also reduced one of the world’s greatest drinks to a beige, tannic concoction that neither refreshes nor satisfies. Like many inventions, the teabag came about by accident. Struggling to cut costs, Thomas Sullivan, a New York coffee merchant who turned to tea, sent out samples in small silk sachets rather...

At a movie theater, a lot of the stuff you carry away from the concession counter is a horror show in its own right. And it comes with a sequel: When you debut in your bathing suit this summer, everyone will know what you did last night at the movies — you overate, so now you overflow. Not that I blame you, of course. I've been there, too. Engrossed by the big screen, too many of us fall victim to giant soda cups, popcorn buckets, and candy boxes, which are sneakily designed to keep the munchfest moving swiftly for the...

For those tired of texting or disillusioned with downloading, there now appears to be yet another use for their mobile phones - cooking popcorn. Intriguing videos showing people amusing themselves by watching corn being popped by the energy given off by their ringing mobiles have been posted on the video-sharing internet site YouTube. Each of the four videos shows small groups of friends casually lounging around tables and placing a small handful of corn in the middle of a circle of three or four phones. Then, after a few seconds of the phones ringing, the kernels expand and jump in...

My dear friends at PETA are at it again. I must say, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals certainly spares no expense in pushing its cause. Over the years I’ve received dozens of mailers and packets about how we should be nice to animals and not eat meat. As a certified meat eater, I usually toss them. The latest mailing came in the form of a packet including pages of documentation and a DVD. This one caught my interest because it included 30 reasons to go vegetarian. I thought I would share some of these reasons with you, along...

Getting drunk on a tight budget is practically a rite of passage. Just about all of us have some tale to tell about nights spent getting ****faced on Olde English 800 or some equally putrid swill. But party all the time as we might, it's doubtful any of us have stories that involve being so broke, we had to resort to throwing down any of this. If we had, we'd likely not have lived to talk about it.