It's Thanksgiving, and you know what that means? It's time to eat some seasonally appropriate food like turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce! It's so interesting that most of us eat the same thing for Thanksgiving every year. Imagine what Thanksgiving would be like if we drank mashed potato-flavored wine instead of red wine. What if we stuffed the bird with baked beans? What if, instead of slicing congealed cranberry sauce from a can, we sliced congealed gravy? Unfortunately,…

On Christmas Day, customers usually have enough shame to not show up at a fast food place. They ask insecure questions about when the company lets the employees go home. When you deliver the sad news that you're working until closing, they retreat to their table to eat their McChicken with embarrassed expressions. Unfortunately, during Thanksgiving, customers have a lot less shame. They find it incredibly quirky to go to Popeyes for Thanksgiving instead of cooking a homemade meal. Working in fa…

Mmm

Food. Sure, we have to eat it to survive. But the acts of eating, cooking, and even simply buying food go far beyond function. Food brings people together, it's something universal that we share with one another. And while we all have our own food preferences and allergies, many of us use food to express love and affection for each other. When there's something to celebrate, we usually go out for a fancy meal or enjoy a home-cooked feast with loved ones. Food is an experience, it's culture, and…

Do y'all remember when the concept of bacon was the biggest meme in the world? 2012 was truly a time to be alive: A time when memes were so simple that a popular food could dominate the landscape of popular memes for over a year. Now don't get me wrong, I like bacon. It's the only meat that I would miss if I followed the dietary restrictions put forth by the Old Testament. That being said, even as a meme-obsessed teen, I found the bacon thing to be a bit much. The bacon meme extended far beyond…

Cooking is a unique beast. For some people, knowing how to cook various meals is the top indicator that you can actually take care of yourself. Sometimes cooking is not utilitarian but rather an act of love or compassion. Other people do not care whether their food is cooked in their kitchen or not and see cooking and eating as merely a mechanism for survival. We attach many meanings to food and cooking, making it a very complicated and unexpectedly personal topic. At this point in my life, I c…

Delicious

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Delicious ideas

I like to laugh; Sue me! If it's a crime to laugh out loud, then I am on the fast track to being sent to a maximum security prison . More than laughing itself, I love to embrace cackling as my primary medium for conveying the joy that lives within me. Cackling is not just a laughter type, it's a way of living. I do not care that I sound like a witch. I do not care that now everybody in the room is looking in my direction. I do not care that an elderly gentleman is now asking me why I'm ‘screami…

It always disturbs me to learn that there are people out there who eat to live. Sure, we all technically eat to live, but it's insane that there are people who just don't care about, or even remotely enjoy, eating. I'm talking about Maggie, the yuppie I met years ago who wished that she could power her body with a pill taken just once a day. More disturbing was the day I learned she was on an actual Clif bar diet for over a month. Repulsive. We haven't seen each other in about twelve years, and…

I am so, so, so glad that I don't have Celiac disease or some other kind of disorder that means I can't eat gluten. Gluten rules. While bread takes a lot of the glutenous glory, we're firm believers that pasta is the best gluten product by far. It's versatile. It's international. It's a comforting, rib-sticking meal on a bad day, or a celebratory feast on a good one. Back when I was working at a Mediterranean restaurant on the Upper East Side, I actually got in trouble for selling the pasta spe…

Ready your stomachs

Listen. Summer might be approaching in the Southern hemisphere, but up here in the North, we've got a lot of seasonal delights to celebrate. There's Halloween (or ‘Spooky Season’ as some refer to it), pumpkin spice lattes, and eventually a Thanksgiving feast. Everyone loves the feeling of crunchy leaves under their feet, or the slight tinge of excitement that comes with a chill in the air. My favorite thing about the fall, however, is that it is finally acceptable to eat soup for every meal. Th…

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A sweet treat