Old School Thursday: Oh, Just Drink Your Diet Coke

Wow. There is literally nothing interesting, history-wise, about today. However, it is National Carbonated Beverage with Caffeine Day, which is about as hilarious as last week’s big “Pizza with the Works Except Anchovies” celebration.

The difference between the two weeks is that I will be celebrating today’s holiday. Not on purpose, but because I pretty much mainline Diet Coke. And I’m not soing to stop just because some silly lobby got a day named for non-specific CSDs.

Artsy + Want: Alexander Girard Nativity

As I've mentioned before, I'm an enormous fan of Herman Miller in general and Alexander Girard in particular, so I was kind of thrilled yesterday to discover (via UrbanDaddy) that some of Girard's designs are now available as wall art (on plywood) at RCNDY in DC.Even cooler, House Industries sells a collection of Girard-designed fonts, prints, and...stuff, including the nativity scene above.

I love the chunky simplicity of the design, to say nothing of its amazing color. If only I had a spare $410 (plus tax and shipping) to spend on a nativity scene...

Ideabook Tuesday: Table-Setting

Our annual Mock Thanksgiving is this coming Saturday and I've finally given up and realized that we're not going to be able to sit around a table. It'll have to be a buffet and free-for-all - there's just no other logistical option.

Which is too bad, really, because I like a nice set table. Like this one:Or this one:Or this one:

Becky agrees - so much so that last summer, she wrote an ideabook all about table-setting:

Setting the Table

houzz- kitchen design, bathroom design, landscaping and more

Trendy Monday: Parade Goes Trendy?

Hanging out at my parents' house yesterday morning, Tom and Cail took turns reading me interesting things out of the newspaper. One of my favorites: Parade magazine's foray into food trendspotting. I don't mean to be snarky, but when a food trend list starts with cupcakes for wedding cakes, you know it's not exactly groundbreaking stuff.

Also included on the list: in-store cooking classes, lunch trucks, high-end ballpark food, and home canning. While all of these things do happen, they're more interesting to me as an example of how far behind general media is.

Entertaining Friday: Seasonal Drinks

You know what's nice about Ocean Spray Brad? He's always sending me links to stuff he reads, and since he lives in Boston, he reads different stuff than I do.

Like the other day, he sent me a link to Boston.com's drinks-for-fall slideshow. He sent it partly because one of the drinks was a pickle martini called The Green Mile, which reminded him of the revolting concoction I drank last summer at the beach.

Most of the drinks sound genuinely good, though. I especially like the idea of the Concord Grape Cobbler, which mixes gin, lemon juice, grape-infused simple syrup, and club soda:
The Fall Back, which is lemon ginger vodka, cranberry juice, and prosecco, sounds pretty great, too:

But please, bartenders, keep the pickles out of the gin.

Speaking of Brad, he also sent me a link to an Ocean Spray-sponsored live chat with Tyler Florence. It takes place next Tuesday night at 8 and is all about planning the "Ultimate Thanksgiving." I'm not the biggest Florence fan myself (I think it was the Applebee's thing that killed him for me) but if you like him and you're interested in some T-day help, make sure you get online early - the chat is limited to 250 people.

Food History Lessons on Top Chef

On last night's Top Chef, each chef was tasked with creating a dish inspired by a particular casino. Early favorite, Jen C., drew Excalibur. After watching some sort of Medeival Times-type performance, she was still stuck for inspiration, so she ended up serving a "stone"-like hunk of meat topped with red wine sauce. Kind of boring.

In his Bravo blog, Tom Colicchio talks a little about her dish and what she could've done to make it more medieval-y. Namely, add spices, which would've covered the flavor of decaying meat. Interestingly, even though comments on TV blogs are usually semi-illiterate, the comments on this one are kind of amazing.

Several food historians and medieval experts stop by to slap Colicchio down, explaining that a) there was plenty of non-rancid meat available to the nobility during medieval times and b) spices, back then, were damn expensive. A few commenters offer counter suggestions and they're really pretty good. Rarely do you find so much actual information in a comments section. And on food history of all things!

[As a side note, for Cooper's 29th birthday and Discovery Doug's 50th or something like that, we went to Medieval Times with a bunch of people. It was fun, but what a mess. Bill had to head to the lobby, after discovering that he is completely allergic to horses. Every single thing we did cost a million dollars. And everybody else celebrating a birthday was under ten. Plus, I don't like eating with my hands. But we do have about 15 plastic Medieval Times mugs now. And a commemorative keychain. So worth it, I guess.]

Old School Thursday: On the Half Shell Edition

It’s National Pizza with the Works Except Anchovies Day. I am not sure I could emit a sigh loud enough to convey my “whatever” feeling about learning that. Who even lobbies for that kind of day? Who would care enough? The anti-anchovy lobby? WHO ARE YOU?

In other news…101 years ago today, William Keith Brooks passed away. Among other things, he worked for the conservation of the Chesapeake Bay oyster. Having grown up on Bay oysters, I appreciate his work.

And that’s about it. Please, if you’re going to celebrate today, do it with oysters. Not pizza. Please.

In the Mail Semi-Recently

To read:

Ace of Cakes: Inside the World of Charm City Cakes by Duff and his brother Willie. I just received this, so I haven't gotten a chance to do more than quickly flip through it, but it looks fantastic - totally my type of book. I'm sure it won't hurt that I'm a big Duff fan as it is, but I can really get behind a book about cakes that is not a cookbook. I'm betting that it deserves it's current sold-out status on Amazon. I'll report back more later.

To drink:

The awesome folks at POM Wonderful sent me several bottles of their new iced coffee products - a while ago, I have to admit. I didn't slack off on writing about them because they weren't good. I just kept forgetting.

Because they were good - really good, in fact. Rich and creamy and delicious. What's even better is that they are not at all bad for you. They might taste like they've got a million calories and fat grams, but they don't.

I also have a couple of POM blend juices in the refrigerator. I will be drinking them soon...and writing about them soon, too.

To watch:

Well, I don't have an image for this one, but I did hear recently from Discovery Doug, who alerted me to a new show on Planet Green that, in my eyes, has a lot of potential. (As an aside, Cooper and I watch a lot more Planet Green than anyone might expect.)

The show is called Future Food and it stars Homaro Cantu and Ben Roche from Chicago's Moto. Basically, it's a molecular gastronomy show. Cooper is reserving judgment - he feels like maybe the molecular gastronomy thing is overdone and not broad enough for a whole show, but I think it sounds interesting.

And that is it. The contents of my mailbox and inbox these days.