A Spray Nozzle You Can Jam Into Whole Lemons

bonappetit.com:

Stem is the latest kitchen gadget to come out of crowdsourced invention-to-manufacturing website Quirky. It’s a spray nozzle with a serrated bottom that you can jam through the skin of citrus fruit to turn an actual lemon into a little spray bottle of lemon juice. And it has proven polarizing in the Bon Appetit office.

On the pro-Stem side, there’s novelty and slight convenience. The thing seems sweetly sci-fi and, after years of exposure to the Tropicana orange-with-a-straw logo, some of us feel it would be satisfying to shove a tube into a citrus fruit. And if you get a few, you can have citrus juice fights! Just avoid the eyes, and be sure to stock up on wet-naps. Things could get sticky.

The Stem haters have some good points, too. Namely that it’s a time-saver only in a universe in which the Pasta Express is worth buying. 

Quirky, the company that’s making the Stem, is pretty dedicated to culling ideas from online users and market research, so you can still go to the site and weigh in on whether or not Stem is a good idea (and how much you’d pay for it). Let us know where you come down on the issue.

Trick Yourself into Eating Vegetables

MensHealth:

Do you still act like the kid on the school lunch line who grumbles when he’s served a pile of flaccid carrots? Here’s a weird trick: Staring at a picture of a T-bone beforehand may make your vegetables more enjoyable, according to a new study in PLoS ONE.

When you view a salivating picture, your orbital frontal cortex—the region of the brain responsible for coding pleasant experiences—lights up and convinces your tongue that the bland food you’re eating is tastier than it actually is, explains study author Johannes Le Coutre, Ph.D, head of perception physiology at Nestlé Research Center in Switzerland.

We don’t expect you to carry around pictures of juicy steaks or blistered pizza, but you can make your own healthy meals look and taste more like caloric feasts. We’ve recruited food stylist Brian Preston-Campbell, who is also a trained chef, to give us a few tips on how to make the following five health foods more tantalizing.

More from MensHealth.com: Takeout That Delivers

1. BROCCOLI: SALT IT
Green vegetables should always be cooked in salted boiling water because it not only seasons the produce, but enhances the color. Then shock them in ice water to halt the cooking process and lock in that emerald beauty.

2. CAULIFLOWER: ADD COLOR
“Steamed white cauliflower is a food stylist’s death knell, only made worse when it is paired with steamed chicken breast or baked tilapia in a white butter sauce,” says Preston-Campbell. One remedy? Leave some stem on the florets to help to break up the rounded tops of the cauliflower pieces and add a little contrast. Then add some color and texture to the dish with breadcrumbs, herbs, or spices. You can also mix it with colorful vegetables. (Need more great ways to spice up your food? Watch how chef Eddie Huang reinvents junk food.)

3. YOGURT: STRAIN IT
Line a fine mesh strainer with a coffee filter or clean paper towel, and place on top of a bowl to catch the yogurt’s liquid. Pour in the yogurt, and drain overnight in the refrigerator. In the morning, you’ll be left with a thick, velvety yogurt that can hold a swirled texture (like a spiraling cone of soft serve).

4. KALE: PERFECT ITS COLOR
Buy the freshest, most vibrantly green bunch you can find—you want to start with a quality product. Then heavily salt the water to perk up the color and boil for only one or two minutes, just to soften these hardy leaves. Then, sauté for about 5 minutes (don’t let it brown) with some garlic, pine nuts, bacon or pepper flakes for added color and flavor. Avoid mixing in acids such as vinegar or lemon juice, which will make these leaves wilt in vibrancy and texture. (Start stripping off extra pounds with the newly expanded 2012 edition of Eat This, Not That!)

5. TILAPIA: KEEP IT MOIST
Tilapia doesn’t look appetizing because it’s flat, white, and simply not as exciting as a thick piece of bright red tuna or fresh fillet of salmon. Cooking this fish in a tomato broth will add color and keep the fish moist. Follow Preston-Campbell’s recipe: Puree two cored and coarsely chopped tomatoes, the juice of half a lemon, a dash of dried oregano, and a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil in a blender. Salt and pepper to taste. Strain into a sauté pan and bring to a simmer. Place the tilapia fillets in the pan and poach the fish  (just below a simmer on low heat—don’t let it boil!) until they are cooked through, about 8 minutes.

thedailyfeed:

Food companies spend a lot of money on R&D to develop new flavors for everything from Doritos to mixed salads. Now a chef with a Ph.D in sensory science wants to use the same techniques that social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn use to suggest new, exciting taste combinations. 

“I’ve always been interested in how people combine foods together and the mental algorithm each person employs when they say, ‘Hey, this would make a great meal,’ ” said [Michael] Nestrud. “Part of the food industry’s challenge is trying to create products that fit those algorithms.”

A director at Boston-based consultancy In4mation Insights, Nestrud, 32, uses graph theory to depict correlations between flavors, based on consumer responses to their preferences about pairs of taste combinations. He first thought up the idea when, while browsing data visualization blogs, he realized that the same visualizations that social network analysts use to depict human relationships could be used to represent how foods or flavors should optimally be combined.

Read more. 

Man Has Heart Attack While Eating At The Heart Attack Grill

NPRNews:

Slogans for a Las Vegas restaurant called the Heart Attack Grill include “Taste worth dying for,” and “Over 350 lbs? Eat for free!” But the burger joint’s shtick of calling waitresses “nurses” — complete with skimpy uniforms — and serving “quadruple bypass” burgers collided with reality Saturday, when a patron suffered a heart attack while eating at the restaurant.

Many in the restaurant — including its owner, “Doctor” Jon Basso, thought the incident might have been a joke.

“One of the nurses came back to me and said, ‘Dr. Jon, we’ve got a patient who’s in trouble,’” Basso told KVVU Fox5.

The ensuing scene was captured on a cellphone video, below. Paramedics were called to the restaurant, and the man was wheeled out of the restaurant on a stretcher.

Interest in the story has been huge: the restaurant’s website was only sporadically available Thursday morning, and media in Belgium, Spain and Sweden have covered the story, according to notes posted on the restaurant’s Facebook page.

The customer’s name has not been released, but he is reportedly in his 40s. He had been eating a Triple Bypass Burger — or, a sandwich stacked with three patties of beef. He is said to be recovering in a Las Vegas hospital.

It’s not the first time the Heart Attack Grill has had a brush with death. Last March, a spokesman for the restaurant’s original incarnation, in Chandler, Ariz., died at the age of 29. The family of Blair River, who weighed some 575 pounds at the time of his death, said he did not survive a case of pneumonia. That location has since closed, according to Yelp.

It’s uncertain how the Las Vegas restaurant will deal with this most recent event. Shortly after River’s death in 2011, owner Jon Basso was asked by an ABC reporter if he was using the death of his star promoter to garner even more business.

“I absolutely agree,” he said. “And in a very sick way, his death has gotten the message out further.”

At the time, ABC reported that Basso had previously “owned a chain of Jenny Craig weight-loss centers, and several personal training studios.”

food52:

Breakfast for Dinner: Salt and Pepper French Toast, Soft Scrambled Eggs. Here’s the plan. 

1796foods:

604. Mutter Paneer

Indian food! YAY! Mutter paneer is a vegetarian curry of paneer (which is an Indian curd cheese) and peas. It sounds a little weird but it’s super tasty. The paneer has that usual squeaky curd cheese texture which is oddly pleasing, and the peas add a nice sweetness to counter the spicy sauce.

604 down, 1192 to go

hugeinjapan:

Dinner Tonight:

Sake-cured salmon, Avocado, Yuzu-Soy-Buttermilk, Smoked Ikura

I cured the salmon for a few hours in sake and salt and cold-smoked the ikura with alder. The dressing is just buttermilk, soy, salt, yuzu juice and zest. 

Pavlova with Grilled Pineapples

8 Cooking Resolutions for the New Year
By Lynn Andriani, oprah.com

New skills, new foods and new confidence in the kitchen: ideas to take you from weeknight suppers to weekend parties.

8 cooking resolutions for the New Year. http://t.co/6CQsagpX

prettygirlfood:

Shrimp Quesadilla Fettucine

8oz dry pasta of choice
1 avocado, peeled and pitted
1 tablespoon lime juice
1/4 cup (2oz) nonfat plain Greek yogurt 
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 of a red bell pepper, thinly sliced
1/2 of a yellow bell pepper, thinly sliced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 lb medium shrimp (31-40ct), peeled and deveined
1 teaspoon salt-free Southwest seasoning blend
1/3lb grape tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Bring a large pot of water to a boil.

Meanwhile, mash the avocado with a fork and mix with the lime juice, yogurt, and salt until smooth.

When the water boils, add the pasta and cook according to package directions. Drain, return to pan, and add the avocado mixture. Stir to coat, and set aside.

Meanwhile, heat a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Cook the onions, red pepper and yellow pepper for about 7 minutes, until softened. Toss the shrimp with the Southwest seasoning, and add it to the pan along with the garlic. Cook for 2-3 minutes more, turning the shrimp once, until the shrimp are opaque. Turn off heat.

Divide the pasta among serving bowls. Top with equal portions of the shrimp and vegetable mixture. Sprinkle with the cherry tomatoes and cilantro.

Recipe Notes:
1) Feel free to use whatever kind of pasta you like and suits your diet, whether it’s whole wheat, low-carb, gluten-free, etc. I used Carba Nada Reduced Carb noodles. Because nutritional information might vary based on brand and type of pasta used, I have omitted this from the nutritional information. If you are counting calories, points, macronutrients, etc, be sure to add your choice of pasta to the nutritional counts for your meal.

2) Don’t eat dairy? Try substituting 3-4 tablespoons of light coconut milk.

3) If you don’t eat shellfish, try this with grilled flank steak. For a vegan option, make this with black beans or cubed, baked tofu.

Blissful Brownies - Blissful Brownies-of-the-Month
Gilt Taste, gilttaste.com

$64.95 - $129.95

If you like licking batter from the beaters, these brownies are for you. Using top-of-the-line ingredients like Guittard chocolate and Maldon sea salt, Ambler FitzSimons makes the fudgiest brownies we’ve ever tasted. From classi…

A Jump Start
By Amy Gorin, runnersworld.com

Nutrition & Weight Loss > Performance Training Foods

For many peo­ple, it’s hard enough to get up early to exer­cise before the day begins—let alone squeeze in break­fast, too. Thing is, that old adage “break­fast is the most impor­tant meal …

Six nutrient-packed breakfasts to power you up after your morning run: http://t.co/IXvvSrmS