Home-Made Noodles

Like I need an excuse to be MORE fascinated by pasta than I already am.



Via Food Geekery.

Beer + Pizza + Bicycle = WIN!

I think I'm in love.


If I was to put a fleet of these together for RAGBRAI, do you realize how much money I could make?

Via ManicSparkle.

Wine Bottle Designs

I don't know much about wine, but I know eye-catching design when I see it.

Bicycles, Women, Wine...Censorship???

So a wine maker puts out a vintage with a naked babe on a bicycle. How could I not blog about this?

Seriously, will these people never learn? If you ban something, you're putting more money in the pockets of the people making it. From AP:

"Alabama's ban on a wine that features a nude nymph on the label became a business opportunity for a California vintner who is preparing a marketing campaign to capitalize on being "Banned in Bama."

"The Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board recently told stores and restaurants to quit serving Cycles Gladiator wine because of the label. Board attorney Bob Martin said the stylized, art-nouveau rendition of a nude female with a flying bicycle violated Alabama rules against displaying 'a person posed in an immoral or sensuous manner.'"

Uh-huh. I'm sure they ban all those beer commercials on tv, too. Not to mention the beer sales at the Alabama-Auburn football game before sending thousands of people out to drive home.

And frankly, this seems awfully tasteful.

You can get it on a bike jersey, too. I think I'm going to buy a case of this stuff.

Via NPR.

Boy, Do I Feel Dumb...

Make up your own joke, but tell me you don't feel the same after watching this:



Via Pharyngula:

SCORE!

For those of you who have a fetish for high-tech gear like I do, my latest score should thrill you.

Ready?

I GOT A MIXER!

OK, so some of you might not be all that turned on by kitchen appliances. You can skip the rest of this post.

I was trying to stay sane at work the other day, and was browsing through some of my favorite web sites of the moment. Going to Lowes.com produced this little gem above, and at a discount of $100. Which is saying A LOT, because those things are built like tanks and very, very popular. I wonder if they don't have a glut of inventory someplace, or just need to move product to stimulate their own sales.

Whatever, I got a new toy for the kitchen.

Now if only I knew how to make something more sophisticated than pancakes. Anybody got any recipes?

Mmmm...Coffee

I confess I'm becoming a coffee snob. I currently have two excellent selections here at my desk at work, along with my own coffee maker. One is a delightful piece of love called City of Fountains Blend from Kansas City's The Roasterie (shout out to my brother, Mike, for the gift). Self-described "Bean Baron" Danny O'Neill has been roasting his own blends since he was an exchange student in Costa Rica. If you can't fall in love with java in that place, you never will.

The other is the remains of a pound of Cornwell Estate Pure Kona. My friends, Jim and Jen, visited the Islands for spring break, brought back a sampling of the stuff, and made me fall in love with my first taste. I subsequently told that story to a customer of my company's, who in turn surprised me with a pound of the stuff as a token of gratitude for services rendered (shout-out to Rose). IF there was a god, and he made anything better, he kept it for himself.

Starbucks co-founder Jerry Baldwin gets it right, though:

"A very important insight first articulated by Gordon Bowker is that all coffee companies claim that their coffee is fresh and of high quality. For some roasters, the claim is true, but beware. The real solution is less about being cynical than it is developing your own ability to discern the difference between freshness and its decline. Staleness is like obscenity. It's hard to define, but you know it when you experience it. And stale coffee is obscene."

Cheers!

Carnival of Recipes

Yum. Pure taste bud lust to be found here.

Via Greg Laden.