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October 25, 2006

Make it Halloween

Natalie Haughton generally knows how to bring it, big time, for holidays, and in this week's food section, Halloween is a prime example.

From appetizers (including a spooky take on the famed 7-layer dip) through entrees, and plenty of desserts, there's plenty to pick up now and add to your repertoire for years to come. This was the cover pix (also seen above), and my favorite easy recipe:

Anything that looks like a cheerful jack-o'-lantern is always fun — and hollowed-out oranges with cutout faces on one side filled with chocolate ice cream or yogurt, then frozen — are no exception. Make the stems on top with green gumdrops.

Another one that looked cool was Wacky Web Cups. Very inventive.

Natalie says this about the spooky dip:

Another fun idea that easily goes together is a spider web appetizer. Once you buy the black bean salsa and prepared guacamole, it's just a matter of assembly. Make the web on top by dragging a knife through piped-on sour cream circles. Shredded lettuce and cheese along with chopped tomatoes around the edges of the platter complete the look. Serve with tortilla chips.

I'm hoping somebody's gonna show up -- and quick -- with one of these dips at the Daily News.

Here are the recipes:

Frosted Jack-O'-Lanterns
Wacky Web Cups
Spider Web Dip
Witch's Cauldron Corn
Southwestern Style Pork Stew
Big Pumpkin Cookie
Scary Ghost Cookies (pictured at left)
Halloween Marshmallow Pops
Halloween Molassas Cutouts

Posted by Steven Rosenberg at 2:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 23, 2006

Yam brownies -- I'm a believer

Ilene made these vegan brownies ... no eggs, no butter ... but with yams, and they ROCK HARDER THAN ANY VEGAN DESSERT ANYWHERE, EVER. And they're better than just about every "regular" brownie I've had, too.

For more -- plus the name of the cookbook that spawned them -- slide over to Drawerspace in a Cluttered Mind.

Posted by Steven Rosenberg at 3:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 17, 2006

Starbucks Gossip's 'ghetto latte' post has more than 500 comments

Remember the ghetto latte? That's when a Starbucks customer orders a lower-priced drink, say an espresso, and turns it into something more ... milky with stuff from the condiment bar. Well, it has created an Internet/dead-tree-media firestorm, whatever that means, and Starbucks Gossip's original post on the matter has over 500 comments.

Now if you want to know what your barista really thinks, Starbucks Gossip is the place to go, since many of the comments on the various posts come from bona fide S'bux workers. Like this one on "ear gauges" -- those scary-looking things that look like tribal ear-mangling devices, which are allegedly being banned from the lobes of baristas ... if they're larger than a nickel. Yummers.

Back to the Ghetto Latte:

Business and ethics professors weigh in (with further link to the Chicago Tribune for registered users: "The Bootleg Latte: Would You Make One?" Hint: my L.A. Times login and password worked on the Trib site ... hmmmmm.

Here's an excerpt from the longish Trib piece:

Joel Goldhar, professor at the Stuart School of Business at the Illinois Institute of Technology, was called to comment as someone with expertise in business ethics. He didn't see it as a question of ethics, however, but capitalism in action.

"I believe in capitalism," Goldhar said, "and prudent people who see the same product at different prices will find a way to get the cheaper one. What's the difference between the Starbucks thing and my flying to Florida for $175 while the person in the seat next to me is paying $450? If your diesel car runs on home heating oil, which is cheaper, maybe you think about getting a 500-gallon tank installed. If you order a coffee in a cafe on the Champs Elysees, what are you really buying? Not the coffee. You're buying the view, and you're buying it with the cheapest thing on the menu."

A law professor, Randal C. Picker of the University of Chicago, weighs in (Same thing with Chicago Tribune, which seems to be all over this story. If only the L.A. Times had content like this ...) Latte serves up a lesson in bootleg economics:

We should go to Starbucks. This is a language I barely speak--I don't drink coffee and only occasionally have a hot chocolate at Starbucks--but here is the strategy as I get it. A doppio is described as a double shot of espresso that would usually be served in an 8-ounce cup. That would set you back $1.75. A latte, which goes for $3.20, is a double shot of espresso plus milk and foam in a 16-ounce cup. Our arbitraging customers order the doppio but ask for it in a 16-ounce cup and then add free milk available in canisters at Starbucks. Pop the cup in a microwave, and you have the latte and have saved $1.45. (This, of course, is just saving money; real arbitrage would mean that enterprising customers would start selling the fake lattes in competition with Starbucks, but the Trib article didn't say anything about that.)

This gets us to the limits of free milk. Starbucks provides free milk so that customers who want to add milk to their coffee can do so. Call this the permitted use or intended use. Customers know how much milk they want in their coffee and can do that best on their own. But Starbucks has no simple way to control how "free" milk is used at its stores. Starbucks obviously could post signs or refuse to sell drinks in wrong-sized cups. The cup size limit is the most natural technical constraint; signs would be more directly contractual but would detract from Starbucks' ambience.

Previously: Table Talk's original 'Ghetto Latte' post.

Posted by Steven Rosenberg at 1:04 PM | Comments (0)

October 5, 2006

Spinach update

We went to the Good Earth in Studio City on Sunday, and I ordered the perennial tofu scramble -- tofu sauteed with various and sundry vegetables, plus beans and pancakes. Enough to tip anyone's ass over.

Our waitress told me there was no spinach -- due to the E. coli trouble. Tofu scramble with no spinach? I was willing to take the risk, but Ilene, being a food scientist, knew that the time for spinach's return to restaurant menus hasn't yet arrived.

Well, the choice wasn't mine, since the Good Earth had no spinach -- but I could substitute any vegetable I wished.

I chose broccoli, and a fine tofu scramble arrived.

As always, our post-Good Earth now-ritual had Lulu dragging us over to Storyopolis so she could womanhandle the Snuffleupagus toys (they had about 50 of 'em).

But I anxiously await the return of spinach -- fresh, bagged and otherwise -- to store shelves and restaurant kitchens.

And since I've had such success with tomatoes this summer, I'm contemplating a try at planting winter greens on our side yard -- Swiss chard, collards, kale, maybe even some romaine lettuce. Time to hit the gardening books and get some seeds. Remember -- everything tastes better when you grow it yourself.

Posted by Steven Rosenberg at 9:34 AM | Comments (0)