Goodbye Four Loko.

I won't miss you. Not one bit.

For those of you not familiar, Four Loko is a brand of caffeinated  alcohol, which, until recently, was a favorite among alcoholic college students.

The theory is that the caffeine in the product would dampen the effects of the alcohol, letting you drink more before you fell asleep or passed out.

Of course, this concept is nothing new, as people have been consuming the combo for as long as I have been alive (Heard of a rum and coke?), but because some irresponsible college kids got alcohol poisoning, the FDA and state legislators have lost their minds and threatened to ban the beverage.

As a result, Four Loko announced yesterday that it would remove all caffeine from its products, thus essentially putting themselves out of business.

Lets be honest here. Four Loko is one of the worst tasting products to ever exist. I enjoy cough syrup more. Seriously. The only reason anyone drinks/drank it was because of the caffeine. Even Stephen Colbert knows that.

So now, college students, return to mixing red bull and liquor, because your Loko days are over.

The spice of life

Homemade pizzas have been a staple of my diet since my roommate and I started being friends almost two years ago now. We would go to the store, buy a premade crust and some sauce and whatever interesting toppings we thought we should eat that night.

Needless to say, it has gotten to be a bit boring to have pepperoni and mushroom all the time.

This quarter, though, we've expanded our horizons and made some interesting creations. This week we tried the Taco Pizza. The funny part of this story is that we thought we were being creative and interesting, but it turns out that many other people before us had the idea of putting refried beans, taco meat and cheese on a pizza.

Regardless, it was one of the best ideas we've had in a while. A lot better than buffalo chicken pizza.

In our defense, the pizza tasted delicious. The problem is that we both like really spicy food, and the amount of buffalo sauce we used exceed what the crust could manage to hold together. It was a eat-with-a-fork kind of pizza, to be sure.

Jeff also made a chicken Alfredo pizza the other day that was pretty good, except the spinach part. The recipe itself was made up, but was really similar to this one, only it had broccoli and no tomatoes. Same basic principle though.

Heading out

In just about a week, my roommate and I will be packing up and heading back home to Florida for winter break.

Normally, this would be a fairly simple process of packing some clothes and driving an hour or two back to our respective parents' houses, but living 15 hours away means that we have some other things to think about logistically, including food.

See, whenever I've gone home before, I just brought whatever food I had in my fridge home with me and fed it to my brother. The whole traveling issue complicates this.

Which means, going shopping for this last week has turned into a constant debate of whether or not we absolutely need the item and whether it will go bad before we go back.

So far on the menu for the week: pizza, salad and spaghetti.

So much for fancy cooking. I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

Iron Chef restaurant tour

I watch a lot of Food Network, but one of my favorite shows is Iron Chef. I consider myself a bit of a purist, in the sense that I don't really care for the new Iron Chefs much and would just as soon go back to the original four if I had my way.

Anyway, I am such a fan of the show that I have made it one of my goals to visit the restaurants of each of the original chefs. I'll go into a bit of detail about what is awesome about these places and why you want to go there, too.

• Mesa Grill by Bobby Flay. I was lucky enough to go here in August of 2009 when my dad took me on a trip to NYC. The menu is quite extensive, and we were super full when we were done. I got a Cuban Burger, which, sadly, isn't on the menu anymore.

• Kouzzina by Cat Cora. Located in one of my favorite places in the world, Walt Disney World in Orlando, this restaurant is Mediterranean-themed and has a menu of traditional items from that part of the world. 

• Babbo by Mario Batali. Another restaurant in NYC, but one I did not have the time (or money) to visit. The menu consists of traditional Italian dishes -- not that kind of stuff you'll find at Olive Garden.

• Morimoto by Masaharu Morimoto. Sushi is my favorite food. I just need to put that out there before I end up writing 200 words on how extensive and amazing the sushi menu is at this restaurant. It is also incredibly cool looking on the inside (Check out the restaurant tour option on the site).

The Cooks Source controversy

Today is a double post day because I cannot help but pay attention to this story.

Cooks Source is a small food magazine in the New England area, which I had never heard of before this week.

And then, the Internet happened.

The background, as briefly as I can explain it, is that a woman posted a story she wrote about apple pie on her personal domain with a copyright notice attached. According to her, she found out from a friend that the story had been published in Cooks Source without her knowledge. She requested the typical freelance rate ($0.10 per word) be paid in the form of a donation to Columbia Journalism School, and got a smarmy response from Judith Griggs, the editor of the magazine.

Of course, the magazine's Facebook page is being overtaken by people who are unhappy about the editor's policies of essentially stealing stories off the Internet, and many say that they have contacted advertisers of the magazine, who have agreed to stop advertising.

The most impressive part, in my opinion, is the work of independent citizens to uncover other instances of theft by the magazine. A thread on the Facebook page started cross-referencing instances of exact copies of stories appearing in Cooks Source, as well as NPR, Food Network, WebMD and Martha Stewart. They even made a Google Spreadsheet so anyone can see the list of stories and photos.

It will be interesting to see how this all pans out, but if serious legal action is brought against the magazine, it will be because of some investigation by citizen journalists.

Foursquare

For those of you on Foursquare, I made a to-do list of cool places to eat in Athens.

Check it out, leave some tips, and let me know what you think.

Key lime pie... gum?

During my normal Friday evening grocery shopping trip, I saw the new Extra Dessert Delights Key Lime Pie flavored gum.

The answer is yes -- I miss Florida so much that I bought Key Lime Pie gum.

and it was surprisingly delicious.

The Chicago Tribune reported that this is one of many new innovations in the gum industry, which has seen a 37 percent increase in sales in the last 10 years.

The gum also comes in Strawberry Shortcake and Mint Chocolate Chip flavors. If you're interested in trying it, but don't want to invest the $1 in a pack of gum, Extra is offering free samples on their Facebook page. Just "Like" the page, type in your name and address and which flavor you'd like to try and they'll send a pack your way.

The best of Athens

I made a lovely Google map of the places I enjoy eating at in Athens. Check it out.



View Athens' must-try dining spots in a larger map

Fast food crime?

Today's post is a result of my observation that there are several stories on Google News today that involve fast food and crimes.

This is a couple weeks old, but a paper in the Miami area took a look at 911 calls in the county and what types of "emergencies" people falsely call in.

A quote from the story:

The fast food offenses are usually the most common and often the most annoying because people think it's really an emergency worthy of 911, one operator said.

"Screaming in my ear, 'I wanted the sausage, and he gave me the burrito!'" April McGill recalls from one call. "She's trying to force me to eat something off the menu that I don't want!"

In more serious stories, a woman in Boston was shot  outside of a fried chicken restaurant this week and police shot and killed a man who they say wounded his wife outside of a fast food restaurant.

I suppose crimes of all kinds happen in all sorts of places, but it really seems odd that people would choose a fast food place to attack someone. Thoughts?

Burrito Buggy

Check out an interview with an employee of the Burrito Buggy, one of Athens' most recognizable dining locales.



I ate at the Buggy last week and had this delicious black bean, chicken, and rice burrito.

You can normally find the buggy at the corner of Court Street and Union Street in Athens.

Potato Rosemary Soup

It is cold outside. Maybe not for natives of non-tropical states, but I've been freezing most of the week. Soup seemed like a logical choice for dinner, especially since I've been craving one of my favorite restaurants from Orlando -- Sweet Tomatoes.

It is a pretty simple concept. Picture a typical salad bar buffet and double the size of it. Add in every possible salad topping ever. Then throw in fresh fruit, a soup bar with about 6 or 7 types of soup, a baked potato bar and some fresh, hot pastas, and freshly baked breads and muffins and you've got a Sweet Tomatoes. I love it. And I always feel good when I eat there, because no matter how much I eat, I don't get the awful gross full feeling eating at a buffet normally causes.

Anyway, Sweet Tomatoes has a delicious Potato Rosemary Soup, and since the closest location is in North Carolina, I decided to try to replicate it.

I used this recipe only I really didn't measure any of the seasonings by hand. And I substituted chili powder for the cayenne, because I forgot to buy cayenne at the store. We also put a bit of Tabasco sauce on top.

My roommate played photojournalist for the evening and helped photograph the process. Here are some of the shots:

International Student Dinner

Last weekend, my roommate and I went to the International Dinner, sponsored by the International Student Union here at Ohio University.

For only $7 each, we got to sample foods from across the globe, including India, China, Japan, Korea, South America and Africa.

This photo was taken by my roommate, and showcases the fact that we literally got enough food for two people on one plate. And all of it was delicious! 

I'm a sucker for dessert, though, so my favorite was the baklava, which we didn't get a picture of. 

Moral of the story: Make sure you check out the dinner next time.

 It is definitely worth the $7.

Not at all food related, but...

We recently did a project in my Online Journalism class where we learned to edit a Wikipedia.

In retrospect, it would have been a lot more interesting in terms of this post if I had chosen something food related, but I went with the E. W. Scripps School of Journalism.

It has since been edited, but here is what it looked like before I edited it, and here are the changes.

Songs about food

I know I'm straying a bit from the original purpose of the blog, but between school picking up and being sick all weekend, there hasn't been a lot of cooking in the apartment lately.

What there has been, though, is listening to music.

My iPod shuffled onto Alkaline Trio's "Cooking Wine" over the weekend, and it made me wonder how many songs are either about food, or reference food in the title.

After searching the wonderful Internet for a while, all I know is that there are a lot.

Several sites have top 10 lists, but they are definitely less than stellar.

"Eat It" by Weird Al? Really?

There has got to be better options than this.

What food-related songs are your favorites?

It's that time of year again...

McDonald's Monopoly game is back starting Tuesday.

I am a big, big fan of Monopoly. I think it is a combination of my competitive nature and the fact that I can win free food, which is pretty much every college student's dream.

I did some reading this morning to find out more about what this year's prizes are, and stumbled on a chart that explains what the rare piece in every set is. I always knew that there was one rare piece, but I feel a little bit better knowing which one it is. Not that I think it will help me win, but it makes me feel better in some crazy way.

In addition to the normal cash and food prizes, this year they are also giving away cars, movie rentals from Redbox, and my personal favorite, a three-day trip to any sporting event in the country. If the winner of that goes to something lame, like the U.S. Open, I'm going to be frustrated.

I'm not going to lie, though, I'll be satisfied with my free McFlurry.

Genetic engineering, vegetables top food-related news

I've been seeing a lot of food-related news show up online and on television lately.

The most prominent of these is about a company in Massachusetts that has developed a genetically-engineered salmon. The FDA is considering whether it can be sold commercially and is evaluating any potential health risks.

I think this is an exciting step toward being more respectful of the environment. If we can genetically engineer fish, there are many other things on the horizon to make food production more environmentally-friendly.

The other big news today is that a study was released that showed that Americans don't eat enough vegetables.

No, really?

This is a bit of a no-brainer of a story. Vegetables are expensive, take longer to cook than a frozen pizza, and spoil much more quickly than your average frozen dinner. And this is something I'm struggling with. Living as a poor college student lends itself to hamburgers and pizza and fast food -- they are all cheap, quick and taste awesome. Especially in a week like this one, where I have class and work commitments until 9:30 every night with an hour break for dinner, sitting down and cooking a fancy dinner is next to impossible.

The one thing I did learn, though, is that many farmer's markets accept food stamps, which helps the cost portion of the formula. The disappointing part, as this story points out,  is that I'm not the only one who didn't know that was an option.

Two blogs you need to check out

I've been reading a lot of food blogs lately to try to get into the spirit of blogging. Most of them are useful and offer tips and tricks for cooking healthier, or cheaper, or better in general.

But, what I've realized is that I much prefer the ones that are funny.

This Is Why You're Fat is a great example of this. TIWYF offers a combination of delicious and gross recipes that utilize the most fattening, bad-for-you foods possible. Nearly every recipe includes bacon or deep frying --  or both.

Take Hamburzilla, for instance. This dish consists of two pizzas with two McDonald's Quarter Pounders and fries in between. Something about the absurdity of that is incredibly amusing. There are pages and pages of reader-submitted creations to peruse and the blog has even been turned into a book.


Fancy Fast Food is my newest (and perhaps favorite) blog discovery. The concept of the blog is simple: take items that can be purchased at fast food restaurants and make them look like fancy, delicious plates. Most of them combine ingredients that I don't think would taste all that great, but the photos are amazing.

Beef Strog 'n Off is a good example. The sauce of the fake stroganoff is made with a combination of milkshake and cottage cheese -- not tasty in any way, but it looks real.

My favorite food event

I spent the majority of my life living just more than an hour drive away from Walt Disney World.

It is something that I'm not sure I completely appreciated until I moved here to Ohio.

Anyway, the reason I bring this up is because we are a week away from the start of my favorite time of year: the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival.

A poster from the French Pavilion during last year's Fest.

For those of you who are unfamiliar, Food and Wine Fest, as it is commonly referred to, is the single most delicious and fun time you can visit the happiest place on Earth. 

The World Showcase portion of the Epcot park, which has pavilions representing 11 different countries, is transformed into a culinary trip around the world. Countries which are not normally part of the showcase have carts and stands featuring small plates and wines, allowing you to get a taste of many cultures without having to spend all that money on airfare. And for somewhere around $4 to $8 for each plate, you won't be too broke by the end.

Unless you want to be. There are a plethora of exclusive events that require extra fees beyond park admission to  take part in. The range from the simple cooking demos that will run about $10 extra, to extravagant parties and fine dining events that can cost as much as $450 per person. Needless to say, I've never taken part in those.

I've gone to the standard Fest every year for the past 3 or 4 years though, and each time I am thoroughly impressed with the quality of the food. This year will be the first year I will be legally allowed to partake in the wine part of Food and Wine Fest, so I am trying desperately to make it down there to have the full experience.

Victory number one!

I set out on Sunday to use some of the ingredients my roommate and I picked up at the farmer's market to make corned beef and cabbage, a dish that I absolutely love.

After hours of searching the Internet for a stand-out recipe, I ended up choosing this one.

It seems like, at least from my research, that there are hundreds of variations of the traditional Irish-American dish and that people have the tendency to adamantly support their favorite version.

Also during my research, I discovered that corned beef and cabbage really isn't an Irish food, but rather something that was invented in the 1800s by Irish immigrants. There's a pretty good (and short) history of the dish here.

One of my very favorite cooks, Alton Brown has a television show where he explains the science and theory behind cooking. There is an episode about corned beef that was really interesting to me. You can find  Part one and Part two at those links.

I'm not that great of a cook

But I love food.

I know that is a strange way to introduce myself, but I figure it is as good as any for a food blog.

As for the real introduction... My name is Ashley. I'm a graduate student at Ohio University in the tiny town of Athens, Ohio. I moved here from Orlando, Fla., where I spent my spare time wandering the Mall at Millenia and hitting the theme parks. Let me tell you, my new home is no city, and it certainly isn't a tourist destination.

What it lacks in excitement, Athens makes up in local foods. There aren't many restaurants, but the ones that are here have excellent reputations. There is a ton of local produce and organic meats and cheeses.

What does all of this mean? I'm taking up cooking as my new hobby. Gone are the days of eating frozen pizza and frequenting Wackadoos, the on-campus burger and beer place, and late-night trips to Jeriemiah's, a fantastic Italian Ice place that is walking distance from my former college newspaper office.

I'm going to try to take advantage of what's available here and try to hone my skills. And you, my friends, can join me on this trip through this blog. I will share my successes (and failures) as well as pass along some interesting tips and tricks from some of my favorite blogs.

Hopefully we'll all learn something.

And my apartment won't burn down.