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.