What Would Jane Austen Do?

Did you hear about this? In addition to the annual appearance of Count Chocula, Boo Berry and Frankenberry, this year General Mills brought back Fruity Yummy-Mummy and Frute Brute! I don't remember either of them from their original run, but you bet your sweet ass I bought them as soon as they appeared at Kroger. Frute Brute is "cherry" flavored; if you like artificial cherry, you will probably like it. Fruity Yummy Mummy is supposedly the only orange-cream flavored cereal. It's pretty good, too. You should give it a shot. I still hate the marshmallows in all the Monster cereals and I considered whether I could pay somebody on Fiverr to remove them for me. But it's not too cumbersome--if you're eating this, it's not likely you have places to be , amirite?

Asha had a good post up the other day, reminding us to flex our library cards this summer when looking for DVDs. I'm having some luck finding titles at the library that were mentioned on GKids. GKids is the site of the New York International Children's Film Festival. They feature foreign movies made for children that didn't get a wide release in the US. They're big on Hayao Miyazaki/ Studio Ghibli movies, like Ponyo and Kiki's Delivery Service , of course. I think this might be where I first heard about A Town Called Panic , which is funny and quirky and beloved in this house, yet absolutely not something I would have known about without GKids. Now, if Letitia were here to keep me honest, I would have to admit that the kids aren't always enthusiastic about the movies I pull up from that site. Chiefly they are resistant to any movie without a Happy Meal tie-in, or not titled Shrek 4: Yet More Booger Jokes . That's why we had to institute a 10-minute ru...

We are watching last week's Mythbusters . Kari is wearing an amazing swimsuit for some kind of sauna test (not to worry about exploitation, of course: Grant and Tory are naked). Anyway, Becca and I are in love with the suit. Somebody asked her about it on Twitter--it's from an Australian company called Black Milk. They have lots of goth suits. I guess Becca's set for her teens. N.B. to Sara--There's a Steampunk version , too:

This was a very exciting discovery . I am not Catholic, but I have long admired their dedication to celebrating the saints of the church through pastry and fried foods. Of course I had heard of King Cake for Epiphany, but how about: Pentecost Pie Probably less tasty, but visually way impressive, FLAMING Pentecost cupcakes Or these Pentecost brunch ideas. All red food! And the Cocoa Krispie Treat grotto for Our Lady of Guadalupe? Oh yeah. FWIW, the Feast of St. Nacho is on July 12.

There was a great thread on Reddit last week: "Fast food employees: what is the best thing on your restaurant's menu that no one ever orders?"  Now I ask you, is that most-Reddit question ever? Anyway, it pointed me to my new favorite thing: Pineapple Dr. Pepper from Sonic. There is REAL pineapple in it! I mean, it's life-changing. [The Pineapple Diet Dr. Pepper, fortunately, is also good.] Sonic wants you to use this as your wallpaper.

I don't know if this is the same one. Over at Collector's Weekly there is a post today about Vinegar Valentines. I never heard of them before today, but I think that must be what my Grandmother received one year as a kid. She told me that her maternal grandmother gave her a Valentine that said something about being an Old Maid. It broke her little heart so much that she remembered it decades later. Can you even imagine doing such a thing to a little girl? And listen, my Grandmother was no pansy, either. Just in case you ever thought that the Internet invented rudeness. HT: Sarah Pavis @ Kottke

We went to the Houston Mini Maker Faire last month. The kids had fun. Papi and I were SO excited about it. We planned everything in advance--maps and tickets loaded on our phones; clothes and backpacks laid out the night before. I was expecting there to be a massive crowd, because it was going to be full of fun and educational stuff, but it was definitely not overwhelming. Their loss! Personally, I was mostly interested in the food trucks: Monster PBJ , Coreanos , Waffle Bus , Bernie's Burger Bus . Monster PBJ has, hands down, the best graphics. Becca requested a Classic PB + strawberry jam on white with sliced strawberries and Nutella, cut into FOURTHS thankyouverymuch. She would not so much as let me look at it until she got bored with eating it. I can confirm that the crust was tasty. I was really looking forward to trying Coreanos, but I was a little disappointed in what I got. It turned out to be one of those humongous burritos that can't even fit in your...

photo via I emailed my pal Emily for some advice about San Francisco food. Here's what she said: How fun is this! Let's think...hot crab dip with sourdough? Anything Chinese, pot stickers?  Shrimp cocktail, artichokes, oysters. We are also the home of green goddess dressing, red vines, Irish coffee and the mai tai. Rice a Roni :) And garlic fries ! I also found recipes for cream of artichoke soup and cream of Anaheim pepper soup, which are sometimes combined at this restaurant outside SF. I think I can get on board with that. So we will have: Cheetos with Old Bay (B) Cream of Artichoke / Anaheim pepper soup (SF) Ricearoni (for Emmet) (SF) Crab cakes (B) Garlic fries (SF) Berger cookies (B) I think I can scare up an Anchor Steam beer, but Natty Boh might be a little more difficult.

So, we have San Francisco vs. Baltimore in the Super Bowl. I asked my friend Meg of Pigtown*Design for advice about what they eat in Charm City. Mamacita: I was disappointed to discover just how much love your fair city has for mayonnaise. It's in everything! I have a whole Pinterest board devoted to this subject of Super Bowl food. The Pit Beef recipe looked intriguing (until I saw the Tiger Sauce recipe with m-a-y-o). The crab pretzels also looked good up until the m---- part. One time I made Berger cookies, but I was a little disappointed with how they turned out. Maybe it was a bad recipe? Meg:  First, looking at your Pinterest board, no one knows anything about Smearcase. To me, it sounds like some ghastly OB/GYN sort of problem. Second, what's the matter with mayo?! Food of the gods - especially Duke's or Hellmans. photo via Roopa's twitter feed Third. Here's the secret recipe: CHEETOS + OLD BAY ! Yep, that's it. I've given ...

On Monday I wanted to make Hawaiian food in honor of the President's inauguration. After rejecting spam masubi and macaroni salad (hurl), I decided that I had everything on hand to make chicken katsu. It's essentially a breaded, pan-fried chicken cutlet. Nothing too extraordinary, although I had never used panko before. Every recipe for the sauce said to mix ketchup with soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce, but those instructions were a bit of a let-down. Also, I couldn't see just pouring ketchup all over the chicken like gravy, and that's what the pictures were showing. So I finally decided to try and make Japanese tonakatsu sauce, which involves applesauce, grated carrots, grated onions, tomato paste, garlic, ginger and soy sauce. And which ultimately tasted like grainy ketchup. Ugh. More successful was dessert, which I didn't get a picture of. This is chocolate haupia pie . Haupia is a flan-like coconut dessert popular in Hawaii; some GENIUS had the idea to...

I made this stew and now I'm telling everybody about it. You HAVE to make it. This is Ruth Reichl's Pork-Tomatillo-and-Dark-Beer stew. Now, let's all feel a little sorry for Ruth, because she has some labor-intensive stovetop method of making it. She doesn't realize that you can just put all the ingredients in a slow cooker and call it a day in the kitchen. Here's the lowdown (seriously make it SOON). Pork, Tomatillo and Dark Beer Stew  1 pound of tomatillos, husked and cut into quarters 1 bottle of dark beer 12 ounces of fresh orange juice 28 ounce can of diced tomatoes, drained 2 pounds of pork shoulder, cut into hefty cubes salt and pepper for the pork 10 cloves of whole peeled garlic (I used less—maybe 5 cloves) 2 large onions, chopped 2 whole jalapenos (take them out before serving) 1.5 cups cooked (or canned) black beans Put all of this into the slow cooker and cook it until it’s done. Serve over rice, and if you like, cilantro, a squeeze of...

I was on the Weather Underground site this morning (flash floods in Houston) and it turns out they have t-shirts for sale . Is this not the cutest thing ever?