With so many tomato varieties in season, I've been trying to make as many tomato dishes as I can. Thanks to FinnLover, I have another recipe to add to my repertoire: her tomato pie. By using ready-made puff pastry, she's able to make this rustic, Provençal tart in no time. 
This recipe is incredibly flexible — for instance, if you don't eat red meat, you can omit the prosciutto and replace it with portabello mushrooms. If you don't have herbes de Provençe, (although you can find this spice medley in most stores), you can make it. It's simply a combination of rosemary, marjoram, basil, bay leaves, thyme, and lavender. To see more of FinnLover's amazing pictures and to get her recipe, read more
US Burgers Will Kill You? Like the Minutemen, another controversial group who has erected signs at the border between the US and Mexico, PETA has a billboard all cooked up and aimed at the migrating population heading across the border. The PETA placard has a stronger message than "we keep this road clean" — the animal rights superadvocates want immigrants to cross over, and cross meat off their shopping list.
This week, we've changed things up: We've decided to give you more advance notice about each weekend's food festivals, so that you have more time to plan on attending! From gulf shrimp to beef to peaches to mushrooms, there's many a local favorite to celebrate.
Here's a roundup of exciting events going on around the country:
To see the rest, read more
When I complained to my mother the other day about what an impatient cook I am, she told me that my aunt passes cooking time by watching TV in the kitchen. I'm not a big television watcher, but the conversation left me wondering how many of you have a TV in your kitchen. Do you watch television while cooking or eating in the kitchen?
Because I've been all about the cookies lately, I went on a search for the cutest cookie cutter shapes I could find. While cookie cutters aren't always a requirement, there's nothing like a unique shape to add some originality to your baked creation. From sugar cookies to ice cream sandwiches to madeleines, here are my favorite cookie cutters and molds.
A recent study by the Center For Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has shown that restaurants are incredibly dirty. From moldy refrigerators to live cockroaches to unsanitary prep and cook surfaces, the study illustrates the huge number of restaurants that are cited with health-code violations. Sarah Klein, an attorney for the CSPI, explains why most restaurants have a long way to go before they meet the Food and Drug Administration's health codes:
Restaurants aren't motivated to pass a very high safety bar. A restaurant may commit violations that the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention would classify as most critical — improper holding temperatures, poor employee hygiene, food bought from unsafe sources, food that is not thoroughly cooked, or food surfaces that are not properly disinfected — without much fear of being shut down. Even violations that involve rat infestations or unwell employees (restaurant workers tend not to get paid sick days) also may not lead to closure. Restaurants only have the incentive to do what they need to do to stay open. The consumer would never know how close they were to being shut down.
While opposition is quick to point out that the inspectors could have been too harsh, I have a feeling the study's disturbing conclusions may be true. After all, Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares takes an insider's look at such kitchens. Although the findings don't list the restaurants' names, it does provide the public with a breakdown of the worst and best cities in terms of health expectations. To find out how your city ranked, read more
Saucy Jamie Oliver Smiles and Signs Spotted: celebrity chef and gastrosexual Jamie Oliver filming an advertisement for his new range of pesto sauces.
The foodie documentary King Corn will be shown at my movie club meeting, so the menu features a variety of vegetarian corn dishes. During the screening, let guests nibble on corn cakes and pizzettas with corn and zucchini.
After the movie is finished, invite everyone around the table for a light meal of cheddar corn chowder with an arugula fresh corn salad on the side. The soup can be kept warm during the movie, while the salad can be assembled in advance and dressed just before serving.
For these delicious recipes that highlight the sweet flavor of corn, read more
