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10 Tasty Panini Recipes

partysugar — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 05:50:07 -0700

In Italy, a panino (or panini, in the plural) can refer to a type of roll or a griddled sandwich, but here in America, a panini is always a pressed sandwich that is served warm. Why do I have panini on the brain? Because August is National Panini Month! Since I'm a huge fan of the combination of toasty bread and melted cheese, I've rounded up my favorite panini recipes. You don't necessarily need a special kitchen gadget to make them; you can simply cook a panini on a skillet or, if it's hot in your neck of the woods, outdoors on the grill.

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O Captain! My Captain! Obama Honors Lincoln at Ford Theater

colleenb — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 21:33:19 -0800

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Which Will Win? Red Vines or Twizzlers?

YumSugar — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 14:42:03 -0700

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Have You Ever Eaten Peking Duck?

YumSugar — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 01:31:31 -0800

This past October, I was lucky enough to find myself in Beijing, eating platefuls of Peking Duck. The Quanjude Roast Duck restaurant was established in 1979 and is one of Beijing's "must try" foods. There are actually several locations, and the one I visited did not let me down. The chefs carve the delicious duck table-side and when it hits your lips, it just melts. The fragrant duck meat is complemented by thin crepe-like pancakes, plum/bean sauce and some sliced cucumbers, jalapenos and lettuce. Our feast lasted quite some time, and I only left the restaurant because we had devoured every last bite, and they were closing. I'm pretty sure someone had to roll me out of the place, I was in such a food-coma bliss, that it's a bit of a blur.

So why am I talking about Peking Duck? Well it turns out that today, Jan. 18 is National Peking Duck Day. I thought you might be interested to hear about it, and then I was wondering, have you ever had Peking Duck?

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The Incredible Edible Chocolate Box

YumSugar — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 10:41:58 -0800

Today is National Chocolates Day, and since it's not chocolate but chocolates, I can only assume that it's referring to individual confections. While it seems a bit clichéd, sometimes the best thing is a box of mixed chocolate treats. You get the gooey caramel centers, the flavor infused truffles, and everything in between. I like the places where you can pick out exactly what you want in the box, as well as how many. If you're lucky enough, you can even find a chocolate factory that sells their chocolate individually. One of those places is Charles Chocolates.

I recently had the opportunity to view their facilities and sample their new products. If you're not familiar with Charles - they purposely have a small retail presence due to handling reasons - you should really remedy that. Their Caramel Almond Sticks ($11) are fabulous and their peanut butter butterflies ($27) are simply delicious, however it's their edible chocolate boxes ($45-$60) that blow me away. The entire box, lid and all, is edible. You can eat the chocolates inside and then chomp down on the box. They have a holiday collection filled with their most popular pieces, but I personally love the tea collection. The truffles are infused with five different teas and the edible lid features a painting of Chinese tea mountains. Whichever you fancy, they'll make great gifts for the chocoholic on your list, but if I were you, I'd go ahead and treat yourself.

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Lettuce Share Our Wieners

YumSugar — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 16:21:22 -0700

Oh hey guys, in case you didn't know, today is actually National Veggie Hot Dog Day. Wanna know how I know? I heard about the joint effort between PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) and Playboy. That's right Playboy.

Playmates Lauren Anderson and Laura Guttridge posed as "Lettuce Ladies" in PETA's annual Capitol Hill veggie dog giveaway.

I don't know about this folks, the strategically placed lettuce is pretty sexist. I also don't understand how PETA and Playboy go hand in hand. I suppose I have a problem when we start caring more about animal rights and less about people. It's as if the entire feminist movement didn't happen.

What do you guys think of this publicity stunt? And more importantly, what do you think of veggie dogs?

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Source: Washingtonian
Image Source

Happy Birthday Barbie Cakes

YumSugar — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 00:03:12 -0800

Guess whose favorite American gal turns 48 today? Why it's Barbie! She was launched at the American International Toy Fair on March 9, 1959. You'd never know because she looks great for her age, although I think she may have had some work done...

To celebrate her birthday I went out and hunted down a fantastic gallery of Barbie birthday cakes (bake a cake, stick Barbie in it and decorate!) photos over at Flickr.
There were over 590 photos, so I've narrowed it down to some of my favorites. Some of these are amazing works of art, and some of these are just down right silly. Be sure you check out the hot tub cake and the mud wrestling cake too. To see more Barbie cake images read more

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Source: Flickr (various members)

Milky History

partysugar — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 00:02:56 -0800

Since the colonization of America, milk has played an important part in our everyday life. The first dairy cows were imported in to the settlement in Jamestown, Virginia and originally the milkmen filled customer's jugs with milk. However, on today's date, January 29, exactly 129 years ago, the history of milk was changed forever. A certain George Lester created a patent for the first glass milk container. Many people today for their nostalgic simpleness of a lost era collect milk bottles. The most valuable ones are embossed and painted bottles with the names of dairies on them. I found a great collection of them and thought I'd share a few with you. Click on an image for a larger view:

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Source: Milk Bottle of the Week (they have almost 100 different bottles to check out)