Slashfood

• Taking in a bit of Maine with Blueberry pie à la mode
  

  Filed under: Dessert, Fruit, America, Summer

  
  While in Maine, I had enough blueberry pies to blow me up and turn me violet like the character Violet Beauregarde in the film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. I've been told that Maine has over 60,000 acres of wild blueberries this time of the year. So, what better way to take in the agriculture of Maine than to savor a bite or two of blueberry pie.
  
  I had one blueberry pie, in particular, that stood apart from all the rest. It was at Jordan's, a diner-like...
  



• The first Portland Pie-Off
  

  Filed under: Dessert

  
  At least once a summer, my mom makes a pie for no particular reason. When my sister was living at home, she'd do her best to plan the pie seed and continue to talk about blueberry pie or blackberry galette until my mom could resist temptation no longer. She'll pull out the rolling pin she bought used when my parents first got married (it has a wonderfully butter, seasoned surface) and make a sincerely transcendent dessert.
  
  If you live in the Portland (Oregon, not Maine) area, you have good reason to pull out your rolling pin this weekend. The first-ever Portland...
  



• Play and Freeze Ice Cream Maker
  

  Filed under: Dessert, Dairy, Food Gadgets, New Products, Comfort Food, Guilty Pleasures, Summer

  
  
  Last summer, a reader took the opportunity to excoriate me for my perceived show-offery when a sorbet recipe I posted mentioned the use of an ice cream maker. Well, for one, a goodly percentage of ice cream, sherbet and sorbet recipes conclude with the mandate to "freeze according to ice cream maker's directions" and for another, it was a goshdarned wedding gift!
  
  Perhaps some small accord could be struck, or perhaps even kicked with the use of the UCO Play & Freeze Ice Cream Maker. Ice and rock...
  



• Foodie Flicks: Sesame Bananas
  

  Filed under: Dessert, Fruit, Foodie Flicks

  
  
  Sometimes some of the best and most worthwhile meals or treats are the ones that take no time at all. While there's nothing quite like a carefully prepared dish, it's also great to wow the tastebuds with simplicity. The above video, Green's Cuisine, has rejigged the Chinese treat toffee apples with deep-fried bananas into a super-quick and sugary treat. Sesame bananas are basically chopped bananas sprinkled with sesame seeds and then doused with a good drizzle of freshly made toffee syrup -- just a melted mixture of water and sugar.
  
  This looks like the perfect dish for...
  



• Petit fours explained
  

  Filed under: Dessert

  
  Petit fours have been becoming increasingly popular over the last few years. They're perfect for those of us concerned about portion control. You can satiate your sweet tooth without overindulging with the bite sized sweets.
  
  There's a certain conception that most people have of petit fours. Most of us think the treats have to be small square or round cakes with a poured fondant icing and a piped decoration on top. There's much more to it than that. Petit four translates from French as 'small oven,' which refers to the ovens after the large items had been baked. The heat...
  



• Typewriter waffles!
  

  Filed under: Breakfast, Dessert

  
  Being a foodie with a degree in English, not much is better than the mixture of food and words. Usually, that manifests in a wonderfully written essay or book, but sometimes it comes out in the actual making of food.
  
  BoingBoing has posted about a designer named Chris Dimino who took an old Corona typewriter and made it into a waffle maker called the Corona-Matic. How cool is that? Boring circular waffles will never seem as good now. Unfortunately, there's no DIY instructions yet (not that I have the prowess to pull them off), but here's to hoping this could become a little business --...
  



• Where have all the fudge sandwich cookies gone?
  

  Filed under: Dessert, Chocolate

  I can remember watching commercials for Burry Fudge Town cookies as a kid. My mother would rarely buy them always telling us that they weren't a good value. I can't really tell you how they compared to the other fudge cookies of the day price wise, but the few times that Waldbaums would have them on sale we would get a box or two, and they were the best of the all-chocolate sandwich cookies.
  
  Funny that the other fudge sandwich cookies of the day are also gone. My next favorite, and a good alternative to the Burry was Keebler's Chocolate Fudge Sandwich Cookie. These were...
  



• Disney has a showdown for the best cake
  

  Filed under: Dessert, Baking, Celebrations

  I love making cakes, and after I made a few for friends, I became the resident birthday cake baker -- not with a box mix and a quick lather of frosting, but rather a myriad of flavors, frostings, and marzipan decorations on top. And now it might be time to take the whole practice to the next level.
  
  Disney's FamilyFun.com is having a best cake face-off and they have some super funky cakes on display, one of which won their "Great Cake Contest." These definitely aren't those simple, old-school cakes. There's a cake-filled dear head mount for hunters, elaborate castles, Pooh in the...
  



• Jerry Greenfield of Ben & Jerry's: A traitor speaks out
  

  Filed under: Dessert, Business, Comfort Food, Celebrities

  Okay, I'm going to get something out in the open here: I am somewhat biased when it comes to Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Just in case the title of this post wasn't enough to make my feelings clear, I want you to know that, from where I stand, the famed ice cream makers share moral ground with Kim Philby, John Walker, and Robert Hanssen. In my house, we don't use the term "Benedict Arnold." For us, the gold standard of betrayal takes the form of two Vermont pseudo-hippies, and the phrase "You're a total...Ben and Jerry!" can be the prelude to...
  



• Bizarre ice creams: Beet sorbet is just the beginning
  

  Filed under: Dessert, Restaurants, Comfort Food, Sugar, Artisan Foods

  While I pride myself on my willingness to accept a weird culinary challenge, this trait has led me to put more than a few strange things into my mouth. Codfish pancakes? No problem! Raw fish in Tijuana? Been there, done that, got the t-shirt. Scorpion vodka? Slightly chitinous tasting, but it did the job. Rendered pork fat on toast? Well, once was enough...
  
  Recently, however, an Asylum post about weird ice creams made me realize that there might be limits to what I'm willing to consume. Forget red bean ice cream and wasabi...