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Category: Foods & Drinks

Capital One BrandVoice: 5 Fall Festivals For Food Lovers

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Fall is peak foodie season—and packed with great culinary events, from coast to coast. If you’re hungry for a culinary adventure this autumn, try these standout food festivals. They’re as fun as they are delicious.

South Beach Seafood Festival

The South Beach Seafood Festival is much like the Miami neighborhood that gives it its name: chic, glossy and very VIP.

This weeklong event includes ticketed dinners where cutting-edge chefs do their stuff in exclusive locations.

Star chefs doing innovative things with expensive ingredients is a big part of the event. But there are still plenty of affordable, family-friendly activities to enjoy.

Pop-up cafes will serve great inexpensive food in the balmy air. DJs will spin music. And the Milam’s Markets Culinary Showcase Kitchen will feature live cooking demos, so attendees can sharpen their kitchen skills.

Arkansas Cornbread Festival

People in Arkansas take their cornbread seriously.

That’s all to the culinary benefit of visitors to this late-October event in Little Rock’s fashionable SoMa district.

But great cornbread isn’t all there is here. There’s also live music and artisan booths, heaps of Southern cooking besides cornpone and lots of debate about those eternal cornbread questions: White flower or yellow? Sugar or no sugar? Baking pan or cast-iron skillet?

The festival peaks with a cornbread baking competition that Southern foodies take very seriously. Festival attendees get to vote for the winner, so get ready to sample lots of the big-flavored golden stuff that gives this event its reason for being.

Eagle River Cranberry Fest

Just shy of Wisconsin’s northern border, the small town of Eagle River celebrates one of autumn’s quintessential foods. More than 40,000 visitors buy 10,000-plus pounds of fresh and dried cranberries there each October. Impressive for a town with a population of 1,500.

The event is both culinary and educational. Sure, visitors will get their fill of cranberry pancakes, cranberry sausages, hot cranapple cider and shredded cranberry pork sandwiches. But they can also tour the local cranberry marsh to learn about the role that this tiny red fruit has played in Eagle River’s economy and culture over the centuries.

And to round out a long weekend of fun, there’s an art show, an antiques market and live entertainment.

Pickle Day

A big festival in a small town is great. But a small festival in a big city can be just as delicious.

Each October, New York City’s Lower East Side celebrates its immigrant history with Pickle Day. In a nod to the neighborhood’s long-ago pushcart market, vendors line three city blocks with pickled everything, courtesy of local restaurants and other picklers.

There’s also live music, face painting, carnival games and a giant talking pickle.

If you don’t actually make it to lower Manhattan to give pickled watermelon, kimchi or good ol’ pickle-on-a-stick a whirl, you can still get in on the fun. The festival sells whimsical Pickle Day merchandise online. It’s perfect for pickle enthusiasts everywhere.

West Virginia Roadkill Cook-off

Don’t worry. There’s no actual roadkill at this festival. But if it was called the “West Virginia Wild Game Cook-off,” it just wouldn’t be as fun.

And fun is at the heart of this quirky event in the tiny town of Marlinton, West Virginia. At the end of each September, inventive chefs assemble here from all over the country.

They join locals in taking a gourmet approach to ingredients ranging from the humble—like squirrel, deer and rabbit—to the exotic—think iguana, snapping turtle and wild boar.

In addition to the chance to try once-in-a-lifetime dishes like squirrel gravy over biscuits and teriyaki-marinated bear, visitors get to enjoy a bit of true Americana. Come for the rabbit Alfredo, stay for the square dancing and Miss Roadkill contest.

Ready to taste your way through fall? With these mouthwatering food festivals on your calendar, this could be your most appetizing autumn yet.

A former downtown development professional, Natalie Burg is a freelancer who writes about growth, entrepreneurialism and innovation.

This article is for educational purposes only, and is not intended to provide medical or legal advice, or to indicate the availability or suitability of any product or service for your unique circumstances.

Capital One does not provide, endorse, or guarantee any third-party product, service, information or recommendation listed above. The third parties listed are solely responsible for their products and services, and all trademarks listed are the property of their respective owners.

Capital One

Capital One offers a broad spectrum of financial products and services to cardholders, including digital tools, that help cardholders save time and money. Being confident in knowing that finances are under control should be a priority for rewards cards customers. Capital One has its customers’ backs so they can be confident and in control of their finances. Capital One is committed to finding new ways to make the payment experience easy for customers and is always innovating with cardholders – and their busy lives – in mind. For more information on Capital One credit cards, visit https://www.capitalone.com/credit-cards/rewards/.

Source: Capital One BrandVoice: 5 Fall Festivals For Food Lovers

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Death by Diet Soda Artificially Sweetened Beverages To Premature Death

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There was a collective gasp among Coke Zero and Diet Pepsi drinkers this week after media reports highlighted a new study that found prodigious consumers of artificially sweetened drinks were 26 percent more likely to die prematurely than those who rarely drank sugar-free beverages.

The study, published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, followed 450,000 Europeans over 16 years and tracked mortality among soft-drink consumers of all persuasions — both those with a fondness for sugary beverages and those who favored sugar-free drinks.

Given the well-documented health effects of consuming too much sugar, it was little surprise the authors found that people who drank two or more glasses of sugar-sweetened beverages a day were eight percent more likely to die young compared to those who consumed less than one glass a month.

But what grabbed headlines, and prompted widespread angst, was the suggestion that drinking Diet Coke could be even more deadly than drinking Coca-Cola Classic.

“Putting our results in context with other published studies, it would probably be prudent to limit consumption of all soft drinks and replace them with healthier alternatives like water,” said Amy Mullee, a nutritionist at University College Dublin and one of 50 researchers who worked on the study, one of the largest of its kind to date.

The study is not a one-off. Over the past year, other research in the United States has found a correlation between artificially sweetened beverages and premature death.

The problem, experts say, is that these and other studies have been unable to resolve a key question: Does consuming drinks sweetened with aspartame or saccharin harm your health? Or could it be that people who drink lots of Diet Snapple or Sprite Zero lead a more unhealthy lifestyle to begin with?

A number of nutritionists, epidemiologists and behavioral scientists think the latter may be true. (It’s a theory that will be instantly recognizable to anyone who has guiltily ordered a Diet Coke to accompany their Double Whopper with cheese.)

“It could be that diet soda drinkers eat a lot of bacon or perhaps it’s because there are people who rationalize their unhealthy lifestyle by saying, ‘Now that I’ve had a diet soda, I can have those French fries,’” said Vasanti S. Malik, a researcher at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the lead author of a study in April that found that the link between artificial sweeteners and increased mortality in women was largely inconclusive. “This is a huge study, with a half million people in 10 countries, but I don’t think it adds to what we already know.”

The authors of the JAMA paper tried to account for these risk factors by removing study participants who were smokers or obese, and they tried to improve its accuracy through statistical modeling.

But Dr. David Ludwig, an obesity specialist at Boston Children’s Hospital, said these so-called observational studies cannot really determine cause and effect. “Maybe artificial sweeteners aren’t increasing mortality,” he said. “Maybe it’s just that people with an increased risk of mortality, like those with overweight or obesity, are choosing to drink diet soda but, in the end, this doesn’t solve their weight problem and they die prematurely.”

Still, scientists say the alternative to observational studies — a clinical trial that randomly assigns participants to a sugary drinks group or a diet soda group — isn’t feasible.

“Clinical trials are considered the gold standard in science, but imagine asking thousands of people to stick to such a regimen for decades,” said Dr. Malik of Harvard. “Many people would drop out, and it would also be prohibitively expensive.”

Concerns about artificial sweeteners have been around since the 1970s, when studies found that large quantities of saccharin caused cancer in lab rats. The Food and Drug Administration issued a temporary ban on the sweetener, and Congress ordered up additional studies and a warning label, but subsequent research found the chemical to be safe for human consumption. More recently-created chemical sweeteners like aspartame and sucralose have also been extensively studied, with little evidence that they negatively impact human health, according to the F.D.A.

Some studies have even found a correlation between artificial sweeteners and weight loss, but others have suggested they may increase cravings for sugary foods.

“There’s no evidence they are harmful to people with a healthy diet who are trying to live a healthy lifestyle,” said Dr. Barry M. Popkin, a nutritionist at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He and others remain concerned that giving diet beverages to young children might encourage a sweet tooth.

Still, many scientists say more research is needed to determine the long-term effects of consuming artificial sweeteners. Although Dr. Mullee, one of the authors of the study, cautioned against drawing stark conclusions from their data, she said the deleterious effects of artificial sweeteners can’t be ruled out, noting studies that suggest a possible link between aspartame and elevated levels of blood glucose and insulin in humans. “Right now the biological mechanisms are unclear but we’re hoping our research will spark further exploration,” she said.

For consumers, the mixed messaging can be confusing. Dr. Jim Krieger, the founding executive director of Healthy Food America, an advocacy group that presses municipalities to enact soda taxes and increase consumer access to fruits and vegetables, said the new study and others like it raise more questions than they answer.

“Gosh, at this point, you probably want to go with water, tea or unsweetened coffee and not take a chance on beverages we don’t know much about,” he said. “Certainly, you don’t want to drink sugary beverages because we know that these aren’t good for you.”

By Andrew Jacobs

Andrew Jacobs is a reporter with the Health and Science Desk, based in New York. He previously reported from Beijing and Brazil and had stints as a Metro reporter, Styles writer and National correspondent, covering the American South.

Source: Death by Diet Soda? – The New York Times

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Education

Popeyes Chicken Sandwich, Now A Sell-Out, Is A $65 Million Marketing Win

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You couldn’t watch a television news program or scour Twitter or Facebook the past week without spotting some mention of Popeyes fried chicken sandwich. But how did that translate to marketing value?

Awfully well, as it turns out.

Apex Marketing Group estimated Wednesday that Popeyes reaped $65 million in equivalent media value as a result of the Chicken Sandwich Wars.

The firm, based outside Detroit, defines that as the price a company would have to pay to purchase the attention it received for free.

Apex takes into account television, radio, online and print news reports, as well as social media mentions.

The evaluation was conducted from Aug. 12, when the sandwich went on sale nationally, through Tuesday evening, yielding 15 days’ worth of data.

Today In: Consumer

The $65 million figure is nearly triple the $23 million in media value that the sandwich generated in its first few days on sale, according to an earlier Apex estimate.

On Tuesday, Popeyes announced that the chicken sandwich would be sold out by the end of the week at its U.S. restaurants.

But it says it is scurrying to bring back the chicken sandwich as a feature of its regular menu, not simply a limited-time offer.

“It is a permanent menu item,” Dana Schopp, a Popeyes spokesperson, said Wednesday.

Eric Smallwood, the president of Apex Marketing, says the chicken sandwich’s media value built relatively slowly in the days right after it went on sale.

The big jump in media value came when news outlets began running taste tests comparing the sandwich with other fast food companies’ chicken offerings.

That coincided with social media and news reports that Popeyes restaurants were running out of sandwiches.

The Chicken Sandwich Wars have been a godsend to Popeyes’ owners, Restaurant Brands International, in their effort to raise the chicken restaurants’ profile.

RBI bought Popeyes in 2017, and has been on a drive to expand Popeyes 3,000 outlets world wide. It recently announced a Popeyes push into China.

“Popeyes is not top of mind when it comes to fast food,” Smallwood said. But thanks to the chicken sandwich, “now everybody’s looking and asking, ‘Where’s the closest Popeyes?'”

The attention that Popeyes received could not have happened a decade ago without social media, Smallwood said.

As soon as a company launches a promotion that is noticed in Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, “it picks up, and it explodes from there,” he said.

Until Popeyes launched its sandwich, Chick-fil-A was considered the fast food industry gold standard in chicken sandwiches.

McDonald’s franchise holders recently pleaded with the company to give them a sandwich that could compete with Chick-fil-A’s offering.

Now, “Popeyes comes in and steals some of the glory,” he said.

Some Twitter users have criticized the company for running out of chicken sandwiches so fast. On Tuesday, Popeyes said that it had sold the allotment it expected to have through the end of September.

But Smallwood said that’s an acceptable excuse. “Running out of a supply is ideal economics,” he said.

Depending on how Popeyes handles the sandwich’s return, “there will be a boost” to its business, Smallwood predicts.

But he doesn’t think Popeyes should handle the sandwich any differently than it already has. “I don’t want to spoil their recipe,” he says.

Follow me on Twitter. Check out my website.

Micheline Maynard

I’m an alumni of the New York Times and NPR. I learned to cook from my mom, and studied with Patricia Wells and at Le Cordon Bleu. E: vmaynard@umich.edu T: @mickimaynar

Source: Popeyes Chicken Sandwich, Now A Sell-Out, Is A $65 Million Marketing Win

When Popeyes launched its fried chicken sandwich on August 12, it got a lot of positive attention — the Twitter announcement got more than 31,000 likes, which is pretty impressive considering that their posts usually get less than 400. What the world didn’t know was that tragedy was soon to strike. Popeyes ran out of chicken sandwiches before the month was over. But what’s the real reason it disappeared? And when will the Popeyes chicken sandwich be available again, if ever? To find out, we have to go back to the beginning. For the longest time, Popeyes only sold chicken pieces and tenders, with no sandwiches on their menu. They have a loyal fan following nonetheless, including the late Anthony Bourdain, who is said to have once eaten at a Popeyes buffet for three days in a row. The Popeyes chicken sandwich, made with their signature crispy fried chicken on a spicy mayo-slathered brioche bun and topped with pickles, was bound to be a hit with fans, but it had a few competitors who wanted to make their presence known when the newcomer started getting attention. Chick-fil-A, a big name in the chicken sandwich game, was compelled to tweet out an equation alluding to the fact that they have the original chicken sandwich, stating: “Bun + Chicken + Pickles = all the [love] for the original.” Popeyes wasn’t having it, tweeting a simple “… y’all good?” in response. While Chick-fil-A’s tweet got more than 23,000 likes, the reply from Popeyes got almost 325,000. Round one goes to Popeyes. Wendy’s, with its notoriously on-point Twitter game, also tried to get in the fight, posting a tweet that said: “Y’all out here fighting about which of these fools has the second best chicken sandwich.” But once again Popeyes’ reply — “Sounds like someone just ate one of our biscuits. Cause y’all looking thirsty.” — got way more engagement from customers. The fast food chicken sandwich war has officially begun. It’s not just social media hype, either. The masses seem to agree that Popeyes chicken sandwich really is superior to Chick-fil-A’s chicken sandwich, calling it better and cheaper. CBS This Morning’s Gayle King, who called 15 different Popeyes locations trying to get her hands on one, said on her first bite, Even celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse gave his version of a five-star review. He posted on Twitter that he was about to try the Popeyes chicken sandwich, and when a fan asked what he thought of it, Lagasse replied with two explosion emojis, the picture version of his famous catchphrase. But not everyone managed to try one of the chicken sandwiches. Just 15 days after they launched, Popeyes made an announcement on Twitter, dashing the dreams of hopeful diners. “Y’all. We love that you love The Sandwich. Unfortunately we’re sold out (for now).” A Popeyes spokesperson told CBS why the sandwich sold out so quickly, explaining: “The demand for the new Chicken Sandwich in the first few weeks following its launch far exceeded our very optimistic expectations. In fact, Popeyes aggressively forecasted demand through the end of September and has already sold through that inventory.” The chain hasn’t said exactly when the Popeyes chicken sandwich is coming back, only that they, along with their suppliers, are quote, “working tirelessly to bring the new sandwich back to guests as soon as possible.” If you want to know the second it becomes available, you can download the Popeyes app and enable push notifications. You’ll get an alert as soon as the sandwich hits stores, so keep gas in your car and a go-bag by the door, because you never know when the call might come. And don’t worry — once the Popeyes chicken sandwich becomes available it won’t be disappearing again. According to a Popeyes spokesperson, the chicken sandwich is permanently on the menu. That’s great for fans of the chain, but the question remains: What are we going to do with ourselves while we wait for its return? Watch the video to find out the real reason Popeyes ran out chicken sandwiches! #Popeyes #Chicken #ChickenSandwich

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Entertainment

Impossible Foods Founder Pat Brown Didn’t Want to Be an Entrepreneur, But His $2 Billion Idea Was Hard to Resist

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Pat Brown isn’t an inventor so much as a reinventor. He sees something that works, but not well, and figures out how to do the same thing, only a lot better. And along the way, he’s reinvented himself into perhaps the most unlikely entrepreneur in Silicon Valley.

Brown trained as a pediatrician but, seeing that genetics figure prominently in diseases such as cancer, repurposed himself as a scientific researcher. Within a few years, he’d created something called the DNA microarray, a technology that has allowed scientists to better study genetic code. It was a breakthrough, and for most people that would be a career peak. Not Pat. In 2001, frustrated by limited worldwide access to scientific research, he co-founded the Public Library of Science, a radical revision of academic publishing.

A decade later, he saw a vastly greater inefficiency: meat. Raising and killing animals, he realized, is an environmentally expensive way to produce protein, demanding tremendous amounts of water, land, and energy. “There’s a $1.6 trillion global meat and poultry market being served by prehistoric technology,” he fumes. So Pat, then at Stanford, ditched academics for startup life. Today, he’s the founder and CEO of Impossible Foods, a company that’s reinventing meat.

Unlike entrepreneurs who tally their startups like animal heads mounted in a man cave, Brown wasn’t looking to add founder to his résumé. “I couldn’t have imagined myself doing this,” he told me over a lunch of Impossible burgers in Redwood City, California. “But the most powerful, subversive tool on earth is the free market. If you can take a problem and figure out a solution that involves making consumers happier, you’re unstoppable.”

And so, in 2011, and nearing 60, he launched Impossible Foods. First, he needed investors. “My actual pitch, if you showed it to a business school class, would’ve had people rolling in the aisles because it was so amateurish,” he admits. But he could tell potential investors, with complete conviction: What I am proposing is going to make you even more obscenely rich than you already are. “I didn’t say it in quite those words,” he notes, “but I knew that this was something that was going to be incredibly successful. And that worked.”

Oh, yeah. Starting with a $9 million round in 2011, Impossible has raised nearly $750 million, including $300 million in May. It is now valued at more than $2 billion.

To say Pat Brown is unconventional is to say that cows moo. But it’s important to celebrate him, because, though few of us are as smart, many of us are possessed of the same inspiration. We just lack the conviction that we’re the entrepreneurial type. Yet many of the best founders don’t have an MBA–what they have is a sense of opportunity, a hunch that they’re on to something the rest of the world hasn’t quite spotted. Some­thing they can’t let pass by. I was inspired by Pat to take my own leap away from a secure job and hatch my own startup.

Part of his success is that he’s honest about his capabilities. He has hired well, including a terrific operations team and an ace CFO whom he calls an “investor whisperer.” How did he know he could survive moving from scientist to CEO? He figured that, given the scope of the meat problem (massive and global), few people would actually go about trying to solve it.

He’s not a guy who places limits on himself, and that’s his message. “There’s a big phenomenon of people self-censoring, worrying about the imposter syndrome,” Brown says. “They say, ‘Someone has to do this, but I’m not the guy,’ or, ‘I’m not qualified.’ People limit their own opportunities.”

He pauses to take a big bite of burger. “There’s no road map for what we’re doing,” he continues. “But someone has to solve this problem.” He figures it might as well be him.

By: Thomas Goetz

Source: Impossible Foods Founder Pat Brown Didn’t Want to Be an Entrepreneur, But His $2 Billion Idea Was Hard to Resist | Inc.com

Impossible Foods looks to expand as the demand for meat alternatives continues to grow. The company is a leader in the food-tech industry producing plant-based foods that look at taste like meat. David Lee, CFO of Impossible Foods, joined CBSN to talk about the company and the emergence of the meatless market. Subscribe to the CBS News Channel HERE: http://youtube.com/cbsnews Watch CBSN live HERE: http://cbsn.ws/1PlLpZ7 Follow CBS News on Instagram HERE: https://www.instagram.com/cbsnews/ Like CBS News on Facebook HERE: http://facebook.com/cbsnews Follow CBS News on Twitter HERE: http://twitter.com/cbsnews Get the latest news and best in original reporting from CBS News delivered to your inbox. Subscribe to newsletters HERE: http://cbsn.ws/1RqHw7T Get your news on the go! Download CBS News mobile apps HERE: http://cbsn.ws/1Xb1WC8 Get new episodes of shows you love across devices the next day, stream CBSN and local news live, and watch full seasons of CBS fan favorites like Star Trek Discovery anytime, anywhere with CBS All Access. Try it free! http://bit.ly/1OQA29B — CBSN is the first digital streaming news network that will allow Internet-connected consumers to watch live, anchored news coverage on their connected TV and other devices. At launch, the network is available 24/7 and makes all of the resources of CBS News available directly on digital platforms with live, anchored coverage 15 hours each weekday. CBSN. Always On

11 Mediterranean Diet Recipes to Make in Your Instant Pot

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Want a quick and easy way to make good-for-you recipes? Well, here’s how you can easily combine the healthful eating guidelines of the Mediterranean diet with the time-saving convenience of a multi-cooker. To get you started, I’ll share a quick overview of the Mediterranean diet plus easy recipes you can make in your Instant Pot or pressure cooker.

Quick Q&A on the Mediterranean Diet

What is the Mediterranean diet? This popular healthy eating plan emphasizes whole foods, fresh vegetables and fruits, whole grains, healthy fats such as olive oil and avocado, and proteins such as chicken, seafood, nuts, beans, and legumes. In addition, you’ll cut back on added sugars and processed foods, and eat dairy in moderation. You’ll also cut back on added salt by using fresh and dried herbs to flavor your food instead.

What are the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet? According to the Mayo Clinic, following this eating style can result in a longer life expectancy and lower rates of chronic diseases. In fact, it’s been consistently ranked among the best diets overall.

RELATED: 8 Mediterranean Diet Snacks to Keep You Satisfied All Day

1. Instant Pot® Yardbird Chili with White Beans

Instant Pot(R) Yardbird Chili with White Beans
Photo by bd.weld

“I’ve made this recipe twice in the last month and we just love it! The Instant Pot makes it so easy. The only change I made the second time around was to cut the beans back by half a cup (this seemed to make the bean consistency less tough), increased the broth by a quarter cup and used a mixture of chicken breast and thighs. The flavor of this is amazing and it’s just so hearty and perfect for chilly weather days!” — Heidi Nelson Thomas

2. Instant Pot® Chicken Cacciatore

To keep this easy recipe more in line with the Mediterranean diet, you can reduce the salt by cutting back on the bouillon cubes and bumping up the herbs. “Flavors meld together like they’ve been simmering all day in a fraction of the time. A couple of small changes: I season the chicken prior to sauteeing. Instead of chicken bouillon cubes, I started using Better Than Bouillon Chicken Base as it contains much less salt and seems to have more flavor.” — kirby1kat

RELATED: 5 Clever Hacks for Your Instant Pot That You Haven’t Tried Yet

3. Instant Pot® Vegan Cabbage Detox Soup

Instant Pot(R) Vegan Cabbage Detox Soup
Photo by Fioa

“I loved it! Super tasty, I did not change anything, and it was perfect! I was worried about not putting salt into it, but it was great as is!” — Ildo76

4. Instant Pot® Frozen Salmon

Instant Pot(R) Frozen Salmon
Photo by Tracey Ferrari Posner

Mediterranean diet guidelines suggest you eat fish twice a week. With this easy recipe, you’ll be able to stock up and freeze salmon when it’s on sale, and cook it easily from frozen. “Salmon doesn’t get much easier than this! This turned out so moist and I like how it can be seasoned to individual preference.” — thedailygourmet

RELATED: The Instant Pot Hack That Can Get a Meal on the Table in 30 Minutes

5. Instant Pot® Lemon Rotisserie Chicken

Instant Pot(R) Lemon Rotisserie Chicken
Photo by Fioa

Be sure to choose low-sodium chicken broth for this easy recipe. While the skin might not be as crispy as what you’ll get with an oven-roasted chicken, you’ll still end up with plenty of tender chicken meat to use in recipes using rotisserie chicken.

6. Red Lentil and Yellow Split Pea Soup Made with a Pressure Cooker

Red Lentil and Yellow Split Pea Soup Made with a Pressure Cooker
Photo by Buckwheat Queen

“Tried it with my pressure cooker and it was delicious. I also added 1/2 tsp of curry and a couple handfuls of frozen kale. We ate it over some brown rice and even my 6-yr-old loved it!” — yocook

7. Instant Pot® Chicken Posole Verde

Instant Pot(R) Chicken Posole Verde
Photo by Soup Loving Nicole

“You can have posole without having to stand over the stove for hours. Let your multi-functional pressure cooker do the work for you. Garnish with avocado slices, lime wedges, sliced radish, jalapeno slices, and/or tortilla strips.” — Soup Loving Nicole (May we suggest baked tortilla chips instead of fried?)

RELATED: Mediterranean Diet Boosts Memory and Keeps Brain Young, Study Finds

8. Instant Pot® Greek Chicken

Instant Pot(R) Greek Chicken
Photo by Festively Southern

“I made it pretty much ‘as is’ other than I kept the olives whole and roughly chopped the onion. Delicious! I’ll make it again.” — Judy Good

9. Makhani Daal (Buttery Lentils)

Makhani Daal (Buttery Lentils)
Photo by Buckwheat Queen

“My first thought was maybe I should cut back on the spices cuz it seemed so much, but I am certainly glad I did not! Followed recipe & since I eat dairy free diet, used vegan butter & left out yogurt & this recipe is amazing! I’d give it 10 stars if I could … just that awesome!!” — CCCooks

10. Instant Pot® Spicy Black Bean Soup (Vegan)

Instant Pot(R) Spicy Black Bean Soup (Vegan)
Photo by bd.weld

“You don’t have to soak beans when using an electric pressure cooker. Adjust the spices to your liking in this healthier, easy-to-make black bean soup that freezes well.” — bd.weld

11. Instant Pot® Spanish Chicken and Rice

Instant Pot Spanish Chicken and Rice
Photo by Diana71

“This delicious arroz-con-pollo-esque dish is so easy to make with the Instant Pot,” says Diana71. “Colorful, appetizing, and nourishing, this meal comes together in a flash and is chock full of flavor! I hope it becomes your next favorite weeknight meal. Squeeze lime or lemon wedges over if you like!”

Source: 11 Mediterranean Diet Recipes to Make in Your Instant Pot – Health

Subway Just Made a Stunning Announcement That Will Change Everything You Think About Subway (and McDonald’s and Burger King, For That Matter)

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If you’re interested in the impossible, let’s just say that it’s been an interesting week. First there was bad news at Burger King. Then, there was almost no news at all at McDonald’s.

But now, Subway might have the most important news of all.

First, you might know, thanks to reporting by my colleague Chris Matysczyk, about the surprising thing Burger King admitted this week — namely that it’s preparing its plant-based Whoppers “in the same broiler used for beef and chicken.”

Let’s just say hardcore no-meat-eaters aren’t exactly thrilled about that.

Meanwhile, there was just the faintest hint that McDonald’s might be getting on the meat-less meat bandwagon in the United States.

As my colleague Peter Economy reported, Impossible Foods is reportedly teaming up with a food supplier that works with McDonald’s — suggesting there might some kind of meatless meat coming to McDonald’s at some point in the future.

But now, like a dark horse contender (sorry, horrible analogy), Subway has raced to the front of the pack.

Starting next month, the world’s largest restaurant chain says it will be offering a meatless meatball sub, after teaming up with plant-based meat substitute company Beyond Meat.

I don’t know which will be more surprising to people: the idea of a meatless meatball sub, or the simple fact that Subway is so much bigger than McDonald’s.

Let’s take the second point first: The tale of the tape right now worldwide, or at least as of 2018, which is the most recent year available:

  • 42,431 Subway stores;
  • 37,855 McDonald’s restaurants; and
  • 13,000 Burger King restaurants.

It’s fascinating. If Subway were a TV show, it would be NCIS: extremely successful, even though it’s not exactly socially popular. It reminds me of how people failed to predict the electoral victory of President Trump.

But it’s also why, while the meatless meatball sub is just a test for now in about 685 of these Subway restaurants, Subway’s much larger size means it has a better chance of catching on more quickly than its smaller competitors.

I have no dog at all in the fight over meatless meat (sorry, another bad analogy). But I mean that I like to eat meat, but I also enjoy really vegetarian options.

Personally, I just don’t see the need to create a plant-based meat substitute designed to fool people into thinking they’re actually eating meat.

Even in places like Sweden, they apparently find that weird.

But if you’re betting on whether companies like Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat really have a long-term future, for now at least, I wouldn’t be watching McDonald’s or Burger King. I’d watch how the meatless meatball sub does at Subway.

 

By: Bill Murphy Jr.

www.billmurphyjr.com

@BillMurphyJr

Source: Subway Just Made a Stunning Announcement That Will Change Everything You Think About Subway (and McDonald’s and Burger King, For That Matter)

Air Fryer Taco Sticks

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Hungry kids will love these easy Air Fryer Taco Sticks as an after school snack. Ready in about 20 minutes, and perfect to hold them off until dinner. Hard to believe we have rolled into August already. With August comes preparing for Back to School, school supplies, getting back on a schedule, meal planning and preparing snack ideas.

These Air Fryer Taco Sticks are a perfect afternoon snack for a hungry kid. They are super easy, can be filled the way your child likes or made differently for different tastes. You will be surprised at how delicious these are.

I use the crescent dough sheets because I find the flaky breading doesn’t overwhelm all the filling with a bread flavor.

Air Fryer Taco Sticks

The From our Dinner Table group is posting Back to School Recipes today.  We just finished our Back to School Treats week where I shared some other fun Back to School Treats: Almond Joy Cupcakes, Hot Caramel Apple Cream Drink and Peanut Butter and Jelly Cupcakes.

I was ready for some savory snacks, so these Air Fryer Taco Sticks were the perfect plan.

Air Fryer Taco Sticks

We’ve been making these since my kids were super little, just because they were a fun snack I made during my teaching days for my early ed class.

You can use a different type of dough, pizza dough works great, but please be aware that you may need to allow more time to cook or adjust recipe accordingly.

You can also use any kind of cheese you’d like. I make these for hungry teenagers, so they like to use pepper jack cheese and sometimes even like to add some sliced or chopped jalapeno to the mixture as well. So please know, you can make these any way you want to fit your taste.

Air Fryer Taco Sticks

Check out all of the Back to School Recipes:

Air Fryer Taco Sticks

Air Fryer Taco Sticks

Yield: 10 servings
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 7 minutes
Total Time: 17 minutes

Hungry kids will love these easy Air Fryer Taco Sticks as an after school snack. Ready in about 20 minutes, and perfect to hold them off until dinner.

Ingredients

  • 1 lb. ground beef
  • 1/2 cup onion, chopped
  • 2 tablespoons garlic, minced
  • 3 tablespoons taco seasoning
  • 1 8oz. tube crescent dough sheets
  • 5 slices of cheese, halved
  • melted butter or olive oil
  • garlic powder
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Instructions

  1. In a skillet on the stove, over medium heat, saute the onion, garlic, hamburger meat and taco seasoning until browned. Be sure and break the meat up into small pieces as you’re cooking. Drain fat. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
  2. Lay out your crescent dough sheets and slice into 5 long strips. Then half the long strips into 5 more strips. You will have 10 strips. Use a rolling pin or smooth glass to roll out the dough a little.
  3. Scoop cooled taco mixture onto each dough sheet then top with a slice of cheese. Air Fryer Taco Sticks
  4. Fold sides of dough in creating a bread stick, pinching sides to keep ingredients in. Flip over and keep seam side down. Air Fryer Taco Sticks
  5. Brush the top of each stick generously with butter or olive oil and sprinkle garlic powder on top.
  6. Place gently in air fryer basket, seam side down.
  7. Set Air Fryer to 370 degrees and cook for 6-8 minutes. (all air fryers are a little different, so be sure to watch, and add time if the dough doesn’t seem done yet.) Once you have made these once, each time you will know what the time is to set them on. In my air fryer it’s about 6 minutes and they are perfect.

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Source: Air Fryer Taco Sticks

This Popular Atlanta Pizzeria Just Launched An All-Vegan Menu Loaded With Plant-Based Goodness

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It’s hard to believe that in 2016, Atlanta-based restaurant Ammazza was forced to close its doors after not one, but two car accidents severely damaged the popular Edgewood Avenue space. But in November 2018, Ammazza opened the doors to a new restaurant in downtown Decatur. And months later, in March 2019, the local pizza joint officially re-opened its Edgewood location. Since November, the crowds have quickly returned and in addition to a new, second space, Ammazza has also welcomed several additions to its menu.

In June, likely to the excitement of foodies dedicated to a plant-based lifestyle, Ammazza announced a new, all-vegan menu. The hearty, all-vegan menu is comprised of five antipasto dishes, eight pizzas, dessert and a kids section.

On the pizza end, there’s the classic Vegan Margherita. A simpler option for those hoping to quell a pizza craving, the Vegan Margherita is made using house tomato sauce, fresh basil, extra virgin olive oil and vegan cheese. If a plethora of toppings is more your thing, there’s also the Vegan Piccante. The Vegan Piccante comes loaded with house tomato sauce, fresh basil, spicy calabria peppers, caramelized onions, red peppers, marinated artichokes and vegan cheese.

Need even more toppings? Ammazza offers about a dozen additional toppings (for an added cost) that range from sauteed wild mushrooms to spicy calabrian agave. Pizzas vary in price from $15 to $24, depending on size and selection.

The Antipasto selection on the new menu is brimming with a variety of salads. There are classics like Caesar and Spinach Salad, as well as not so traditional options like the Orzo Salad and Basil Salad. Simple yet robust, the Basil Salad is a medley of field greens, marinated artichokes, olives, red bell peppers, Roma tomatoes and house basil vinaigrette.

And since there’s always room for dessert, Ammazza’s all-vegan menu includes a vegan seasonal fruit tart, as well as a chef’s selection.

Curious about Ammazza’s boozier options? The pizzeria’s beverage director and general manager, Daniel Bridges revealed to the Atlanta Journal Constitution in January that Italian liqueurs and fresh ingredients will be a focus.

“We’re focusing on Italian liqueurs, amaro, and things like that,” Bridges said. “I like to keep my cocktails pretty simple, just use fresh ingredients, and let the spirits speak for themselves. But we definitely sell a lot of beer and wine. We change up the draft list almost daily. We try to stay local and regional with beer, and we have Italian wines.”

Ammazza’s all-vegan menu can be found at both their Decatur and Edgewood locations.

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Danielle Harling

As the owner of Lushworthy.com (a beer, wine and cocktail blog), I’ve penned stories on all things booze-related for nearly a decade. In addition to holding down the fort at Lushworthy.com, my musings and other written works on food and drink can be found across the web. With my writing, I’ve had the opportunity to talk craft beer with rapper Tech N9ne, explore the history of New Orleans’ famed Café Brulot cocktail, sample spirits and cocktails from across the globe, and much more. I’m also a proud, longtime resident of Atlanta, Georgia, and an avid foodie. I keep myself heavily in the know when it concerns news on the latest restaurants, breweries and bars in the city.

Source: This Popular Atlanta Pizzeria Just Launched An All-Vegan Menu Loaded With Plant-Based Goodness

The World’s 50 Best Restaurants: French ‘Mirazur’ At The Top

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Mirazur, a three-Michelin-starred restaurant in the resort town of Menton, on the French Riviera, has been awarded the coveted title of World’s Best Restaurant and Best Restaurant in Europe 2019. The other top positions were given to restaurant Noma , @nomacph, in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Asador Etxebarri in Atxondo, Spain.

The title was given to the French restaurant run by chef Mauro Colagreco, by the World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2019 organization during an award ceremony sponsored by S.Pellegrino & Acqua Panna, held at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore on Tuesday, featuring star chefs from around the world.

This is the first time in the award’s 18-year history that a French restaurant has received the top prize. Mirazur took over the No.1 position from Osteria Francescana, in Modena, Italy. Mirazur appeared as No.3 in 2018 and No. 4 in 2017.

Osteria Francescana joined a new category created for former winners, the “best of the best” group, a sort of restaurant hall of fame. Included in the list are El Bulli, The French Laundry, The Fat Duck, Noma (in its original incarnation), El Celler de Can Roca and Eleven Madison Park.

In this year’s event which is considered the biggest night of the international culinary world, 26 countries from five continents won a place in the list of World’s Best 50.

The World’s 50 Best Restaurants has been ranking the top 100 fine dining destinations around the globe every year since 2002, with the winners chosen by a panel of more than 1,000 chefs, restaurateurs and food writers.

A week ago, ahead of the awards ceremony the World’s 50 Best Restaurants organization revealed the first cut of restaurants in this year’s special 120 winners list that included the restaurants placed from number 51 to 120 

Mirazur’s selection “is a testament to Chef Colagreco’s love of local produce, most of which is grown in the restaurant’s three-tiered garden just meters from the dining room, complemented by a stunning French Riviera backdrop,” explained the organizers.

“This year we are thrilled to see Mirazur claim the No.1 spot after rising through the ranks since making its debut on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list at No.35 in 2009, it’s been brilliant to witness its progress,” said William Drew, Director of Content for The World’s 50 Best Restaurants. “This has been a wonderful, progressive year for the list as a whole, with so many new entries from all corners of the globe.”

Spain got the biggest number, with seven restaurants in the World’s 50 Best, many of them in the Basque country. including three in the top 10: Asador Etxebarri (No.3); Mugaritz (No.7); and Disfrutar (No.9).

France has five restaurants in the top 50, including Arpège (No.8), Septime (No.15), Alain Ducasse au Plaza Athénée (No.16), Alléno Paris au Pavillon Ledoyen (No.25), and Mirazur.

The USA got second place in the number of restaurants with six in the list, including Cosme (No.23) in New York, which is helmed by The World’s Best Female Chef 2019, Daniela Soto-Innes, and two new entries: Atelier Crenn (No.35), and Benu (No.47), both in San Francisco, California.

This year Denmark has two at the top-five honors for the new incarnation of Noma (No.2) and Geranium (No.5), both in Copenhagen.

Peru also makes the top ten list with entries from Lima including Central (No.6), once again voted The Best Restaurant in South America, and Maido (No.10). Mexico claimed two spots in the upper echelons of the list: Pujol (No.12), which is named The Best Restaurant in North America, and Quintonil (No.24), both in Mexico City.

The UK, Italy, Japan, China, Thailand and Russia are also each represented with two restaurants on the list.

Alain Passard of Arpège in Paris, France (No.8), won the Chefs’ Choice Award, sponsored by Estrella Damm, voted on by the world’s leading chefs in the list and awarded to a peer who has made a significant impact to the culinary world in the past year.

The Art of Hospitality Award, sponsored by Legle, went to Tokyo’s Den (No.11). The restaurant is highly regarded for its holistic approach to service. Other Asia-based restaurants in the list include Gaggan (No.4), in Bangkok, which is closing next year, named The Best Restaurant in Asia, and Odette (No.18) from Singapore.

The Test Kitchen (No.44) from Cape Town is The Best Restaurant in Africa.

UK, which has seen its share of top 50 establishments drop from four to two.

Only four restaurants at least partially led by women — New York’s Cosme, Slovenia’s Hisa Franko, Colombia’s Leo in Bogota and Atelier Crenn — made the list of 50.

Here is the full list of the 50 best:

50. Schauenstein, Switzerland

49. Leo, Colombia

48. Ultraviolet, China

47. Benu, USA (San Francisco)

46. De Librije, Netherlands

45. Suhring, Thailand

44. The Test Kitchen, South Africa

43. Hof Van Cleve, Belgium

42. Belcanto, Portugal

41. The Chairman, Hong Kong

40. Tim Raue, Germany

39. A Casa do Porco, Brazil

38. Hisa Franko, Slovenia

37. Alinea, Chicago

36. Le Bernardin, USA (New York)

35. Atelier Crenn, USA (San Francisco)

34. Don Julio, Argentina

33. Lyle’s, United Kingdom

32. Nerua Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain

31. Le Calandre, Italy

30. Elkano, Spain

29. Piazza Duomo, Italy

28. Blue Hill at Stone Barns, USA (New York)

27. The Clove Club, United Kingdom

26. Borago, Chile

25. Pavillon Ledoyen, France

24. Quintonil, Mexico

23. Cosme, USA (New York)

22. Narisawa, Japan

21. Frantzen, Sweden

20. Tickets, Spain

19. Twins Garden, Russia

18. Odette, Singapore

17. Steirereck, Austria

16. Alain Ducasse au Plaza Athenee, France

15. Septime, France

14. Azurmendi, Spain

13. White Rabbit, Russia

12. Pujol, Mexico

13. Den, Japan

10. Maido, Peru

9. Disfrutar, Spain

8. L’Arpege, France

7. Mugaritz, San Sebastian

6. Central, Peru

5. Geranium, Denmark

4. Gaggan, Thailand

3. Asador Etxebarri, Spain

2. Noma, Denmark

1. Mirazur, France

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Cecilia Rodriguez

I’m a dual Colombian-Luxembourgish freelance journalist, inveterate traveler and writer based in the world’s only Grand Duchy.

Source: The World’s 50 Best Restaurants: French ‘Mirazur’ At The Top

Booze-infused pudding is the adult Jell-O shots we didn’t know we needed

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(MORE: This ice cream shop satisfies our inner child’s fantasy)

The inspiration for these creamy spoonfuls of gelatinous booze came from founder Kelli Lipson’s college love of classic Jell-O shots, she told “GMA.”

“I was in college and I used to make Jello shots, and everyone really loved them, so the idea kind of always stayed with me,” Lipson said.

Lipson said she combined her heart for Jello shots with her love of cooking to create her original line of booze-infused pudding and Jello recipes that are sure to be a hit at any adult party.

“I went to go work for Food Network star Sandra Lee and from there I kind of just built on the idea ad I wanted to create something that adults could really enjoy and that was a treat made for them,” she said.

(MORE: Boozy ice cream cocktails and sundaes that will up your dessert game all summer)

The best part is the flavors — from Spike Cake to Nutella Latte to Cranberry Cosmo — there’s definitely something for everyone. Each shot contains 5% alcohol.

They also come in specially packaged, ridiculously Instagrammable mini jars, which is why you may have seen them popping up on your feed.

“We’ve done a lot of collaborations with different influencers,” Lipson said.

 

Source: Booze-infused pudding is the adult Jell-O shots we didn’t know we needed

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