Archive for the ‘Food News’ Category
Girl Scout cookies aren’t usually difficult to find, if you’re looking to buy a couple of boxes from your local troop in addition to making them yourself at home. I used to find girls from local troops outside of grocery stores and malls, and while I do see them out there “boothing” cookies from time to time, I have to admit that they are a little more difficult to track down than they once seemed to be.
Fortunately, there’s an app for that.
The Girl Scout Cookie Locator App is a free app that helps you find Girl Scout cookie sales in your neighborhood or close to wherever you are when the craving strikes. The app can either use your phone’s GPS locator to find you, or you can punch in a zip code, city or state to get specific results. It will tell you of upcoming sale dates, times and locations, and the app will allow you to pin them to your calendar so that you won’t forget to stop by. The app also gives you information on the different types of cookies for sale, including their nutritional stats and even some recipe ideas for making fun, simple desserts with the cookies!
The app is relatively new and I suspect that not all troops are on board with it yet, so not every sale date and time may be listed and some areas are definitely more up-to-date than others, but the app is still a good one and well worth using for a Girl Scout cookie fan. Keep driving by the local market and keeping your eyes peeled for other sellers, of course, and don’t forget that you can always fall back on homemade Girl Scout Cookies if all else fails!
Girl Scout cookies are treats that many of us look forward to every year because not only are the cookies tasty, but you’re supporting local troops and encouraging the entrepreneurial spirit of young girls (even when you can bake your own Girl Scout cookies at home, year-round). It turns out that Girl Scout cookies can become a survival tool if you find yourself caught in a snowstorm, too. A Northern California couple was out for a scenic drive a few days ago when their car became caught in a snowdrift. They couldn’t reach help and had told no-one where they were going. They managed to survive for three days on some Girl Scout Cookies (and a few peanuts) that they had in their car, melting snow for drinking water. The cookies helped to fuel their spirits and stave off hunger until they were able to try and hike for help after a few days.
You probably don’t think of cookies in general as suvival food, but they pack in fat and carbs that can help keep you going when you’re facing tough conditions. They’re not going to provide the complete nutrition of one of those meal replacement protein bars, but they also taste a lot better.
It doesn’t say which variety of Girl Scout they had with them, but I’d guess that Thin Mints or Samoas are likeky, as they are the most popular types of cookies that the Girl Scouts sell. Any flavor of cookie – even if it was your least favorite Girl Scout Cookie flavor – would do in a situation like that, of course. Maybe I should start keeping a stash of Homemade Girl Scout Cookies in my car, just to be on the safe side!
Oreo cookies are one of the most beloved and most easily recognizable cookies that you can find anywhere – and there are many reasons why people love them (even when they regularly bake cookies at home!). Oreos made their debut 100 years ago, at the Nabisco factory in New York on March 6, 1912. The sandwich cookies were originally available in two flavors: lemon meringue and cream. The cream-filled chocolate biscuits were Nabisco’s more popular offering, but they kept the lemon meringue flavor on the market until the 1920s when they dropped it in favor of the combination we all know today. The origin of the name Oreo seems to be shrouded in mystery, with no direct answer even from Nabisco historians.
The cookies have really changed very little over the years, with the exception of the design stamped on the top, which underwent a few changes before taking on its current appearance. The current design (above, right) has been unchanged since 1952. The cookies are still the best selling cookie in the US and more than 491 billion Oreo cookies have been sold to date all over the world. The Oreos sold in the US are also produced here, and are both dairy and egg free.
The original cookies remain popular, but these days Nabisco is constantly adding new products and limited edition items to the Oreo line to keep things fresh for consumers. They are playing with flavors and colors while keeping the look and feel of the cookie the same so that Oreo-lovers can always Twist, Lick and Dunk their cookies into a tall glass of milk. In fact, they’re even launching a Birthday Cake flavor in honor of their 100th anniversary. The chocolate cookies n’ cream flavor combination is also so popular that there are all kinds of recipes that use it as their inspiration, from cookies n’ cream ice creams to Oreo brownies and cheesecakes.
I’ll still dunk one in milk when I have a package at home, but most of my Oreos are going into tasty cookies n’ cream baked goods like these:
When you bake a batch of brownies, which piece do you reach for first? A fudgier center piece of a chewier corner? Some people may like both parts of the brownie equally, but others have such a strong preference for specific parts of the food that they eat that they’ve inspired an industry of people who can deliver just those parts. The Wall Street Journal recently took a look at just some of the specialty products that are out there helping people get exactly what they want to eat.
One good example is the Baker’s Edge Brownie Pan, a nonstick pan with a maze-like design that turns every piece of a batch of brownies (or other bar cookie) into a chewy edge piece. This pan caters to edge-lovers and millions of dollars’ worth have been sold since the company started in 2006.
Another is a yet-to-be-released product that is designed to help people scoop out the centers of their bagels easily. The spoon-like product cuts through the dough of the bagel easily, allowing users to make a little trough in their bagel. The demand for this product includes both people who want to cut calories by streamlining their bagels and those who want more room to pile in their sandwich fillings.
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One of the things that make cupcakes so popular is that they are portable, easy to transport from your kitchen to parties and other events. You can even take cupcakes on a plane to share with friends all over the country and across the globe as long as you’ve made relatively traditional cupcakes. You cannot, however, take cupcakes in a jar with you on a plane.
Over the Christmas holidays, a woman had a cupcake confiscated by the TSA at the Las Vegans McCarran Airport. The story spread quickly and people wondered how a cupcake could possible be enough of a “gel-like substance” (similar consistency to toothpaste or other items that are limited to a 3-oz maximum for carry-on air travel) to be confiscated at an airport. The answer is that it wasn’t a cupcake, but a cupcake-in-a-jar. These creations are popular gifts, consisting of layers of cake and frosting stacked inside of a jar and meant to be eaten with a spoon. Typically, these confections are large and – as you might expect – have a whole lot of frosting inside of them. It was all that frosting that got this particular cupcake into trouble because it was an 8-oz cupcake-in-a-jar (pictured above, right) and good portion of that jar was frosting.
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