Thanksgiving can be quite a quandry.  How do you balance staying traditional, without getting into a culinary rut?  Here are some ideas from our latest MUNCHCAST…..

GO SMALL:

Like Jeff Houk from the Tampa Tribune, who concocted an entire Thanksgiving meal in an Easy Bake oven.  The portions weren’t big, and it took some time, but in the end the little lightbulb heating appliance worked! Check it out here!  And if you really have a hankering to get back into Easy Bake world, here’s a link to some specifically portioned Easy Bake Oven recipes.

GO VEGIE:

Sorry, as much as I appreciate the choice to go vegie…this(above)…just doesn’t look as good as this (below)

The TURBACONDUCKEN, as featured in Bacon Today.  To make your own turbaconducken, click here.

More to come……….

And we thought we’d run out of tasty topics!  Not when we’ve got the world’s greatest, most snack savvy listeners in the world, constantly tipping us off to the latest and most delicous junk food jaunts!

For our 50th show, we went to the never ending fount of food fodder – BACON.  Who knew that there were even more ways to enjoy meat candy!  Introducing a new condiment that will always have a solid spot in my pantry:  BACONNAISE. 

Check out their site, there are many lovely gift packs available for the bacon lover on your holiday shopping list.

Another amazing gift idea is the new WOW bacon fryer.  God I love technology!
And if you STILL can’t get enough of meat candy, here are a couple of links you’ll want to check out:

http://baconshow.blogspot.com/ one bacon recipe a day, every day, forever(!!!!)

http://bacontoday.com/ a daily update on the World of sweet, sweet bacon

Of course we’ve been well aware of the magic that happens when you add bacon to sweet stuff, but there are even new forays into the bacon dessert world, like a new recipe for bacon ice cream.  And Ronnie Sue’s Pig Candy, recently introduced at the New York Chocolate Fair.  Deep fried crunchy bacon dipped in Callebaut dark or milk chocolate.  It doesn’t really get any better than that.

Cheesus

Who doesn’t love cheese?  I seriously could consider being vegetarian if it was possible and affordable to live on cheese without getting even fatter than I already am.  So many delicious cheeses, so little time.  On this episode Leo and I got to speak with the CHEESE GURU OF CANADA, Gurth Pretty.  He mentioned a buncha sites he is either affiliated with or heartily endorses, here are a few:

http://cheeseofcanada.ca/

http://www.allyouneedischeese.ca/passionates/audionewsletter/microsite/

http://www.cheesesociety.org/

We also talked about the amazing Troy Landweher, who recently sculpted The Alamo out of cheddar.  Unfortunately I can’t get the picture to load properly, so here’s another cheese sculpture for you,…imagine The Alamo…okay…

The Declaration of Independence...in cheddar

Of course we all appreciate the velvety texture and complex flavors of cheese, but who knew cheese was also a personality trait?  Forget the zodiac, let’s talk cheese compatability!

And just when I’m getting the hang of home made fondue, Leo proclaims the RACLETTE as the new communal cocktail food.  Guess fondue is soooooooo last millenium.

SCORE!!!!

I know we did a candy’cast with Cybelle May about a year ago, but I cannot let the Holiest of all Candy Holidays go by without notice.  Plus the NCA, the National Confectioners Association, have launched a very worthwhile blog and so we had a good long chat with Candy Queen Susan Fussell.

Susan contributes to the Candy Dish, and it’s quite a worthwhile read, a regular stop on my surfin’ route now.

Leo and I also talked about manly vs. feminine candy:

I don’t even care that Yorkie bars are not for girls.  They aren’t very tasty anyway. Now if Snickers or Almond Joy copped that slogan, well then I’d be lawyerin’ up big time.

Speaking of Brit candy, one of my Twitter pals twitted me this site: Cybercandy.co.uk

where you can score this kinda stuff:

Cybercandy.co.uk

And if you want to shop closer to home, there’s always

good ol’ Powell’s.

More to come!