Soak up the swingin’ bohemian style in this 1950s UK newsreel about coffee bars. Beatniks!

[Via]

I just discovered that Roberta’s is more than pizza. In this case, “more” means exotic, gooey seafood artfully arranged on pristine white plates. Never mind that I don’t even know what food is shown in the last picture. I’m just know that I want to eat it, based on these photos.

And that caviar? Killing me softly. If it tastes as good as it looks (I’m kind of a seafood noob), I’m a goner.

Since I knew we’d be going out to eat this Thanksgiving, I felt that I had to bring it in the kitchen when it came to a dessert. The problem? As much as I might try, I’m just not much of a cook…yet! I knew I’d need something that was a crowd pleaser, as well as achievable on very little time. Kate pointed me in the direction of Emily’s brownie recipe, and I haven’t been able to stop mowing down since they came out of the oven. They are the best consistency: equal parts chewy and crispy-edged. I highly recommend them!

For your lip smackin’ satisfaction: Emily’s Brownies

You will need: 1 medium sized pot, parchment, and an 8″ sq. baking dish

Ingredients:

1 stick butter (8 tbsp)
1/2 c Brown Sugar
1 c White Sugar
2 large eggs
3/4 c flour
1/2 c cocoa
Pinch salt
Tbsp Vanilla

1. Preheat Oven to 390 degrees
2. Melt butter in pot on stovetop.
3. Remove butter from heat, let cool about a minute, then add sugars (simply use the pot as your bowl). Mix well.
4. Add eggs, flour, cocoa, salt, and generous tablespoon-splash of vanilla, and mix well.
5. Line baking dish (I use a glass one) with parchment, pour in batter, and pop in oven.
6. Bake 20-25 minutes, I test with a knife in the center and remove when only a few little crumbs cling to the knife.
7. Cool one hour or overnight.

This may look like an innocent carrot cake, but it’s actually more of a Thanksgiving Frankenstein. Chow has put together a convenient layer cake made of turkey, cranberry sauce, marshmallows and sweet potatoes, all surrounded by mashed potato frosting. It’s economical, a time and space saver, yes, but it kind of reminds me of the people that take everything on their plate and mix it together, with the familiar refrain, “It’s all going to the same place anyway, right?” (That kind of pragmatism is lost on me. Also, ew.) This turducken mentality is what makes America great. And kind of gross. But I’d still eat it. Can you tell that I can’t decide if I’m disgusted or hungry?

(And let’s not even talk about that dessert monstrosity, “the cherpumple” — apple, cherry and pumpkin pies baked inside a cake. Is nothing sacred?)

Photos by Jenny Gordy and Kate Miss from Kate’s awesome cookie party. I’m in polka dots!

If you’ve got a sweet tooth and you’re free on Sunday, October 24, I’ve got a proposition for you!

My friend Jaime has organized a cookie decorating benefit for The Center Against Domestic Violence through the Drop In and Decorate nonprofit organization. Basically, you bake some cookies, decorate at this fun event with lots of other folks, then donate your delicious finished products to women and children in need. She’s also collecting unopened cosmetics, so feel free to bring unused lipstick, eyeshadow or blush as well. (Any make-up will do.) There will be snacks and music provided — and I’m sure if a few cookies disappeared no one would care!

The details?

Come on down to Spacecraft in Williamsburg, a very cool crafting and supply space in its own right.
Address: 355 Bedford Ave (between South 3rd and South 4th St) from 12 to 4 p.m. this Sunday, October 24, 2010.

Feel free to RSVP on Facebook or just come on over with some cookies.

More information on the organization:

Drop in and Decorate is a nonprofit organization based in Rhode Island and founded by food blogger Lydia Walshing. Its mission is to build bridges of caring and respect between groups within their own communities, and to offer a more personal way for people to make a difference. We do that with cookies — because cookies are universal, and because cookies make people happy.

Hope you can attend!

At last, a cookbook I could conceivably contribute to (and easily follow). I have more experience scorching well-intentioned vegetables than anyone I know; in fact, I destroyed a few innocent butternut squash just last weekend. Straight into the trash! I also have a history of burning pans so thoroughly that hiding my shame was the only option. Sad but true, I once destroyed a roommate’s cooking pan and put it in the trunk of my car to “let it cool off.” (It stayed there for over a year.)

Aleksandra Mir’s The How Not To Cookbook: Lessons Learned the Hard Way is an ongoing art project that anyone can contribute to. Based on Aleksandra’s personal history of disasters, the project invites people from all around the world to give their advice of how NOT to do various things. The book includes such wisdom as:

“If you burn yourself, do not forget to cut a potato in half and put it on the affected area—the starch will do wonders.”

“Do not hurl a cast-iron Le Creuset casserole dish out the back door of your house onto the patio after having burned the dinner in the mistaken belief that these things are unbreakable. They are, in fact, breakable. And expensive to replace.”

“Do not believe the use-by dates on all your food. They are put there by lawyers. Ordinary humans are much more resilient than the law would have you believe. Test results on self first, twenty-four hours before fobbing off on family and friends.” — True!

Learn how to contribute to the book and read the many funny examples on the How Not To website.

I was looking for Halloween desserts earlier for an Etsy Blog post. I asked for links on Twitter and the internet did not disappoint! These homemade peanut butter cups from Have Cake, Will Travel aren’t strictly spooky, but they are everything I could ask for.

[Via The Look See. She's a gem!]

I’m an early bird. I fall asleep at grandma-esque hours (reading in bed at 9:30, passed out by 10) and rise with the sun. Going to the farmer’s market on the weekend is one of my most precious pastimes. I’m an amateur cook (and that’s a bit of an overstatement), but I can’t get enough of the sights and smells of roughage being snapped, raw cantaloupe flesh, the murmurs of conversation and the infinite expanse of dogs and babies. It’s my own religion, really; who needs to go to a stuffy church when I can salivate over the fragrant, beautiful fruits of the earth? I worship at the altar of the tangible.

[Photos via marcinema on flickr]

Olivia Rae is my hero. A lot of folks can talk about making out there desserts that go beyond boxed angel food cake (cough, cough: me), but few actually go through the scorching-the-tops-of-the-marshmallows lengths. These brownies are my new favorite thing that I probably won’t ever have time to make…but I will eat them!

Find the recipe here!

[Via Everyday Musings]

I’ve been glued to my seat all morning, drinking in every single one of Eat Make Read’s happy hour recipes. (If I could get virtually drunk through a laptop I’d be sitting on the bathroom floor eating a sobering loaf of bread as we speak.) Every single drink sounds mouthwatering (and looks it as well — the photographs are so tempting) and the directions are totally easy. This recipe for jalapeño infused tequila (for margaritas, natch) is the perfect spring recipe…if the snow ever stops in Brooklyn, that is. Get out your mason jars and meet me in the kitchen at Eat Make Read.