@TipsForJesus? A Mystery Tipper Leaves a Big Tip at Crudo in Phoenix

Servers and bartenders across the country have been receiving massive tips from a mystery source known only by the Instagram handle @tipsforjesus. The account, which has more than 46,000 followers, shows photos of receipts and happy restaurant and bar employees, some of whom have just received tips of several thousands…

5 Desserts to Take to Your Holiday Party

Holiday tunes are blaring on the radio as I walk the aisles of every store. Parking lots become asphalt spaces of rage. Christmas tree lots have popped up everywhere. Lights twinkle strung in gaudy heaps on every outdoor yard item. The holidays have arrived, and with them the numerous holiday…

Organic Burr Gherkins from McClendon’s Select: This Week’s Fresh Pick

Though best known for their spiny rind, burr gherkins, a West African cucumber-like veggie, have been a gardener’s secret for a number of reasons. Probably the most obvious reason: Burr gherkins grow like crazy. Even in less-than-hospitable environments (like, say, a desert), growers are impressed and a little overwhelmed by…

Scientists Have Explained the Physics of Beer Tapping

We’ve all been there. When a “friend” hands you a freshly opened bottle of beer and you’re thinking, “Wow, what a nice guy to have gotten me a fresh brew!” Only to have said friend oh-so-gently tap his beer on top of yours. Suddenly, you’re watching as the foam builds…

Blue Ribbon Dill Pickles from Lillie Mae’s: This Week’s Fresh Pick

It seems like anything and everything comes pickled these days, but sometimes it’s nice to stick to the basics and enjoy some good old-fashioned dill pickles. Lille Mae’s pickled veggies offer everything from cured garlic to pickled beets and dilly beans (which are great for a bloody mary garnish), but…

Cockentrice: Forget About Turduckens, This You’ve Got to See

Ah engastration — as in the art of stuffing one animal into the insides of another animal, then cooking and eating it. The most popular example of engastration would arguably be the Turducken, or a chicken stuffed inside a duck stuffed inside a turkey. It’s believed the crazy creation dates…

Are Eggs Becoming Obsolete?

Ask Bill Gates about the future of food and he’d probably point you to his website, where, through info-graphics and interviews, he lays out the argument that we should all be getting protein off our plates. In the presentation, he mentions a company called Hampton Creek Foods, which is working…

Go Eco-Friendly This Christmas with Plantable Wrapping Paper

Presentation is an important part of gift-giving, which is why we go through rolls and rolls of wrapping paper and ribbon each year during the holidays. And if you’re feeling a bit guilty about all that waste, innovators in the United Kingdom have come up with a genius solution to…

Flamin’ Hot Cheetos Are Landing Kids in The Emergency Room

Maybe we’re just taste bud masochists, but we’ve definitely plowed through a whole bag of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos at least a couple times in life. Those crunchy chips are so damn spicy that it hurts — hurts so good, that is. But apparently they can actually, like, hurt you. As…

Pie Social 2013: A Judge’s Recap

Judging is hard. I’m not belly-aching about all the pie I had to eat or the cool apron and taffy I got at Saturday’s Pie Social. However, assigning a value to someone else’s work can be intimidating. Our job is to judge the pie, which is the culmination of their…

There’s a Double-Decker Starbucks Train in Switzerland

If you find yourself in need of transportation from Geneva Airport to St. Gallen in Switzerland sometime in the future, you might want to consider hopping aboard the first Starbucks coffee store on a train. As of last week, the coffee powerhouse debuted its new two-story coffee car created in…

The Winners of Pie Social 2013 Are . . .

Fourteen celebrity chefs, countless community bakers, 700 attendees, hundreds of pies — and we won’t even try to count the calories. Come back to the blog later today for a slideshow, and later this week, we’ll have a behind-the-scenes account of the competition, complete with a rundown of all the…

Want to Know What’s in Pumpkin Flavoring? (Hint: Not Pumpkin)

Since we’re already seeing Christmas lights and peppermint-flavored everything, it may already be too late to save anyone from the pumpkin flavored-deluge. But just in case you’re still sucking down those PSLs (that’s Pumpkin Spice Latte, for the non-Starbucks fans out there) and snacking on pumpkin-flavored almonds (which are a…