From the Dumfries Agricultural Show in Scotland (source: bluesky) and kind of scary, but it could just be me, as I have a fear of dolls and that sort of thing. This was an entry in the Arts & Crafts competition several years ago. I do love going to these kind of local shows. A Veggie Baby perhaps?
‘food art bridges the gap between culinary traditions and innovation.’
-author unknown
artist Tatsuya Tanaka uses everyday objects and food items to create amazing mini worlds. his latest creation: ‘Shaun the Sauna’! was inspired by Shaun the Sheep, one of my favorite cartoons’ and made into dumplings, one of my favorite foods. what’s not to love?
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‘dumplings – little pockets of joy waiting to be savored.’
-author unknown
-restaurantmode.com
wh0 wouldn’t love to have a tangerine cat?
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“our holiday food splurge was a small crate of tangerines, which we found ridiculously thrilling after an eight-month abstinence from citrus. lily hugged each one to her chest before undressing it as gently as a doll. watching her do that as she sat cross-legged on the floor one morning in pink pajamas, with bliss lighting her cheeks, i thought; lucky is the world, to receive this grateful child. value is not made of money, but a tender balance of expectation and longing.”
-Barbara Kingsolver
Barbara is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, essayist, and poet. Her widely known works include The Poisonwood Bible, the tale of a missionary family in the Congo, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, a nonfiction account of her family’s attempts to eat locally. Lily, mentioned above, is her daughter, now also an author and an environmental scientist.
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image credit: pinterest
The Cheetos brand erected the statue of a hand holding a massive Cheeto, immortalizing the sticky orange residue that Cheetos leave on your fingertips, in Cheadle, Alberta. The community was chosen because of its name’s similarity to “cheetle,” the company’s official name for Cheeto dust.
“Cheetos fans have always known that the delicious, cheesy dust on their fingertips is an unmistakably delicious part of the Cheetos experience, but now it officially has a name: Cheetle,” said Lisa Allie, the senior marketing director at PepsiCo Foods Canada, which distributes Cheetos in the country.
“We’re excited to be celebrating Cheetle and Canadians’ cheesy, Cheetle-dusted fingertips on such a grand scale, (17-feet tall), and in such a uniquely mischievous way.”
The unique piece of art won’t stay in Cheadle forever, however, according to Cheetos’ news release. Cheadle residents and visitors can check out the big, cheesy fingers until Nov. 4. Then, the monument will embark on a tour of other locations in Canada.
Cheadle is a hamlet located in Alberta’s Wheatland County. Its population is tiny: Just 83 people lived there in 2021, according to the Canadian census.
*note – as a huge fan of ‘flamin’ hot cheetos,’ i fully endorse this artistic endeavor
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credits: zoe sottile, cnn, cheetos
the funoodler,
a food-safe reloadable hot gun that can doodle, draw and design with cheese
For a limited time, the laughing squid store is featuring a great deal on this gem.The Fondoodler is a super simple, food-safe reloadable hot gun that melts most types of string, shredded, block or sheet-style cheese in a cylindrical canister, just like a hot glue gun. This product is available for only $17 – an 43% discount on its original retail price of $30.
FEATURES
SPECIFICATIONS
Fondoodler: a hot glue gun, but for cheese. A scientific breakthrough to transform the way we live, the way we think, and the way we put cheese on stuff.
“the poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.”
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credits: laughingsquid.com,lori dorn,
Behold: The World’s Largest (Three-Ton) Gingerbread Village, GingerBread Lane.
The village becomes larger and more elaborate each year.
The day after Christmas is typically a time for relaxation and reflection after a harried holiday season. But not for Jon Lovitch—December 26 is the day he gets started on next year’s Christmas miracle. Driven by visions of Yuletide glory, he hits up stores’ post-holiday sales and stocks up on the sugar, candy and other sweets he’ll use to build his next GingerBread Lane.
The 39-year-old chef has been building gingerbread houses since he was a teenager. But Lovitch is no run-of-the-mill gingerbread aficionado. GingerBread Lane, which is on display through January 10 at the New York Hall of Science in Queens, New York, recently broke the Guinness World Record for world’s largest gingerbread village. For the last three years, he’s won the title annually, beating out villages in Norway and other countries.
Made using 682 pounds of homemade gingerbread dough, 775 pounds of candy sourced from more than 11 countries and 3,900 pounds of icing, GingerBread Lane weighs in at around three tons and takes up 500 square feet of space. Between buying supplies, making dough and icing from scratch and decorating each of the 1,102 buildings right down to their gumdrop-speckled rooftops, the completely edible village took about 1,500 hours to construct over the course of an entire year.
“I’m a chef by trade and a food purist, so I don’t believe in using ingredients that are inedible,” Lovitch tells Smithsonian.com. “Sure, it would be much easier to build if I used Styrofoam and glue, but Guinness mandates it’s built in such a way, and that’s the same way I’ve always done it.”
When Lovitch isn’t hunched over his oven in his cramped Bronx apartment, he serves as executive chef at the historic Algonquin Hotel in Times Square in New York City. Because of space restraints in his home kitchen, he can only work in batches on nights and weekends. He makes about three pounds of icing at a time and stores his creations in a spare bedroom. As a result, his entire home smells like a Christmas bakery year-round.“By the end of summer I can’t even smell it anymore,” he says, “but whenever I have friends over, they always comment on it.”
Lovitch’s schedule increases in intensity once July rolls around. He does the bulk of the baking during the summer. It isn’t until fall that he begins work on each structure’s details, from the intricate candy-coated rooftop of the S.C. Kringle & Co. Department Shoppe to the lifelike stonework on the exterior of a row of gingerbread brownstones. Lovitch even uses specially ordered coffee-flavored gum from Japan to simulate brown bricks.
“I try to make my village as lifelike and detailed as possible—it’s a cross between something in a Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and a Tim Burton movie,” says Lovitch. Kids aren’t the only people drawn to the delicious intricacy of his gingerbread creations, he says: “Seniors are also really into it.”
GingerBread Lane’s appeal is widespread, but it can’t last forever. After several weeks delighting kids of all ages, Lovitch must dismantle GingerBread Lane on January 10. Rather than throw his creations in the trash, he invites visitors to come to the New York Hall of Science and take home buildings for free on a first-come, first-served basis. “Taking it apart can be gut-wrenching,” he says. “You realize as you give away each piece that you’ll never see it again. Just like Christmas, it’s an ephemeral thing. A brief, fleeting moment in time.”
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“and I had but one penny in the world. thou should’st have it to buy gingerbread.”
– william shakespeare, Love’s Labours Lost
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credits: smithsonianmag.com, jennifer nalewki
I didn't have my glasses on.... 
