chromedome

LOL Okay, then... "Although most of us on this forum do not eat bees..." FWIW I've deliberately eaten ants, fried locusts (grasshoppers? don't remember for sure which it was) and mealworms. The latter was at a kid-centric event at our local Museum of Natural History, when to my surprise my kids wouldn't step up and try 'em. I told my daughter "that's where the 'meal' part comes from!" (To be clear, I know that's not true, I'm just prone to Dad jokes). Which reminds me, I'd intended to post this here a few weeks ago and then forgot. Because direct evidence is scant and incomplete, scientists have turned to interesting side routes in an effort to decipher the diets of our remote human and hominin ancestors, through things like analysis of plaque on teeth and isotopes in bones and other remains. One mystery that cropped up in that pioneering work is a bizarrely inflated level of specific nitrogen isotopes correlated with meat-eating. There's a traditional image of "cavemen" being primarily carnivorous, though current research is now tending to debunk that (in your face, "Paleo" diet influencers!). So this finding with the nitrogen isotopes runs counter to much of the contemporary scholarship, at least on the surface. But there's been a big question mark about it, because the levels of those isotopes were high enough to make the whole thing questionable. This new work provides a highly plausible (if disgusting to the Western eye) explanation. https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/07/fermented-meat-with-a-side-of-maggots-a-new-look-at-the-neanderthal-diet/

I'm putting this here in Food Science because, although we don't eat bees, we certainly depend on them for much of what we *do* eat. It's about an advance in supporting bee colonies through supplemental feeding. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/08/250822073807.htm

Saw this on Bluesky this morning: You know that saying about "a face only a mother could love"? Well, Moon Mist is "a taste only a kid could love." Our grandkids order it regularly, I emphatically do not. Part of the appeal of Nanaimo bars, for me, is seeing something else offered and not having to take one for politeness' sake. That, and getting to recycle the old west-coast joke: "What goes into Nanaimo bars? Strippers and Hell's Angels!" Truthfully I find them even more cloying than butter tarts, and don't care for them at all, whereas with butter tarts (like baklava) I can get past the whole sugar-bomb aspect of it. I've also learned today that Breyers' Nanaimo bar ice cream was part of a "Canadian desserts" series which included... yup, a butter tart ice cream.

This one's been expanded and updated. https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/andalos-brand-pastry-products-recalled-due-salmonella

Okay, I was in Sobeys last night, and their cooler section had an area newly dedicated to Chapmans' "super-premium" ice creams. I took a look, and sure enough the butter tart ice cream was there. As it happens I'd bought some frozen items on this trip, and had come prepared with an insulated carrier and a few frozen gel packs, so I grabbed a pint (I don't buy ice cream unless I have the means to get it all the way home without it melting). GF and I both tasted it last night, and it was pleasant enough. I don't think it quite replicates the flavor profile of a butter tart, but on the other hand it's not as cloying and overwhelmingly sweet as a butter tart either. My "ginger" likened it to a butter-pecan cake, but with raisins instead of the nuts. I thought it was reminiscent of rum & raisin ice cream, but without the rum flavor. It also had bits of graham-crumb crust scattered through it, which took me aback at first (nobody in their right mind would use a sweet graham crust with a real butter tart, because they're sugar bombs already), but upon reflection it made sense. Regular pastry wouldn't hold up very well in an ice cream, whereas most ice cream makers are already adept at using bits of graham-crumb crust in their concoctions. So overall we both liked it (rum & raisin is one of my personal favorites, so the similarity is a positive in my opinion). I don't know how often I'd buy it, because I eat relatively little ice cream and my GF has a lot of other favorites, but it's definitely pleasant. The quality of ingredients and production seems more or less on par with other "supermarket-premium" brands like Hagen-Dazs or Ben & Jerry's, and given the current "buy Canadian" sentiment I think the company has an opportunity to carve out some market share. If nothing else, the timing at least favors their entry into that part of the market.

I don't watch cooking videos, to be honest. This one was sent to me by a niece who goes down odd rabbit holes, and weird cooking videos is a current track she's running on (along with true crime, and icky "medical oddities" videos, which sometimes overlap with the true crime).

So, you've just splurged on a 1-pound Wagyu ribeye. How you gonna cook it? Show of hands... who said "poach that bad boy in maple syrup"? Anyone? Anyone? ("...Bueller?")

After thinking about it overnight, I don't know that my eating habits would change much (though my GF would certainly want lobster more often). If anything I'd probably splurge on a whole wheel of good Parmigiano-Reggiano, maybe. Probably a cold room for that and some other cheeses, as well as my pickles and some of the hardier things from my garden. And a kitchen renovation. But those aren't directly "eating." Honestly, I'd probably be spending more often on books than anything food-related (though given the cost of a kitchen reno, I don't know that I'd be spending more on books... just buying them more often).

The Barenaked Ladies had this one covered, decades ago. "If I had a million dollars, We wouldn't have to eat Kraft Dinner. (But we would eat Kraft Dinner. Of course we would, we'd just eat more. And buy really expensive ketchup with it. That's right, all the fanciest... Dijon Ketchup. Mmmmmm.)" ETA: "Kraft Dinner" is what the blue-box mac & cheese is called, here in Canada, often just shortened to "KD."

Also several varieties of Andalos brand baklava are being recalled for salmonella. They were sold online, and in Ontario, Quebec and NB. https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/andalos-brand-pastry-products-recalled-due-salmonella

...and I've grown Genovese basil and San Marzano tomatoes here in NB, as far as that goes. Ddanno had expressed mystification, so explained why it'd tickled Shel's funnybone. No editorial comment or endorsement, express or implied, etc etc.

I'm tempted to get them for my GF, for the same purpose, but she might interpret that as an editorial comment on how much ice cream she engulfs at a sitting.

The description says Calabrian. The prominent label on the package says Sicilian.

Various brands of "Dubai chocolate" are being recalled due to salmonella. They were sold in BC, Ontario and Quebec, as well as online. https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/various-brands-pistachio-knafeh-milk-chocolate-recalled-due-salmonella

Ugh. After all of the well-reported issues from last year, Boar's Head is about to reopen its problematic plant. Issues there, and elsewhere within the company's operations, remain, though. As said upthread, "Why would anyone buy from Boar's Head ever again?" https://arstechnica.com/health/2025/08/boars-head-to-reopen-plant-as-mold-and-funky-meat-problems-pop-up-elsewhere/

If you've been thinking "Gee, aren't we overdue for another enoki mushroom recall?", well, you're right. Affects Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia. https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/enoki-mushroom-recalled-due-listeria-monocytogenes-4?utm_source=gc-notify&utm_medium=email&utm_content=en&utm_campaign=hc-sc-rsa-22-23

I haven't planted any yet, so I just have a few scraggly feral canes growing in less-than-ideal places around the edges of the property. Just enough for a taste. But when we walked our dogs regularly on the trails around town, we found a place at one of the local parks, in a spot where the hiking trail intersects with a maintenance roadway, that has a massive stand of heavy-bearing raspberries. I'm hoping to get there at some point this week and pick several pounds for the freezer.

We will almost certainly buy it if we see it, but so far I haven't found the "super-premium" Chapman's in any of our local stores. Those are the ones that compete with Haagen-Dazs and Ben & Jerry's, both of which are represented here, but there's also a local NB brand in that format and I think they've basically squeezed out the last slot that the Chapman's product might have fit into.

I like them well enough, but I'm a stickler for having the correct ratio of pastry to filling (the pastry has to blunt that cloying sweetness). I'm also happy that Chapman's included raisins, because I'm squarely in the "if it doesn't have 'em it's not a proper butter tart" camp. ETA: Everyone's entitled to an occasional early morning disagreeable comment. Quotas are negotiable, but increase with "time served," and there's a bonus allowance for chronic illness/pain. Yup, my sweetheart prefers the rectangular 2 litre box to the "premium" in the tub. Right now she's on a chocolate kick, but we had a couple of months of buying vanilla and then pouring ganache over it. Getting a prescription for blood-sugar sensors has somewhat altered the volume she consumes at a sitting, of course, as well as the timing.

Chapman's is one of Canada's big ice cream brands. They make fairly bog-standard ice creams of various kinds, from the popular novelties to both standard and "premium" versions of the common flavors. As these things go, they're a perfectly decent brand, and well-respected as a good company to work for, etc. So when I tripped across this, this morning, I literally laughed out loud. Now that I've seen it, I can't believe that nobody'd thought of it before. https://www.chapmans.ca/product/butter-tart-ice-cream-500-ml-tub/

Circled back and found the thread I was talking about, now that I have a few minutes at my computer. It's this one: I'm sure there are mentions in some other threads as well, if you wanted to dig farther.

Pretty sure it's been discussed over in the Kitchen Consumer thread, but am just passing through my office and haven't searched.

One of Hester's little kits has been getting out of her cage, and yesterday when I went up to feed the critters it was on the ground again, hiding in the doorway of the barn. After I'd corralled it, I dropped it into my shirt pocket so I'd have both hands free for the door and my water bucket. The little one, probably tuckered out after a cold and scary night on its own, immediately curled up and went to sleep in its warm, cozy little carry pouch. So I left it there, because whatcha gonna do? And also... awwwwww. You know that feeling when a baby falls asleep on your shoulder, that warm little body going limp in total trust and comfort? Yeah, like that but on a smaller scale. After the wee one had slept for a few hours I put a little plastic food container on the desktop for her, with some fresh greens, and then watched in amusement as a Very Small Rabbit ate a Very Large Breakfast... ...and then helped me with my article (yes, sadly, my desk is that cluttered). I'd finally located the spot on the cage where the little one had been escaping, and repaired it at lunchtime. So now the wee one is back with her mama and siblings. I'd decided that a "pocket bunny" must necessarily be dubbed Polly (my daughter loved Polly Pocket toys when she was little, and granddaughter has some now), and if in fact Polly turns out not to be a girl, well... Paulie also works. I've mentioned before that the youngest and skinniest of our original flock of chickens was a white Leghorn pullet which we inevitably named Miss Prissy, since we'd grown up on those vintage Warner Bros cartoons. Prissy has been setting a clutch of eggs for several weeks, and a couple of days ago got her reward: a single chick. I have occasionally had writers describe a character as fussing over something "like a hen with one chick," and now I'm seeing it IRL. My GF came in laughing from the chickens' run that afternoon, telling me that little Prissy (still the smallest and scrawniest of the adult birds) had bullied the entire current flock of 50+ birds all the way back into the sheltered roosting area at one end of the run. If any other bird dared step out for water or food, she'd be on it in a split second, in a berserk rage. She'd mellowed a bit by yesterday, and had taken up a position near the base of that quail condo I'd constructed (see photos upthread). When she needed to get up for any reason, the little chick (otherwise firmly ensconced under mama) would scuttle underneath the quail condo, where none of the others could follow. When I fed them all, the others stepped out gingerly toward the feeders, keeping one eye on Prissy the whole time, instead of swarming me as they usually do. The whole thing was rather amusing, though I *did* make a point of rearranging the feeders and waterers so the flock wouldn't either starve or keep poor Prissy in a continual state of advanced agitation. Here are mama and the little guy: He's a bit fuzzy, partly because I had to use the zoom pretty aggressively to get this close without triggering the Wrath of Prissy, and partly because... he's a bit fuzzy. We popped for enough 7-ft deer fencing to completely surround my garden, and I hope to have the other half of that installed by this afternoon, after which the chickens will once again have the opportunity to free-range for a portion of each day. I'm less enthused about this than my GF (I think we'll probably lose some of our half-grown birds), but the flock is her project/responsibility, so I'll roll with it and we'll take what comes.