Toliver

Just a reminder that today is the day 7-Eleven is giving out free 7.11 ounce cups of their new low-calorie Slurpees, available from 11am to 7pm.

I am impressed with the 7-Eleven Kettle Potato Chips. I had the BBQ flavor yesterday. They were typical BBQ flavor...not excessive nor too light of hand on the flavoring. The biggest "plus" was how crispy the chips were. From the first chip to the last chip, they were some of the crispiest potato chips I've eaten in quite some time. Now I am anxious to see if the rest of the Kettle line are as good. edited for spellling

I tried the Frozen Strawberry Lemonade this weekend. It was little more than an expensive Slurpee. It looks like the Cherry Chiller is something similar. The Strawberry Lemonade was a little less "airy" than a Slurpee, but a Slurpee nonetheless. edited to clarify

Regarding this article, the 7-Elevens in my area are handing out free 7.11 ounce samples of the low-calorie Slurpees this week (on the 23rd, I believe). Check with your local 7-Eleven to see if they are participating in the giveaway. As for the 7-Eleven brand of potato chips, I tried the Sour Cream and Onion flavor recently and found the chips to be far too salty. It was like nibbling on a salt lick. So far, one winning flavor (Cheddar & Sour Cream) and one loser (Sour Cream and Onion). I'll try the BBQ flavor next.

Jane, thanks for this. I took the plunge and bought some of their chips the last time I was in there. They were good. The Cheddar & Sour Cream flavor was nice, not too strong or salty and not too heavy on the flavoring/orange powder (no orange fingers after eating them). I am trying the Sour Cream & Onion flavor at lunchtime today. On the plus side, the bag was less than a dollar like the chip snack bags that Frito-Lay used to sell but has now jacked up all of the prices. So the 7-11 brand is a better value for a decent chip. Also in the news... They've announced "...New Slurpee flavors slash calories, sugar" I hope they will make a Coke Zero version....that will taste like Coke but not have the calories of the original Slurpee flavor.

There should be nothing wrong with using mayonnaise in your cupcake recipe. If made properly, it's just oil and eggs, ingredients which you'll find in most chiffon-type cake recipes.

I just ordered a case of Power Dissolver online for my mom. She couldn't find it anywhere in the grocery stores in San Diego and swears by the stuff. The Chop that made a break for it had me laughing out loud! Thanks for blogging your adventures again.

I experienced a very odd sensation while eating, not cooking. I had eaten something spicey hot and the burn in my mouth was quite bad. A woman I was dining with said to take a drink of my hot tea. I did so and felt the oddest sensation as the hot tea washed away the spicey oil in my mouth. I really can't describe the sensation other than saying the burn of spiciness was replaced by the temperature/heat of the tea, which was quite (temperature) hot. The hot tea wasn't scalding hot...just hot. The remaining spiciness in my mouth was comparatively subdued after that.

I thought this was interesting: "McDonald's new menu star: Limited time offers" It took them a while to learn a lesson from the McRib and the Shamrock Shakes. The down side would be if they offer a limited-time menu item and the customers just don't care about it.

Same here. Doesn't turn out mushy at all.

I was standing in line in my neighborhood 7 Eleven when I nocticed that some of the nearby chip bags were branded "7 Eleven". It makes total sense. If grocery stores can have their own brand of goods, then why not 7 Eleven? Has anyone tried the 7 Eleven brand of potato chips/tortilla/corn chips?

I always marinate using frozen meat. The meat thaws in the marinade and it seems takes on much more flavor than if I had put in thawed/room temperature meat. Basically, the marinade is acting like a brine.

This I like. Roughly how much time are we talking on low? Thanks. The eGullet discussion on "Onion Confit Slowly simmered" You'll find lots of slow cooker & onions info in it.

Spaghetti Carbonara comes to mind. Lots of it, I guess. There's always, thanks to the TV show "iCarly", the popular-amongst-kids Spaghetti Tacos.

Congratulations! I keep bringing my bags back but haven't had any luck on the drawing, yet. I tried a new flavor of the Cookie Thins...Toasted Coconut. They have Triple Ginger Thins and Meyer Lemon Thins so the Toasted Coconut was new to me. It reminded me a lot of the flavor in a coconut macaroon. Except quite crisp, of course. I have a recipe for pineapple cream pie and I'm thinking a Toasted Coconut Thins crust (like a graham cracker crust) would go rather well with it. The cookie gets a thumbs up from me.

Has anyone tried their Cookie Butter? I thought it was a jar of peanut butter at first. The label said it was made up of ground gingersnap cookies. I thought it looked intriguing, to say the least.

Similar discussions from the past and riffs on them: "Things that are a total waste of money" "Home-made Cheaper than Store-bought What can you make?" "Laziest products Eggs in a bottle? Garlic in a tube?" And a sort of reverse topic: "Food Foolishness: Why Make it When You can Buy it?" "Not worth making yourself What's not worth the effort/expense?" I like Bisquick. I grew up eating Biquick-related baked goods/meals. I've said this before but my mom's peach cobbler, topped with Bisquick dough, can kick your mom's peach cobbler's ass any day of the week. I like some bottled salad dressings. If you can make your own and it taste better in your opinion, then get down with your bad self and the more power to you. Just don't look down your nose at me in the checkout line with my bottled salad dressing.

Doritos "Jacked" - Smoky Chipotle BBQ This is a picture of a large bag of the chips that I consumed and then scanned the bag (which barely fit the scanning bed!). Something new. Supposedly the "Jacked" chips are bigger, bolder, thicker. I did notice quite a number of large chips in the bag so they got that right. I didn't think they were that much thicker than a regular Dorito's Tortilla chip. These chips are odd. There is a slight smokiness to them but nowhere near the smokiness of a chipotle pepper. Speaking of which, I didn't think they had a chipotle flavor at all. They were spicy which built up over time but not a chipotle spiciness. They also had a sweet note to them which, again, I found odd and didn't enjoy (the ingredient list lists sugar, brown sugar, dextrose and sucralose). The back of the bag has some hyperbole: "Bite into the bold flavor of succulent baby back ribs SMOTHERED [their caps] with sweet hickory smoked BBQ sauce. Then light up your senses with the taste of SPICY chipotle peppers for a WICKED afterburn." I couldn't taste any sort of ribs, any sort of smoky BBQ-ness. They get a thumbs down from me.

You could always pass a kitchen torch over them after they're smoked.

I agree that renumeration can't be the litmus test for whether or not someone can be called a journalist. As Steven pointed out, that is the just the difference between someone being called a "professional" versus being called an "amatuer". I've also seen "reviews" in local newspapers which were little more than thinly veiled paid testamonials. Basically it was a positive restaurant review in exchange for a comped meal and cocktails. Is the writer a journalist then, since they were paid for what they wrote? I think most would answer "no". So the question remains, what makes a writer a journalist?

"Anthony Bourdain to Publish Marilyn Hagerty's Writing" From the article: Good for Marilyn and Tony.

Most bloggings seem to be opinion pieces. Bloggers are writers but not all writers are journalists. When I hear the word "journalist" being bandied about, I assume there is a standard to which they are measured against. Also, there's the issue of "truthiness" (from Stephen Colbert) when it comes to journalism which isn't applied equally to all bloggers.

Something new.... Dorito's Dinamita (the spanish name) This is a bag I consumed and then scanned for this post. They're basically Dorito's Spicy Nacho chips with a slight exception. It looks like they took round corn chips, not the usual triangular Dorito shape, and rolled them into tight cylinders. Hence, the "dynamite" name. You can sort of see some of the cylinders on the chip bag cover. The bag description claims the chips have a jalapeño flavor but they really don't. They just have a nice Spicy Nacho spiciness that builds overtime. Not a big burn at all. Because they are rolled, they are extra crispy/crunchy. While eating them I was sorry I didn't have some sort of dip to dip them in. I think they'ed be perfect for dipping. They feel more solid than a regular Dorito chip so I'm thinking they wouldn't break so easily when dipping them in dip. Another plus is that even though the bag seems smaller than the usual Dorito's snack size bag, you do get a lot of these rolled chips in the bag. Thumbs up for these new "chips".

For the die-hard true bacon lover: The Bacon Casket

It so happens we do have a dedicated watermelon knife! We also eat an abnormal amount of watermelon. As watermelon season will soon be upon us, I'll be sure to report on the efficacy of this product. Is there any reason why they didn't make the serrated edge go along the entire blade length? It stops. That's odd.