Friday Faves No. 174

our favorite finds from the front lines of food

To the ovens! OK its not just a holiday battle cry, but the result of a recently published study that proves that cooking or baking can help you feel better.  We knew that of course, but these days when a lot of people are feeling down from post-election to holiday stresses, we could all turn to our kitchens to conjure up a bit a hearty helping of homemade 'feel-good'. (Smithsonian Magazine & Munchies)

Not that you should....but you could....eat it that is JetBlue just came out with an edible ad campaign just in time for holiday travel. Yes indeed, don't let winter travel delays worry you. Just eat the paper made out of potato starch, water, vegetable oil and glycerin.  (adWeek)

Have we got a stocking stuffer idea for all the Canadians out there! Yes, it's here! Poutine flavored lip balm!  Well, if KFC can come out with fried chicken scented sunscreen, we really have nothing to say about this lip balm. Just please Canada, don't make poutine your new favorite pumpkin spice replacement for the holidays. (Munchies)

And finally some good news for bees. General Mills just announced a $4 million dollar commitment that should help plant over 100,000 acres of pollinator habitat through 2021.  This is a deal, bringing together GM along with the non-profit Xerces Society and the USDA's Natural Resource Conservation Service, will help farmers plant and protect pollinator habitat including native wildflower field edges and flowering hedgerows.  Since bees are responsible for an annual $25 billion in agricultural production, it's nice to see companies that understand that good environmental practices make good financial sense. (Food Business News)

Friday Faves No. 116

our favorite finds from the front lines of food

Not just for extreme sports anymore, a GoPro camera films the poaching of an egg, above. (via Food Politic)

Five Ripple Effects from Russia's food ban. In Finland "Putin cheese" is flying off the shelves. (Modern Farmer)

Food politics go micro as Brittan rages over the Bakes Alaska Incident. Really, the only thing better than a baking smackdown is one that's televised, and then narrated by social media.  #GBBO (BuzzFeed)

Are Broccoli Stalks the Next Kale? If you're looking for tomorrow's hot ingredients—and today's top values—start with the compost bin. How different foods go from trash to treat to trite. On whether trends can have lasting impact: Of course, there is a limit to how long any ingredient can command the full glare of the spotlight. "Look at olive oil," Mr. Sax offered. "It probably peaked as a trend sometime in the late '90s, but extra-virgin olive oil is now the oil everyone has in the cupboard. The novelty has worn off, and it has become part of the culture." (Wall Street Journal)

Our default image of the new farmer should probably be a woman. The article 'Mother Nature’s Daughters' explores why almost everyone working in urban agriculture is female. (Seriously, almost everyone.) Some theorize that it's the lack of cash: “People don’t expect to be paid very much doing this work...It’s a labor of love to a certain extent. I don’t think we’ve come up with a hard and fast model to pay people exceedingly well for doing nonprofit urban-farming work.” (New York Times)

Glad someone is thinking seriously about how we're going to live in space: Ardbeg distillery anticipates zero gravity single malt's return to Earth to study the aging process. "This is one small step for man but one giant leap for whisky, and the team hope to uncover how flavours develop in different gravitational conditions - findings which could revolutionize the whisky-making process." (Guardian)

Back on Earth, diner chain Denny’s, staple of the American road trip, is opening its first restaurant in Manhattan, an "upscale" location featuring a $300 Champagne ‘Grand Slam’ (Laughing Squid)

In The Night Kitchen — thank you Maurice Sendak

Maurice Sendak's book In The Night Kitchen was one of my earliest cooking inspirations.

In my mother and grandmother's kitchens, flour and milk could be made into a hundred wonderful things, and there was always something new to try. The book confirmed it — baking was magic.

The night kitchen Maurice Sendak drew stuck with me. It was another world — mysterious, a little dangerous, and filled with strange characters — which is exactly how I found the kitchen when I first started cooking professionally.

"I'm not the milk, and the milk's not me," shouted Mickey before he built his dough airplane and flew into the sky to fetch milk for the cake.

Maurice Sendak sparked the idea that creation and adventure lies within every raw ingredient and every blank page. Every day I sit down to write or open my cabinets looking for something to play with, I find again how true that it.

To quote another of his books, "Let the wild rumpus start!"

Maurice Sendak, Author of Splendid Nightmares, Dies at 83. (New York Times)