John Cox

Blogs · @wyome

Tagged food · everything

camillestyles.com

Protein-Packed Lettuce Wrap Recipes You’ll Want to Devour, Stat

Lettuce wraps are an easy, versatile lunch and dinner solution that let your fillings shine without weighing you down. This roundup on [[Camille Styles]] highlights a variety of recipes—from veggie-forward options like honey-sriracha tempeh and avocado-chickpea salad to protein-packed choices featuring [[chicken]], [[shrimp]], [[salmon]], pork, and beef—plus tips for choosing sturdy greens such as [[romaine]], [[butter lettuce]], [[collard greens]], and [[iceberg]]. The guide explains which leaves hold up best, suggests sauces and hero ingredients like peanut sauce, cilantro-lime dressing, and hoisin, and offers meal-prep strategies including rotisserie shortcuts and make-ahead patties. Whether you want Mediterranean, Thai, or Mexican flavors, the collection makes swapping tortillas and bread for crisp leaves simple, fresh, and unexpectedly satisfying for weekday meals. It also highlights vegetarian swaps, quick sauces, and crowd-pleasing adaptations for parties or kid-friendly lunches.

Permalink foodrecipesmediterraneanvegetarian

boingboing.net

Who was the real Chef Boyardee?

This piece dwells on the small pleasure of unsolved trivia, then breaks its own rule for one nagging case: Chef Boyardee. It reveals that the mascot wasn't a manufactured stereotype like Uncle Ben but an actual Italian-American chef, Ettore Boiardi, whose real career and restaurant success led to the branded canned-food empire bearing his name. Worth keeping as the origin story behind a pantry staple whose "character" turns out to be a real person.

Permalink foodculturehistory

bearfoottheory.com

17 Beginner Backpacking Mistakes to Avoid

Kristen Bor’s guide to common beginner backpacking mistakes condenses decades of experience into practical tips to keep first-time backpackers safe, comfortable, and prepared. Drawing on trips near [[Mt. Rainier]] and the [[John Muir Trail]], she covers 17 pitfalls including overpacking, wearing impractical clothing and improper footwear, relying on car-camping gear, underestimating food and water needs, neglecting navigation and weather research, and skipping emergency supplies. Bor recommends lightweight backpacking-specific gear (e.g., [[Jetboil Flash]]), testing equipment before departure, carrying a hygienic [[Kula Cloth]] for women, using a reliable filter like [[Platypus GravityWorks]], and bringing a communication device such as a [[Garmin InReach Mini]]. The post emphasizes Leave No Trace ethics, wildlife awareness, realistic route planning, and small habits that significantly improve safety and enjoyment on the trail.

Permalink hikinggearsafetyfood

nytimes.com

36 Hours in Houston

This travel guide to Houston showcases the city as a dynamic destination where visitors can experience world-class art museums, diverse cuisines reflecting its multicultural population, and overlooked African American history alongside Texas culture. The itinerary highlights everything from the contemporary Kinder Building at the Museum of Fine Arts to Viet-Cajun food in Chinatown, historic Freedmen's Town walking tours, legendary Tex-Mex restaurants, and scenic bayou parks. Rather than treating Houston as merely a stopover, the piece invites travelers to embrace its "beautiful complexities" by moving fluidly between high-end cultural institutions and casual neighborhood discoveries.

Permalink foodtravelentertainmenttexas

Atlas Obscura

When Every Ketchup But One Went Extinct

In the early 1900s, Harvey Wiley's crusade against chemical preservatives in ketchup found an unlikely corporate ally in Henry Heinz, who discovered that boiling tomatoes with high amounts of vinegar and sugar could create shelf-stable preservative-free ketchup—a breakthrough that helped Heinz defeat competitors who relied on benzoates and ultimately dominated the American market by 1911. While this victory improved food safety by forcing manufacturers to use better-quality ingredients and sanitation practices, it came at the cost of extinguishing the diverse, complex flavors that had characterized earlier ketchups, which ranged from sour and thin to fermented and varied. Today, craft ketchup makers are attempting to resurrect these lost flavor profiles from old recipes and historical cookbooks.

Permalink foodhistorysciencebusiness

Food Com

Houston's Best Barbecue Spots

A guide to Houston's best barbecue restaurants, featuring twelve establishments ranging from casual smokeshacks to upscale venues, each highlighted for signature dishes and distinctive approaches to Texas barbecue—from Pinkerton's jalapeno buns and Killen's pork belly burnt ends to The Pit Room's innovative barbecue tacos and Tejas Chocolate & Barbecue's unusual pairing of smoked meats with handcrafted chocolate truffles.

Permalink foodrestaurantstexasbarbecue

padilicious.com

twitpic.com

howto.wired.com

Infuse Vodka - Wired How-To Wiki

Vodka infusion—steeping fresh fruit, vegetables, or spices in vodka to create flavored spirits—requires only a quality base vodka, fresh produce cut to expose maximum surface area, a sealed jar, and patience while the flavors develop over days to weeks depending on the ingredient. The process involves filling a jar with prepared produce, covering it completely with vodka, storing it in a cool dark place, tasting periodically until the desired flavor intensity is reached, then straining out the pulp through cheesecloth or coffee filters.

Permalink fooddiycocktailstutorial

TASTE

TasteBook

Independent scoop shop owners are elevating ice cream beyond a simple dessert by incorporating regional and international ingredients—from local dairy to exotic spices and cultural staples—to create flavors that reflect and celebrate their communities' heritage and identity. These artisanal producers use ice cream as a medium to tell stories about place, tradition, and culinary pride rather than just churning out standardized products.

Permalink foodcookingdesignculture

www.brainready.com

The Top 5 Brain Health Foods | BrainReady | BrainReady.com

This piece identifies five foods claimed to support brain health—wild salmon, cacao beans, matcha green tea powder, acai berries and blueberries, and coffee—based on peer-reviewed research, consumer reports, safety profiles, and availability. The author emphasizes that the benefits come from consuming these foods in their minimally processed, high-quality forms (wild rather than farmed salmon, pure cocoa powder rather than processed chocolate, stone-ground matcha rather than tea bags, fresh berries, and freshly ground espresso rather than sweetened coffee drinks). The article cautions that no single food is a cure-all and that these foods work best as part of a consistent, overall healthy diet combined with exercise and other wellness practices.

Permalink foodnutritionhealthbrain

Get Rich Slowly

An Introduction to Square-Foot Gardening ∞ Get Rich Slowly

Square-foot gardening divides a raised bed into small grid sections, with each section planted according to crop spacing needs rather than traditional rows, dramatically reducing weeding, watering, and labor while producing good yields in small spaces. The method involves building elevated boxes filled with a specific soil mixture, establishing a permanent grid overlay, and planting different crops densely in each square foot—one tomato per square or sixteen carrots in another—then replanting with new crops as each section is harvested. The author successfully used this system in the 1990s with his ex-wife on a small city lot and has recently returned to square-foot gardening on his country property, finding it practical even when modified from Mel Bartholomew's original specifications.

Permalink foodgardeningdiybudget

Epicurious

Epicurious.com: the World's Greatest Recipe Collection

A collection of grilling recipes organized by protein type—meat, vegetables, and seafood—alongside complementary summer dishes including pasta dinners, cocktails, and fruit-based desserts like crisps and cobblers. The recipes emphasize simplicity and seasonal ingredients, designed to provide quick dinner solutions throughout the warmer months.

Permalink summerfoodrecipescooking

eugeneciurana.com

Sushi Eating HOWTO

This guide teaches Western sushi novices proper etiquette and ordering conventions for enjoying authentic sushi at a Japanese sushi bar (sushiya). It emphasizes that sushi is fundamentally fast food meant to be eaten at the bar in conversation with the chef and other patrons, ordering one or two pieces at a time and eating methodically to appreciate subtle flavors and textures. The author also covers how to identify quality establishments (small bars with fresh fish displays and Japanese clientele), what types of sushi to order and in what sequence, proper techniques for eating and using condiments, and the medicinal properties of wasabi and similar ingredients.

Permalink foodcultureinternetdining