the week that was and is - wednesday february 18th 2009

First - does anyone know anything about blog trackers. There seems to be quite a few options, so I'm basically looking for some personal insight. Oh yeah, it should be free. Now the week.

• I feel words like 'organic' can leave themselves a little wide open at times, so it's nice to see some standards being put in place. "...under the new federal regulations, only products with organic content greater than 95 per cent can be labeled organic, and use the new logo from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency."

• Cornell University commissioned a study to "... look at how popular cookbook recipes have changed during the past 70 years in the United States, in terms of how they may contribute to weight gain....They found a nearly 40 per cent increase in calories per serving for nearly every recipe reviewed, about an extra 77 calories..." More reason than ever to keep those old, tattered hand me down cookbooks.

• Looks like our friendly Canadian coffee icon, Tim Horton's, is teaming up with Cold Stone Creamery in the US and testing the coffee/ice cream relationship. Each will offer up 50 stores for the test run - Tim's will sell Cold Stone products, and vice versa. I imagine these will be similar to our Tim's/Wendy's combination's once the stores are remodeled.

• Readers digest put together a top 10 edible aphrodisiacs list; avocado, banana, chili peppers, honey, pine nuts, figs, arugula, oysters, coffee and of course at number one, chocolate.

• In case you missed it, yesterday was customer appreciation day at McDonald's. They were offering a second burger/sandwich for a single penny when you purchased one at regular price. Nothing says economy boost like 2 for 1 Big Mac's.

• Michigan Brewing Company out of the States has approved a Kid Rock line of beer. I wonder if it would complement the above mentioned Big Mac...or is that too classy for Kid Rock.

• Jack Bauer can't be stopped, why even tempt him to show you.

• My man friend, Mr. Bourdain was in the Philippines this week. A great episode. It's nice to see a section of that countries cuisine, as even my own Philippino friends rarely, if ever, partake in their national dishes. It's a shame because even at 9 am, I'm getting hungry just looking at goat head stew and pig skin. Next week - Manhattan.
  

And finally, this upcoming week is made even more delicious with February 20th being Cherry Pie Day, 21st is Sticky Bun Day and next Tuesday the 23rd is Banana Bread Day. Time to get your baking on.