Kevin White

With only a few days left in the year, I’m proposing a wild idea.

Cookies for breakfast. But not just any cookies for breakfast – cookies in your almost-oatmeal like breakfast parfait. Creamy vanilla, chewy and spiced, crunchy with cookies.

I know I know, this is nothing new, especially if you’re like me and for the last ten days have been sneaking a peanut butter blossom or chocolate crinkle first thing in the morning to act as an appetizer for your coffee. Okay, so maybe your energizing first meal of choice is thumbprint or gingerbread man, but still. It’s happening and we only have about 36 hours left before the universe tries to make us feel terrible about it. Savor this moment, friends.

In case you already deem that unacceptable, make this!

I have my major moments of wanting breakfast foods all the time. If you really think about it, nearly anything can be “turned into” breakfast with the mere addition of an egg or some kind of oatmeal. Tacos, rice bowls, pizza, pasta and now, even cookies. I swear it. Just you wait.

It was around one year ago when I become obsessed with this cookie topped oatmeal (which I now am craving and must make this week) – breakfast in a pretty glass? Breakfast with a cookie layer? Breakfast that tastes like dessert? Sign me up for everything and I’ll attend whatever I need. Oatmeal makes everything in life healthy, so there’s that.

As a super huge fan of chewy oats (my favorite being steel cut), I loved the idea of a SWEET breakfast risotto. You can find a baked breakfast risotto in Seriously Delish, but hello, it’s the holidays and I’m going to crumble cookies into my breakfast because I do what I want. We can pretend that rice is like oatmeal and just as good for us, shhhhh.

Plus, it’s also a texture masterpiece: chewy rice, a little bit creamy, crunchy crispy gingersnaps, bursting orange wedges and pomegranate arils that pop in your mouth a little bit. It’s so deliciously wonderful that it actually sounds wrong.

A chew lovers dream, if you will.

So what’s on tap for this week? Are you working? Did you take the week off? Are you stuck in a dent on the couch binging on old episodes of Entourage (not me, totally not me) and sneaking cookies for breakfast? Choosing THEE sparkly color to wear on your nails come New Years Eve? Writing down how you can take on the universe in 2016?

No WONDER we are friends!

P.S. those little white pops are white chocolate crunchies. Because… I do what I want.

Christmas is coming, which means many families have opted into the North Pole's surveillance program, also know as The Elf on the Shelf. Which is why one 7-year-old girl was so worried when she accidentally disturbed the Elf in her home that she called 911. [ more › ]

This week’s Wild City comic is a super-useful last-minute gift guide.

Original on our site | Patreon

While traveling from the Netherlands to Nepal, Your Shot member Chris Wilde captured this photo of the Sheikh Zayed Mosque in Abu Dhabi. His layover lasted only a few hours, but that was enough time to visit the mosque, the largest in the United Arab Emirates. “I was intrigued by the bright white and golden colors against the blue sky,” Wilde explains. “I found this archway particularly appealing, with the symmetry and the side light. I composed a shot to bring out the symmetry; however, I felt the shot still lacked a focal point, so I waited for someone to walk past. Some time later a lady came down the center aisle. She shifted to the right, which was lucky, since this created a better composition with her in the border of the light and shadows.”

This photo was submitted to Your Shot, our storytelling community where members can take part in photo assignments, get expert feedback, be published, and more. Join now >>

Your Shot member Arvind Sharma shares this image of an evening Diwali celebration in his hometown of Dehra Dun in Uttarakhand, India. In order to get just the right shot, he climbed to the third-floor roof of a building still under construction to get both the fireworks and the clock tower—“the most prominent and easily recognizable place of the city”—in frame. “I used a tripod and remote to take three continuous long-exposed images at the same time and from the same place,” he writes, “which I stacked together to get this image.”

This photo was submitted to Your Shot, our storytelling community where members can take part in photo assignments, get expert feedback, be published, and more. Join now >>

It's always a little awkward when a well-intended Christmas gift is a bit off target. But it's down right cruel what happened to little Scott Lundy from Wakefield, MA. After (we imagine) weeks, maybe months, of anticipation and avoiding the naughty l...

One London-based company is claiming that it has invented a “hangover-preventing meat treat.” No, this is not actually the introduction to an episode of Punked, and yes, the company thinks using the phrase “meat treat” is a-okay. According to a…

The post Company Claims to Have Invented ‘Hangover Preventing’ Meat appeared first on First We Feast.

Waterfall in Småland, Marcus Larson

Link is to zoomable version on Google Art Project; downloadable file on Wikimedia Commons; Original is in the Nationalmuseum Sweden.

Swedish landscape painter Marcus Larson — who was at one time a student of the German painter Andreas Achenbach — gives us a wonderfully dramatic landscape in the Romantic tradition, with brooding clouds, deep shadows across the land, striking contrasts of light, and the great, angular forms of the rocks set amid the turmoil of the water.

The painting has enormous depth, from the dark rocks barely revealed in the left foreground through the bands of light and shadow receding to the sunlit hillside on our right to the distant mountains beyond.

LaGuardia Airport will eject a group of homeless individuals who have reportedly "taken over" the airport's Terminal B this last year, according to the Post. [ more › ]

Tragedy has struck at a Waffle House yet again: According to the Sun Herald, 52-year-old waitress Julie Brightwell was killed by a customer who didn’t like one of her requests. Last Friday, 45-year-old Johnny Max Mount was eating at a…

The post Waffle House Waitress Fatally Shot After Asking Customer to Put Out Cigarette appeared first on First We Feast.

Santa Claus has come to town many times, and he’s hung out in some unlikely places.

Here’s proof, courtesy of New York’s street photographers. They always capture the weirdness and whimsy of the city…like the time Santa was waiting on the platform at Bleecker Street train in 1976 [Photographer: Richard Kalvar]

In 1982, Santa was caught poking around Central Park, across the street from the Plaza Hotel. Hopefully he wasn’t lost. [Photographer: Raymond Depardon]

1968 was a tumultuous year of political and social upheaval, which might explain why he stopped off at this bar (with color TV!) next to a pastry shop. Even Santa needs a little nip now and then. [Photographer: Bruce Gilden]

Back when the Bowery had actual bums in 1977, Santa spent some time cheering up the down-and-out guys who made their home there. That garbage can probably held a nice warm fire. [Photographer: Susan Meisales]

Here he is in 1962, refueling at the coffee shop in a Woolworth’s, in a window seat at a booth with a formica counter. It might be Christmas Eve, so he’s in for a long night. [Photographer: unknown]

Here are some helpful reindeer alternatives.

Original on my site | Patreon

As first reported by The Times Herald-Record of Middletown, Cromwell, 75, was among six protestors arrested at Friday morning's protest outside the Competitive Power Ventures power plant construction site. [ more › ]

The most abnormal thing happened over the weekend: temperatures cooled down to almost normal for this time of year. Fun fact: Saturday was the coldest day in Central Park since March 29th, which also happens to be the last time the temperature was below freezing. It is looking almost certain now that this month will not have a single colder than normal day and will be the first December to never have a day below freezing. [ more › ]

While on a trip to Portugal, Your Shot member Daria Chuvaeva “heard from a local barman [about] an unusual stone house located in the Fafe Mountains,” she says. Chuvaeva decided to journey to the offbeat dwelling, known as the Casa do Penedo, and this image is the result of her effort. “Even if I got lost a few times, I can say that it was definitely worth it,” she writes. “There was something mysterious in that boulder house, [and] I [took] photos of it for a few hours.”

This photo was submitted to Your Shot, our storytelling community where members can take part in photo assignments, get expert feedback, be published, and more. Join now >>

Hovertext: PS: Make America Great Again

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DJ Khaled might think he knows every key to success, but there might be one thing he’s missing: the coveted key to a year supply of Wendy’s Frostys. If you have ever dreamed of a life consisting of free Frostys daily,…

The post You Can Get Free Frostys at Wendy’s for an Entire Year For Just One Dollar appeared first on First We Feast.

The winter holidays are often celebrated with glorious roasts. But there’s another staple of Christmas and New Year’s fare: crustaceans. From country to country and coast to coast, it’s all about seafood.

In Australia, barbecued or steamed prawns (referred to as shrimp in the US), Australian crayfish, and marron take center stage on the table for Christmas dinner, a trend that is being echoed in the United Kingdom, where more and more families are replacing traditional turkey with large lobsters. Seafood is staple Christmas Eve fare, but most notably in Italy where the night is known as la Vigilia. Also referred to as the Eve of Seven Fishes in the United States, the night culminates around the kitchen table, which is set with course after course of dishes laden with a variety of fresh fish and crustaceans. Lobster, in particular, has become a Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve tradition (despite some cultural superstitions) for many families throughout the world and, along with crab and prawn, is a staple of Réveillon, celebrated in France, Belgium, Brazil, Portugal, Quebec, New Orleans, and other areas with French or Portuguese influence. The food at réveillons, long dinner parties preceding both Christmas and New Year’s Day, is luxurious, extravagant, and comforting—a mix that is well suited for delectable crustaceans.

Selecting crustaceans

Although cooking crustaceans isn’t terribly complex, picking the right ones for the pot can be a challenge. You’ll do better armed with the knowledge that when crustaceans grow, they periodically shed their exoskeletons; that is, they molt. Many cooks know to avoid crustaceans that are getting ready to molt, but you may not know when to chase after those that have already molted.

Timing is important here because prior to molting, lobsters and crabs shed a large amount of muscle mass. They literally shrink inside their shells. After the exoskeleton weakens, they break out of it, living briefly without any protective covering at all. Just after molting, they pump up, adding 50%–100% to their body weight by absorbing water. You don’t generally want to eat a crustacean that is about to molt or that has just molted and is taking on a lot of ballast. The exception is soft-shelled crab, which is cooked just after having molted.

Once their new shells begin to harden, crustaceans are perhaps at their best for the table. Many say that a lobster with a new exoskeleton is exceptionally sweet and firm. Likely, this is because the creature ate voraciously after molting to replenish its protein and energy stores in order to rebuild its protective armor.

What to look for

1. Look at shell color and firmness:

When crustaceans are at their prime for eating, their topsides will be deeply colored, and their bellies will take on a stained or dirty look. The shell should be firm to the touch. Crustaceans are primed for cooking when their shells will have become very hard.

2. Compare size to weight:

Crustaceans will feel heavy for their size because they are filled with dense muscle tissue, not tissue that is bloated with absorbed water. Crustaceans that are about to molt feel the lightest because their shells are partly empty.

3. The shell will also give you clues that tell you when it’s better to pass on a particular animal:

Recently molted crabs and lobsters have shells with a grayish-to-green cast on their topsides and a lustrous white abdomen. That’s because the pigmentation of the shell comes from the animal’s diet, and they haven’t yet eaten enough to color the shells more richly.

Sometimes you will see a pinkish tinge, commonly referred to as rust, on the bottom of the crabs, which can indicate that they are getting close to molting. Before they do, they will reabsorb calcium from the shell, softening it. A telltale sign is that the shell will begin to appear slightly green again. They will bloat with water to loosen the shell and then will shed muscle mass to become small enough to squeeze out of it. Such crabs do not make for good eating.

 

So pick it right, and you’ll enjoy the aroma of cooked crustaceans, which is unique. The chemistry responsible for this redolence turns out to be the Maillard reaction, which normally requires a very high cooking temperature. But because the flesh of crustaceans contains a lot of sugars and amino acids (such as glycine, which tastes sweet) to counteract the salinity of seawater, the Maillard reaction occurs at an unusually low temperature. After you’re done feasting, save your crustacean shells. Collect them in the freezer until you have enough to make Pressure-Cooked Crustacean Stock. If you don’t have any shells, use whole shrimp (with heads on), which are relatively inexpensive and easy to find.

Photographing autumn foliage in Kyoto, Japan, Your Shot community member Aurora Simionescu came upon these illuminated paper umbrellas in a stand of bamboo trees at Kodaiji Temple. But capturing this image of the display wasn’t easy. “Illuminated traditional paper umbrellas were scattered throughout the temple grounds as a part of [the autumn illumination] festival,” she explains, “but I especially liked how they broke the monotony of the bamboo forest by adding a splash of color. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a tripod with me, so I had to try to keep my hands very still while lying on the ground in a pretty awkward position to get this angle. But it wouldn’t be the first or last time my clothes got dirty for the sake of photography.”

This photo was submitted to Your Shot, our storytelling community where members can take part in photo assignments, get expert feedback, be published, and more. Join now >>

You might want to hold off on leaving a glass of milk out with Santa’s cookies this Christmas. A recent study done by Robert Abbott from the Shiga University of Medical Science in Japan has found a connection between frequent milk drinking and Parkinson’s disease.  The…

The post Research Shows That Drinking Milk May Be Connected to Parkinson’s Disease appeared first on First We Feast.

If you find yourself in Washington state, you can now visit Ayahuasca Healings, the first legal ayahuasca church in the U.S. There, you’ll be able to personally experience what DMT soup for the soul is really like. For those unfamiliar with ayahuasca, it is a…

The post You Can Now Legally Drink Hallucinogenic Tea at Ayahuasca Church in Washington appeared first on First We Feast.

Winner, Julian Rad / Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards

There are quite a few annual wildlife and nature photography awards these days, and it’s nearly impossible to keep up with them all, but if there’s room for just one more distinction, I suppose it’s the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards. Founded this year by wildlife photographer Paul Joynson-Hicks, the competition is open to anyone with outrageous and weird photos animals doing, well, funny stuff. Collected here are some of the winners and highlights of the 2015 competition, you can see more here. (via Photojojo, My Modern Met)

Silver Runner Up, William Richardson / Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards

Highly Commended, Alison Buttigieg / Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards

Highly Commended, Charlie Davidson / Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards

Highly Commended, Graham McGeorge / Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards

Highly Commended, Julie Hunt / Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards

Highly Commended, Marc Mol / Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards

Tony Dilger / Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards

Highly Commended, Yuzuru Masuda / Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards

This is my latest go-to cocktail. It combines 3 of my favorite flavors into one cooling drink.

I have to start off by admitting that this drink has no Tiki … Read More

Ceguera and Gerhold saw this bill pass and began to form an idea. "We saw this opportunity, especially in New York City where all these breweries are popping up, to be on the forefront of the bill," Ceguera explains. Tinyfield Farm seeks to offer local breweries a unique product that's more difficult to source. While most breweries use preserved, pelletized hops in their brews, Tinyfield Farm offers fresh hops, known as wet hops, that must be used within 72 hours after the harvest and offer a less bitter alternative to dried hops. "We were hoping to position ourselves to be this really hyper-local thing for New York City brewers to take advantage of," Ceguera says. "To have ingredients from walking, biking distance of wherever they're brewing" [ more › ]

Oh the weather outside is alarmingly pleasant, but we're still in the throes of whiskey season, where fireside toddies and swirling glasses of bourbon are all but inevitable. If those scenarios sound enticing, you'd do well to pick up this season's Whiskey Passport, which will whisk you off to 43 different NYC bars to sample their brown spirits selection. The $37 passport entitles you to a glass of whiskey or whiskey cocktail at all of the eligible bars beginning this Sunday and running through February 13th, also known as the perfect cuffing season length so you're out of the picture by Valentine's Day. [ more › ]

The Department of Homeless Services commissioner abruptly announced his resignation yesterday as Mayor de Blasio announced plans to conduct a "comprehensive operational review" of the city's approach to an intractable homelessness crisis. Commissioner Gilbert Taylor, who previously served as a top official at the Administration for Children’s Services during the Bloomberg administration, was appointed by de Blasio in January 2014. [ more › ]

Photo by Lucho Vidales

Originally designed by Asturian architect Manuel del Busto in 1912, the church of Santa Barbara in Llanera, Asturias, was abandoned for years and crumbling from neglect. Luckily, a group of enterprising individuals lead by a collective called the ‘Church Brigade,’ with help from online fundraising and Red Bull, the church was salvaged and turned into a public skate park dubbed Kaos Temple.

As if having a skate park inside a beautiful abandoned church wasn’t enough, artist Okuda San Miguel was comissioned to cover the walls and vaulted ceilings with his unique brand of colorful geometric figures. Nearly every flat interior surface is covered with a rainbow of color, illuminated from every side by tall windows, making this a truly special place to skate. Watch the video below to see an interview with Okuda where he talks about his inspiration both for Kaos temple and his other works around the world. (via designboom)

Photo by Lucho Vidales

Photo by Lucho Vidales

Photo by Lucho Vidales

Sweet Chick rocks chicken and waffles, Pop's griddles up budget-friendly burgers and now Pearl's is dropping jerk ribs and frozen ginger dark and stormys, completing a trifecta of quality eats just off the Bedford L stop. The latest from John Seymour and his wife, Fallon, explores Trinidadian and Caribbean cuisine seen through the lens of Fallon's family history cooking the food of her native Trinidad and Tobago. [ more › ]