Dine daily on a full serving of fresh news every morning.  Why?  Because it’s cheaper than your morning latte and more informative than your average nutritional label.

Mmmm, Mondays...

• It may be Japan's biggest cartoon export, but isn't getting its own brand of Beaujolais Nouveau a case of overexposure? And it comes in plastic.  How classy.

• If you happen to suck at baking pie crusts, epicurious.com tested 11 premade pie shells and rated them by category.  You're welcome.  Tastes like almost homemade!

• And if you happen to suck at baking period, seriouseats.com rated 3 different cornbread mixes for you to try-not-to-mess-up.
  

• Apparently, New Yorkers are cutting the costs of dining out by tipping their waiters less.  FYI: Servers make roughly $4.00 an hour or $25 per 6-8 hour shift in the city, so those tips are an integral part of your waiter making her rent this month.

• I have no idea how this gadgetry works, but apparently this contraption can deep fry a turkey without a drop of oil.  And you can too!  For just $199!  Gotta love technology these days.

• Speaking of technology, here's a convenient way to charge and power your iPod, cell phone and blow dryer in your car!  But where am I supposed to put my coffee now?

• Turkey Tip O The Day: honey brine and smoke your turkey.
  

• Is it just me, or is it a bit morbid to grace your tabletop with these salt and pepper shakers this Thanksgiving? 
  

 Photo courtesy of whytraveltofrance.com

-Alice Shin

Tired of family members complaining about your gluey potatoes, cardboard stuffing and lumpy gravy? Sick of vegetarians flinging Tofurkys at you?

Shut them all up with this novel approach to turkey day. Following we present a tasting menu of cocktails reminiscent of that bygone historic feast courtesy of master mixologist Steve Schneider.

Thanksgiving will never be the same again.

Enjoy!

Eats.com is saying farewell to bacon with one last hoorah.  Here we see a visual representation of a heart attack, or what Bacon Today calls “mouthwateringly good.”  Five pounds of bacon, one small duck and a whole chicken make up this culinary feat that may be food porn to some but certainly not all.  So, here at Eats we are officially saying “Enough!”, and would like to leave you all with this last image, that you may never crave bacon news EVER AGAIN.  Thank you and good morning.

-Natalie Fasano

Dine daily on a full serving of fresh news every morning.  Why?  Because it’s cheaper than your morning latte and more informative than your average nutritional label.

Funktastic Fridays

• As it turns out, garlic, like great chese and fine wines, get better with age.  They also turn black and buttery sweet on the inside and are brimming with almost twice the antioxidant content of raw garlic. 

• Feeling lazy?  Wanna drink?  Lucky for you, the Lazydrinker will mix and pour beverages for the lazy drinker in you and your party guests.

• Speaking of drinks, were you ever, in a drunken haze, curious about the dudes behind the drinks?  Find out just who Jim Beam, Jose Cuervo and Captain Morgan were before they were associated with DUIs, underaged drinking and classy hangovers. 

• Did you know that Twinkies were originally filled with banana-flavored "creme" and that bubblegum flavor is a mix of wintergreen, peppermint, cinnamon and vanilla flavors?  Click on the link for more trivial facts about what we eat.

• If the sous chef in youse geeks out on kitchen-related paraphernalia, here's something to put on your holiday wish list.

• Tasty holiday idea for coffees and hot chocolates.  But I don't know how I feel about inevitable soggy spoon.

• Who knew the Brits were oh-so-particular about the way in which they clean their plates?

Photo courtesy of BlackGarlic.com

-Alice Shin

Eats was social this week, hitting new spots Txikito, Flex Mussels, and (yes, we had to) Momofuku Bakery & Milk Bar. Our assorted random thoughts follow.