The more I look at that headline the more it looks like a story from The Onion, but it's true.

Fredric Baur, a chemist who worked for Proctor & Gamble and designed the Pringles Potato Chip can, died earlier this month at age 89. His request was that part of his ashes be buried in one of the Pringles cans, and that request was granted. The rest of his ashes were put into a regular urn. Both containers were buried at Arlington Memorial Gardens in Springfield, Township, OH.

Baur created many products for the company, but he'll probably be best remembered for the Pringles can, because it didn't just allow for the chips to be stacked, it really became part of pop culture.

I have a faint recollection of eating Spam when I was a kid. I know that my mom bought it once in a while, but I tried it a while back and I don't think it's something I would try again (that film on top...gah). I think the only way I would try it is if it's in a recipe where it's cooked a lot or smothered with other flavors.

Like the recipe after the jump. It's for Spaghetti Carbonara and it comes courtesy of spamrecipes.net.

Continue reading Spaghetti Carbonara ... made with Spam!

Like Gael over at Pop Culture Junk Mail, I didn't even realize that Hostess got rid of the magician guy who was on the front of their pies since the early 70s. I don't usually buy snack pies anymore, though I do love them (both Hostess and Drake's).

I know that products and companies and logos have to change over the years, but I always feel a little sad when a classic character or design is changed. Really, did the change improve sales? You would think that keeping a classic character would endear a company to loyal customers even more.

Now if someone could answer this question. What exactly was the magician? Was he human? The body shape suggests a banana, or some sort of legless apple slice. Or maybe the Penguin from Batman.

If you're from New England, then Cape Cod Potato Chips are probably a staple in your cupboard (or wherever you may keep your chips). The original kettle chips are quite tasty, but let's talk about the various flavored chips that Cape Cod also sells.

The Sea Salt & Vinegar chips are strong and crunchy, while the Beachside BBQ chips taste a little different than other BBQ chips, as they have molasses and chili pepper. The Jalapeno & Cheddar chips are very strong when you open the bag but taste great. The Cheddar Jack & Sour Cream are so flavorful that you don't need any kind of dip to go along with them (Cape Cod also makes a new Honey Dijon chips and Buttermilk Ranch, but my local store was out of them).

Continue reading You're sure to fall in love with Cape Cod Potato Chips

We've had X-Men and The Fantastic Four, so why not a movie about cereal mascot superheroes?

Our sister blog Cinematical has news about a new computer-animated film called Cereal Heroes. It's about cereal box mascots that are accidentally brought to life and have to go on the run and stay safe in the modern world.

This sounds so crazy that it just might work. I'm not sure if I want to see it as an animated film or try to get actors to play the mascots. But if the writing is sharp, this has great satire potential. Imagine the Quisp guy flying around and Tony The Tiger saving the world and the Rice Krispies guys getting into trouble. Maybe Cap 'n Crunch can have a cool speed boat that he pilots to save the day.

It's hard to get excited about gum. I mean, really, what can be done with it? You can try a different shape or a different flavor or a new ad campaign ("the flavor never stops!"), but in the end it's something you chew for a while, it starts to not taste that great anymore, and then you throw it away. But once in a great while you find some gum that's a little bit different.

Take Orbit's Lemon-Lime. I can't remember if I've ever had this flavor of gum before (maybe Fruit Stripes had this flavor?), but this is quite good. It's actually refreshing, in a lemon-lime drink sort of way, and you can even squeeze out some intense flavor even late in the chewing game. That's all I really look for in my gum-chewing experience, and Orbit succeeds in a big way.

(Hmmm....Nicole reviewed this a couple of years ago and didn't like it. Oh well.)

People fall into two categories: those who think that food that looks like people is cute and those who are creeped out by it. If you fall into the latter category, this site is not for you.

It's Ice Cream People, a site devoted to pictures of ice cream that have faces and sometimes bodies. You'd be amazed at how many different pictures there are of this, from ice cream truck signs to carnivals to food packages. I like the freaky ice cream monster above, and you can get it as a t-shirt!

[via Pop Candy]

I've never been a fan of frozen bagels. I don't care if you can toast them and they get all crunchy, I still like the bagels you get in the bread aisle, not frozen. They just taste better to me for some reason, and you can even eat them without toasting them.

So when I saw Kraft's new Bagel-fuls in the frozen food section, I was already thinking they might not be that great. But I bought them to see how they'd taste (for science and you readers, of course). First of all, if you store these bagel tubes filled with cream cheese in the freezer, you have to microwave them. You can't put them in the toaster unless they've already been thawed a bit, so if they're frozen you have to nuke them for 20 seconds.

How do they taste? They sorta taste like fried dough, not exactly bagel-ish. They're not bad, they'll do in a pinch I guess, but give me a regular bagel and I'll toast it and spread the cream cheese on myself.

I think Jack in the Box is trying to out-creep that creepy Burger King guy.

They've put up a web site called MakeAJackSandwich.com, where you can upload photos to make a "Jack sandwich," which isn't a real sandwich but a viewer-generated threesome you can place in a hot tub. I guess they're going for that "fast food/swinger" demographic you read so much about (don't worry, the site is fun and G rated - OK, maybe PG).

You can watch the ad for their Sirloin Steak Melt, which is sirloin steak, grilled onions, and three different kinds of cheese on sourdough bread.

Are you an Oreo person or a Hydrox person? I guess I should change that to "were" because the Hydrox cookie is no more.

Now, this might not be news to everyone, since it happened in 2003! But Kellogg's was so low-key about it that a lot of people simply didn't realize it (besides hardcore Hydrox fans, of course). The Wall Street Journal investigated and found out that it was discontinued five years ago after the company realized they couldn't compete with Oreos. The interesting thing is that several people still say they see them once in a while, in stores and on airplanes.

I have to admit that I'm an Oreo person, and I think the reason why I never bought Hydrox was because I just thought they were a knockoff and tasted like Oreos. Now I wish they'd come back so I can try them again. Supposedly the cream in the middle was less sweet?

Now here's a really clever, cool idea: cupcakes in the form of your favorite arcade game!

This took some thinking, because it's not just one big cupcake with a scene from a game placed on it with frostings and sprinkles. This is several cupcakes put together to form a screen shot from Pac-Man, but they also have Super Mario Brothers.

[via Boing Boing]

Here's the tricky part...

I wasn't a big fan of Fig Newtons when I was a kid. When it came to cookies, I liked chocolate chip, Nutter Butters, and...well, just about every other cookie in the universe. I started to really love Fig Newtons in my twenties and bought them on a regular basis. And today, after seeing that today is National Fig Newton Day, I realized that I haven't bought them in years. I wonder how stuff like that happens?

Here's a recipe for Homemade Fig Newtons from RecipeZaar. Me, I'm going to go to the store and buy a bag of them and a gallon of fat free milk.

As a lover of all things pizza-related, I really have to try these.

It's a recipe for pepperoni pizza, only using Pillsbury's Easy Grands! refrigerated biscuits. I always get a little uneasy when I see an exclamation point in the middle of a sentence instead of at the end. Imagine! how! annoying! that! would! be! if! it! was! done! all! the! time!

Anyway, these look pretty good, and ridiculously easy to make. What I find particularly great is that the Grands! come in various flavors (original, buttermilk, Southern style, etc), so you can get some different tastes without adding anything extra to the recipe.

Continue reading Easy Grands pepperoni pizzas

Reese's has really been going crazy with new versions of their classic peanut butter cups. Sometimes the experiment is successful (Nutrageous, Caramel) and sometimes it's just so-so (Mixed Nuts, the Elvis edition). Now they've gone all the way to ... gah.

The new Reese's Whipps is a candy bar that features peanut butter flavored nougat and has 40% less fat. It also has at least 40% less taste than a regular Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. Or maybe I should say more taste, just different. In fact, it's kinda hard to eat because it tastes like someone took nougat and dipped it in sugar. There's hardly any peanut butter or chocolate taste the nougat is so overpowering.

The original Reese's is still my favorite candy bar, so I'll be sticking with that.

I've learned three things about making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches over the years:

1. Creamy and chunky are both great.
2. They taste terrible with a Diet Coke.
2. Never use Wonder Bread. It tears too easily.

November is National Peanut Butter Lover's Month. Here's a bunch of facts about peanut butter (did you know the average kid will eat 1500 PB&J sandwiches by the time they graduate high school?). Skippy has a bunch of crafts and games for the kids, while Jif has some interesting peanut butter recipes, including Peanut Butter Muffins and Chicken Peanut Mole.

Also check out PeanutButterLovers.com, a site for people who...well, you know, love peanut butter.

Continue reading Newfangled treats at the 2007 State Fair of Texas

Ah, one of the eternal questions, right up there with "Do you really have to wait an hour after eating before you swim?" and "How many licks does it take to get the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop?"

And now the question is answered at the Scientific American Web site. The old wisdom warned that you shouldn't swallow gum because it takes the body seven years to digest it. But the folks at Scientific American have investigated and the answer is ... after the jump!

Continue reading Is It Really Unsafe to Swallow Gum?

October is National Popcorn Poppin' Month, the time of year we celebrate...um...the popping of popcorn.

But I wonder how many people actually pop their own corn at home nowadays. I think a lot of people have gotten used to microwaving a bag of popcorn at home for a snack or at the office. It's quick, it's already in a handy bag, etc. But one of my favorite memories of childhood is getting Jiffy Pop at the store and making it on the stove with mom or my sister. I wonder if kids today (and by kids I mean ones under 12) even know what Jiffy Pop is, even though it's stil sold.

So, your assignment today: if you want to pop some popcorn, go buy some Jiffy Pop. I'm curious to see if it's still as good as I remember.