Sally and John Stilley will engage in a little healthy cooking competition at their restaurant Snappers Seafood and Wine Bar.

Husband-and-wife business partners/restaurateurs Sally and John Stilley will have a culinary showdown of sorts in their restaurant Snappers Seafood and Wine Bar on Tuesday, May 8. The couple will simultaneously prepare a five-course dinner; John Stilley's offerings will be of the seafood persuasion, while Sally Stilley's dishes will reflect her vegan lifestyle. The friendly "competition" will give guests a chance to decide which approach they prefer or, at the very least, to eat a hell of a lot of food. 

A similar event being hosted tonight in the couple's other local restaurant, Wave 2700 in Boca Raton, has sold out. Seats remain for the May 8 event at Snappers and cost $50 per person, which includes tax and tip, with lots of wine available throughout the meal. Vegans get a double portion of the meat- and dairy-free options. The event is limited to 50 people, and reservations are required.    

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The World Through Athene's Eyes via Flickr Creative Commons

For some home cooks, olive oil is a means to an end: the conductor that helps to saute an onion, or the dressing for a salad. But a growing segment of food lovers are starting to explore the nuances of olive oils and discovering they are not all created equal.

Learn about the subtle and not-so-subtle differences between olive oils (and specifically, extra virgin olive oils) at an olive oil talk and tasting event Thursday night at Thousand Pound Egg in Victoria Park.
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Cadbury Creme Eggs debuted in 1963, the chocolate shell filled with a frosting yolk. Though they're available by January, sales peak closer to Easter of course, as evidenced by the shortages in South Florida. In yesterday's loop, I hit three CVS, to find the largest size out of stock. 

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​From the fashionable folks of the Netherlands comes Burger King eye shadow, first uncovered by Buzzfeed. Turn your look into a tribute to the burger with a steady hand and some serious color for a sesame bun lid; lettuce lashes; cheese, onion, and ketchup liner; with a "charbroiled" burger underneath, like a shiner. 

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sinksanctity via Flickr Creative Commons

Beer: it's not just for drinking.

​With St. Patrick's Day knocking on the door and the New Times "Original" Beerfest 2012 mere weeks away, we've got beer on the brain. Which is why the "Cooking With Beer" demonstration this Friday night at Publix Apron's Cooking School in Boca Raton sounds so enticing. For $45, you'll get to learn how to prepare a four-course, beer-rich menu and taste each dish with a beer that compliments the meal.
 
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This photo of Schrute Farms is courtesy of TripAdvisor

The internet is going crazy with talk of a spinoff of The Office, featuring none other than Dwight Schrute at his Beet Farms bed and breakfast.

We would watch that in a heartbeet... errr, heartbeat.  We're awaiting the official announcement of the show with beeted... ummm... baited breath.

In the meantime, we figured we would book a trip to Schrute Farms for a little romantic weekend of duck walks and beet wine.  We perused some of the 875 TripAdvisor reviews and found that most people loved the beet wine and beet stew, while others were taken aback by the host's extensive weapons collection and Battlestar Galactica marathons.

Here are the top ten comments that we found:
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As I've mentioned, I swoon over pho. My colleague Lisa, who's also from DC, joins me in craving good pho that's not readily available in South Florida.

Since it was her birthday, I thought I'd make some for a crowd. Over the past few days, I whipped up a more complicated version because the extra labor in making stock from scratch is worth it. I also created an easy version for this blog, assuming readers aren't comfortable making their own stock.

Here's the hard version, with this caveat. Beef stock is one of the elixirs of life. I would drink it for breakfast. No home cook or chef worth her meddle uses boxed stock. The flavor and body of beef stock is an essential building block in cooking.

That said, if you're eating hydroponic tomatoes and out of season asparagus from Peru, doctoring the boxed stuff will do. Here's how to put things together after the jump.

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Chick-fil-A

Chick-Fil-A's calendar features great cows, like Tenderizing Norgay, first cow to climb Everest.

​Chick-fil-A's 2012 calendar is a moo-ving tribute to both bargains and great cows in history.

We love the fact that Chick-fil-A hires bovine marketing and advertising reps. Sure, in a zeal to save their species from the plight of being killed and consumed they offer up their feathered barnyard brethren for the supreme sacrifice - being served between a bun.

But folks, wouldn't we try to sell some cannibal tribe on the taste merits of various other critters if the tribal elders started boiling water and pinching our arms to test for meatiness?

Besides, according to Chick-fil-A, cows have done some pretty cool things. The 2012 Trail Grazers calendar pays homage to some of the best of the moo-vers and shakers like astronomer Cowpernicus, great beauty Cleopatty, and famed climber Tenderizing Norgay,


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D. Sharon Pruitt via Flickr

This proud burger represents our country.

​Here's something that should be shown in every history class in junior high school -- a video representing every war that America's been in from WWII to present day... using food.

In this video by Stefan Nadelman titled Food Fight (what else?), food represents various countries. 

Burgers, chicken nuggets, and chicken sandwiches are the U.S.; matzo is Israel; Bratwurst and pretzels are Germany; kebabs are Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan; fish and chips are England; sushi is Japan; kimchee is Korea; and a Cuban sandwich is, well... Cuba.

Watch the film, which took three months to make, and learn a delicious history lesson. (Note: All food was eaten by the filmmaker and his dog.)

Watch food fight after the jump:
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