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.

A while ago I bought a few cookbooks by Graham Kerr at a junk shop. Those of you out there of a certain age will remember him as TV's Galloping Gourmet. I have yet to cook any of the recipes in any of them. I'd had all but forgotten about them until the other day when I picked up the Volume 5 Television Cookbook and a decades-old page from a women's magazine containing the ad seen here fell out.

It's got a Peter Max-inspired graphic and copy that extols the nutritional benefits of "Delicious Wonder Bread!" I was pretty certain that this ad was circa 1970. Thanks to the, er, wonders of eBay and other auction sites I was able to confirm this. Seems that around that time Continental Baking had a print campaign involving pictures of boys and girls saying how big they wanted to be. My favorite ad has a picture of a kid with a black eye and bears the headline, "Bigger than Kevin."

Perhaps when I great around to cooking some of Kerr's recipes I'll try the recipe for John Wayne's Cheese Casserole that appeared on the same page. With all its green chiles, eggs, cheese and tomatoes its sounds like some sort of manly 1970s quiche.

Isn't Marshmallow Fluff one of the great American inventions? I mean, it's a jar filled with creamy marshmallow and has a great name like "Fluff," how can you not love it? Even the font on the bottle screams American pop culture and food nostalgia.

This is the 90th Anniversary of the white stuff, which was invented in Somerville, MA by Archibald Query (great name!). The city had a celebration this past weekend, with cooking contests, food, music, games, and other activities.

I don't eat cake much at all, but for the past week I've had an incredible craving for it. I think I might be pregnant.

To celebrate my buying of cake tonight (yellow, with chocolate frosting), here's a Duncan Hines commercial from the early 80s. I love cake without frosting too, if it's really moist (though I'll happily eat it with frosting too). Is it weird that I remember this commercial like I saw it yesterday, including all the dialogue and camera angles?

Yes. Yes it is. Full commercial after the jump!

Creamsicles: the forgotten ice pop treat?

Of course, that's just personal opinion. I'm over 40 so I'm not exactly the demo for popsicles, but do people still eat these in the same number that we ate them when I was a kid? I remember some people hated these things, because they were more traditional popsicle kids. But I liked them once in a while, though I think I would have reached for a popsicle or Fudgsicle first.

Anyway, today is National Creamsicle Day (not to be confused with a Dreamsicle!), and it sounds pretty good, considering the heat wave that a lot of the U.S. is going through right now. And if you're outside the U.S., do you have these things or a similar product?

And if you're an adult, maybe you could try this.

Yes, I know it sounds like the name of some psychedelic band from the 60s, but it's actually the concept behind a new TV commercial from Domino's. If you haven't heard, they have a new dessert on the menu, the Oreo Pizza. It's a big dessert shaped like a pizza, only with so many Oreos on it that you get a mustache when you eat it.

Is it me or is the commercial rather ...off-putting? Take a look after the jump and see what you think.

First of all, this is false advertising. It says Pringles on the lable and even has the funny guy with the mustache, but these are in a bag! Where's that tin tube of stacked chips? And the chips themselves aren't your usual Pringles. They're small, bite-sized chips, more sun-dried tomato flavored "crisps" than regular potato chips.

As for the flavor, they're not bad. They remind me a bit of the Prince Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta I used to buy (whatever happened to that, anyway?). The chips are crispy enough, though they leave a mess on your fingertips.

I'm not quite sure what makes these "Select." They're fine, and would make a great side for your favorite sandwich, but those expecting some sort of higher end "chip" that looks like a Pringles chip but has a more exotic flavor might be a bit disappointed.

Summertime always sparks a craving for hot dogs. No doubt it's largely due to fond memories of childhood barbecues. I've little or no time for whining about whether wieners make for unhealthful eating. Debates about how to cook 'em hold infinitely more interest. As a New Yorker, I'm no stranger to so-called dirty water dogs. I've been known to eat one now and again, but I much prefer the grilled dogs of my childhood. I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit that deep-fried dogs are a relatively new indulgence for me.

Tastiness aside, I realize deep-fried dogs are probably about as good for you as pork cracklins, though no less tasty. Lately I've been reading about hot dog cooking methods that are down right life-threatening. I'm not talking about holding your dog over an open flame with your bare hands, but zapping it with the current that comes out of your wall. Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories gives step-by-step instructions for this novel way to fry your frank along with the warning, "Do not, under any circumstances, cook hot dogs this way." To their credit EMSL repeatedly points out the danger of being electrocuted by cooking a wiener via wall current, and notes that the taste of the final product leaves something to be desired.

The second bizarre method of hot dog cooking I came across is not so much life-threatening in terms of process, but yields a product, that deserves to be called palate deadening. For some reason Jaime J. Weinman decided to microwave a hot dog until all the fat had been rendered out. After 10 minutes of zapping the poor frankfurter, it was reduced to a dry tasteless stick. I'd be hard-pressed to find any cured sausage that didn't taste downright awful after being nuked for five minutes, much less 10.
[via BoingBoing, Serious Eats]

Ah, M&Ms. If you were to name the 10 or 20 classic candies, I'm sure M&Ms would be on that list somewhere. It's a candy we eat as kids and adults, those talking candies are so damn cute in the commercials, we eat them at the movies, and if you haven't heard yet, they melt in your mouth, not in your hand.

The official M&Ms site has a ton of recipes you can make from the little colorful guys. Everything from cookies and cheesecake to brownies and soup. OK, maybe not soup, but seriously, there's a lot of cool snacks here, and they have a handy section of the top 10 recipes.

Run for the hills folks, an army of thousands of Martian whoopie pies has just landed and is intent on colonizing Earth. Their marshmallow-filled wrath knows no mercy. OK, fine they're not from outer space, but this closeup shot sure makes the sweet treats look like they're flying through the ether.

They were cooked up by the Barmy Baker, who says that the sandwiches of chocolate cake and marshmallow are a great way to satisfy one's sweet tooth. She also includes a recipe for the treats, which she adapted from Lora Brady's Chocolate American Style. Compared to some of the whoopie pies I've had in Maine, these things look like they're on steroids.

This is thinking a little too much outside the bun.

A Nebraska family is suing the owners of the Mid Plains Food and Lodging KFC/Taco Bell franchise after an employee allegedly spit and urinated in their food.

Not only does the suit claim that employees did that nastiness, but it also says that there was actually a separate pan in the kitchen set aside for police officers (the father of the family is a cop) that employees would use for, ahem, "special servings" of food. The family says one of the children got very ill and had to go to the ER and that another child got sick too. Yikes.

The suit also says that management was aware of what happened before and after the incident and that they let the employee keep his job anyway. That employee has already plead guilty in an earlier lawsuit.

The hell?

Seattle is thinking about banning microwave popcorn. The Justice Center has had to be evacuated eight times in the past three years because of burnt popcorn in the microwave making the smoke alarms go off. That means over 400 employees have to be evacuated each time. It is also happening in the city's Municipal Tower.

This isn't a joke: read the memo. If the problem continues, they're going to ban it in downtown buildings.

Fans of limited-edition banana-creme Twinkies rejoice! Hostess resumed selling the lightly banana-flavored treats last week and plans to keep them around.

Banana creme was the original filling of the sugar-laden sponge cake when it was first introduced in 1930. A banana shortage forced Hostess to switch to vanilla creme in the 1940s. Since then Hostess has brought back banana Twinkies, but only for limited periods of time. Most recently the fruity treats hit the shelves to promote the film King Kong. Thanks to a 20 percent spike in total Twinkie sales during the promotion Hostess decided to permanently add the flavor to its lineup. I'd like to know what these puppies would taste like wrapped in bacon and then dropped in a deep fryer.

As we previously posted there's a startling new development that's sure to please both caffeine addicts and cops everywhere. A molecular biologist has devised a method to spike doughnuts with caffeine. Previous attempts to lace the sugary fried treats with caffeine proved unsuccessful because of the extremely bitter taste.

Dr. Robert Bohannon of Environostics is the man behind the caffeine-laced doughnuts, which he has dubbed Buzz Donuts. His manufacturing process allows the caffeine to be absorbed in the intestine, thus eliminating any off tastes.

Each of Bohannon's spiked doughnuts contains around 50 mg. of caffeine, the equivalent of a cup of coffee. Just the thought of washing one of these things down with a steaming cup of java makes my palms sweat with anticipation. Look for them to hit the market in October.

Sometimes we forget that all the products in a supermarket are actually invented by someone. They all don't just "come about" in some way. Take cereal. There are many brands and styles, but a lot of the cereal is actually the same. The difference might be in the shape of the cereal or the mascot on the box or something you add to the cereal.

But Cap 'n Crunch has a distinct taste, and the inventor of that taste, Pamela Low, passed away last week.