Courtesy White Castle

Pile 'em up and stuff 'em in. Thanksgiving, White Castle-style

During the week leading up to Thanksgiving, many home cooks find themselves searching for alternative recipes to accommodate the various needs of their dinner guests. Gluten-free, vegetarian, diabetic -- it takes all kinds. But if you're wondering how you can make your fast-food-addicted cousin, double-dog-daring sister, and meat enthusiast uncle more comfortable around your Thanksgiving table this year, perhaps you should consider this kooky recipe for stuffing made out of hamburgers -- specifically ones from White Castle. 

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Flickr Creative Commons

Jax Cafe has been a mainstay in the Twin Cities restaurant scene since 1933.

Jax Cafe, whose tagline is "Serving steaks, not trends," will be dishing up anything but steaks on November 14 at its Hunters Dinner.

Alligator and rattlesnake are among the menu offerings at the $80-a-head dinner, which owner Bill Kozlak says will draw hunters and epicureans alike.

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Photo courtesy of Ken McNulty

The famed 40-year-old cheddar Edward Zahn found in his cheese shop.

Edward Zahn was cleaning out the walk-in cooler in his Oconto, Wisconsin-based County Line Cheese shop when he came upon a very happy accident: several boxes of cheddar cheese that had been repeatedly pushed back by new products over the years.

If it were almost any other foodstuff, Zahn's discovery would be more along the lines of a science experiment, but with cheese, a lot of it just gets better with age.

And Zahn's 40-year-old cheddar, as well as 34-year-old and 28-year-old cheddars he also found, are part of what is most likely the oldest collection of cheese ever assembled and sold to the public, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.

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Paper or crab-stic?

Following a model that has worked well for Lund's, Byerly's, Target, and Rainbow Foods, Supervalu Inc.-owned Cub Foods is now focusing on expanding its reusable bag program. Cub says the goals for the program, over the next few years, are to use more recycled material in its bags, make sure the bags are safe through more stringent toxin testing, and reducing the cost of the bags.
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jm3 / Flickr

Go ahead--pig out

The Sample Room kitchen has enjoyed a reputation for being risk-takers, rule breakers, and pork belly pioneers. Making the most of their connections to local farms, it's the cozy little neighborhood restaurant that other neighborhoods can only dream about.  

Still, one has to give them extra credit for their latest menu, which includes half a pig's head. You read that right. Here's the link--go ahead, click on it. Under "Meat Dishes," look for the Half Pig's Head Smorgasboard (note they somehow resisted the temptation to call it a snort-gasboard) with red onion, pickled egg, pickles and Dijon mustard for $18.  

It's a daunting order.  Even for foodies that slurp down raw oysters and rejoice in eel sushi, we still largely shy away from any food capable of looking up at us with a vacant stare.  But if we're going to put our fork where our environmentalist sensibilities are leaning, it's probably high time we learned to eat more of the animal and stop letting our pets have all the fun.

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Bizarre Foods guru Andrew Zimmern

Minnesota food celebrity and TV show host Andrew Zimmern has won a James Beard Foundation Award for Best Television Show on Location. His popular Bizarre Foods show is now in it's seventh season, with new episodes airing on the Travel Channel Mondays at 8 p.m.

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It probably killed you. Why shouldn't your casket be plastered with images of it?

It goes without saying that your funeral is your last public appearance. Why not share with the world your true passion?  And for a lot of pretty shallow people, that passion is bacon.

According to the Seattle Times, Justin Esch and David Lefkow, the brain trust that brought the world Bacconaise, Bacon Salt, Bacon Lip Balm, and Bacon Lube, have taken things to a new level by introducing the bacon coffin.

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Torani

What will YOU put it on?

​Maybe you hadn't quite hit coffee-drinking age, or perhaps you were just very fond of artificial peach flavoring, but if you remember feeling impossibly fancy ordering a creamy French soda or lightly effervescent Italian soda at whatever coffee shop happened to be closest to your junior high, you should whisper a little "thank you" to Torani syrups, available in virtually every chain and independent coffeehouse across the nation. Oh, but not at Kopplin's. Don't ask for it there. 

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T-bone steaks: naturally heart-shaped

​We've heard of Edible Arrangements, but this one takes the cake, er...steak. 

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Nuggets: a complete source of artistic inspiration

​Last week, the Daily Mail ran a story about Stacey Irvine, a 17-year-old British girl who "has eaten almost nothing else apart from chicken nuggets for almost 15 years." She was rushed to the hospital after collapsing and doctors suspected her health problems could be tied to her diet, which was painfully lacking in nutrients. 

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