Halloween & Dia De Los Muertos Cupcakes

Skully Pannacotta with figs, raspberries and pomegranate seeds with a mint sugar sauce. Feliz día de los muertos and Happy Halloween everyone!

what makes a pumpkin smile? A big plate of candy corn, that's what!

Happy Halloween Cupcake!

Dracula Cupcake!

Zombie food!! Red velvet raspberry cake with French vanillla cream cheese frosting and a chocolate brain Ugh!

Arrrr me Matey!! Whoaahh Hyhaaa!! Pirate vs Ninja cupcakes decorations made from fondant. Pirate: chocolate cake with chocolate mango and coconut-rum buttercream Ninja: vanilla cake with greentea and sake cream cheese frosting using a modified version of Chockylit's frosting recipe.

****recipe of pumpkin pudding****400g peeling pumpkin without seeds- 80g sugar- 200ml milk- 3 eggs- 2 table spoons of rum (if you like it, you can increase it. I always increase :D)- vanilla essence- cinnamon.
Boil pumpkins, softly put all the ingredients into the food processer, then serve 4-6; Put into the oven or boil.

Pumpkin Beeps! They're coming to get youoooooooo...and rot your teeth!

Beep-a-Boo! I luv these ghosts.

Mmmh chocolatey with chocolate wafers and that peculiar orange-colored white chocolate-like covering. Limited edition for halloween.

Hallowe'en doughnuts From Krispy Kreme. Go get me some!

Obento: Four cheese & potato perogi, jack-o-lantern egg half, orange onigiri with chicken curry filling, southwestern eggroll, beef gyoza, glow in the dark ghost pick, pumpkin pick, yaki udon (chicken, broccoli, teriyaki sauce, peppers, onions, whole wheat udon), vampire bunny cheese, pucca chocolate pretzel cookies.

Obento: Onigiri with salmon and wasabi, cream cheese, orange "onigiri" egg half, cheese skull, cheese pumpkin, kamaboko ghosts, caramel apple dip, glow in the dark ghost, brownie bats. Skull, pumpkins, and egg painted with food color paste. Egg shaped with onigiri egg mold and decorated with nori.

Halloween Brownie Mix with Halloween M&Ms. So festive!!

Shannon won her pumpkin contest at work ($100!) with her hamburger pumpkin. Yes, the bun is pumpkin with seeds glued on it to look like a sesame seed bun. The rest is all real, hamburger, cheese, lettuce, and tomatoes.

Previously on Root Coffee:

Wendy, a crafty blogger at Wisdom of the Moon, has a great post on making your own monstrous cupcakes through clever application of candy decorations. These are scary calories! Link (via Craft).

Update: From the comments: Matt sez, "I like to top mine off with a marshmallows for extra high 3D monster sculpturing."

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Too Hot to Handle: Spicy chili kills amateur chef

He apparently got into bed at 2.30am and started scratching all over. His girlfriend ... woke up and he had gone. It is incredible. Who would have thought he could have died from eating chilli sauce?

Andrew Lee, 33, apparently died after making and eating an intensely spicy chili. Lee was apparently in good health and toxicologists are running tests to figure out exactly what killed him. From the Sydney Morning Herald:

The forklift driver from Edlington, West Yorkshire in England, made a tomato sauce with red chillies grown by his father, but after eating it suffered intense discomfort and itching.

Mr Lee went to bed and asked his girlfriend, Samantha Bailey, to scratch his back until he fell asleep.

When she woke in the morning he was dead, possibly after suffering a heart attack, The Guardian said.

An aspiring chef died after eating a "super hot" chilli sauce in a competition with his girlfriend's brother, an inquest in England has heard.

Andrew Lee, 33, challenged his girlfriend's brother to a contest on September 19 to see who could make and eat the hottest sauce, London's The Times reported.

The forklift driver from Edlington, West Yorkshire in England, made a tomato sauce with red chillies grown by his father, but after eating it suffered intense discomfort and itching.

Mr Lee went to bed and asked his girlfriend, Samantha Bailey, to scratch his back until he fell asleep.

When she woke in the morning he was dead, possibly after suffering a heart attack, The Guardian said.

Paramedics were called to the home but were unable to revive Mr Lee, who was lying on the floor, The Telegraph reported.

Toxicology tests will be conducted to establish if he suffered a reaction to the food. Mr Lee was in perfect health and just passed a medical examination at work, the inquest heard.

Mr Lee's sister, Claire Chadbourne, 29, said he took a jar of the sauce to his girlfriend's home and challenged her brother Michael, 29, to a competition to see who could eat it.

"Andrew just ate the chillies with a plate of Dolmio sauce. It was not a proper meal because he had already eaten lamb chops and potato mash after work," she said.

"He apparently got into bed at 2.30am and started scratching all over. His girlfriend ... woke up and he had gone. It is incredible. Who would have thought he could have died from eating chilli sauce?"

She said a post-mortem examination showed no heart problems.

"He loved cooking for his friends. He always said he wanted to be a chef but didn't want to start at the bottom."

The inquest was adjourned.



via Boing Boing

Why Tea Is Healthier Than Water

Source: Lifehacker

While nobody is running around extolling the virtues of cola as a replacement for water for daily hydration, researchers at Kings College London want to make sure you don't think every non-water drink is a poor substitute for water. After reviewing numerous studies on the benefits of drinking tea, they've concluded that tea is a superior drink.

Dr Ruxton said: "Drinking tea is actually better for you than drinking water. Water is essentially replacing fluid. Tea replaces fluids and contains antioxidants so it's got two things going for it."

Many people have lumped tea in with other caffeine containing drinks such as coffee and colas, as a dehydrating drink. Not a concern, the research team says:

"Studies on caffeine have found very high doses dehydrate and everyone assumes that caffeine-containing beverages dehydrate. But even if you had a really, really strong cup of tea or coffee, which is quite hard to make, you would still have a net gain of fluid."

If you're interested in drinking more tea check out the health benefits of green tea and tips for properly steeping tea. Photo by Kanko*.

Tea 'healthier' drink than water

The researchers recommend people consume three to four cups a day

Drinking three or more cups of tea a day is as good for you as drinking plenty of water and may even have extra health benefits, say researchers.

The work in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition dispels the common belief that tea dehydrates.

Tea not only rehydrates as well as water does, but it can also protect against heart disease and some cancers, UK nutritionists found.

Experts believe flavonoids are the key ingredient in tea that promote health.

Healthy cuppa

These polyphenol antioxidants are found in many foods and plants, including tea leaves, and have been shown to help prevent cell damage.

Tea replaces fluids and contains antioxidants so its got two things going for it Lead author Dr Ruxton

Public health nutritionist Dr Carrie Ruxton, and colleagues at Kings College London, looked at published studies on the health effects of tea consumption.

They found clear evidence that drinking three to four cups of tea a day can cut the chances of having a heart attack.

Some studies suggested tea consumption protected against cancer, although this effect was less clear-cut.

Other health benefits seen included protection against tooth plaque and potentially tooth decay, plus bone strengthening.

Dr Ruxton said: "Drinking tea is actually better for you than drinking water. Water is essentially replacing fluid. Tea replaces fluids and contains antioxidants so it's got two things going for it."

Rehydrating

She said it was an urban myth that tea is dehydrating.

"Studies on caffeine have found very high doses dehydrate and everyone assumes that caffeine-containing beverages dehydrate. But even if you had a really, really strong cup of tea or coffee, which is quite hard to make, you would still have a net gain of fluid.

"Also, a cup of tea contains fluoride, which is good for the teeth," she added.

There was no evidence that tea consumption was harmful to health. However, research suggests that tea can impair the body's ability to absorb iron from food, meaning people at risk of anaemia should avoid drinking tea around mealtimes.

Tea is not dehydrating. It is a healthy drink Claire Williamson of the British Nutrition Foundation

Dr Ruxton's team found average tea consumption was just under three cups per day.

She said the increasing popularity of soft drinks meant many people were not drinking as much tea as before.

"Tea drinking is most common in older people, the 40 plus age range. In older people, tea sometimes made up about 70% of fluid intake so it is a really important contributor," she said.

Claire Williamson of the British Nutrition Foundation said: "Studies in the laboratory have shown potential health benefits.

"The evidence in humans is not as strong and more studies need to be done. But there are definite potential health benefits from the polyphenols in terms of reducing the risk of diseases such as heart disease and cancers.

"In terms of fluid intake, we recommend 1.5-2 litres per day and that can include tea. Tea is not dehydrating. It is a healthy drink."

The Tea Council provided funding for the work. Dr Ruxton stressed that the work was independent.

Custom Lego Sushi Combination

Lego Sushi set that looks almost like the real thing, except for the inedible part. Taken from Big Daddy Nelson Flickr page, these has got to be the most intricate lego sculptures of sushi ever made. Every detail is made to look like its real life counterpart, the ikura sushi (fish eggs seaweed roll) shows its brimming fish eggs, wasabi with uncanny matching color and the ebi sushi (shrimp sushi) that looks ready to be eaten.

Check out more pics of lego sushi sculptures below.















Source: Big Daddy Melson Flickr

Five Mushrooms Searches Several Recipe Sites at Once [Cooking]

When you're looking for a recipe with certain ingredients or by a particular chef, hit up Five Mushrooms, a multi-recipe site search engine which includes results from Allrecipes.com, the Food Network, Yahoo! Food, Cooking.com and Epicurious among others. Search by ingredients—like carrot celery onion—or specific quantities, like 1 egg, or by chef and ingredient, like emeril beef. You can even use advanced operators like the minus sign to exclude results (i.e., cookies -"chocolate chip"). Where do you turn when you need a good recipe for dinner? Let us know in the comments.

Five Mushrooms