This seriously makes me want to go on a sandwich rampage

Los Angeles Eater's list of the most Epic Los Angeles Sandwiches to Eat Before You Die.

Some of these look really good, and one of them is right in my neighborhood. Seriously craving a sammie now.

Amazon gets into the screenplay app business, with a huge bonus

Not sure how I hadn't heard about this earlier, but in November Amazon launched Storywriter, a screenwriting program that can be used both online and off. I just downloaded it and haven't really had a chance to try it out, but apparently it's pretty simplistic and easy to use.

And it's free.

But there's more. Apparently Amazon Studio is using Storywriter to scout new talent for its original content. You don't need an agent, contacts or an uncle in the industry. You submit direct to Amazon Studios from Storywriter, simply by clicking on the submit option. It's that easy, apparently.

It also imports already written scripts from a variety of formats. I imported one from Final Draft and it was quick and flawless. I'm impressed so far and am looking forward to playing around with this thing and even submitting a script.

RIP Gleneagles Hotel

Sad news. The Gleneagles Hotel of Torquay, England is no more. Why is this significant?

It's significant because the Gleneagles and its strange former owner, Donald Sinclair, were the inspiration for Basil Fawlty and the BBC series Fawlty Towers.

In the early 1970's the cast of Monty Python had checked into the hotel for a few weeks. John Cleese and his then wife, Connie Booth, were taken with the "marvelously rude" Sinclair. In 1975 Fawlty Towers, inspired by Sinclair and his hotel and created by and starring Cleese and Booth, debuted on the BBC and went on to become a world-wide hit.

Clockwise from top: John Cleese, Connie Booth,
Andrew Sachs and Prunella Scales.

The hotel was built in 1963 and will be replaced with "retirement flats".

H/T to Ministry of British Comedy on FB.

Sophie's vet afflicted by political correctness

All dental health matters!!!

Kitteh lulz.

More Bundt mania!

Funny that this just turned up in this month's Food Network Magazine: The colorful history of Bundt funnel cakes.

From the magazine:

Fifty years ago, a home baker from Houston single-handedly brought the Bundt pan back from the brink of extinction. The Nordic Ware company in Minneapolis had produced the fluted tube pan for more than a decade, but sales were so low they were thinking about discontinuing it. Then, in January 1966, Ella Rita Helfrich entered the annual Pillsbury Bake-Off with her Tunnel of Fudge Cake - a chocolate Bundt cake with a soft fudgy center. 

Ella Rita didn't win the contest (she took the $5,000 second-place prize), but her cake started a craze: Pillsbury received more than 200,000 letters and phone calls asking about the pan, and Nordic Ware started manufacturing Bundt pans seven days a week to keep up with demand. Ella Rita, for her part, was featured in magazines and newspapers and made regular department store appearances to autograph Bundt pans for excited fans. When she died last July at the age of 98 more than 60 million Bundt pans had been sold, and the Tunnel of Fudge Cake remains one of Pillsbury's most-requested recipes. 

To honor Ella Rita, and the 50th anniversary of her cake, our test kitchen chefs created three more Bundt cakes, each with its own surprise inside.

Here are FNM's recipes: Red Velvet Cream Cheese Bundt Cake, Jelly Doughnut Bundt Cake and Peanut Tunnel of Fudge Cake.

Pic snicked from Pillsbury's website.

And here's the cake that saved the Bundt pan: Tunnel of Fudge Cake.

Grandma's Thousand Island Dressing recipe

This makes a giant tub of the most delicious Thousand Island dressing you'll ever experience. At family gatherings we would joke, "Would you like some lettuce with your dressing?"

Speaking of lettuce, this is no time to break out the fancy-schmancy artisan greens. This is a heavy dressing, so just chop up a head of iceberg lettuce and tell your inner food snob to shut it. Also, no need to add in much of anything else to the mix, although croutons always go well with thousand island.

It's a lot of work (plus you have to make it the day before). There are a lot easier thousand island recipes out there. But this one stands on its own, so it's worth it when you want to make something out of the ordinary. Because it makes so much, it also works well for pot-lucks where you get stuck "only" bringing salad.

Ingredients:

• One 64-ounce jar of Best Foods Mayonnaise
• 1 bottle of Heinz Chili Sauce (it only comes in one size)
• 2 bunches green onions, chopped (use some of the greens)
• 6 hard boiled eggs, chopped
• Juice of 1 lemons
• 1-1/2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar (I've also used white vinegar if it's all you have)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Combine mayonnaise and chili sauce in a large bowl. Mix well. Don't panic - I know it looks awful at this stage, but it will get better. Trust me on this one.
2. Add in everything else and mix well. Doesn't it look better already? I told you so.
3. Refrigerate overnight.
4. Serve. Don't forget the lettuce!
5. Enjoy!

KA-CHING!!!!

OMG, just take all of my money please.

I need to adopt this kid like right this second

H/T to JF Berube on Twitter for posting this.

Mystery writing humor

So tempting.

H/T to Aunt Agatha's Mystery Bookshop on FB.

Denna Laing

A new professional sports league, the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL) launched on October 11, 2015 with four teams: Boston Pride, Buffalo Beauts, Connecticut Whale and New York Riveters.

This year's NHL Winter Classic included a game between the Boston Pride and the CWHL's Les Canadiennes de Montreal as part of the festivities. The teams were chosen because the NHL game featured the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens.

During the game, the Pride's Denna Laing was injured in a freak accident when she stepped onto a stick and fell head-first into the boards. Unfortunately, her injury was catastrophic. From the linked article:

Tragically, Denna suffered a severe spinal cord injury playing the sport she loves. As of today, Denna has limited movement of her arms and no feeling in her legs. Our prayer going forward is that Denna can be moved from the Intensive Care Unit to a Rehabilitation Center and continue to fight everyday with her trademark grit and resolve. With respect to her long term prognosis, right now there are more questions than answers.

Travis Roy, who was paralyzed from the neck down during a game while playing for Boston University in 1995, posted what I think is an absolutely amazing message on Facebook. Do take the time to check it out.

Denna's life has been changed forever, and not for the better. One moment she was living her dream, the next it was shattered and taken away from her through no fault of her own. I can't imagine what she and her family are going through right now, but it has to be traumatic and heartbreaking. If you can, please consider visiting her website and making a donation: Denna Laing.

Bundt mania

For some reason I'm suddenly on a Bundt cake kick. I bought a really pretty pan from Williams-Sonoma recently and got a great deal on it due to a combination of it being on sale, plus the professional discount card I got from them when I was in culinary school. Twenty percent off is huge at WS. Unfortunately, it's no longer available according to the WS website. Probably why it was marked down.

Since getting this pan, I've tried three different bundt cakes. First up, Pineapple Poke Bundt Cake, from the Moore or Less Cooking Food Blog.

Being a poke cake, it was so moist I didn't even bother with the glaze. It was wonderful with tea. I gave some of it to my Mom, who isn't much of a pineapple person (when she orders pina coladas I get the pineapple garnish) and she loved it. This will definitely be a go-to cake in the future.

For Christmas, instead of yet another pumpkin pie, I decided to try something different: Pumpkin Spice Cake from Taste of Home.

Everyone loved it. Due to all the craziness of the holiday, I neglected to take a picture of the cake before we cut into it and later divided it up, but I did get a shot of a slice.

Again, the cake was so moist and rich that I didn't bother with frosting and just dusted it with powdered sugar to make it pretty. You can see a better detail from the new bundt pan on this as opposed to the pineapple cake. This is another one I'll make again. I didn't include the pecans called for in the recipe because I don't think it needs them.

I went back to the regular old bundt pan for the Root Beer Float Bundt Cake from Imbibe. It just seemed to suit the cake better.

This cake is really dense and rich - a little goes a long way. It didn't blow me away the way the other two cakes did. After two really moist cakes, this one seemed kind of heavy in comparison.

Notes if you decide to give this one a shot: I needed a lot more root beer for the glaze than the recipe calls for in order to thin it out enough to drizzle. Also, it made a ton of glaze; if you don't want the entire cake covered, maybe cut the recipe for glaze in half.

Despite being pretty happy with these cakes, they brought up an issue I've had since culinary school, and that's feeling funny about using mixes rather than making everything from scratch. The two of these cakes that turned out best (the pineapple and pumpkin spice) both contained not only box cake mixes, but also boxed instant pudding mixes. Once you've been through a culinary program, you become a bit of a food snob; since then I've had an issue of feeling like I shouldn't be using - much less promoting - anything that isn't made from scratch. And that's not even getting into the issue of all the non-natural ingredients (the stuff you can't pronounce) that's in box mixes, but that's for another post. But like I said, the two best cakes weren't from scratch.

If you try any of these cakes let me know how they turn out!

Happy Inception Day, Roy Batty!

H/T to Joel McHale on Twitter. Speaking of Joel McHale, missing The Soup like crazy. Stupid E! Entertainment channel.