I know we haven’t even reach one major holiday and I’m already going to ask you to start planning ahead for your next one, whether it’s Christmas, New Year’s, etc. By then, you’ll probably be turkey’d out, so let’s talk beef. Specifically dry-aged beef.

We celebrate Christmas or Chrismukkah with family and our neighborhood friends, and the one thing that’s on the dinner table every single year is steaks or standing rib-roast that I’ve dry-aged at home. I’m too cheap to buy it professionally aged (especially since we usually feed around 12 adults at these parties) and with a spare refrigerator in the garage, it’s not bad in terms of convenience and price.

Earlier this year, back in May, I contacted Thea, the owner of Drybag Steaks about their product. How did I find out about them? Well, Drybag came to my site and mentioned the product in the comments of this post on salting steaks. I was interested. But pissed that the comment was spammy. But, still interested enough to contact them. After emails and phone calls back and forth, they sent me their starter kit which includes a vacuum sealer and several bags, retail $119 to test out their product. I am NOT paid to write this review and I do NOT get anything whatsoever if you buy from them.

The bags are special. They allow moisture to escape but do not allow oxygen to come into the bags creating the perfect seal for dry aging steaks.

I’ve now tested this method 4 separate times over the past 6 months. That’s why it’s taken me so long to get this review together. Also pay attention here: I conducted 4 separate tests…twice with ribeye loin and twice with strip loin. I took about 300 photos during the 4 separate tests. THREE HUNDRED PHOTOS. I’m using the best of the lot – which means that the photos below are a mish-mash from all of the tests. So if the steaks look a little different between photos, that’s why.

A note of caution – for successful dry-aging, you must keep a steady temperature of 34F-38F. If you have an old, rusty, broken refrigerator, please do not attempt. Or, if you only have one refrigerator in the house and your kids open shut open shut open shut the door to sneak finger swipes chocolate cake frosting, you’re better off having someone else do the dry-aging.

I’d like to introduce you to hunk-o-meat.

And this here is the vacuum machine that they sent to me. But that’s not the secret weapon. Not yet…we’ll get to that in a minute.

This is how vacuum sealers USED to look and work prior to Foodsaver. If you have one of these, you’ve probably have had yours for a long time.

First, I want to cut the hunk in half. Hey wait. My strip transformed into a ribeye somewhere down the loin.

And trim some of the fat away. Okay, A LOT of the fat away. There’s enough fat INSIDE the rib loin that I don’t need the fat that’s on the outside.

Put hunk into the secret weapon…the Drybag bag. Trim away excess, but leave some room, because you’ll need that extra space to insert into the vacuum sealer.

Vacuum seal that baby up.

Just a note – not all vacuum seals will work with this bag. i.e. my Foodsaver vacuum seal will not work. The sealer that you want has the special nozzle in the middle that sucks out the air. See the nozzle? The reason why Foodsaver will not work is that these bags are very very thin (in order to let moisture out). Foodsaver will just burn right through the bag.

Get it good and tight. Oh and also, only Drybag bags work. Don’t try to do this with other brands. It won’t work. Foodsaver bags are thick and the whole point of DRY aging is to release moisture. Foodsaver bags will not release moisture.

Place it in the refrigerator. Important: you want air circulation, so place it on a heavy rack. Also use a thermometer in the refrigerator to make sure it’s between 34F-38F.

In fact, for test run #2, I propped the rack up with some boards so more air can circulate around the meat.

Notice that during one of my test runs that there is some trapped air inside the bag. This occurred part way through the aging process.

So, I took it out, snipped off the end and re-vacuum sealed the bag for a tight fit.

After 7-21 days (I aged for 14 days) the steak is ready! See how the Drybag bag clings? You should have to peel it away. It comes off easily.

Trim away the outer, tough layer.

Do that all the away around the loin.

Trimmin’

Now slice the steaks into whatever thickness you’d like. Look at the nice, deep red color that’s typical of aged steaks.

That’s some good lookin’ steak.

As for the taste? Fantastic.

Like most well-aged steaks, it had incredible depth of flavor, deep beefy, earthy, complex flavors that hit every part of the mouth.

And like all steaks, taste and flavors depend first and foremost on how long you’ve aged the steaks, how well you cook the steaks, the breed of the cattle, what they were fed, how they were raised and where they were raised. In fact, you should probably read up on Artisan Steak Tasting.

But take your favorite steak and amp up the flavor and beefy-ness by 10x.

I think what you want to know is:

Q) Does it taste better than professionally aged steaks?

A) About the same. But that also depends on how long the professionally aged steaks were aged. And also results depend on making sure you follow the directions of Drybag (correct sealing, correct/steady temperature, air circulation) and the type of beef you are starting with. Good restaurants and butchers might be aging PRIME steaks…and I tested with CHOICE steaks. That makes a pretty big difference. But I’ll take affordable home-aged steaks over pricey butcher or restaurant steaks any day.

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Q) Is Drybag more effective than home-aging without Drybag?

A) Both yielded same results for me, tastewise. When I dry age without the Drybag, I cover the meat with several layers of cheesecloth – which I have to clean every few days. The cheesecloth ends up getting dirty, bloody and crusty. I know, that sounds gross. The Drybag saved me time over changing and washing cheesecloths and worrying about exposed meat in the refrigerator. But it is an expense. The machine with bags plus shipping will set you back $130. Cheesecloth is cheap.

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Q) Can I use my current Vacuum sealer and bags and do the same thing?

A) No. Don’t try it. The bags are special bags that allow air to breath through. And the Drybag bags do not work in other vacuum sealers like the Foodsaver. They will work with vacuum sealers that have the nozzle thingy that I’ve shown in the photo above. If you have one of those vacuum sealers, just buy the bags.

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FINAL THOUGHTS:
I did have a little bit of trouble getting used to the nozzle vacuum sealer that Drybag sent to me. But that’s probably user error more than anything (I hate reading instructions.) The vacuum sealer doesn’t work as well as my FlavorSeal in terms of sucking all of the air out — I had to try 2-3 times to seal and reseal the bags. My biggest advice to you in terms of using the machine is to leave yourself PLENTY of bag space in case you need to snip and reseal.

Also, part-way through the dry aging, I had to resuck and reseal the bags as I noticed air pockets as shown in the photos above. But this is minor compared to the ease over dry aging the steaks with cheesecloth.

I can see myself dry aging with Drybags probably 4-5 times a year – remember you have to dry age whole roasts, not individual steaks. And a whole roast is massive. In fact, I’ll be dry aging the standing rib roast that we’ll have for Christmas dinner.

For $119 (which includes the vacuum sealer, instructions and the bags) it’s totally worth it. But also remember that Drybag is in the business of selling the BAGS…not the machine. You can get a few bags for $20.

Target market would be small restaurants and families who have an extra refrigerator/freezer. Since you’re dry aging an entire loin, you better have a lot of friends over to eat…or have the freezer room to store the cut steaks! Totally not recommended if you don’t have an entire shelf in your refrigerator to dedicate to this roast. If you’re refrigerator is slammed already for space and you have a family that constantly opens/shuts, I just wouldn’t recommend dry-aging at home anyways. NOT SAFE as the temperature fluctuates too much.

I use the refrigerator in my garage where I store drinks and booze…and it only gets opened when I want drinks and booze…which…is…um….quite…often. But still, it doesn’t get opened very much, and I have a fridge thermometer right on the shelf that I’m constantly aware of.

Once I’ve dry aged the loin, I cut them into 1 1/4-inch to 1 1/2-inch steaks and vacuum seal (with my regular Foodsaver vacuum sealer) each steak individually to store and freeze. For my Christmas standing rib roast, I’ll leave it whole.

In terms of number of days to age, I’ve tried 7 days, 14 days and 21 days. The 14-day aging was my sweet spot. Not that 21 days didn’t taste better (it did!) but I’m just impatient like that and it’s hard for me to wait the full 21 days. For Christmas, I think I’ll do the full 21 days. But that’s just because impatience can’t get in the way. Don’t think my family will stand for having Christmas dinner 7 days earlier just because I wanna eat the damn roast.

Another note on the company who distributes Drybag. The company is called MacPak LLC. The woman who owns this company is Thea, not really the expert on the technology behind how the bags work nor on beef/steaks nor that I was expecting. She passed me onto another gentleman who was a consultant to answer my tough beef questions and the science behind how the bags work. I think MacPak is just a distributor of these bags. I wish the vacuum sealer that they are selling was a better quality sealer, but I would have no idea where to buy a nozzle-vacuum sealer nor do I have the time to test them. But despite this, the bags work. Foodwishes also reviewed and tested Drybag.

I’m still unclear on the science of how these drybags work – how does the bag let moisture out and keep oxygen from coming into the bag? Hmmm…if you have an explanation, please let me know! I’ll enter into this post. If you know of other companies distributing similar bags, I’m happy to contact them and test to offer options.As whether I recommend that you buy or not, that’s really up to you. It’s expensive. An entire loin is expensive. But if you’re a steak whore like me, and can afford it, go for it. I like it and I’ll continue to use it. I am NOT paid to write this review and I do NOT get anything whatsoever if you buy from them. You might want to look on eBay or garage sales for the nozzle-type vacuum sealer if you are bitching about having to buy another vacuum sealer. I see from the comments below that some of y’all are hung up about the fact that it’s a vacuum sealer machine and that you can’t use your Foodsaver machine. Fine. Let’s call this machine something other than a vacuum sealer. Let’s call it a “Magical Steak Aging Sucker Pucker.” All better now?

And if dry aging steaks doesn’t appeal to you, how about tenderizing and flavorizing your steaks using this post on salting steaks!?

UPDATE #1: Commenter Bruce has the best explanation I’ve heard so far:

“I’m guessing that the bags work by having tiny holes of just the right size. Oxygen molecules (O2 – two oxygen atoms stuck together) are a bit bigger than water (one oxygen with two hydrogens, but hydrogen is really, really small)”

UPDATE #2: I love my readers! This is from Ron, who’s a regular participant in the Big Green Egg Forums. He uses a 4-inch sleeve of the Foodsaver bag OVER the Drybag bag — and then seals with this Foodsaver. See his photos.

I know there are certain foods that I really shouldn’t mess with, one of them being fried chicken. And after all these years of cooking, last week was the very first time that I made real buttermilk fried chicken without tinkering, gourmetizing or ethnic-tizin’ with funky ingredients like panko, garam masala, five spice or corn flakes. Just fried chicken straight up. And it’s all thanks to my good friend Ree of The Pioneer Woman, who just came out with her very first cookbook called The Pioneer Woman Cookbook: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl.

One of the best parts of blogging is the sisterhood bond that blossoms between us gals. Ree is one of my bloggah-sistahs who will bring over a bunch of cheap single-serve generic wine from the corner market in a brown baggie and chocolate candy to our hotel room and giggle until the late hours with the gals. I love that we’re both on our book tours at the same time, me takin’ on the big cities of the two coasts and she taking her entire family to blanket the middle of the U.S.

If you are lucky enough to be near any of the cities that Ree and family will stop at, please do go seek her out. She’s loving, genuine and I promise she’ll make you giggle too.

I promised Ree that I wouldn’t ethnic-tize her fried chicken and she promised me she wouldn’t try to country-tize my Chinese Broccoli and Beef when she cooked from my book! I’m proud to say that despite all the temptations of my spice drawer, I kept true to my word.

How to make Buttermilk Fried Chicken

After mixing the flour with the spices, pour in the buttermilk and milk mixture. Use a fork to stir it up a bit until it’s a crumbly, shaggy mess. Shaggy is good. Shaggy means maximum crisp, crunch and happy times.

Now take a piece of buttermilk-soaked chicken and cover it in that flour mixture. Notice I didn’t say “dip” – you want to press that flour into that chicken good! More flour = more happiness.

Heat up your oil and in goes the chicken, just a few pieces at a time so that it’s not overcrowded.

Now cover the pan up. I’m soooo cowboy. I own a Lodge!

Fry for a few minutes, uncover and remove the fried chicken to a baking rack sitting on top of a baking sheet. Once all your chicken is fried, let it bake in the oven to finish cooking.

Do you now see how shaggy = the highest form of enlightenment? This is Buttermilk Fried Chicken, unplugged, unaltered, unethnic-tized, ungourmet’d

Directly after the buttermilk fried chicken dinner, Andrew and Nathan wrote Ree a little note:

Dear Mrs. Pioneer Woman,

We love your buttermilk fried chicken. If you have any openings at the The Pioneer Woman Ranch, we will come work for you if you feed us fried chicken every day.
We aren’t cowboys, but we sure learn fast. I think we have the right skills and in fact our lives are very much the same as yours.

You wrestle cattle. We wrestle and beat up each other:

We can brush your horsies like we brush our friend’s pet pot-bellied pig, Wilbur.

We’ll even scoop porch poop for you. We scoop poop from our hermit crab tank.

And if Oklahoma is anywhere near the ocean, we can even catch dinner.

BIG HUGS & LOVE,

ANDREW AND NATHAN

It’s Friday Favorites…but on Thursday. Because I’m traveling to San Francisco for BlogHer Food tomorrow. I’ll be speaking on a seminar titled “Your Blog is Great…now what? Letting your blog lead the way to new opportunity.” with lovelies Amy Sherman (Cooking with Amy) and Helen Dujardin (Tartelette).

This week’s Friday Favorites is written by Steamy Kitchen intern, Rachael of La Fuji Mama. I sent her off to NYC for a day to take my place at a fun little event with Food Network’s Robin Miller. It’s her first time in NYC — I wonder what kind of trouble she’ll get herself into!?? 

xoxo Jaden

I have a propensity to collect way too many cookbooks.  I can’t say no to a beautiful cookbook.  Food & Wine has come up with a solution to my addiction by boiling down the best 25 cookbooks of the year into ONE volume!  Food & Wine Best of the Best Cookbook Recipes comes out next week featuring favs from Osteria, Art & Soul of Baking, A16, Secrets of the Red Lantern, At Home with Charlie Trotter, Big Night In, Osteria, 660 Curries and a few more.

It’s a knife! It’s a fork! Nope, it’s a Knork! A Knork is a knife and fork in one.  Forget the labor intensive process of eating with utensils in both hands–we love knorks because sometimes you don’t want to bust out a knife (who wants to wash extra dishes!?) Jaden has been using these on television – makes it easier to scoop a bite to eat on-air. Because it’s awkward enough eating with 3 giant video cameras pointing at you…at least the Knork makes the process more elegant.

Have you seen the blog food & style yet? The gorgeous photos alone are worth a visit.

Classic, elegant, beautiful. Take a look at these: Yellow Watermelon Margarita with Chipotle Rim, Okra Shoestring Fries, Green Gazpacho. Many of her recipes include a how-to video that will walk you through the recipe. Viviane is also on Twitter @foodandstyle. I know Jaden has a blog-crush on her!

KEEP GOING! There are 6 more Friday Favorites!

What do you get when you take 2 hidden cameras and a group of little kids? Give each kid a marshmallow, promising them that if they don’t eat it until you come back that you’ll give them another one, and then leave the room? Watch the hilarious video called Oh, The Temptation to find out.

I’d be the kid at the end of the video who pops the marshmallow into her mouth before the tester has even left the room.

Only in America, the land of Big Macs and Whoppers, would someone come up with the idea of using 185 pounds of ground beef and spend 15 hours baking it to make the world’s biggest hamburger!  Rather than appetizing, this burger made by Mallie’s Sports Grill and Bar in Southgate, Michigan, looks more like something out of an old-school horror film.  I can see the headlines now, “Giant hamburger wreaks havoc on the streets Southgate! People die of coronary heart disease in its wake!”

Do the words undisclosed beef quality, mechanically separated chicken, and lactic acid starter culture make you hungry?  Wired Magazine recently published an article listing those items as some of the ingredients in a Slim Jim.  If you’re brave go and read.

But seriously. That stuff is NASTY. But I guess…what the heck was I expecting from a Slim Jim anyways?

During a recent visit by the Dalai Lama to Taiwan, his hotel created a Dalai Lama Latte in his honor.  I want to know if the Dalai Lama went and ordered a “Holy Latte” just to watch the barrista paint his profile with foam.

Sipping Dalai Lama’s face just seems like it would bring bad juju.

We should meditate on that.

New York Magazine explores the world of ice cream innovation with it’s article Chemistry in a Cone.  Did you know that Cold Stone Creamery recently came out with a no-melt ice cream?  There’s something that strikes me as inherently wrong about ice cream that doesn’t melt.

Isn’t the fact that you’ve got to eat your ice cream before it melts part of the fun?

Jamie Oliver’s song, Lamb Curry–Give it to me hot!, which gives the recipe for his lamb curry, is way more impressive when you watch Jamie cooking that curry in real time, and keeping up with his song.  What’s even crazier is the reaction of the audience.  By the expression on their faces you would think he was expounding on the proper methods for emptying out the dryer lint trap.

Steamy Kitchen Friday Favorites

Compiled by Jess Daniel, Steamy Kitchen intern

1) This week I had some old friends come visit. After spending some time on the requisite farm-y tasks: pulling carrots, communing with chickens, picking blackberries for jam, they convinced me to leave my island for a day to venture out into the big city. So Sunday night, we hopped the ferry to the mainland and hightailed it for Jerry Traunfeld’s SEATTLE RESTAURANT, Poppy. I’ve been cooking out of Traunfeld’s Herbfarm cookbook for the whole summer and have fallen head-over-heels into a serious food-crush, so I couldn’t help but dress up nice and spritz on a little extra L’Instant de ‘Guerlain beforehand. And let me tell you, Jerry did not disappoint. What happens when farm, fisherman and culinary genius collide? Answer: my thali platter. Truly, just the qualicum scallops and pork belly with corn sauce were enough to make me swoon.

2) Oh, to be Jerry, concocting magical food adventures for the masses, but, alas!, I have other goals that take up lots of energy — like becoming Dr. Daniel (the PhD kind), and cleaning 300 lbs of potatoes in just a couple of weeks. There are days when I’m exhausted and I just can’t imagine peeling a beet or soaking a tamarind pod and other times when I realize I’m on an island where there are no kaffir lime leaves for miles and miles! But I still want good food, so at times like those, I have to admit, I cheat . My current favorite quick route to food bliss is packets of pre-packaged sauces and mixes for whipping up all of my favorite SINGAPOREAN SPECIALTIES. Yes, they have Hainanese Chicken Rice (really, that one’s not so hard to begin with), but they also have Beef Rendang, Laksa, and an all-time favorite, Chili Crab. You’re in charge the raw ingredients, these Prima packets bring the party: squeeze, stir, mix and serve over rice.

3) Speaking of packets of intense flavor, what do you all think about FERMENTED BEAN CURD? Fragrant, amazing, yummy, or do you have the reaction of this guy? This week, Robin Eckhardt of EatingAsia had some gorgeous photos of bean curd doing its thing in the hot sun in Meinong and it made me nostalgic. I first started using the super pungent, sour stuff when in Cambodia — in dipping sauces for beef dishes and grilled meats, and as flavoring for stir-fried greens. It’s got a cheesy “ripe” flavor (not to be mistaken for “Cambodian cheese,” aka Prahok, aka fermented fish)  and its best eaten in small quantities as a condiment.

4) So this month, I’ve done a lot of sitting in the barn, scrubbing away at potatoes with a piece of burlap sack to get them clean enough to store for the winter. There’s a certain meditative quality to cleaning potatoes, scrub scrub scrub, turn, wipe wipe, scrub some more. But eventually, when I can no longer amuse myself with thoughts of gnocchi or latkes, I pull out my trusty ipod and turn on my virtual buddy Jon Steinman. Steinman is a Canuck who hosts a radio show and podcast called Deconstructing Dinner. It’s a show all about, you guessed it, FOOD — and all the whos, whats, whens, wheres and whys of our food that you’d never ever think to ask. Some of the episodes are pretty Debbie Downer (food companies supporting child labor, anyone?) but my favorite parts are when he highlights farmers and sustainable food businesses and chefs and talks to them about why they do what they do.

5) If he was on this side of the border, Jon might have reported this month on the slew of “Eat Ins” that happened in schools across the US this past Monday to call attention to what’s on the plates of many of the kids here in the States. I have not-so-fond memories of Jr. High featuring second-rate bean burritos, personal pizzas, and dry bready bagels. I’ve heard from friends who were on the inside (lunchroom aides!) that our school kitchen didn’t feature much more than a microwave, so I very much appreciate Slow Food USA’s efforts to influence the Child Nutrition Act and beef up school kitchens and train kitchen staff to do more than “nuke and serve.”

6) This week too, we got our first nationally recognized green restaurant certification standard. Soon, you’ll be able to choose your restaurant not just based on its deliciousness, but also on its friendliness to the environment. GREEN SEAL the certification organization, will have a three tiered system: Bronze, Silver and Gold. I wonder if this’ll make it into Yelp reviews?

7) In fruit news, check out these pears in the shape of BUDDHA. It’s not exactly Virgin Mary toast, but it’s still pretty freaking cool.

I wonder if this kind of thing would recruit more people to become FRUIT GLEANERS? It’s already a pretty cool thing to volunteer with an urban fruit gathering organization. Folks have got fruit in their backyards going to waste; others go pick it, give some to the fruit tree owner, take some home and distribute some to those who need it. Win, win, win. Buuuuuut,  I think I’d be even more likely to volunteer to pick fruit in a neighbor’s backyard if it was shaped like buddha, or a smurf, or what about those funny treasure trolls? Anyhoo, perhaps I’ll send an email to the Portland Fruit Tree Project, or these guys in Toronto.

9) Last random thought for this week. COOK WITH TEA . It’s not something I’ve thought much about, but last week I had some extra figs and ended up making Fig-Star Anise-Tea bread, inspired by a recipe from Jenny of JennyBakes. It sounded amazing and ended up tasting even better and ever since I’ve been hooked on random tea-based recipes. The latest: cornmeal blackberry muffins with Earl Grey infusion. Next up, Real Simple’s earl grey cookies. I’ll bet there are some yummy savory dishes that feature tea too. Have you made something yummy with tea? I want to know!

Hey guys! This week’s Friday Favorites is from Rachael of La Fuji Mama, Steamy Kitchen’s newest intern. Check out that bacon pinata!!!

-xoxo Jaden

Steamy Kitchen Friday Favorites

You know the drill, from left to right, top to bottom:

1) Talk about a crappy job. How would you like to be one of the researchers monitoring all of the lovely “emissions” of livestock at a dairy center? Any takers? As the mother of 2 little girls under the age of three (and thus a pro at dealing with diapers, spit up, etc.), I feel like I’m especially qualified for this job (not that I’m volunteering).  Tesco, a large supermarket company based out of the UK, has fitted the cows at its Dairy Centre of Excellence in Liverpool with a microphone, attached to a special collar, which picks up sounds from their stomachs.  The information generated is used to determine how much methane gas they are emitting in hopes to find ways to reduce methane emissions (and reduce carbon footprint produced by milk production). Wow. I can see the business card now…“Cattle Fart Engineer”

2) Speaking of careers, I’m loving the story of Kari Brunson’s career change.  Brunson has been a ballerina for the Pacific Northwest Ballet for the past 7 years but just announced her retirement last month from the company to start cooking/staging full time for Ethan Stowell’s (one of the star chefs of Seattle) restaurants. From ballet slippers to…..chef clogs. You can follow Kari’s adventures on her blog called Anticiplate.

3) We recently stumbled across a beautiful blog called Show Shanti.  It is about Shanti’s journey to 15 culinary provinces in China to meet families who teach her their favorite recipes.  Shanti is writing a cookbook featuring these recipes and the families who opened their homes to share them.  The writing and photography are both beautiful and engaging.  I was particularly intrigued by a post that mentions a dish called Bianzi Doujiao, braided string beans, made as a welcome dish for guests in one of the homes she visited.

4) In Dorie Greenspan’s August 2009 Newsletter she featured a strange kitchen tool called a Granny Fork.  It may look like a mutated fork, but it’s awesome for mashing stirring and blending, and was one of the tools that Julia Child loved.  I have since acquired my own Granny Fork and now believe that no one’s kitchen is complete without one. I’ve discovered that it makes awesome guacamole and is wonderful for mixing up cake batter.

5) I recently tried my hand at home curing bacon (for an entry in Michael Ruhlman’s BLT From Scratch Challenge).  This must be why I have had bacon on the brain.  I swear everywhere I look I’m seeing something about bacon!  Take for instance these Bacon Flavored Mints that are described as tasting like a delicious slice of crispy bacon with just a hint of mint flavor. Is Bacon Breath is sexy?

6) One of the comics in Flagpole Magazine (a publication out of Athens, GA that covers art, entertainment, music, politics, events, etc.) is called Tofu Baby.  Maybe this shows that I’m totally sleep deprived or that I haven’t been getting enough adult interaction, but this comic just cracks me up.  It features Tofu Baby, a little block of baby tofu that speaks with a lisp.  The comic is written in a four-panelled, four-line-rhyme form, and covers deep topics such as running a lemonade stand or getting sunburned.  Tofu Baby even has his own blog, the Tofu Baby Bwog.

7) Eat your peas, you must….with these Lightsaber Chopsticks. It would be REALLY cool if they actually were lightsabers. but….then…nevermind…ouch.

Some people don’t just play with their food, they wear it on their skin. 25 ugliest food tattoos. How many tequila shots would it take for you to get one of these babies?

9) And we finish off our Friday Favorites back in the bacon corner…with Bacon Pinata…a valiant attempt, an epic failure. The idea was fill it with “meat treats” like pepperoni, sausages, and meatballs…but all did not go as planned–you’ll have to go and read to find out what happened!