The Feed - January 16, 2013

The Feed is my weekly round up of interesting food-related stories from newspapers, magazines, blogs and websites.

Washington Post: “Smoked olive oil becomes a ‘pantry essential,’ by Jim Shahin. Remember a time when smoked food meant barbecue? It’s so much more now, with smoky flavors enjoying extreme popularity at the moment. It’s a bandwagon I’m happy to ride on, and Shahin’s article on smoked olive oil from California’s The Smoked Olive has me hungering to make smoky salad dressings and olive oil mayo (I ordered a bottle of the Sonoma).

Table Matters: “Bartenders: Stop Making (Up) Cocktails,” by Derek Brown. I’m no stranger to creative cocktails—I love making up new drinks. But reading Brown’s column got me thinking that I should spend some time making the classics too. Apparently he thinks professional bartenders should also do so.

CNN Eatocracy: “Eat This List: My 8 most stained and damaged cookbooks,” by Kat Kinsman. Like most cooks, I have some beautiful cookbooks on my shelf…that always seem to stay there. As nice as they are, it’s the beat up ones with the sticky pages and grease spots that spend hours on my kitchen counter that I really love (I’m looking at you The New Basics Cookbook). Kinsman runs through her list of gravy-flecked favorites.

New York Times: “Bandages Not Included,” by Alexandra Jacobs. Remember last week’s kitchen injuries story by Joe Yonan? This week’s story about immersion blender mishaps is even more horrifying. Consider it the gorier sequel. Bloody graphic photo too!