Today I went to a supermarket alone and bought: a box of twinkies, a six pack of snickers bars, a bag of string (mozarella) cheese, frozen jalepeno poppers, frozen perogies, and frozen pork appetizers. Standing in the checkout line I realized my cart looked an awful lot like it was the prop for an after school special about bulimia. But here is what I'm actually planning -- County Fair Fried Food Day. I didn't make it the Puyallup fair, and the report I hear on NPR from the LA county fair reported a lack of fried Twinkies, which I've always wanted to try. I'm already planning to fry some mac and cheese, why not use the large amount of oil wisely and eat things that are delicious and terrible for me all day long? I bought in bulk because I anticipate failures. I'll report back. Now I'm off to research deep fry batter recipes and if the Snickers should be frozen before being coated and plunged into hot oil.

updated: Wow, not only does Wikipedia have an entry for deep frying they also have entries for deep fried Twinkies and deep fried Mars bars.

I secretly adore tacky novelty foods. I get quite excited about the fact that pizza delivery chains consistently come up with new things to do with the crust, and when they are in a dry spell they use the pizza dough to create a dessert concoction. I read with interest when the Taco Bell chain included grill presses in all their stores in order to make grilled burritos, and then came up with the Crunchwrap thing which I think is a fabulous way to use all the same ingredients and just make them into a differnt shape. I love the holiday variations on candies and cookie dough in a tube. I admire the various frozen things we can put into toasters. I think my absolute favorite toy food remains the instant oatmeal I had from a few years back. It contained pressed sugar treasure chests which would dissolve in the hot water revealing tiny sugar keys, gold coins and jewels. It tasted terrible, but I was so enchanted by it. I think the equivalent these days involved dinosaurs coming out of eggs.

Do I eat these things? Rarely, this stuff is really bad for you. I mostly stick with a policy of look but don't touch.

But when I saw this today over at Boing Boing I just had to share:

It's even chocolate chip pancakes. Oh goodness how I adore the idea that somebody first thought up this, and then managed to get it made. I'm swooning with the excitement of utter ridiculousness. I mean I know about pigs in a blanket, but this has a whole corn dog hybrid thing going on. Bravo.

There is so much more at the Junk Food Blog, and at Strange New Products.

White whole wheat pizza dough, at 101 Cookbooks.

The Spirit World on jiggers, ponies, and a mini angled measure cup.

Seattle Livejournal on the best Autumn spots.

Chicken and dumpling stew at My Aim Is True.

Sunshine jar, gathers solar power during the day, glows at night, nice. at Popgadget.

Halloween countdowns! I-Mockery on Halloween candy, and X-Entertainment on everything.

Fried Mac and Cheese, first I saw it on an episode of Good Eats (recipe), the next morning Shelterrific taunts me, and now it is something I will eat this week.