Summer Gear: The TableSol!

Don't you just hate that? You're sitting in the sun with some friends, nice drinks and good food, having a good time (so far, so good..). You're stuck in a good conversation and forget all about your beverage. It's been sitting there in the sun since you started talking, warming up in the sunshine. As soon as you stop talking and take a sip, your drink's all warm and yuck!! Well fear no more, the solution is here - and it's called The TableSol!

The Immortal McDonald's French Fries

Morgan Spurlock is the man behind Supersize Me, the documentary in which he tortured himself by eating McDonald’s three times a day for 30 days. The results of his experiment were jaw dropping. He gained 24.5 lbd. (11.1 kg), his cholesterol and blood sugar skyrocketed and fat started accumulating in his liver. Furthermore, his wife claimed his sexual performance wasn’t what it used to be and he had mood swings. This experiment shocked The States and made people rethink their fast-food habits.

A couple of years ago, I found another experiment by Morgan, which I came across recently again. Suitable for Trending Toothpick, I thought! In this experiment he wonders what happens to McDonald’s food when you leave it in a glass jar for a while. These results weren’t pretty either. We added the clip so you can see what happens..

The Edible Pen: Finally!

If you look around in your classroom or office, you're sure to see a couple of people chewing on the tips of their pens. Actually, I am one of them! It's not so much an addiction as it is a habit, but still, it can have some nasty side effects. First of all there´s the dirty chewed up tip of the pen you leave behind, but most recognizable is the nice fat blue ink stain in the corner of your mouth. Well, for all you pen-chewers out there, the solution is here: The Edible Pen by our Dutch designer Dave Hakkens.

Spring time? Cocktail time!

It's time for spring and it is time to start thinking about sitting outside, a new pair of shades and.... cocktails!!! We selected a nice cocktails for you!

Screwdriver 

The screwdriver never gets old:

Ingredients

• 6-8 cubes (cracked) Ice
• 2 measures vodka
• to top up, orange juice

Instructions

Fill a chilled glass with chracked ice. Pour vodka over ice and top up with orange juice. Stir well to mix and decorate with a slice of orange.

Pina Colada 

If you want to pass the spring and go right on to the summer try this one! Also a great song!

Ingredients

• 1/4 shot white rum
• coconut cream
• pineapple juice

Instructions

Mix together with ice and serve in a large decorative glass with a chunk of pineapple on the rim, a cherry,a cocktail umbrella and two straws. (you choose how much rum to cream of coconut and pineapple juice)

Bloody Mary

You hate it or you love it.. Not only cocktail, but also a gruesome legend!

Ingredients

• 4 -6 cubes (cracked) Ice
• 1 dash Worcestershire sauce
• 1 dash tabasco sauce
• 1 measure vodka
• 6 measures tomato juice
• 1/2 a lemon worth lemon juice
• 1 pinch celery salt
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper

Instructions

Put the cracked ice into a shaker. Dash the Worcestershire sauce and Tobasco sauce over the ice and pour in the vodka, tomatoe juice and lemon juice. Shake vigorously until a frost forms. Strain into a tall, chilled glass, add a pinch of celery salt and a pinch of cayenne pepper. Decorate with celery stick and/ or slice of lemon.

Purple rain 

Purple like the song!

Ingredients

1/2 shot grenadine
1/2 shot peach schnapps (archers)
1/2 shot white rum
3 count lemonade

3 count sweet & sour mix
1/2 shot Blue Curacao

Instructions

Fill a collins glass 3/4 full with ice. Add grenadine and peach schapps and white rum into glass. Then fill with sweet and sour and lemonade. Drizzle around the edge of the glass with Blue curacao.

Flaming Lamborghini Cocktail 

The Flaming Lamborghini Cocktail is not a cocktail for 'school nights'. Drink at own risk ;)

Ingredients

• 1 shot kahlua
• 1 shot Bailey's Irish Cream
• 1 shot Blue Curacao
• 1 shot sambuca
• matches

Instructions

Layer Sambuca over kahlua in narrow glass and pour a shot of baileys into one shot glass and blue curacao into another. Place straw into layered kahlua and sambuca and ignite sambuca. Then drink before straw melts and as last dregs of sambuca are being drunk pour in baileys and blue curaçao at the same time. These are to be drunk through the straws at the same time

Chicken on a Beercan

Winter is finally over so it's time to dust off the barbeque and start cooking outside again. It's been a while since the BBQ was out - the last time is was used was at christmas, in the shed, while cooking a 4.8kg Turkey. I took a while - about 3,5 hours - but we never had a better turkey at christmas!

Since then, there hasn't been much BBQ-ing, because it was about -17°C (or 1,4°F) this winter. But that's all finally in the past so we can start looking forward to the summer again.

So what's in store for this year's BBQ season? Let's start with an all time favourite: Chicken on a Beercan. It might sound a little strange at first, but trust us, it is EPIC.

How do you like your brew?

How do you like your brew?

According to us, nothing is more enjoyable after a fine dinner then a nice cup of coffee. There are very many ways of making coffee. Check out the ways of brewing coffee and choose the one you like the best!!

Edible Helium Balloon

In the the Lincoln Park of the ‘Windy City’ Chicago, Illinois, there’s a very unusual restaurant called Alinea. Known for their peculiar dishes, one of the latest inventions is the Green Apple Helium balloon.

[Cooking Gear] Clack: Egg decapitator

In the category ‘Surprising Cooking Equipment’ we find our first item; the Clack. The clack is a steel device with only one purpose: decapitating your egg.

Difficult cooking techniques

Cooking an egg is an easy Job, so is making spaghetti or putting a sausage on the grill. Of course there are also very difficult tasks in the kitchen. For instance, can you poach an egg? Beneath you can see a list of 5 difficult cooking techniques. They don't necessarily have to be in this order; we will let you decide in the poll on the right what the most difficult technique is!

First a House, Then a Car, Then a Weber

Before we can start discussing any food-related items, an important priority has to be dealt with. The fact is that you just can’t start a blog about food without paying your respect to the Godfather of barbequing: George A. Stephen, Sr. – Creator of the Weber Barbeque. Every man should know the story behind his favorite, most important (and often only) kitchen appliance in the world. Therefore we give you a short summary of the story behind the Weber barbeque.

Welcome to Trending Toothpick

Hi and welcome to Trending Toothpick! We are Remco Langedijk & Stefan Volders, two students from Tilburg University. During our studies we found ourselves talking more and more about food and everything related to food. Therefore we thought:Let’s start a blog!

Trending Toothpick is the result and here you will find the cool stuff regarding cooking. This will not be just another recipe database - unless we find recipes that are Legendary – but rather a blog about what interests us about food. Nice ingredients, cool drinks, must-have equipment and much, much more. We hope you like it and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Facebook!

 Greetings Remco & Stefan