TastyTastic

An Index of 50 Pumpkin Recipes You Should TryYou might want to reserve the traditional pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving dinner, but pumpkin is delicious, good for you, and plentiful this time of year. Sure, you can get all manner of "pumpkin spice" flavored drinks, candies, and treats, but the term "pumpkin spice" doesn't mean there is any pumpkin at all in the product labeled as such. In my opinion, none of them can hold a candle to something warm and fresh-baked in your home. So, you've made pumpkin pie, pumpkin roll, and probably a pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting, but the world is full of recipes that incorporate canned pumpkin. You can also use home-processed pumpkin or better yet, butternut squash (which is classified as a pumpkin) if you know how to do it. Wouldn't it be great to celebrate autumn with pumpkin cookies, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin donuts, pumpkin mousse, pumpkin whoopie pies, pumpkin muffins, and new kinds of pumpkin pies and cakes? Find links to 50 pumpkin recipes that are way better than "pumpkin spice" lattes at Taste of Home.(Image credit: FASTILY) 

The American-Themed Restaurant Chain in the Netherlands and IraqDutch restaurateur Eric Meurs went with his family to a Golden Corral buffet in Florida, and decided that's exactly the kind of restaurant the Netherlands needed. Meurs went home and opened ABC restaurant in Velp, Netherlands, in 2000. Already large, it grew to 750 seats and eight buffet stations over time. One of the draws is Uncle Sam, the restaurant's mascot, a symbol of America who welcomed children. Where should the next location be? Iraq, of course! It wasn't that simple, but ABC opened in Erbil, Iraq, in 2017, with 1800 seats. They now have a second Iraqi location in Sulaimani with 800 seats. And they fill them. The concept of an American buffet with up-front pricing turned out to be very popular, and the decor is Disneyesque, with American icons on the walls and a playground for the kids. The food is American, Mexican, Italian, Asian, and Middle Eastern. They don't claim to be authentic, but more of an American version of those dishes. Both the Dutch and the Iraqis flocked to ABC. Read about this "American" restaurant that's not American at all at Eater.(Image credit: Maarten Meurs)

Genius Method to Eating Ritz CrackersAt their TikTok channel @dailyoriginalshorts, couple Liz and Jeff post home lifehacks and skits. I don’t know about Liz, but Jeff is clearly a genius. He’s figured out the best way to eat Ritz crackers.

Celebrate Shearing Day (or Any Day) with Cacen GneifoThe cycles of farming in Wales revolve around the weather and seasons, and also around the availability of labor. For sheep farmers, that traditionally includes shearing day, a different day for each farm so that neighboring farmers, farm hands, and day laborers can all help out. Getting this many people together means providing hearty food, and that's where cacen gneifo, or shearing cake, comes in. The traditional cake is rare these days, but once it was expected for shearing day. The cake is filled with butter, caraway seeds (for luck with a good harvest), lemon rind, and candied citrus peel, and after baking was sprinkled with powdered sugar. This cake would follow a generous lunch for the shearers, making it a celebration as well as a work day. Old recipes for Welsh shearing cake vary, and you don't see it made much anymore. But Jamie Ellis found a recipe sent to The Englishwoman’s Domestic Magazine in the mid-19th century, and tried it out. Read about traditional shearing day celebrations and get the recipe for cacen gneifo, or Welsh shearing cake, at Atlas Obscura.(Image credit: Keith Moseley) 

Does Beer Expire?Wasn’t there a thought that alcohol should be left fermenting longer for it to taste better? Well, it turns out that beer does go past its prime. However, unlike determining when food such as bread, milk, and fruits spoil– this beverage doesn’t show an easily discernible sign of rotting. According to Neil Witte, one of the 22 Master Cicerones (certified beer experts) in the world, beer does expire. "Because of the alcohol content in beer, and the presence of hops—which have antimicrobial characteristics—there's not any pathogen growth," Witte shared. “The worst thing that's going to happen to beer when it gets old is that it's going to taste bad."Beers can have varying shelf-life based on how they are brewed. The beer artisan recommends that people should drink beer as fresh as possible, especially if the bottle they plan to purchase will not be for aging. Witte also shared how to check if a beer is past its expiration date– and that is through its packaging. "There's no obligation for brewers to provide to consumers the packaging date for the expiration date," says Witte. He recommended to not buy a bottle that doesn’t have a marked expiration date on it.What happens when you get to drink an expired beer? Well, Witte told Eating Well that nothing happens. "The worst thing that's going to happen is that you're going to have a beer that doesn't taste good," he said. “There’s no risk in drinking old beer.” Image credit: Pavel Danilyuk

How to Make Your Own Sriracha SauceWe all love sriracha sauce, but can you recreate that Huy Fong flavor at home? Joshua Bousel of Serious Eats came up with a recipe, and that is a story in itself. He did the research, bought pounds of red jalapeños and Fresno peppers to compare, fermented them with different types of sugar, and went through several methods of pureeing and straining them to get just the right consistency. All those attempts, and only the successes made it into the final recipe. Fermenting the peppers with garlic, salt, and sugar takes about a week. Is the hassle worth it? It depends. The finished product has a fresher taste than the sriracha you would buy at a grocery store, but that alone would not be worth the time involved. This is a project you do because you love doing projects like this. Serving homemade sriracha to guests with a homemade label on it might add to your culinary reputation, too. Read about the experimentation, and get the final recipe at Serious Eats.(Image credit: Serious Eats/Qi Ai)