Tuesday Megalinks: The Big Blue Edition

While I’m fairly sure my parents’ beloved Giants will have their butts handed to them on Super Bowl Sunday (Yay, optimism!), I’d like to take this moment to bask in the glowing warm warming glow of a semi-successful New York professional sports team. (Gazes at Mets jersey and cries.) Despite the weather, the odds, and the gleamy-cute smile of a magnificently aging Brett Favre, Big Blue pulled it out.

What I’m doing to celebrate:

• Changing my name to Plaxico.
• Wondering what healthy, cheap dish to bring to my friend D’s annual Super Bowl party. (Answer: Seven-Layer Taco Dip. Recipe coming soon.)
• Reading blog posts that have no tie-in to athletics whatsoever, but need a theme for the day. (Also see: um ... me.)
  
• Punting.

Do any of y'all have Super Bowl plans yet? (Beyond swearing at Tom Brady, then feeling bad about it because he's just a young, wealthy, incredibly good-looking quarterback trying to make a living.) Maybe somebody has a staggeringly awesome snack idea? Comment away!

AskMetafilter: In Love with Slashfood, Looking for Alternative “Food Blogs”
If you're on the lookout for solid food blogs, and there is a superfluity of prime suggestions here. That’s right – a superfluity. I’m hitting the thesaurus hard today, everybody.

AskMetafilter: Make Me an Old School Vegan Foodie for One Weekend
Meat-and-dairy-free recipes look very appealing all of a sudden. Could this be a 30 thing? Anyway, this seems like a good place to start if you’re joining the ranks of the milkless.

Casual Kitchen: How to Write an Effective Complaint Letter
Templates for complaint missives are all over Consumerist, but I’ve never seen one directed explicitly towards food. Daniel advocates a calm, cool approach coupled with a sense of humor and lots of specific details. Now, if only this could work at Circuit City…

Cooking Light: A Month of 100-calorie Snacks
Just in time for the post-holiday bloat comes CL’s calendar of goodness. While some recipes are a mite pricey (Proscuitto-wrapped asparagus? For a weekday snack? Wha?), others (dips, etc.) should work for anyone. (Yep, that's a totally link-inappropriate picture of cake placed next to this entry. Go with me here.)

Cooking Light: 10 Casseroles Under 300 Calories
One minor quibble with this list, and this is my problem with a lot of Cooking Light dishes: while I realize their recipes are nifty alternatives to full-fat ones, the portion sizes are cheatingly small. A heaping mound of cheesy goo is an unreasonable expectation, but you should be able to see the food on your plate without resorting to bifocals.

Festival of Frugality #109: On Financial Success
Man, this thing is massive. Kudos to OFS for taking it on.

Get Rich Slowly: 21 Money-Saving Sites from Around the Web
Lots of coupon sites in here, some of which you may not have heard about. As with every JD entry ever, the post worth a look.

The Kitchn: What Was Your Worst Baking Disaster?
This is a bit off-topic, but I secretly love these things. My worst: my RA’s birthday cake in college. I added a cup of water instead of a quarter cup, morphing it into Devil's Food Soup. The frat guys who lived across from me ate it anyway.

Make it From Scratch Festival: To Motherhood and Beyond
Nifty and ever-growing blog carnival for home cooks and artsy types, hosted this week by Sarah at TMaB. CHG's Chicken Provencal post is included, along with good entries from HowToMe on orange zest and The Thinking Mother on using organic cacao in homemade cocoa.

Miss Ginsu: Unlock the Salad Code
Super-cute site with handy graph for the salad-challenged among us. Could it really be that easy? Thanks to Slashfood for the link.

New York Times: Chefs’ New Goal – Looking Dinner in the Eye
Naked Chef Jamie Oliver killed a chicken live onstage in England to give audience members more of a connection to their food. As you can imagine, some crowd members weren’t pleased. However, lots of folks are applauding him for the reality check.

The Simple Dollar: The One-Month Coupon Strategy - A Really Clever Way to Make Coupons Worthwhile
In which Trent discovers that food usually goes on sale about 30 days after a big discount comes out in the paper. Good theory, nice execution. Worth a gander.

Yumblebus: Alton Brown Set Through 2010 with Food Network
YES! YES! YES! Good Eats will remain in production for another few years, meaning my dream of building a convection oven in the shower is that much closer to fruition.

(Photos courtesy of Flickr members jpetralia, wireman2777 and JonHall.)

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