I have been waiting for some clever charlie to figure this out. Single-cup brewers have been an environmental nightmare, what with roughly 5 billion of those damned “coffee pods” ending up in landfills in 2011. The pods are neither recyclable nor compostable, but now, finally, there is a reusable option for Keurig machines. Fill the pod your own grounds, to your desired strength, and brew away one cup at a time, if that’s your thing.

Ekobrew Reusable Filter for Keurig Single Cup Brewers.

I have never been so tempted to open a restaurant. Look at those turquoise chairs at the counter!

“This 1946 Pullman Budd Round End Observation Kitchen and Dining Car – is no longer in use and is being sold by the rail service company to free up funds.

This WWII vintage dining and kitchen car  was manufactured by Pullman in 1946 and at the time was state of the art. Relive the past and buy this 85′ car as a guest house, starter restaurant or put it back on the tracks.

The interior is in excellent shape and includes a coffee bar, kitchen and dining area. The under carriage was certified four years ago.”

Pullman Railroad Budd Round End Observation Kitchen and Dining Car – 1946.

Strippers jumping out of cakes is so passé. But zombies? Now that’s a party! In honor of Halloween (and Zombie-Americans’ $5 billion share of our economy), here’s an incredible photo of my friend Carrie’s creepy-fabulous birthday cake. Yes, that is an undead corpse’s hand trying to escape its red velvet tomb and grab you with its delicious marzipan fingers. This fully edible work of pastry art was created by Cakes by Mona New York, based on Carrie’s design. The birthday girl gives the cake a rotting, gore-covered thumbs up: “Best bloody cake that a fondant loving zombie could hope for.”

I’ve always loved halvah in principle but not in practice. On the one hand, what’s not to love about dense, flaky sweetened tahini studded with pistachios? On the other–lord almighty is that sweet! My teeth ache just thinking about it. So what to do with the glorious pound of halvah (pictured here) that my dear friend Avigail brought me from Israel (along with a jar of green Ethiopian tahini that I hoard and covet)? I was so grateful, but panicked as she handed it to me. How am I going to go through an entire pound of halvah without collapsing in a diabetic coma? “By the way,” says the dear friend, reading my mind, “my family tells me they eat this with yogurt over there.” Fortunately halvah has a half-life of maybe a century, because it took me weeks to get the nerve to crack the package and take a teeth-achy nibble. Then I remembered–yogurt! I took a hefty scoop and crumbled it all over a bowl of Greek yogurt…It was a revelation. The yogurt tang covered the intense sweetness, and the halvah mellowed the yogurt. The nutty flavor came forward, and the textures of flaky, crunchy and creamy came together like a bowl of Holy Land Chubby Hubby. That tub of halvah was gone in a couple weeks, and now I can’t eat yogurt any other way.