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Food and drink

Cheese first made at least 7,500 years ago
Little Miss Muffet could have been separating her curds and whey 7,500 years ago, according to a new study that finds the earliest solid evidence of ...
Top chefs join call for gender-neutral Easy-Bake
Some well-known male chefs are getting behind a New Jersey girl's call for Hasbro to make a gender-neutral Easy-Bake Oven. Chefs including Manuel ...
California chefs encourage fresh dining in Cuba
Rice, beans, pork — and lots of it. That's a typical restaurant meal in Cuba, widely regarded by travelers as a culinary wasteland where the variety ...
Last no-alcohol Ala. county votes dry, drinks wet
Clay County has almost 14,000 residents, around 100 churches and not a single place where you can buy a beer legally. There's no Bud Light in the ...
Booze, smokes on agenda for quirky gov't group
Deep in a secure laboratory just outside Washington sits the federal government's heaviest smoker. It is a half-ton hulk of a machine, all brushed ...
NJ teen wants Easy-Bake Oven to appeal to boys
Four-year-old Gavyn Boscio loves to cook and asked for an Easy-Bake Oven for Christmas. But when his big sister went to buy one, she discovered to her ...
Coffee from an elephant's gut fills a $50 cup
In the lush hills of northern Thailand, a herd of 20 elephants is excreting some of the world's most expensive coffee. Trumpeted as earthy in flavor ...
Mongolia finds China can be too close for comfort
After years of testy debate, Mongolia broke ground this spring for a railroad that will haul coal across the pebbled Gobi desert to China, but with ...
Program trains farmworkers to be organic farmers
Bending over beds of shriveled strawberry plants, former farmworker Domitila Martinez pulls pieces of black plastic row covers in preparation for next ...
NYC's famous Stage Deli closes, owner cites rent
The famous Stage Deli in Manhattan has closed. The deli, on Seventh Avenue near 54th Street, got its start 75 years ago. It was known for overstuffed ...
Calif oyster farm closure ends long battle
Kevin Lunny's struggle to keep his family's oyster farm running in Point Reyes National Seashore appears to be over, closing out an era of oysterman ...
Watchdog: US should explain probe of halal company
A national civil rights organization called on U.S. authorities Wednesday to explain their investigation into a leading maker of food for observant ...
Zippers and "Bo-flakes" deck the White House
"Bo-flakes" featuring the first dog and ornaments fashioned from zippers are among the new twists on traditional favorites at the White House this ...
Judge bows out of 'pink slime' suit over ABC ties
A federal judge has recused himself from presiding over a $1.2 billion defamation lawsuit against ABC because his daughter-in-law works as a producer ...
Nolan Ryan to serve up beef cookbook in 2014
A new book by baseball Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan will be a bit of a sizzler. The game's all-time strikeout king is also a longtime Texas rancher and ...
New trail spurs interest in ex-Atlanta rail route
Since a new urban trail opened last month in an old rail corridor in Atlanta, it has drawn a steady stream of joggers, dog-walkers and cyclists to ...
Sandy victims prepare for subdued Thanksgiving
The things that Marge Gatti once cherished are lying on what's left of her deck, spattered in mud, like a yard sale gone awry. The white fur coat she ...
TV chef Art Ginsburg _ Mr. Food _ dies at 81
Art Ginsburg, the delightfully dorky television chef known as Mr. Food, died at his home in Weston, Fla., Wednesday following a struggle with ...
NJ mayor to honor Twitter food stamp challenge
Newark Mayor Cory Booker said he and a Twitter follower will try living on food stamps for at least a week. The idea stemmed from a back-and-forth ...
Dutch govt scraps 'weed pass' for coffee shops
Dope-selling coffee shops in Amsterdam won't be shutting their doors to foreign visitors any time soon, a huge relief to the hundreds of thousands of ...
WHITE HOUSE NOTEBOOK: Fiscal cliff follows Obama
Even in the temples of Asia, President Barack Obama cannot escape thoughts of that fiscal cliff back home. Touring the Wat Pho Royal Monastery in ...
Moonshine makers set up shop in Ga. city hall
Moonshine distillers are making their first batches of legal liquor in this tiny Georgia town's city hall, not far from the mountains and the maroon, ...
How Hungry Girl shed the pounds without guilt
She never set out to become the maven of guilt-free, fun-food dieting, the go-to girl for people who want to have their cake — and cheeseburgers and ...
What happens if Twinkies really do go away?
Let's not panic. We all know that Twinkies, Ding Dongs, Wonder bread and the rest of Hostess Brands' oddly everlasting foods aren't going away any ...
FDA probe: Were deaths linked to energy drink?
Federal health authorities are investigating reports of 13 deaths possibly linked to so-called energy shots and cautioning consumers to talk to their ...