Though true queso lovers don't need a national holiday to celebrate the glorious cheese-chip pairing, we're pleased to announce once again that today is National Nachos Day.

The festive gooey treat was first served 66 years ago by ingenious maitre d' Ignacio "Nacho" Anaya in a Piedras Negras, Mexico, restaurant, located across the Rio Grande from Texas. According to legend, some Americans happened to stumble upon the eatery just as the chef had stepped out, so Nacho cleverly satiated them by piling a platter of tortilla chips high with cheese and topping them with a zesty jalapeno garnish.

And the carb-heavy dish has been improving ever since, with the additions of everything from Rotel to radishes, cilantro to crema, guacamole to Velveeta, pinto beans to pulled pork.

What are your favorite nacho variations? Spill the beans, after the jump!

• Seven soup recipes from seven new cookbooks help Denver residents stay warm this season.
• Seared scallops, salad and rib-eye are the way to go at the newly revamped Simms Steakhouse.
• The Colorado Beer Festival descends on Colorado Springs this Saturday, and offers more than 70 beers to sample, as well as a designated-driver program.
• The Wynkoop Brewery will hold its own Beers of the Year mini-festival on Saturday, also.
• Dublin-made cream liqueur Coole Swan, which gets its name from Yeats' poem "The Wild Swans of Coole," is finally for sale in Colorado, and one food writer -- who claims it's the finest cream liqueur he's ever tasted -- couldn't be happier.
• A "gastropub" opens in Cherry Creek, inspiring food critic Tucker Shaw to explore the etymology of the word.
• A knife-wielding blogger discovers the bounty of the duck.

Think it's too early to start planning Thanksgiving dinner? Think again! Nov. 26 may seem like a long way off, but for the holiday host, it's right around the corner. That's why each Tuesday until Turkey Day, we'll bring you preparation tips to ensure your Thanksgiving is as smooth as your gravy (should be).

1. Get a head count.
Now's the time to start inviting people to Thanksgiving dinner. If you're thinking about it, chances are good your friends and family are, too. So if your cousin is bringing her new boyfriend, and both sets of grandparents are coming to town, as well as your parents and siblings, you're going to need to figure out how to seat everyone at your small table with three mismatched chairs.

Getting a head count this early ensures you'll have enough time to borrow tables, chairs and whatever other furniture items you need to so that everyone can eat comfortably, and then have a place to lounge when the tryptophan-wine combo sets in. And don't forget to find out who's a vegetarian, who's allergic to nuts, and any other dietary restrictions you'll be dealing with. The last thing you want to hear as you put your orange-scented green beans with toasted almonds on the table is that your cousin's new boyfriend has a severe nut allergy.

America: the land of the free... and the fat. In the nation's more-is-more eating culture, three in five Americans are officially considered overweight -- and kids are no exception, one in three of whom reportedly eats fast food on a daily basis. But waistline-watchdog MSNBC has culled a list of "20 Worst Kids' Foods in America," to shed light upon some particularly fattening kids'-meal culprits.

Categories range from "worst homestyle meal" (Boston Market's Kids' Meat Loaf with Sweet Potato Casserole and Cornbread, which packs a whopping 890 calories into a tiny TV dinner), to "worst beverage" (the super-saccharine SunnyD Smooth Style, which boosts 60 grams of sugar into one measly cup -- triple that of a cup of Tropicana), to the "worst kids' meal in America": Uno Chicago Grill's Kid's Combo with French Fries, a monochromatic carb-fest cramming kids with cheese sticks, chicken nuggets and fries, a monster of a meal weighing in at 1,250 calories and 2,850 milligrams sodium.

It's no wonder that 16 percent of today's youth, aged 6 to 19, is overweight or obese with the gut bombs like those listed in the regular meal rotations, according to the report. Shockingly, "today's children may turn out to be the first generation of Americans whose life expectancy will actually be shorter than that of their parents" because of obesity-related health problems, Michael Pollan writes in "The Omnivore's Dilemma."

What do you think is to blame for the rise of childhood obesity -- is it fair to blame fast-food providers or the parents?

[Via MSNBC]

With the rise of artisan American cheesemakers, it shouldn't be a surprise that some of them, like Rogue Creamery and Uplands Cheese Company, are exporting their cheeses to markets abroad. Tasting even a small bite of the lusciously creamy Rogue River Blue (now, imported to England by Neal's Yard Dairy) makes it clear that stateside cheesemakers mean business when it comes to quality.

Hand wrapped in grape leaves, Rogue River Blue has a smooth complex flavor that ranges from sweet and fruity to nutty. Its texture is intensely rich, reminiscent of a Roquefort Baragnaudes. However, unlike Roquefort -- which is produced from raw sheep's milk -- this blue is made from raw cow's milk. And in contrast to many blues, like Gorgonzola Piccante, this one is more sweet than spicy. So, for those of you whose palates have been traumatized by overly-pungent blues, this one is sure to win you over.

Like most delicious artisanal cheeses, the craftsmanship (and local collaboration) involved in producing Rogue River Blue is directly responsible for its brilliant taste and consistency. The cheese comes from Rogue Creamery in Central Point, Ore. There, in the Rogue River Valley, the wheels are covered in grape leaves that are harvested from nearby Carpenter Hill Vineyard. But these aren't just any grape leaves: They're all macerated in Clear Creek's Pear Brandy and then tied to the cheese with strands of raffia.

While most mobile food trucks have dealt with the animosity of less than enthusiastic local eateries, few are subjected to veritable street-meat turf wars. Yet the revered Los Angeles street vendor, Taco Zone, was set fire to one Friday night this past June, reported the Los Angeles Times. The subject of much debate, the fire's origin was never ascertained -- but motives are surmised to include hate crime, envious competitors, vandals or gang activity.

Regardless, in a city brimming with taco trucks on nearly every corner, Taco Zone reigns supreme in Los Angeles. The no-frills Echo Park truck -- outfitted in a plain metal exterior and typically parked just outside a Von's parking lot -- may be as visually unremarkable as the rest of the fleet of local food trucks, but has garnered a cult following for its zesty authentic Mexican tacos.

More on Taco Zone -- and a photo of their fare -- after the jump.

Pipe Dreams Demi. Photo: Max Shrem.

While affinage -- the process of aging cheeses -- is common in Parisian cheese shops, it's a striking novelty here in the U.S. So it makes sense that cheese shops like Artisanal and Murray's would reach out to our French cousins, fromageries like Alléosse, to perfect this age-old craft. Recently, we discovered beautifully aged cheeses, notably Pearl and Pipe Dreams Demi, from Saxelby Cheesemongers on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

Like Voltaire, the 18th-century French philosopher who compared the intellectual work of assembling the Encyclopédie to cultivating a garden, Anne Saxelby also compares affinage to tending a garden: "I check up on them [the aging goat's milk cheeses] every half hour, moving stuff around and turning the cheeses," says Saxelby, who has been aging cheeses now for about two years.

We decided to try an un-aged Pipe Dreams Demi next to one that's been aged a week and a half to taste the difference (visually, they're extremely apparent – see the photo above). Upon cutting into the younger one (on the left), the paste tends to run from under the beautifully developed bloomy rind. The taste was surprisingly pungent and aggressively remained on the palate for several minutes. On the contrary, the aged Pipe Dreams Demi seemed like an ideal redistribution of the younger one's tanginess. The spicy taste, reminiscent of walnuts and similar to an aged Pouligny Saint Pierre, came in nearly perfectly measured successions.

Barbecue ribs. Photo: biskuit, Flickr.

Oktoberfests are ubiquitous this month. For those not interested in the chug-a-thons and oompah bands, check out this list of alternative options.

Dixon Lambtown USA, Dixon, Calif., Oct. 3: Break out the mint jelly! Attendees can participate in such culinary slugfests as the National Lamb Ribs Eating Contest and Barbecue Cook-Off, not to mention a shearing competition and sheepdog trials. For the kiddies, there's Mutton Bustin' -- a buckin' bronco bruising of the woolly kind.

The Food Network New York City Wine and Food Festival, New York, Oct. 8-11: Hosted by and benefiting the Food Bank for New York City and Share Our Strength, this festival brings the toque and the home cook together. Everyone from sous chefs to casserole queens can attend wine seminars, recipe-creation panels and cooking demonstrations. For the kiddie cook, check out the Kids Get Cooking! series. Your favorite celebrity TV chefs will be there, en masse, including Ming Tsai, Paula Deen, Rachael Ray and Anthony Bourdain, as well as culinary heavyweights such as Sue Torres, Marcus Samuelsson, Odette Fada, Daniel Boulud and David Chang.

Photo: Max Shrem.

Unlike a book not to be judged by its cover, you can always judge a cheese by its rind. Manchester, a raw goat's milk cheese from Consider Bardwell Farm in West Pawlet, Vt., has a stunning rustic rind (that must be eaten!) with ridges and brownish-yellow molds. In the U.S., we tend to associate mold with spoiled food; however, when it comes to artisanal cheese -- especially Manchester -- this association is just plain wrong.

The clay-like appearance of Manchester's ridges (which comes from the use of Italian cheese-basket molds) cannot be separated from the cheese's smooth, sweet aromatic flavor, which makes it comparable to a French Tomme de Savoie. In fact, it's the bacteria and mold around the cheese that contribute to this deliciously well-balanced masterpiece. Just eight weeks into the aging process, Manchester's rind already develops spots of red mold on what Peter Dixon, dairy foods consultant and cheesemaker at Consider Bardwell Farm, calls a "wild rind."

By "wild," does Dixon mean to say that the molds and the bacteria grow naturally out of nowhere? Well, yes and no. After making Manchester, Dixon uses a soft brush dipped in whey to wash the rind. "Whatever microbes like that [whey] will grow," says Dixon. "We make the cheese, and then create the look by turning the cheese and rubbing it a couple of times a week."

Ripe summer tomatoes. Photo: The Ewan, Flickr.

In this weekly series, home cook Bruce Watson works his way through a decades-old family cookbook, adapting the best recipes exclusively for Slashfood.

When I was a kid, the end of the summer brought with it a painful, unpleasant tradition. Every August, when the farmers' market was filled with tomatoes, my parents would buy a few bushels, and the whole family would spend a couple of days blanching, peeling and processing the fruits. Every time, the process resulted in clothing and skin that reeked of tomatoes, fingers that stung and a freezer full of watery tomato sauce that we would defrost throughout the year.

As an adult, I have continued the tradition, although I make my sauce in the fall, when cooking pleasantly warms and perfumes the house, rather than turning it into a sweatbox. I also prefer using canned tomatoes, rather than fresh ones: In addition to sparing my fingers from burns, they produce a sauce that is richer, more flavorful and has a better texture than my parents' marinara. On the other hand, I still use my mom's recipe, which she learned from her Italian godmother, although I add a little bit of red wine vinegar, which gives the sauce more depth. Ultimately, it's a spicy, fennel-accented marinara that freezes well, tastes delicious and is inexpensive to make.

Get the recipe for all-purpose marinara after the jump.

Peek inside a vending machine. Photo: salimfadhley, Flickr.

What do AOL's vending machines look like? "White Castle burgers, five different varieties of Hot Pockets, Klondike bars and Oreo ice cream bars next to a sign offering a discount for Weight Watchers. I think it's safe to say that our vending machine area is being used as a Skinner box," reports Kristyn, a fellow AOL employee.

One employee's behavioral experiment is another's paradise. "I'm really, really jealous," says Jon over at MTV Networks, after being informed of AOL's snack excesses. Featuring far more pedestrian fare like Rice Krispies Treats, Nacho Cheese Doritos and Reese's Pieces, MTV's vending options won't turn any heads. Jon laments that the only real stand-out is the 25-cent can of Coke. "I guess that proves that international conglomerates are in cahoots!" he says. Or it's just a ploy to keep people awake and alert for optimum productivity.

Other big companies aren't faring much better. Jen gave us the scoop on IBM's snack selection, which was similarly standard, with plenty of chips, candy bars and the like. Still, they do try to push some healthier options. "There's a green leaf next to anything that is considered a 'balanced choice,' " says Jen. "It shows IBM's effort in trying to bring about some healthy options to a typically unhealthy way to get food." Don't expect to see any quarter Cokes, though. "The prices are really high, almost $2 for a small bag of chips," she notes. "Price alone would be the reason I wouldn't purchase from the vending machines." Maybe this is IBM's way of discouraging vending machine snacks in favor of fresh fruit or brown-bagged options?

Coupole. Photo: Artisanal.

Unlike some goat's milk cheeses that have a pronounced grassy tang (that for some is unpleasant), Coupole has a mild vegetal taste that is sure to delight all palates. The chewy, dense, creamy texture of Coupole slowly dissolves on the back of the tongue, giving way to a subtle, sweet, yeasty flavor.

In fact, those interested in a beginner's goat cheese should look no further. Coupole is the perfect cheese to educate the less experienced palate on the grassy acidity of goat's milk. And, those who simply appreciate a well-made cheese will certainly be impressed by the well-balanced taste reminiscent of a "chicken-y risotto," according to Liz Thorpe, author of "The Cheese Chronicles" and vice president of Murray's.

Its taste may be atypically mild compared to other delicious goat's milk cheeses, like the ash-coated log from Pipe Dreams Farm, but its size and shape are definitely characteristic of a chèvre, such as Crottin de Chavignol -- a cylindrical dome. Indeed, Coupole's name translates from French to "cupola" or "dome."

Continue reading Coupole - Cheese Course.

Photo: Bill Mealbach

Go big or go home ... hungry.

That's the philosophy of Mallie's Sports Grill of Southgate, Mich., and its owner, Steve Mallie. The restaurant recently became the Guinness World Record holder for the largest commerically sold burger.

The aptly named "Absolutely Ridiculous Burger" is approximately 185.6 pounds, 3 feet tall and 26 inches round, Mallie told Slashfood.

It starts with 200 pounds of uncooked, ground beef (an 80/20 blend) and ends with a patty that takes a whopping 16 hours to cook and another eight hours of resting time. The bun takes an additional eight hours. Mallie's uses a large commercial oven for baking but does have a custom-made form to mold the patty.

Photo: andrea dunlap/flickr.

Yesterday in Washington, D.C., Tom Vilsack, the Agriculture Secretary and Kathleen Merrigan, the Deputy Secretary, announced a new USDA initiative, "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food." Officials say the almost $65 million program will "begin a national conversation to help develop local and regional food systems and spur economic opportunity."

"An American people that is more engaged with their food supply will create new income opportunities for American agriculture," said Vilsack. He also posted a video on You Tube outlining the details of the program. On a consumer level, part of this initiative means knowing where your food comes from, beyond the grocery store produce aisle, as well as bringing locally farmed fruit and vegetables to schools.

The program will also help smaller farmers ship meat and poultry across state lines, in order to boost rural economies and small agriculture businesses. There will be changes to existing USDA programs that cut down logistical and bureaucratic road blocks that make sustainable local agriculture more costly and more difficult.

Adelle. Photo: Murray's.

After spending months tasting mostly French cheeses, it's hard not to compare our diverse American cheeses to their European counterparts, especially Adelle from Ancient Heritage Dairy in Scio, Oregon. A taste of Adelle is like taking a bite of a phenomenally aged French goat's-milk cheese with an oozy texture and a flavor reminiscent of hazelnuts. What's remarkable about Adelle is that, despite this similarity, it's not a goat's-milk cheese.

In contrast to a French goat's-milk cheese like Pouligny Saint Pierre, Adelle's complex taste can be attributed to a combination of milks – that of East Friesian sheep and of Ayrshire Cows. While its rich taste and creamy consistency come from cow's milk, its meaty pungency and finish come from the addition of sheep's milk. Anne Saxelby, owner of Saxelby Cheesemongers, refers to mixed milk cheese as an "American innovation."

The reason for this American technique of mixing milk from different animals has to do with the seasonality of certain milks. For instance, sheep usually stop milking in October. "We could not afford to stop producing cheeses from October until the spring," says Kathy Obringer, co-owner of Ancient Heritage Dairy (with husband Paul). "So, one season, we used the cow's milk from a neighbor in exchange for cheese lessons, and we mixed it with our frozen sheep's milk."

Find out more about Adelle after the jump.