Issue 30

Posts From Michael Campbell

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Michael Campbell

Michael Campbell

Michael Campbell is a songwriter and humor essayist. His “Dumpster” column closes every issue of Food & Spirits magazine. He has authored two books, including Are You Going To Eat That? (2009), and Of Mice and Me (2017). He also has four albums of original songs. The latest, My Turn Now, was released in 2015. Learn more at michaelcampbellsongwriter.com.

The Dumpster: The Slow Cooker

Millions rushed out to buy an Instant Pot, this year’s hot kitchen gadget. Many were disappointed to discover the Instant Pot didn’t deliver that kind of pot. It didn’t even deliver instant. But it is a pot. You can bake

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The Dumpster: Take a Load Off

Thanksgiving gluttony skidded right past Christmas indulgence and T-boned into New Year’s revelry. Cookies and cocktails everywhere every day. I can’t say no — that’d be rude. So here I am, as wide as I am tall, psyching myself up

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The Dumpster: Fads Gone Bad

As Food & Spirits celebrates its 10th year of persnicketiness and gluttony, I offer my congratulations to Erik the Publisher. In his honor I’ve come up with a top ten list of food fads from the last ten years that

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The Dumpster: Pie in the Sky

“Tang: breakfast of astronauts!” cried the TV ad. Nope. Tang was never any part of their breakfast. Most astronauts couldn’t stand the stuff. Buzz Aldrin once said bluntly, “Tang sucks.” Tang was concocted by Dr. William A. Mitchell—for General Foods,

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The Dumpster: Tasting Ghosts

Let’s say you come home to the apartment you share with Johnny Knoxville and when you open the front door a gallon of paint spills on your head and of course you look up, about to say “What the f—”

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The Dumpster: Hot Stuff

Mary Avery grew up on a prehistoric dome of salt in the middle of the Louisiana marsh. It was huge: six miles around and with caves 50,000 feet deep. It belonged to her parents, so naturally she wasted no time

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The Dumpster: In the Raw

On a recent jaunt to Hawaii’s Big Island, I was introduced to the traditional bowl of raw ahi stirred up with soy sauce and sesame seeds, called poke. Although it looked like an exposed brain, I fell instantly in love

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The Dumpster: Salad Barred

When I order a cheeseburger, the waiter asks me how I want it. With cheese? What kind? Onion, lettuce, and tomato? They don’t invite me into the kitchen so I can muck around and build it myself. Yet that’s what

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The Dumpster: Knowing your hash from a hole in the ground

If the big bomb hits tomorrow or ISIS hackers succeed in melting down our power grid, I’ll be happy living off the three-day supply of leftover minestrone my wife made. There’s half a roast chicken in the fridge too. If

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Basil vs. Zucchini 0

Every year at this time we make a few notes regarding the hits and misses of our backyard garden so we can do better next year. Basil and zucchini were big producers this year, but what if you don’t have

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