Presenting our new feature: Friday Food News Peruse (previously known as Tidbits)

With all that is wrong with the world and the increasing evidence that slackers abound everywhere, it’s nice to see at least one beacon of over-achievement (and dare I say, ruthless competitiveness). Following a link from Slashfood, we find the tale of 15 year old Jennifer Sharpe who broke all Girl Scout cookie sales records by selling (are you sitting?) – 17,328 boxes of cookies!

You know, I was a Brownie (for a short period of time – don’t ask) and I only sold a few boxes. No point in bringing the sales sheet to school. Everyone did that. The market was saturated. Dad wouldn’t take the sales sheet to work and force his underlings to buy them, thus putting me at a disadvantage compared to the girls whose father’s happily shilled for them. My own dad muttered something about character building and doing things on my own. Cold comfort at the time.

What? Oh sorry – I got distracted. Yes, girl scout cookies. Records broken. Brava Jennifer!

Epicurious is asking “What’s the food-related topic you’d like to learn most about?” Yes, they want you the readers to play “assignment editor.” Not a bad idea. Perhaps I shall steal that one day.

Both Ruhlman and the New York Times Dining section are reporting on the return of foie gras to the menus of Chicago. The Times states that, “Chicago may have spent more time talking about foie gras than many of its residents ever did eating it.” and I think that’s probably right. But you know how Chicago gets. Political football is their “national” pastime and that’s why it became such an issue there as opposed to – oh, say California (which I believe also has legislation in place to ban the stuff by 2012) or New York (who isn’t banning it but was sued in 2006 by the Humane Society who want it banned.).

Speaking of New York, food festivals abound this weekend – including The Taste of Tribeca, the Cuisine of Queens and Beyond and a handful of others. Check out Serious Eats for the lowdown on the whens, wheres and whos.

I’d comment more on what Amy, of Cooking with Amy is up to but I am seething with too much jealousy at the moment because the key thing she’s up to at the moment is being in ITALY! Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! I wanna be in Italy. Harumph!

Well, wait. I will comment on the Orange Mango Smoothie she describes because a) it sounds delicious and b) there seems to be a smoothie/slushy trend in the culinary blogosphere happening (My Wooden Spoon has a Slush Punch I am going to try as soon as the weather improves) and I love me some cool slushy goodness.