Blog Posts by Sarah Fuss, Shine Staff

Whether pies rise to cupcake status remains to be seen. Take a look at the treats that have been jockeying for position ever since cupcakes peaked.

"Pie to Cupcake: Time's Up," read the title of a New York Times story last week. Ever since announcements about the downfall of cupcakes, the food community has been dying to name the new it dessert. It's true that pie shops are opening in evermore conspicuous locations. Simplethings, a pie and sandwich shop, is about to open along the same chic stretch of Los Angeles as the new location of Magnolia Bakery, birthplace of the modern cupcake. Pies are even creeping into other desserts, such as cake and shakes. Just recently, Bon Appetit magazine did its first round-up of 10 of the Best Places for Pie in the U.S. This is compelling evidence that a trend is afoot, but here's why pie cannot be the next cupcake:

1. Pies are more cumbersome than cupcakes. The no-knife-necessary format of cupcakes surely helped at least as much as Sex and the

Come Thanksgiving, we flock to the web to find recipes we need -- a new variation on pumpkin pie, an amazing expression of sweet potatoes, or a turkey recipe that will not fail us. We enter the name of the dish we're looking for into the search bar, and hope to be presented with the perfect recipe in return. What are the most searched terms? This is a countdown from 10 to 1 of the most searched Thanksgiving dishes on Yahoo! As the food editor, I've added a recipe pick for each, so you can stop hunting and begin enjoying the holiday! (If you make any of them this Thanksgiving, please come back to share how it went.)

Soda companies are always trying to make a splash by launching new flavors outside of their stable of primary breadwinners. They feature these spin-offs in commercials with extremely upbeat music, extreme sporting, and other such promises for a more exciting life. When it comes to publicity stunt beverages, Jones Soda does none of this. Instead of trying to think up new splashy drinks packaged with a lot of promises, Jones makes the most bizarre flavored sodas they can think of without any promises at all.

This month they have launched Bacon Soda, which is flavored by another special invention, Bacon Salt. Also new this year is their Tofurky and Gravy soda. Turkey and Gravy soda has been one of their shockers since 2003, but this year they must be feeling the vegetarian drum beat. Tofurky is a tofu meat-substitute often enjoyed in the shape of a hot dog. This is the first time you'll see it in the shape of a bottle.

Jones does not want us to think these sodas will improve our

We can't buy the clothes in Vogue, so it follows that we would not be able to cook from the cookbooks they feature. Their holiday list begins with Noma, a book named after a renowned restaurant in Copenhagen, which has made impressive use of molecular gastronomy and local produce, and redefined Nordic cuisine. Chef Rene Redzepi is doing indescribable things that we will not be tasting, or cooking, despite the publication of this book. Take as one impossible example, this Snowman Dessert, pictured, which calls for 70 grams of sea buckthorn juice, 4 grams of sorbet stabilizer, and 35 other ingredients. Recipes like these are not meant for home cooks, especially American ones.

However, the pictures by Ditte Isager are actual magic. Not Harry Potter magic, but worldly magic that exists within Redzepi's recipes and Isager's photography. After looking through the rich prints of incredible food arrangements, I began picturing the hardbound volume in my living room, like an art book, which

It's been a minute since we checked in on Jamie. We found two new striking pieces of news...

Piece of news #1: The next episode of Food Revolution will be filmed in Los Angeles, where Jamie and his wife, Jools, plan to move in January. However, the show will not take place within the city's public schools. The Los Angeles Unified School District wrote a no-thank-you letter last week to the show's supervising producer. The document was signed by director of partnerships in the superintendent's office, Melissa Infusino, who told the Los Angeles Times, "Our feeling was that his time would be better spent or invested in other communities."

The district believes that they are already on a successful course with the help of nutrition experts, health advocates, and others. They were also concerned that the show would be too time consuming for a district so short on teachers and work days. Infusio has spoken with the show about areas where it could be helpful, like in the city's "food

For people who stay on top of food trends and chefs, the Momofuku family of restaurants in New York is important these days. And based on the pork bun I ate at their Ssäm Bar, it could remain important for a good long while. If you're not one of the food-obsessed, you may wonder why you're reading about my pork bun. I'll tell you:

Crazy online sweets.

The Milk Bar is the chairless dessert bar attached to Momofuku Ssäm Bar on 2nd Avenue. (There is a second location of Milk Bar in Midtown). Cereal milk-flavored soft serve is one of the experimental desserts they're known for. Its taste is so exactly like the milk at the end of a bowl of cornflakes that it's hard to say whether I liked it so much as I was in awe of it. I had it in a quad plate this summer with their barbecue, sweet corn, and grape soda soft serve flavors. The barbecue flavored ice cream haunts me and the others were not good-tasting, either, but altogether they were extremely interesting to be around which seemed to be

Since 2006, Food Network star Sandra Lee has been dating New York politician Andrew Cuomo. Since yesterday, Andrew Cuomo was elected governor of New York. So, Sandra Lee is essentially the new first lady of New York.

This revelation sent our imaginations into a marshmallow fluff. Sandra may cook with jalapeño processed cheese, but she's no cheap date. Her 2005 divorce settlement from zillionaire Bruce Karatz was estimated by the Daily Beast in the mid-EIGHT figures. She's a woman of many faces, so what could her proximity to power mean? Here's what we want to know:

1. Will Yankee Stadium now serve Candy Castle Cake?

2. Will there be Harley Parties upstate?

3. Will the state extend Halloween? (Actually, all her costumes are worth a look: Cher as the Dark Lady, Robin Hood, Lady Marian, Queen Elizabeth, and here's a behind the scenes shot for good measure.)

4. Will Sandra Lee Semi-Homemade magazine cover politics?

5. Will her recipes be forced to address child obesity?

6. Will

It's been 16 years since the McRib has been available in McDonald's nationwide. This week it returns for a brief 20-day appearance that ends on November 22. That kind of multi-decade separation and brief reunion is the stuff of tragic love stories. For the McRib's cult of followers, it's a drama they know well. The McRib is a wanderer, a sandwich that can't commit. It does make quick surprise appearances in one section of the country or another, but then disappears for years at a time.

This is only the third time that the sandwich has appeared nationally since its debut in 1982. Last time it was lured out by a promotion with The Flintstones live-action movie. (Yup it's been that long). Since then this pork sandwich has been so difficult to keep track of in America that one fanatic opened an online McRib Locator.

As with many semi-dysfunctional relationships, it's hard to explain in words why people feel so strongly about the McRib. Eater.com describes it as "a boneless pork product