As Christmas approaches, most of us are planning a major holiday meal, particularly if there is going to be a big family gathering.

There is, of course, the traditional expectation of turkey or ham, with all the trimmings we all remember from our childhood. The fact is, though, that there are folks who want to step away from that tradition to offer
 different fare at their holiday table. I spoke to a good friend of mine just recently who said she plans on serving her family a large seafood meal this season. That got me to give some consideration to making some changes as well, especially after hearing my husband complain about how he is still “all turkied-out” from Thanksgiving.

Having lived in Virginia for many years before moving out west, I regularly ate seafood, but, until now, never thought about serving it for a holiday meal. When you get set in a pattern, it's hard to break. I'm open to change, though, and may be adding seafood to my menu this season.

If you also think a seafood meal would be a good alternative to what you customarily prepare for the holidays, here are some recipes passed down to me that you may want to take a look at:

Crab Lasagne

Ingredients:

1/2 lb. lasagne noodles
2 c. crabmeat
2 c. shrimp soup
8-oz. package of cream cheese
2 c. cottage cheese
1 egg
1 medium chopped onion
1 thin-sliced tomato
salt and pepper to taste
2 tsp. basil
Shredded cheddar cheese

What to do:

Boil salted water, cook lasagne noodles for about 15 minutes. After draining the noodles, cover them with cold water. In a separate dish, mix together cream cheese, cottage cheese, egg, onion, salt, pepper and basil. Heat soup and crabmeat in a saucepan. Drain lasagne noodles and place one layer of the noodles in a buttered casserole dish, then layer that with 1/2 of the cream cheese mixture. Next add the soup and crab mixture, but all in a single layer. Follow that with another layer of noodles, followed by the rest of the cream cheese mixture. Put the sliced tomatoes on top and bake casserole in a 350 degree pre-heated oven for about 15 minutes. Take out to add a layer of shredded cheddar cheese, then put the casserole back in the oven to cook for 30-40 minutes.

Eh, this thing's for lightweights. After all, if any of you have ever reached into a bucket of KFC, how often have you stopped after two pieces? Sure, the bacon and cheese add to the lethality, but come on already. Wendy's Baconator features two quarter-pound beef patties, two slices of “cheese,” and six strips of bacon. Sounds almost reasonable to a red-blooded arteriosclerotic American, but that sucker will erode your lifespan to the tune of 970 calories and over 2200 mg of sodium. Burger King's Double Stacker hits you with 560 calories… and the small one. The Quad Stacker has a full 1000.

Y'all oughta swing by the corner of Lake Ave and Boylston St in Pasadena, CA sometime. You'll find Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles right next door to a KFC, with a Popeye's Chicken, McDonald's, and Burger King all within waddling distance. And right across the street is Orean Health Express, an actual vegetarian fast-food drive-thru. I must add that I've never, ever seen a single car at their window.

Dear God: KFC's Chicken-as-Bread Sandwich Is Coming

Are you looking to commit suicide very slowly with food? KFC is here to help! Its new Double Down sandwich is coming to a KFC sad factory near you on April 12th.

You see, it's a sandwich, but instead of bread it uses fried fucking chicken. And in between those two pieces of fried chicken? Bacon and cheese, of course. And what looks like a mayonnaise of some sort, just to add some more fat to the equation.

The sandwich will be available in two forms. The Original Recipe sandwich will set you back about 540 calories, 32g of fat and 1380mg of sodium. The not-as-bad-for-you Grilled Double Down totals 460 calores, 23g of fat and 1430mg of sodium.

This seems like the sort of thing that should be taxed highly to pay for health care, no? Because anyone who eats this on a regular basis will be requiring hospital visits, guaranteed.

Send an email to Adam Frucci, the author of this post, at adam@gizmodo.com.

With the traceability and origin of food on the minds of more and more Londoners, a lambing visit to the farm seemed like a great way to bring Londonist readers a closer to what goes on our plates.

Situated in the Wiltshire countryside, Langley Chase Organic Farm is a small farm with some massive time fans, such as London chef and restaurateur Mark Hix. Home to a flock of multi-horned primitive rare breed Manx Loaghtan sheep, Langley Chase is on occasion the source of lamb and mutton for famed London restaurants like St John. We suspect more restaurants would be keen to include the farm’s meat on their menus but Langley Chase’s guiding ethics and bespoke service quite fit the big scale commercial model required by most eateries.

The flock (now numbering 160) was started 12 years ago by Jane Kallaway after the BSE crisis left her wondering what exactly she was feeding her family. “Ruminants eating ground up ruminants” was beyond the pale for Jane and in the Manx Loaghtan she found a “striking” and endangered breed to rear that was also especially healthy to eat.

Almost 10% lower in cholesterol and 23% lower in fat than commercial breeds, these lean grazing machines enjoy a diet of organic wildflower meadows. The Manx Loaghtan (pronounced Manx Lockton) was introduced to the British Isles during the Iron Age by Vikings. It’s a hearty beast and, given a life beyond the strict timetables of commercial farming, matures slowly and on its own without much need for human intervention. Still, lambing season is busy season down at Langley Chase.

It’s also splendidly photogenic. We marvelled at the amount of work that went into feeding and looking after the ewes and their newborns. We ‘oohed and ahhed’ a lot as well at all the darling lil lambs. Gawking at the multi-horned (and down right satanic looking rams) was fascinating as well. These animals provide a window to the origins of British farming. Our visit ended with a sausage, salami and oak smoked lamb tasting. The Manx Loaghtan lambs are as tasty as they are cute! Visit Langley Chase on the web at www.langleychase.co.uk.

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Fine aint it ?

The Camera-man Is Real, And He's From Pentax

New from Pentax—a smiley faced 52mm lens cap attached to a rag doll! Take a moment to process the true scope of such an idea, then realize that this flower print person is just one of 100 designs:

Each lens-cap-person-thing, also known as a Camera-man, is handmade and available for the equivalent of $33 in Japan. But they're only on the market for a limited time. So if you want to be able to convince your friends of the future that something so dually hideous and impractical once existed as a real product, you'd better bust that Amex out, and quickly. [Pentax via CrunchGear]

UPDATE: Ah, as some of the more caffeinated commenters have pointed out, the doll attaches to the camera body, not the cap itself. That makes much more sense, I mean, relatively speaking.

Send an email to Mark Wilson, the author of this post, at mark@gizmodo.com.

Black and white photography attracts you with its detailed attention to composition, lighting, perspective and the context it is shot in rather than the play of beautiful colors common in other forms of photography. This is the main reason of its impenetrable allure

London based fashion photographer Jessie Craig got into the industry in September 2008 after having edged her way in during her four years at art school. Her work has already been published by publications such as Clash, Dirrty Glam, Vanity Teen, Grazia UK, Contributor Magazine, PUSH IT, Magnificent Magazine, and Milk X Monthly. Last fall she was finalist in the Dazed & Confused Blog Awards, and recently she had some work featured on ELLE.com. She’s not stopping there, because this week she started getting the wheels in motion on a collaborative project that will feature some of London’s best new models of the season. She’s also putting together ideas for a cover shoot with an actress next month.

She’s inspired by paintings and films that have an escapist quality, as well as the subjects she shoots, and she describes her style as “comfortable with a dash of whatever my mood is that day.” All I know is that I love her work, and here’s a taste of it:

Check out the rest of her work here.

Fine is not it ?

CheckSee|Look at} some house photos i love.