A truck pulled into my refuge west of Tucson yesterday and a man got out and proceeded to deliver one of the better sales pitches I'd heard in a while. It would have had me reaching for my wallet if he hadn't been selling steaks and seafood.

Not that Larry Whiston's steak and seafood isn't top notch. Most of the reviews of the meat from his employer, Showcase Meats, are quite good, and the prices seem fair. Alas, this family eats almost no meat, and when I told that to Whiston I could see his heart sink. It was all I could do to hold up the two halves of an acorn squash I was preparing for dinner, as if to say, "No, really, I am a vegetarian. I am not brushing you off like the 57 people before me. My excuse is valid! Believe me!!"

So I told Whiston that I'd let people know they could have meat delivered to their doorstep. This seemed to lighten his mood a little. He said he delivers pork, chicken, seafood and steaks, and that his prices are lower than the supermarket's. He also said the business has a top rating from the Better Business Bureau. His cell phone is 870-1863, and if you call him he'll rush over in his little meat truck.

The life of a door to door meat salesman has got to be a rough one. Here's to you Whiston!

Probably surprising to no one, the person who managed to eat a "10 piece bacon plate, 6 sausage rounds, 6 eggs, 2 texas toast, 4 pancakes, and homefries (4 potatoes worth)" in under a hour was Tucson eating legend Cardboard Shell. Yeah, and she did it in nineteen minutes according to Bacon and Craeggs' Facebook page. Way to go, Michelle. I don't know how you do it, but somehow it's going to apparently take chorizo to stop you from defeating every food challenge concocted in this town.

There's a new restaurant called Thai China Bistro where Buck and Lil's BBQ used to be at 5121 E. Grant Road. Check out the menu, which includes boba tea and a short selection of sushi rolls, over here.

How is it that the catchphrase "Git-R-Done" isn't on the front of this box? It seems so simple. "When you've given up on life, but still need to make dinner for the family...Larry the Cable Guy will help U GIT-R-DONE!" Seriously, marketing people...now that this brilliant merger of celebrity and product is finding itself on a shelf at Big Lots, you only have yourselves to blame.

[@DrinkingWithIan]

I haven't had a chance to try this myself, but a blog called Food Wishes seems to have figured out the great mystery of how to fix leftover pizza. I've largely given up on trying to get slices anywhere near their original state, so I've generally just gone with eating leftover pizza cold. This doesn't really help most people at work, which is generally where my leftovers go to die, but it's at least worth trying.

[Reddit]

For some reason, for the people of NPR's Weekend Edition Saturday, the fame of Paula Deen is a great and peculiar mystery, similar to why people choose to live anywhere outside of our nation's major metropolises. However, thankfully, our liberal conscience in audio form got to the bottom of it all. Despite the fact that her calling is to put deep-fried misery on a plate, she reminds people of the kind aunt they never had or something:

"She makes an amazing apple pie!" Michelle Morgan chimed in.

Apple pie, really? I was scratching my head, trying to make sense of the crazy-for-Paula phenomenon. Doesn't everyone have an apple pie recipe?

And then it dawned on me. It wasn't about the pie. It was about Paula.

On stage, Paula started laughing and telling stories. Each of us felt as if she were speaking directly to us. We'd each just pulled a chair right up to her kitchen table.

"She reminds me of my mom," Alison Keen told me. "Just hanging out in the kitchen."

At a time when lots of people live alone, or have fractured families, knowing Paula Deen fills a void for people, even if it's on TV.

"They feel an intense emotional connection, I think," explains food anthropologist Christine DuBois. "She's very natural, very warm." And for some, DuBois says, "she becomes that wonderful neighbor or that grandma who's missing in our lives."

If you are looking for a place that's open on Thanksgiving and serves something in addition to turkey, check out Mr. K's Barbeque at 4911 N. Stone Ave. (It's on the southwest corner of River and Stone.)

They will be serving their regular menu and a holiday menu. Check out the regular menu here.

But if you really want some turkey and don't want to spend a lot, Mr. K's has a great deal:
Turkey, three sides and a slice of pumpkin pie for only $11.99. It's $6.99 for kids 12 and younger.

Mr. K's will be open from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Call 408-RIBS (7427) for more information.

Organizers of the Tucson Food-Truck Roundup say they'll hold the next event on Monday, Dec. 5. It will be at the same place, Dinnerware Artspace at 119 E. Toole Ave., from 5 to 9 p.m.

MaFooCo will be back with kimchi quesadillas and Korean tacos, and Jamie's Bitchin' Kitchen will be on hand with Cuban sandwiches and the like. You'll also want to bring your sweet tooth to this one, being that three trucks that specialize in desserts have already signed up.

Monday nights are a down night, and this event fills that gap. Plus, where else can one find cake-pops, cupcakes, Cuban sandwiches, Korean-barbecue tacos and whoopie pies all in one place? (Answer: Nowhere.)

Check in over here for updates and more information.

Mary Risley is something of a culinary phenomenon in that she's been teaching culinary-arts classes for 40 years while running a program that feeds the hungry in the San Francisco area. This has not gone unnoticed. She's been awarded the James Beard Humanitarian Award and was named cooking teacher of the year by Bon Appetit.

Here she shows off some slick dance moves while offering sage advice on turkey preparation. Happy Thanksgiving!

It's more of a novelty than anything—one would have to put away a lot of 30 proof whipped cream to notice any physiological disturbances—but it's a nice way to add a festive tone to the dessert course. It comes in a bunch of flavors as well. More on that here.