Heady food highlights of the past decade

We're just a few weeks from 2010. Not only are we headed toward a new year, it's a new decade as well.

I love that new decade smell.

It's been a fabulous 10 years in the world of food. And by fabulous I mean weird, distorted and fun. Any decade that gives you Martha Stewart wearing a tracking anklet one year and then has her cooking with Snoop Dogg on TV only a few years later qualifies as suitably off-kilter in my book.

Here are a few of my favorite highlights from the decade in food:

CSI: Atlantic Ocean

In 2000, the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley was raised to the surface after 136 years on the ocean floor. Analysis of the remains of four of the eight crew members encased inside showed the men had eaten plenty of corn before their deaths, while the other four ate mostly wheat and rye.

Should have served bomb pops

Convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh chose two pints of mint chocolate chip ice cream for his last meal before his execution in June 2001 in Terre Haute, Ind.

The year of the Rachael

In 2006, Food Network star Rachael Ray won an Emmy, launched a daytime talk show and appeared on Time magazine's list of 100 most influential people. Author Anthony Bourdain declared her food shows "vomit-inducing."

Who needs chefs when you have Brian Boitano

Food Network mainstays Mario Batali and Emeril Lagasse were bumped from prime network spots in 2006 and 2007, respectively.

This made us want to gagavore

The word locavore — to describe someone who eats only locally grown foods — was named by editors of the New Oxford American Dictionary as 2007's Word of the Year.

Corporate quote of the decade

"We endorse our consumers finding innovative ways to use our products."

— Bridget MacConnell, a senior manager of corporate affairs at Kraft, after being told by the New York Times in 2007 that Kool-Aid soaked pickles were all the rage in the Mississippi delta

Corporate quote of the decade: The revenge

"The decision and the courage it takes to remove something when there's pressure on the business — like the sandwiches — is emblematic that we're going to build for the long-term and get back to the roots and the core of our heritage."

— Howard Schultz, Starbucks chairman and chief executive, as he announced in 2008 that the chain would be refocusing its brand on coffee

Olympic-sized munchies

Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps revealed in 2008 that his diet regimen called for 12,000 calories a day, which included a five-egg omelet, three slices of French toast, three chocolate-chip pancakes, a bowl of grits, a pound of pasta, two ham-and-cheese sandwiches, 1,000 calories of energy drinks, another pound of pasta for dinner and an entire pizza washed down with more energy drinks.

From beer summit to brouhaha

In July, President Barack Obama invited Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and James Crowley, a police sergeant who controversially arrested Gates at his home in Cambridge, to the White House for a round of beer to settle differences. The result: U.S. beer manufacturers were angered that only beers made by foreign companies were chosen for the gathering.