You've Got To Taste This
Delicious discoveries, tasty new products, must-cook recipes, and fun food finds
Halloween is right around the corner, and to make sure we were getting in the spooky spirit, some friends and I carved a pumpkin this past weekend! Being the resourceful girls we are, we also made sure we didn't let those delicious pumpkin seeds go to waste.
Toasting pumpkin seeds is one of the easiest ways you can make a snack, and it's certainly a fall favorite. Just scoop them from your pumpkin, remove all that pulp (eww), sprinkle on some spices, and pop them in the oven. They'll be ready to enjoy before you can say, "Trick or treat!"
Pumpkin is also a great-for-you superfood. Pumpkin seeds are a good source of protein and fiber, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, copper, and manganese.
If you're a first-time pumpkin seed toaster, watch our video for an easy tutorial.
Then, start toasting with these creative recipes or your own special ingredients!
- Roasted Pumpkin Seeds from Southern Living (with rosemary and sea salt)
- Crisp Soy Pumpkin Seeds from Sunset (the seeds are covered in soy sauce)
- Spiced Pumpkin Seeds from Real Simple (with celery salt and ground cumin)
- Sugar-and-Spice Pumpkin Seeds from All You (uses brown sugar, chili powder, cumin, and an egg white)
Now 2 questions:
1. What's your favorite way to season toasted pumpkin seeds?
2. Can anyone guess what we carved into our pumpkin? (Hint: Birmingham, AL residents, this guy watches over your city...)
There are good things and bad things about being a stress-induced baker. The good? Around generally tense times, I always provide cake. The bad? I live by myself, and have found that consuming an entire batch of cookies in one sitting can, in fact, be done. But, now that I'm getting married in a mere 19 days, I'm using that baking vice for good (saving money, homemade favors) instead of bad (increasing my coworkers' waistlines).
The majority of my wedding guests are traveling from out of town, so I wanted to give them something to nosh on between the already-planned meals including the reception and the morning-after brunch. Hostess Bags seemed a natural fit.
I wanted to load up the bags with things that reminded people of us, like a bottle of Coke, as my fiance is from Atlanta, but also fill it with things that can be prepped ahead of time and not go stale. Out go the cookies, in come the candied pecans, biscotti, and cheese straws.
This weekend, I sat down to start making the candied pecans and, once I got in my sugar-and-spice groove, it was a snap! I made ten pounds over the course of about five hours. The cost to me? Approximately $60 (Five two-pound bags of pecans from a shopping club at $10.19 each, plus the spices I had on hand). The cost of ordering ten pounds of sugar-and-spice pecans online? $169.50, before shipping and tax!
If you're looking to save money while planning a wedding (not an oxymoron, despite what it might feel like), it can totally be done. All you need is a little time, and a lot of counter space. Stay tuned for more budget wedding ideas, including do-it-yourself favors and other Hostess Bag goodies. For candied pecan recipes, click here!
Popping up in stores nationwide is a healthier snack alternative to the traditional potato chip-popchips. These crispy chips are air-popped so they have less than half t he fat of fried chips and are seasoned with natural ingredients giving them more flavor than baked chips. My personal favorite is salt & pepper (they are DIVINE) although their other flavors like sea salt & vinegar, barbecue, original, and parmesan garlic are tops too. Our staff couldn't decide which flavor we liked best and before we could come up with a general consensus, they were gone.
Praise for popchips is sprouting up all over. From The O List's "A Few Things We Think Are Just Great" to Health Magazine's America's Healthiest Buy 2008 to Real Simple naming them Best Chips, popchip love is definitely contagious.
At the beginning of this year (January '09), popchips made their way from the west coast expanding into the eastern US. They are currently being sold at retailers like Whole Foods, Safeway, Costco, and Target. If you can't find them there, check out popchips' website to find a retailer near or order on amazon.com. (Birmingham, AL folks--I looked the other day and they are sold at the Target on 280!!)
Let me know if you have been able to find them in your city and what your favorite flavors are. These crunchy, bold-flavored chips are an exciting revolution for those of us (like me especially) who love to snack but are always looking for healthier, lower fat/calorie options. (And Weight Watcher folks, they are only 2 to 3 points per serving!)
I'm no sushimi master and I still haven’t tried making the
real deal, but rolling candy sushi is a great start! These bit-sized enjoyments are fun for kids
like myself to make and gobble down by the handful. Beware of the high volume sugar rush. A box
of roll-ups, gummy worms or Swedish Fish, Rice Krispies, marshmallows, and butter
is all you need to make 32 rolls.
What are some fun foods you’ve made or seen?
As winter sneaks up on us and the temperature drops down to a bone-chilling low I have been determined to start a cozy bonfire. There’s just something about this time of year that makes me want to sit around a toasty fire with friends, a warm blanket, and a stick skewered with plump marshmallows. I love the sweet rustic smell of burning wood and toasted marshmallows that seeps into my hair and clothing.
I’ve been an avid devotee of the classic s’more for the first half of my life. Two perfectly roasted marshmallows placed on a small slab of Hershey’s milk chocolate and wedged between two crisp graham crackers. It doesn’t get any better than that. Or does it?
Sunday afternoon I ventured out of my comfort zone and conducted a s’more research project. On my visit to the grocery store my taste buds took a creative approach to picking out different s’more goodies for the bonfire. I admit that I went a little over board.
Lindt Milk Chocolate and Double Milk Chocolate Bars
Ghirardelli Peppermint Bark and Almond bars (I think you could really do some damage with the chocolate squares)
Marshmallows
Peanut Butter
Graham Crackers
Bananas
Anna’s Chocolate Mint Thins and Ginger Thins
I have no self-control when it comes to sweets and having a “sweet tooth” is an under statement. I have a whole mouth full of them. We mixed and matched at least seven different sweet sandwiches. A toasted marshmallow with the chocolate almond bar smashed between two ginger thins. Another marshmallow was paired with peppermint bark and packed between chocolate mint thins. Yum! The possibilities were endless. Peanut butter with roasted banana, a marshmallow, and double milk chocolate sandwiched with graham crackers. Mmmm!
The day ended with sugar rushes and bellyaches, but it was worth it. So before it gets too cold get outside, start a fire (safely), and treat yourself to a s’more.
Can you think of any creative s'more combinations? What are some of your favorites?
I'll admit that when it comes to snack foods, potato chips are my weakness, and while attending the Fancy Foods Show in New York this week, I discovered some that rendered me utterly helpless: William Poll Rosemary Baked Potato Thins.
They're make from Yukon gold potatoes that are sliced thin and baked, with no additives or preservatives. They taste like homemade potato chips, and actually ,they are handmade in small batches by this company. I see no reason to make my own potato chips when I can eat these instead.
The rosemary-flavored thins were my favorites, but they have 12 other hard-to-resist flavors including garlic, herbes de Provence, Moroccan, and Italian. William Poll also has a line of delicious dips, but after I had been at their booth for so long sampling the potato thins, I sort of hated to start back over trying each and every flavor. But I do highly recommend the smoked turkey and sun-dried tomato dips.
William Poll Gourmet Foods is located on Lexington Avenue in New York City, so if you're in the city, run right over there and get yourself some chips. Ask for Stanley. He tells me that the recipe is his 90-year old Mom's recipe. If Mom happens to be in the store that day, you'll want to give her a hug.
If you're more of a crispy-thin potato chip person, my other favorites from the show came from Route 11 Potato Chips. All of their chips are handmade with all-natural ingredients in plant in Mount Jackson, Virginia. Their sweet potato chips won the award at the show for Outstanding Snack Food, and it was certainly well-deserved. Again, I overstayed my welcome at the booth as a munched on these amazing chips. Hey, they're made with sweet potatoes, so they're healthy, right? And, in addition to eating them as a snack, the company owners were giving me all kinds of recipe ideas for using their chips as coatings and toppings. The sweet potato chips were the show winners, but I will say that the other flavors were also pretty darn good.
Between the long list of things pregnant women aren't supposed to eat and the aversions (I had a temporary one to ground beef), it can be hard to find healthy snacks that both you and the baby like. However, one day I was at our local grocery store stocking up for the week, and saw a sample of Van Kaas Gouda cheese. After verifying that it was neither a) soft nor b) unpasteurized (the two cardinal sins of pregnancy cheese consumption), I popped a cube and thought it was the best thing I'd ever put in my mouth. When you're pregnant, if it tastes good, it tastes REALLY good!
Since we were already pretty well stocked in the cheese department, I decided to pass it by...but a few days later I found myself drawn by the Call of the Gouda. Unable to think of anything else, literally, I dropped by the store to pick up some cheese and Rosemary & Olive Oil Triscuits. (The baby drove the car by itself, I swear!)
When I got home, the combination was everything I'd hoped it would be. My husband and our dinner guests agreed, so it wasn't just the hormones talking. I love how the Gouda complements the flavored Triscuits. Not only is the pairing delicious, but it's a great way to get in some calcium and whole grains. I've enjoyed taking a serving to work to nibble on, but next time I enjoy this as an appetizer, I think I'll pair it with a nice glass of the mysterious non-alcholic wine rumored to be at Whole Foods, or an ice-cold Buckler's.
For anyone ignorant of the joys of pimento cheese, I'd encourage you to do a little research by reading Southern Living Executive Food Editor Scott Jones' blog post first. Then check out the Southern Foodways Alliance 2003 Great Pimento Cheese Competition to get a sense of why this stuff generates such enthusiasm south of the Mason-Dixon line. Once educated, come back and we'll have some fun.
Educated? Ok, so here's my story: Last week, I'd made two quarts of pimento cheese for a neighborhood gathering. Even after filling a tower of little finger sandwiches, I still had about a pint left over. How was it going to get consumed? Let's count the ways:
1. Eaten, one spoonful at a time, straight from the refrigerator.
2. Spread inside the pocket of a halved pita that was then toasted on a greased cast iron skillet. Pita crisps more readily than other breads, so when I bit in, I got a satisfying crunch followed by a lava-like gush of molten cheese.
3. Scraped onto pretzel sticks for an after-work snack.
4. Mixed with a dash of smoked paprika for a version that was sort of delicious, but also embarrassingly trendy and just, well, wrong.
5. Eaten on a grilled cheese sandwich nuzzled up next to crisp slices of bacon.
6. Made into Pimento Cheese Cheese Straws. I feel like I should cue the dramatic music here, because this was a major innovation for me. After all, pimento cheese is mostly just cheese and mayonnaise — which is primarily fat — and cheese straws are just flour, cheese, and butter — which is also primarily fat. So after mixing a cup of flour into an equal amount of pimento cheese, I rolled out the dough like piecrust, cut it into pencil-thin lengths, then baked the straws at 350˚F for about 16 minutes. They came out of the oven crunchy and flaky, with tiny nubs of browned cheddar and the irresistible flavor of pimientos throughout (which explains why my fingers disobeyed every attempt to stop the plate-to-mouth action).
That's six ideas from me, but what else do y'all do with pimento cheese? Maybe it could be molded into balls and rolled in crushed pecans for a pimento cheese truffle, or used as a topping for grilled tomatoes... I'm sure we could think of at least 13 variations. So come on and share your thoughts — I'd love to hear them!
Lesser Evil Kettle Corn is the only low-fat, flavored popcorn I’ve ever tried that tastes just like its full-fat cousins. This popcorn is delicious and doesn’t have that dry quality characteristic of most low-fat kettle corn popcorns; the first time I tried it I made sure to take a bag home to my popcorn-loving husband! Lesser Evil’s mission is to create “fun, delicious, better-for-you snacks to help prevent Snackcidents!,” and they certainly deliver on their promise. The company offers 4 different flavors of Kettle Corn – Classic, Black & White, Peanut Butter & Choco, and Maple Pecan (my personal favorite). Lesser Evil Kettle Corn can be purchased online, or at health food stores like Whole Foods and other local retailers.
Is it possible to have a crush on a cracker? If so, then I'm completely besotted with J&M's wine biscuits. Made with real vino, these snacks aren't boozy, but come in two nuanced flavors: Chardonnay, made with white wine, tarragon, and shallots; and Cabernet, which delivers a hit of red wine and black pepper. Hovering somewhere between a shortbread cookie and a cracker, these sweet-savory nibbles have an irresistible texture that had me licking crumbs from the bag, wondering when I'd get a chance to meet (and eat) them again.
They're available at gourmet and specialty shops, online at www.jm-foods.com, and by calling the Arkansas-based company at 800-264-2278. I'd give them as a hostess gift, nestle them onto a cheese plate, or eat them in bed, accompanied by nothing more than a good novel.
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