This smooth lobster spread is a bit of
heaven. Photo courtesy Giovanni’s.

We don’t know who gave us this little tin of Giovanni’s Lobster Pâté with Cognac. We were browsing through a box of unopened food samples and the little blue can with the big red lobster popped out at us. It may have arrived in a holiday basket last year.

But whoever you are: Thank you! Thank you!

We didn’t have high expectations, but boy were we surprised. And for $2.49 per 2.75-ounce tin, it’s a bargain. (Small size, huge taste).

Very smooth and creamy, with forward flavors of fine lobster and Cognac, it was so delicious that we tracked it down on Amazon.com and ordered 12 cans. And that’s just for us.

For the holidays, we’ll return for the 48-pack: $149.00. Stocking stuffers don’t get better than this!We’ll be back to order a supply for holiday gifts.

Now about Champagne Day: There is some confusion over the date. Some sources say it’s October 26th; others give December 31st and even August 4th.

The difference is Champagne Day (October 26th) versus National Champagne Day (December 31st). The former was declared by the Champagne Bureau, the U.S. representative of the Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne (CIVC), the trade association that represents the grape growers and houses of the Champagne region of France.

We love a reason to open a bottle, so we’re happy to celebrate National Champagne Day several times a year. We’ll pop the cork tonight and serve the Champagne with Giovanni’s Lobster Pâté.

We enjoy it spread on warm toast quarters (brioche or white bread); but you can use crackers or eat it straight from the can. It’s that irresistible.

Check out our overview of Champagne and sparkling wine.

Decorating your own individual Halloween pizza is a fun family dinner activity on the nights leading up to Halloween. Or, turn it into a Halloween party feature.

Set out bowls of garnishes—bell pepper, sliced mushrooms pepperoni, olives (eyes)—and let the participants make their own designs.

If your kids are too young to plan a design, you can design the pizzas yourself.

And if you don’t have the time to make your own pizza crusts, you can use frozen cheese pizzas. Here’s how from TasteOfHome.com.

 
PERSONAL HALLOWEEN PIZZA RECIPE

Ingredients: Crust

Create your own creepy pie design. Photo courtesy Fleischmann’s Yeast.

Ingredients: Toppings

Turn your pizza into a jack-o-lantern. Photo courtesy TasteOfHome.com.

PREPARATION

The biggest task in this recipe is creating the crusts. You can do this in advance and refrigerate overnight or freeze them for up to one month.

1. PREHEAT. Preheat oven to 425°F.

2, MIX. Combine 2 cups flour, undissolved yeast, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Add very warm water and oil; mix until well blended, about 1 minute.

3. ADD. Gradually add enough remaining flour to make a soft dough. Dough should form a ball and will be slightly sticky. Knead† on a floured surface, adding additional flour if necessary, until smooth and elastic, about 4 minutes. Divide dough into 8 portions; cover. If using RapidRise yeast, let dough rise for 10 minutes.

5. BAKE. Bake for 6 to 7 minutes; dough will be just set and only lightly browned on the bottom. Remove crusts to a wire rack to cool. Continue with remaining pizza dough (it works best when you use use several baking sheets). You can use crusts immediately or place them in freezer bags and freeze for up to 1 month. If making a day ahead, place crusts in resealable plastic bags and refrigerate.

6. BAKE AGAIN. When ready to serve, preheat oven to 475°F. Spread each crust with pizza sauce. Top with desired toppings to make Halloween designs. At this point in the dinner or party, each guest should decorate his or her pizza. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 6 to 8 minutes, until cheese is melted and lightly browned and bottom of crust is browned.

Alternatively, you can bring baked, undecorated pizzas to the table ready to decorate and eat. The pizzas may will cool during the design process, but that’s what microwaves are for.
 
This recipe and photo are courtesy Fleischmann’s Yeast. This year Fleischmann’s and sister brand Karo Syrup have donated $200,000 to Share our Strength’s No Kid Hungry® campaign. Teach the kids that “together we can make a difference.” Tell them they can donate some of that Halloween cash to NoKidHungry.org.

*If you don’t have a thermometer, water should feel very warm to the touch.
 
†To knead the dough, add just enough flour to the dough and your hands to keep the dough from sticking. Flatten dough and fold it toward you. Using the heels of your hands, push the dough away with a rolling motion. Rotate dough a quarter turn and repeat the “fold, push and turn” steps. Keep kneading dough until it is smooth and elastic. Use a little more flour if dough becomes too sticky, always working the flour into the ball of dough.
 
Find more of our favorite pizza recipes.

Grilled beef and horseradish-yogurt spread
on a baguette. Photo courtesy Nature’s
Flavours.

Even if you live in Maine, it’s still warm enough to grill outdoors. So the next time you have a cocktail party or a simple wine gathering, grill your hors d’oeuvre. (In French, “hors d’oeuvre” is used for both singular and plural forms of the noun. Americans who don’t know French add an “s” at the end.)

Start with canapés: finger foods composed of a base and topping, meant to be eaten in one bite. The name is the French word for sofa: the topping sits upon the “sofa.” The topping itself is called the “canopy.”

(Punsters: You can make a “couch potato” by topping the base with a potato-based food, such as cubed ham and potato salad with grainy mustard-mayonnaise and capers, or mashed potatoes mixed with salmon caviar.)

Miniature versions of grilled cheese (slice a regular sandwich into quarters) can be enhanced with chutney or any of these wonderful gourmet grilled cheese recipes. We’ve served several different grill cheese on the same tray: blue cheese, cheddar and smoked Gouda, for example.

To plan your grilled hors d’oeuvre, select a base, a spread (which acts as a flavorful binder between the base and the topping) and a “canopy.”

MIX & MATCH YOUR INGREDIENTS

Pick Your Base

There are many different bases for canapés, ranging from pastry shells to tortilla chips. Here’s the best selection for grilled canapés.

Pick Your Spread

Many canapés are simply a base and a spread, such as cheese, pâté or relish. With grilled canapes, a different type of spread serves as the binder between the base and the grilled “canopy.”

Hors d’oeuvre on grilled pita wedges and grilled polenta rounds. Photo courtesy AddSomeLife.com.

Pick Your Canopy (Topping)

 
Pick A Garnish
 
Garnishes add another layer of flavor, along with color and visual appeal.

 
ANOTHER GRILLED OPTION: SKEWERS

Canapés aren’t the only hors d’oeuvre that can be grilled. Skewers, in fact, are the obvious choice.

With a skewer instead of bread base, you save the carbs; but you often replace the calories with a dipping sauce.

You can pick up a book about grilled appetizers: Appetizers On The Grill.

Find more of our favorite hors d’oeuvre recipes.

Oktoberfest beer with a spicy cheese dip.
Photo courtesy Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board.

Each year, many people look forward to Oktoberfest, an annual 16-day beer festival held since 1810 in Munich, Germany—the country’s renowned Bavaria region, comprising southeast Germany.

Oktoberfest is said to be the world’s largest fair, with more than 6 million people attending—15% of the beer fans come from outside Germany. Other cities around the world hold their own Oktoberfests, modeled after the original.

While it’s called Oktoberfest (German for October feast), the event begins in late September and ends in early October.

As you can imagine, large quantities of Oktoberfest beer are consumed—almost 7 million liters were served during the 16-day festival in 2007. The traditional style of Oktoberfest beer is Märzen,* an amber-red, smooth, mildly sweet lager with a malty aroma, which originated in Bavaria.

To be designated Oktoberfest beer in Germany, the beer must conform to the Reinheitsgebot (the German beer purity law), which dictates a minimum of 6% alcohol (by comparison, America’s Budweiser has 5%). The beer must also be brewed within the city limits of Munich.

Traditional foods served with the beer include:

 
*For German speakers who wonder why a beer named for the month of March (März in German) is celebrated in October: Märzen was originally brewed in March and laid down in caves before the summer heat made brewing impossible. At the end of September, any remaining kegs were consumed during the two-week Oktoberfest. While some modern brewers make Märzen seasonally for Oktoberfest, others brew it year-round.

TIME TO PARTY

There’s still time for you to have an Oktoberfest celebration. You don’t need to adhere to the German schedule: Consider that you’ve all of October.

For an adult Halloween party, combine the two events and do a tasting of Oktoberfest beers, fall beers and pumpkin beers/ales.

 
(Check out all the different types of beer in our Beer Glossary.)

Oktoberfest beer from Wisconsin: Leinenkugel’s Oktoberfest beer with sausage and sauerkraut. Photo courtesy Leinenkugel.

Here’s a recipe from the Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, for brats steamed in Oktoberfest beer.

BRATS COOKED IN BEER

Enjoy Leinenkugel’s recipe for Oktoberfest-Infused Bratwurst, brats boiled in beer, then grilled.

Ingredients

 
†We used 5 bottles.
 
Preparation

1. Place brats in a Dutch oven with sliced onions, peppers and butter; cover the brats with beer. Bring to a boil and reduce to simmer until brats are cooked. Remove brats and set aside remaining beer mixture.

2. Grill brats until golden brown and return to beer mixture until ready to serve.

3. Serve brats on fresh brat buns, plain or toasted, with your favorite toppings: ketchup, mustard, onions, peppers (chopped bell peppers or jalapeños) and sauerkraut.
 
HOW MUCH BEER DO YOU NEED FOR A CROWD?

If you’re planning a large event, use the handy calculator at Kegerators.com. We calculated that for a party of 25 guests consuming 3-5 beers apiece, we’d need 1 keg, 35 pounds of ice for a room temperature keg, and 30 cups, “Assumes 17% breakage, excluding drinking games.”

Americans have grown accustomed to a sweet dessert after dinner, or a baked treat as a snack with a cup of coffee.

Instead, consider a couple of pieces of peanut brittle. They deliver sweetness, satisfying crunch and protein-packed peanuts. This recipe has a hint of coffee to complement your cup of joe.

The prep time is 20 minutes, cook time 15 minutes, for a yield of ten 1/4-cup servings. And for those who don’t like corn syrup: This peanut brittle recipe is made without corn syrup.

Switch It Up

 
You can also make batches as hostess/host gifts.

It’s easy to make your own peanut brittle. Recipe and photo courtesy Nescafé.

COFFEE PEANUT BRITTLE RECIPE

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. PREPARE. Line a large baking sheet or tray with wax paper; spray lightly with nonstick cooking spray.

2. COMBINE. Mix the coffee granules, baking soda and salt in small bowl; set aside. Combine sugar, water and cream of tartar in medium, heavy-duty saucepan. Stir with wooden spoon over low heat until sugar is dissolved, occasionally brushing down sides of pan with wet pastry brush if needed.

3. BOIL. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 6 minutes or until the mixture is a light brown color. Remove from heat; add butter and coffee mixture (mixture will foam) and stir quickly to combine.

4. POUR & COOL. Pour mixture onto the prepared baking sheet. Tilt the sheet to spread the mixture evenly (it should spread to roughly 12 x 9-inches in diameter). Quickly sprinkle with peanuts. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.

5. CRACK. Break the brittle into pieces. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.

Find more of our favorite candy products and recipes.

In no more than five minutes, you can make a drinkable dessert for grown-ups: espresso shooters with ice cream. This recipe comes from Starbucks, which has easy recipe ideas on its ice cream website.

Serves 4.

ESPRESSO SHOOTERS RECIPE

Ingredients

Ready in five minutes! Photo courtesy
Starbucks Ice Cream.

Preparation

1. Add four teaspoons of liqueur to espresso. Pour chilled espresso into 4 chilled shot glasses.

2. If you are not using the liqueur, no sweetener is necessary. But if your preference is for sweet coffee, pre-sweeten the cup of coffee before pouring into shot glasses.

3. Top with a cookie scoop’s worth of coffee ice cream. Garnish, if desired, with cinnamon and serve with cut straws and/or espresso spoons.

Find more of our favorite ice cream desserts.

We enjoy making ice cream sandwiches with chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies.

But we’ve grown to prefer brownie ice cream sandwiches. They become more of an ice cream cake experience, and ice cream cake (or ice cream and cake) just might be our favorite comfort food.

Brownie ice cream sandwiches will be a hit at your next party or special event; or keep them in the freezer as a regular treat. Either way, make them in advance (see note below for a party activity); then wrap in plastic (individually or the whole tray/sheet) and freeze.

Yummy: a chocolate chip brownie ice cream sandwich. Photo courtesy Beverly Hills Ice Cream Company.

 
Have fun mixing and matching brownie and ice cream flavors: a chocolate chip brownie with chocolate chip mint ice cream, a peanut butter brownie with peanut butter ice cream, a raspberry brownie with raspberry ice cream, and so forth.

You can add an extra layer of “inclusions”: chopped nuts, chocolate chips, coconut, crushed toffee, mini M&Ms and so forth.

As an alternative, dip the edges of the ice cream in them. But while the dipped edges look more exciting, when you layer the extras you won’t have bits of them falling onto the floor.

PARTY DESSERT: Set up a brownie ice cream sandwich bar with halved brownies, pre-cut ice cream rectangles (place the tray of ice cream atop a tray of ice) and bowls of inclusions. It can get messy, but it’s fun.

Find more of our favorite brownie recipes in our Cookies & Brownies Section.

A good caterer knows that presentation makes a big difference. At every event we attend, there’s usually a clever idea to bring home.

Today, the tip is to repurpose the rocks glass. Elegant Affairs Caterers, which works in The Hamptons and metropolitan New York City, uses it instead of a conventional plate to layer a fish course and bean salad. The glasses are presented on trays or on a buffet table for guests to enjoy as they circulate.

For sit-down eating, use a service plate under the glass.

What’s wrong with a conventional plate of fish and bean salad? Nothing, except the rocks glass glass is more visually arresting. Use it for a smaller fish course before the main.

Instead of using a conventional plate, layer a bean salad topped with grilled fish. The grilled fish will flake easily without requiring a knife. We adapted the concept with leftover tuna skewers, balancing the skewer on top of the glass. For a vegetarian recipe, substitute diced tofu.

And have fun with it.

Instead of a plate, layer grilled fish and bean salad in a rocks glass. Photo courtesy ElegantAffairsCaterers.com.

EASY BEAN SALAD RECIPE

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. If using frozen corn, allow to defrost; drain.

2. Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Let stand at 15 minutes or longer for flavors to combine.

2. Toss and fill glasses. Top with grilled fish and garnish with a small sprig of cilantro or parsley and/or a bit of grated lemon or lime zest.
 
Find more of our favorite fish and vegetable recipes.

A festive party drink: iced tea with fresh
berries. Photo © EugeneBochkarev |
Dreamstime.

How can you turn a plain iced tea, lemonade, soft drink or cocktail into a thing of beauty? With fresh berries!

Think small: The smaller berries, raspberries and strawberries, work best; you also may be able to find small grapes. If you’d like to add a couple of mint leaves, look for a bunch of mint with smaller leaves.

HOW TO MAKE A BERRY DRINK

1. Berries float in liquid, so you need to layer the ice cubes and berries to anchor the fruit.

2. Add a berry to the glass, followed by a couple of ice cubes to hold the berry down. Keep layering, dispersing the berries evenly around the glass (i.e., not all on one side of the glass).

3. When you’re finished layering, add the liquid and serve.

4. Place a few berries on a cocktail pick as the garnish. When people are finished with the drink, they can use the pick to skewer the berries in the glass.

Variations

 
What would you layer? Please share.

Find more of our favorite non-alcoholic drinks and drink recipes.

Create a tasting menu with numerous small
courses. Photo courtesy Pollen Restaurant |
Singapore.

We served a tasting menu last night: twelve courses.

How can someone eat 12 courses? It’s easy if the courses are small—just a taste of everything, with artistic garnishes.

Consider creating your own tasting menu: Everyone will have a great time. The small bites may seem like “not enough food” at first; but over the course of the dinner, everyone will be nicely full.

Make anything you like. Here’s what we had, but your course can be anything:

It’s not as much work as you’d think: We made everything 2-3 days in advance except last-minute touches like whipped cream.

Where Do You Get All The Plates?

We’ve been collecting lunch, salad and dessert plates for years—six to eight inches in diameter—when we see them on sale (garage sales are a great source of inexpensive plates).

You don’t want full-size dinner plates because the portions are small. But we place the smaller plates on chargers, so there’s a large plate footprint in front of everyone.

The plates don’t have to match. In fact, an array of different designs/shapes will enliven the table.

You can borrow plates from your guests; and you can also purchase reusable quality plastic plates. We like these square plates.

Let us know about the favorite courses you serve.