As American as blueberry and cherry pie.
Photo courtesy Centerville Pie Company.

If you’re planning for July 4th festivities, here’s a fun food idea from Centerville Pie Company of Centerville, Massachusetts: an American flag pie.

Prepare your favorite blueberry and/or cherry pie recipe. The Centerville Pie bakers fill the pie crust 3/4 with cherry filling, and use blueberry filling in the upper left corner. Then, they simply cut the top crust in strips to resemble the stripes in the flag.

You can also use whipped cream to create “stars” on the upper left corner.

Centerville Pie Company is happy to ship a pie to you, and pie lovers will really enjoy looking at all of the delicious pies on the website.

FIND MORE OF OUR FAVORITE PIES IN OUR PIE & PASTRY SECTION.

We receive lots of jerky samples. Most are tough and not anything we’d want to gnaw.

Then there’s tender, delightful jerky, like Perky Jerky. In four varieties each of beef and turkey jerky, it has what marketers call “added value”:

Perky Jerky is caffeinated with guarana (gwahr-uh-NAH), an Amazonian fruit whose seeds contain about twice the concentration of caffeine in coffee beans. It’s typically found in energy drinks.

So look at Perky Jerky as an energy snack, or as a meaty snack that happens to provide an energy boost. The stylish packages are nice enough for gifting and party favors.

Perky Jerky, beef or turkey, is available in plain as well as:

Perky Jerky, a grab-and-go snack, energzer. Photo by Elvira Kalviste | THE NIBBLE.

Head to PerkyJerky.com to get yours, or read the full review.

The Bialetti Mini Espresso: It’s neat, petite
and produces great espresso. Photo courtesy
Bialetti.

We’ve been enjoying our Bialetti Mini Express espresso maker every day for the last six months. So if you’re looking for a great gift for an espresso-loving dad, check it out.

A no-mess capsule machine with a modest footprint—7.5″ wide x 10.5″ deep—it fits easily onto the kitchen counter. At $149.95 on Amazon.com, it’s much more affordable than other options.

We like the different espresso blends, and decaf is one of the choices (great for that midnight latte!). We also like that:

It’s a gift that keeps on giving every day, at breakfast, after dinner and for a cappuccino or latte in between.

Fore! Well actually, each package contains
three. Photo courtesy Edward Marc
Chocolatier..

Looking for a special party favor for all the dads at your Father’s Day celebration?

Check out these solid chocolate golf balls from artisan chocolatier Edward Marc.

Clear packaging displays three golf balls atop faux grass, in your choice of dark, milk or white chocolate.

Order at EdwardMarc.com.

Some people we know have given the white chocolate golf balls as wedding favors!

Not into golf?

Give Dad a box of seven chocolate neckties: different designs in Dark Honey Coconut, Milk Peanut Butter Mousse Truffle, Milk Salted Caramel and White Mocha Truffle.

ABOUT EDWARD MARC CHOCOLATIER

Edward Marc has been an artisan chocolate shop since 1914. That year, a young Greek couple arrived in New York City to pursue the American dream. They settled in Pittsburgh, and set up shop making the same delicious handcrafted chocolates they made in Greece.

This young couple—Charlie and Orania—became the great grandparents of today’s owners, as the business was handed down from generation to generation.

The great grandchildren proudly continue the family tradition. We look forward to sampling the specialties of the company’s 100th anniversary next year.

Here’s a fun Father’s Day gift that will open your eyes to how great it is to make soda at home—and how much more popular you’ll be once you start doing it!

Anton Nocito, proprietor of P&H Soda Co. in Brooklyn, New York, has assembled his techniques and ideas into a new book, Make your Own Soda: Syrup Recipes for All-Natural Pop, Floats, Cocktails, and More.

All you need is a bottle of seltzer or a Sodastream and you’re on your way to becoming a great soda maker—and to enjoying real soda, without ubiquitous artificial colors, flavors and questionable sweeteners. You’ll:

Cherry Lime Rickey. Photo courtesy Make Your Own Soda | Clarkson Potter.

Grapefruit soda with homemade grapefruit
syrup. Photo courtesy Make Your Own Soda |
Clarkson Potter.

Then, relax with your creations. Natural sodas are vibrantly flavored: the zing of just-squeezed citrus juice, the intensity of ripe berries, the subtle perfume of fresh herbs.

And the ability to customize a drink that’s as sweet (or not) as you like, with conventional or low glycemic sweeteners (we successfully substituted agave nectar for the sugar).

Handmade syrups make all the difference in recipes for all-natural soda pop, floats, cocktails, punches and more: The book has a total of 70 recipes, simple and fun. Beautiful photographs make you want to make every one. This is cookbook that any soda lover will love.

Anthony Nocito is a graduate of the French Culinary Institute and was an executive sous chef in the Union Square Hospitality Group. Artisanal soft drinks are obviously one of his passions. They may become one of yours, too.

CHERRY LIME RICKEY RECIPE

To show you how easy it is, here’s a sample recipe from the book. If you remember Brigham’s and Bailey’s casual restaurants in the Boston area, you remember the Raspberry Lime Rickey, as seductive a soft drink as ever graced a soda fountain—brightly colored, sweet and tart, a favorite of kids adults alike. Nocito’s version is a cherry lime rickey—very satisfactory. But you can always make a batch of raspberry syrup and relive the memories.

Ingredients For 1 Drink

 
Preparation

1. FILL a tall glass with ice. Add the lime syrup, lime juice, and citric acid solution.

2. ADD the seltzer, float the cherry syrup on top and garnish with the lime wedge.

LIME SYRUP RECIPE

 
1. BOIL water in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the zest and remove the pan from the heat. Steep for at least 1 hour. Let cool.

2. STORE in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 14 days.

CHERRY SYRUP RECIPE

 
1. COMBINE cherries, sugar and lemon juice in a medium saucepan and bring to boil over medium heat. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

2. STRAIN the syrup through a fine-mesh strainer; discard the fruit solids.

3. STORE in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 7 days.

The most fun assortment of chocolate bars.
Photo courtesy Hebert Candies.

Father’s Day is a week from today. If Dad enjoys a chocolate bar, how about giving him twelve of them, all in different fun flavors?

Hebert Candies of Shrewsbury, Massachussetts has created a gift box of delightful chocolate bars—a unique take on this favorite indulgence. There are 12-packs and 6-packs, plus individual bars in whatever flavors you like.

The gift box of 12 bars, $34.95, includes both milk chocolate bars and dark chocolate bars in:

If there’s someplace closer to chocolate bar heaven, we’d like to know about it.

96 YEARS OF FINE CHOCOLATE

In 1917, young Frederick Hebert purchased a copper kettle, a knife, a thermometer, a slab of marble and a table. He handcrafted chocolates and caramels in his home kitchen, and sold them to the small neighborhood stores that dotted central Massachusetts.

Business boomed, and Hebert built the Chocolate Mansion, his chocolate factory in Shrewsbury. If you’re in the area, take a tour of the factory. You’ll be enveloped in the aroma of chocolate that you won’t soon forget.

In the summer, the venue hosts an oldies car show every Thursday, with a build your own sundae bar. In the winter, you can have your photo taken with Santa, or with the Easter Bunny in the spring.

According to the company website, Frederick Hebert introduced white chocolate to the United States in 1956, after tasting “white coat” candies in Europe. (The first white chocolate bar was launched by Swiss chocolate manufacturer Nestlé in the 1930s.)

Discover more on the company website.

As any beer connoisseur knows, quality glassware enhances the enjoyment of quality craft beer. And you don’t have to be a connoisseur to know that there are different shapes of glasses for pilsners, wheat bees and other beer styles.

That‘s because nuances of engineering reflect the different attributes of a particular style of beer (or wine). For example:

Like a champagne flute, a tall, narrow glass enables the beer to release its flavor more slowly. But for someone who likes a pronounced head, a glass with a deep bowl allows it to form.

The classic stein and pint glasses are generic glassware that don’t nudge the beer in any specific direction. Before modern engineering, practicality and fashion ruled:

IPA, Globe Pilsner, Wheat Beer and Tall Pilsner glasses. Photo courtesy Spielgau.

Fron left to right: IPA glass, globe pilsner,
wheat beer glass and tall pilsner. Photo
courtesy Spielgau.

NEW IPA GLASSES

If you’re a fan of IPAs (India Pale Ales—which happen to be our favorite tyle of beer), check out Spiegelau’s new IPA glass. The manufacturer collaborated with Dogfish Head and Sierra Nevada breweries to create a glass that best displays the nuances of IPA-style beers.

Twelve different prototypes were developed by Spielgau and tested by the bewers, designed to showcase varying aromatic profiles for “hop forward” IPA beers, preserve a frothy head and volatiles and maintain a comfortably wide opening for the drinker to “nose” the beer.

Why is the engineering so important? In the case of the IPA glasses:

The 19-ounce/540 ml glasses are $24.90 for a set of two. You can buy them on Amazon.

If your mother (wife, daughter, etc.) spends a lot of time standing on a hard kitchen floor, improve her life instantly with a Welllness Mat.

Every person who’s stood on our Wellness Mat and has purchased one. (No, we’re not commissioned salespeople, although we did receive one as a gift.)

The revolutionary anti-fatigue floor mats are ergonomically engineered and medically proven to provide unsurpassed comfort, safety, relief, and support while you stand, wherever you stand.

There are plain and decorator versions, in colors to suit every decor. See the choices on WellnessMats.com.

Find the instant-comfort mat in the color and design of your choice at WellnessMats.com.

We can guarantee that for a mom who spends a lot of time at the stove, kitchen counter or sink, this will be the most appreciated Mother’s Day gift of all. What could be better than unmatched comfort?

For people who are in tip-top shape, it’s a pillowy yet supportive standing surface that feels like heaven on your feet (and it’s puncture-resistant if you cook in heels). Those who have a few aches can say goodbye to back, knee, and foot pain.

Just in time for Mother’s Day gift-giving comes a new line of gourmet chocolate bars. They’re made by an old hand in the industry, the founder of Seattle Chocolate.

It’s the best thing the company has done to date, a new degree of sophistication and elegance from a popular regional chocolatier.

Every detail, from the velvety feel of the recycled paper box to the photography on the three one-ounce bars inside, is first class.

And then there’s the chocolate. Made of fine Belgian couverture, it delights in three flavors plus plain (but hardly plain!) milk and dark chocolate. We urge you to try the:

Chic packaging is just the beginning with these delicious chocolate bars. Photo by Elvira Kalviste | THE NIBBLE.

The Edamame milk chocolate bar and Veracruz white chocolate bar have entered the pantheon of our favorite chocolate bars.

For Mother’s Day, Father’s Day or general gifting, tie a ribbon around the stack of five bars. For party favors, individual bars will be a hit. Although it’s early in the year, we’ve already earmarked Jcoco for this year’s stocking stuffers.

Read the full review and order a large amount!

FIND MORE OF OUR FAVORITE CHOCOLATES & GOURMET CHOCOLATE BARS.

If you know a mom who loves chocolate and dogs, is there a better Mother’s Day gift than these chocolate pup bonbons?

Made by hand by Gearhearts Chocolates, the milk chocolate bonbons are filled with silky chocolate ganache, which is lightly infused with handmade peanut butter.

And they’re guilt-free: Five percent of sales of Peanut Butter Pups is donated to Companions for Heroes, a not-for-profit organization that matches rescue pets as companion animals to our nation’s wounded veterans.

Read the full review and order yours today.
 

FIND MORE OF OUR FAVORITE CHOCOLATES &
EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT
CHOCOLATE.

Who can resist these chocolate peanut butter pups? Photo by Elvira Kalviste | THE NIBBLE.