Tundra from First Alert: your first defense
against kitchen fires.

Cooking for Thanksgiving? Stove fires are the number one cause of home fires in the U.S. We’ve had one in THE NIBBLE kitchen.

Here’s an important tip from The National Consumers League: Keep an oven mitt and a large pot lid next to the stove. If a small fire starts in a pan, turn off the burner. Wear the oven mitt while carefully sliding the lid over the pan to smother the flame.

Never pour water on a grease fire and never use a fire extinguisher on a pan fire—it can spray or shoot burning grease around the kitchen and end up spreading the fire.

Also make sure you have a kitchen fire extinguisher nearby. When our fire started, we lost valuable minutes trying to figure out how to work the fire extinguisher. That’s why we were thrilled to discover the Tundra—a push-button aerosol can that anyone, from children to the elderly, can handle. We’ll never be without it again.

Add truffle flavor to a dish with some of this brilliant juice, available at specialty food shops. Created by soaking Italian and French truffles in a brine, it’s an easy way to introduce the heady flavor of truffles to a dish.

We use it in sauces, soups and stocks where we don’t want the added fat from our other favorite truffle-enhancement, truffle butter, another delicious and affordable solution. Truffle oil is yet another option (and great to spray on popcorn).

Truffles, glorious truffles. Photo by Kelly
Cline | IST.

When tomatoes are out of season—or you just don’t have any at hand—simply substitute roasted red peppers (pimientos) or marinated sundried tomatoes. Both are available in jars, and can be kept on your shelf ready for sandwiches, salads, plate garnishes, hors d’oeuvres, pastas and any need you have for flavor and color.

Try peppadews too, a cherry pepper-sized African fruit that looks like a small, round red bell pepper and is available in mild and hot styles. They can be stuffed for hors d’oeuvres and even used as cocktail garnishes. But warning to carb counters: Their sweetness comes from added sugar.

Use sundried tomatoes, roasted red peppers
and peppadews to add flavor and color to
sandwiches and dishes when tomato season is over. Photo courtesy Peppadew.com.

When brown sugar gets hard, put it into a microwave-safe container and zap it for 60 seconds. The old-fashioned method, placing a slice of fresh apple into the sugar canister, still works; but it takes overnight or longer for the moisture from the apple to absorb into the sugar.

A microwave zap does it every time! Kenmore microwave available at Amazon.com.

Try your turkey and swiss “half and half.”
Photo courtesy Sargento.

When serving sandwiches, offer a variety of condiments and recommend that diners mix and match: one half of a roast beef, ham or turkey sandwich with chutney, one half with Roquefort Dijon mustard, for example. It’s like having two different sandwiches, and just one way in which specialty condiments transform everyday foods into gourmet treats.

We love the Dijon mustards of Laurent du Clos so much, we can eat them from the jar—especially the amazing Roquefort mustard. Other favorites include the Saffron Aïoli mayonnaise from Restaurant Lulu and the fabulous flavored mayos from The Ojai Cook—all Top Picks Of The Week.

Yesterday was National Guacamole Day, but it’s a dish that we enjoy almost every week of the year. To make the best, use avocados from Mexico. We hate to say it, because we prefer to support American businesses, but the Mexican Hass avocados are simply better—creamier and more flavorful, the best avocados we’ve ever had. As a result, they make the best, creamiest guacamole. Why?

Avocados are good for you. Yes, they have calories (from heart-healthy unsaturated fats); but they’re also packed full of antioxidants, fiber, folic acid and other B items, potassium and Vitamin E.

A Hass avocado from Mexico. Photo courtesy AvocadosFromMexico.com.

Flavored balsamic vinegars do more than create tasty salad dressings, marinades and glazes. They can make sophisticated desserts: drizzle cherry, strawberry and raspberry balsamics over berries and other fresh fruit, over vanilla ice cream, and even slices of fresh goat cheese. You can reduce the vinegar and add stock to make a sauce for duck or pork.

Or, drizzle it onto a duck or pork sandwich (add some arugula!). Perk up a soup, stew or casserole by adding a spoonful. Look for fruit balsamics at fine supermarkets and specialty stores. Try some in a cocktail!

One of our favorite fruit balsamics has been the Cherry Balsamic from Restaurant LuLu Gourmet Products. But we just discovered this family of flavored balsamics from Lucero, in Blueberry, Fig, Peach, Red Apple and Wild Cherry. We’ve just started dressing, mixing and cooking with the line and will report back in a full review in the December issue of THE NIBBLE webzine.

Lucero balsamic vinegars are made by a third-
generation family producer in California’s Sacramento Valley. Photo by Evan Dempsey |
THE NIBBLE.

Vosges’ Red Fire Ice Cream with ancho and
chipotle chiles (plus cinnamon) lets you add
some fire to your chocolate ice cream. Then,
pair it with brownies or chocolate cake!
Photo courtesy Vosges Chocolat.

Match traditional desserts like apple pie, brownies, chocolate cake and pound cake with very modern flavors of ice cream. Vosges Chocolat’s Naga (sweet Indian curry and coconut ice cream) and Red Fire (chocolate with chilies and cinnamon) ice creams are heavenly with classic cakes and pies. Vosges will overnight-deliver them (and their two other exotic flavors) to you in dry ice, but your local creameries may offer similar delights.

Another of our favorites, Reed’s Ginger Ice Cream (in Chocolate, Ginger and Original), is available at specialty stores nationwide. Ginger is a delicious pairing with pound cake, chocolate, fruit desserts—just about anything!

Our favorite ice cube trays from ISI Orka keep ice cleaner and fresher and color-code our “specialty” ice cubes.

You can make festive ice cubes for holiday drinks without investing in special pumpkin- or holly leaf-shape ice cube trays. And you can do it more elegantly, too!

Just freeze one of the following in each section of a regular ice cube tray:

We create different trays of “designer ice cubes” to match to different sweet or savory beverages. It’s easy to keep the garnishes straight in our favorite color-coordinated ice cube trays from iSi Orka.

A simple-to-make, impressive first course is a smoked salmon roll filled with salmon caviar and crème fraîche. Ask the counter person to slice the salmon in wide pieces instead of narrow strips—explain that you’re going to fill the slices and roll them up like a cigar.

1. Spread the inside of each slice with crème fraîche and a teaspoon of your favorite caviar or roe, but leave the last inch on each end clear of filling so it doesn’t spill out when you roll up. Then roll!
2. Put a few beads of caviar on top of the “cigar” for decor (consider some contrasting caviar, e.g. flavored whitefish roe or tobiko).
3. Garnish the plate with a sprinkle of snipped chives and dill and some finely diced red onion. This cigar is smokin’!

Can’t afford sturgeon caviar in a recession
(or any time)? Affordable salmon caviar is
delicious in this recipe. Photo courtesy of Red-Caviar.com, certified kosher.