Do a seasonal switch-up on everybody’s favorite cookies—chocolate chip cookies—for the holidays. Add dried cranberries to your chocolate chip cookie (or oatmeal cookie) recipe.

You can find dried cranberries in most food stores. Ocean Spray Craisins are a marketing name for dried cranberries (cranberry “raisins”).

 
Bring them to parties, give them as gifts, and treat everyone in your household.

Did you know that chocolate chip cookies were invented by accident? Here’s:
 
 
> THE HISTORY OF CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Make your holiday chocolate chip cookies with white chocolate chips and dried cranberries (photo © courtesy Cherry Marketing Institute).

Make Christmas Lima Beans part of your
holiday. Photo by River Soma | THE NIBBLE.

And it makes a great stocking stuffer, party favor or small gift for just about anybody.

A cream-colored bean with dark burgundy markings, the Christmas Lima doesn’t look particularly Christmasy. But this heirloom relative of the common lima bean keeps its beautiful markings even after being cooked—most beautiful beans don’t—making them festive-looking at the table. They also have a chestnut-like flavor that evokes chestnuts roasting on an open fire.

To those who don’t like lima beans: This is a different experience entirely.

The Christmas Lima is also known as the Calico Bean, Chestnut Lima Bean, Fagioli del Papa (in Italy), Giant Florida Pole Bean and Speckled Pole Bean. But similar to the marketing makeover done to the Patagonian toothfish, (rechristened Chilean sea bass), Jonathan Stewart Liebowitz (so much more cool as Jon Stewart) and so many others, Christmas Lima Bean sounds that much more interesting and delicious.

• The flavor is big and bold, so you can make a curry or use a chile sauce.
• Add them to rice, quinoa and other grain salads; to soups, stews and casseroles; and to add flavor and protein to stuffings.
• Enjoy them with a drizzle of olive oil, grated Parmesan or hard goat cheese and a few herbs.
• They are terrific in a wild mushroom ragout with garlic.

Steve Sando, proprietor of Rancho Gordo beans, says that his Christmas Lima Beans in a Gorgonzola Sauce was his best recipe ever. The red and white bean in white Gorgonzola sauce topped with your favorite green herbs is Christmas food, indeed.

• Order them from Rancho Gordo, a NIBBLE Top Pick of The Week, 1.707.259.1935 (PST).
• Check out our Bean & Legume Glossary for more beautiful beans.

Metromint is one of our favorite no-calorie treats. It’s available nationwide or online, where a case of 24 is $38.00 with free shipping ($1.59/bottle) from Metromint.com. The Chocolatemint Water is a miracle—it can substitute for dessert or accompany a chocolate, vanilla or berry dessert.

But if that’s not in the budget, you can make your own spearmint or peppermint water to serve during cocktails or at the dinner table instead of tap water. It won’t be as intensely minty as Metromint Water, but less intense is better to complement food.

How To Make Mint Water
Fill your water pitcher with fresh mint leaves, crushing them gently to release the mint flavor. Add water and stir to help the flavors mix. The further in advance you can do this, the longer the water can diffuse.

You also can add cucumber, lemon, lime and/or orange slices and whole strawberries. In addition to looking beautiful in a glass pitcher, their flavors will also infuse into the water.

You can also add fresh tarragon, rosemary, basil or other favorite herbs for a complex layering of flavor. Have fun with it. Whatever you do, it will look great, taste great and have zero calories.

Add mint to your water to create “holiday
water.” Photo courtesy Metromint.com.

• Fill ice cube trays with water and drop a cranberry or raspberry and a tiny mint leaf (or a tarragon or rosemary sprig) into each compartment. Freeze.
• To serve, put a cranberry ice cube in each glass and pour in the mint water.

Mint Is Healthy
Mint combats tension and eases tired muscles. Consuming mint before a meal helps digestion by increasing the flow of digestive juices, and it similarly calms nervous stomachs.

Mint contains the antioxidant perillyl alcohol, a photonutrient that has been shown to prevent major types of cancer in animal studies. Two easy ways to include more mint in your diet are by adding mint to your tea (brew it with the tea leaves) and snipping it into salads.

• Read our review of Metromint Water, a NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week.

Forget salted caramel: We want the Czar’s
ice cream and caviar parfait. Photo by
Igor Dukhnovskyi | Russian Tea Room.

Look no further than the menu at New York’s legendary Russian Tea Room.

For the holidays, the restaurant has created the Czar’s Gold & Caviar Parfait. It’s a spin on the sweet-and-salty dessert trend that would definitely belong at the Czar’s table. Here’s our recreation of the recipe:

1. Make a frozen nougat cream (nougat ice cream) in dome-shaped molds (so much more elegant than scoops). You can use this recipe with all almonds instead of three different types of nut. No ice cream maker is required.

2. Unmold and top with sliced toasted almonds, You can caramelize them, but the savory uncaramelized flavor complements the sweet-and-salty theme of the dish. Better yet, buy the Kirkland brand of Spain’s luscious Marcona almonds with sea salt, and chop them roughly. You can buy then online but they’re much less expensive at Costco stores.

4. Decorate the plate with bittersweet chocolate sauce.

5. Sprinkle plate with 24-karat edible gold leaf.

When you look at the cost to make a batch—including $90.00 for an ounce of sturgeon caviar and $40 for the gold leaf—it might make sense to stop by the Russian Tea Room. There, you can enjoy The Czar’s Gold & Caviar Parfait at dinner: $23.00 à la carte or a $10.00 supplement to the prix fixe holiday menu.

• Find more affordable ice cream recipes in our Ice Cream Section.

We were catching up on our in-box and were startled to find that Fiji Water announced on November 30th that it was ceasing operations in Fiji. It later announced that the plant would reopen.

A deep underground aquifer on the South Pacific island nation has been the source of one of the world’s most popular bottled water brands.

It’s “The most fashionable and popular bottled water brand in the U.S. and the world,” according to water website TapItWater.com.

On its blog, Fiji Water says it was being singled out by the military-led government for a massive tax increase: 15 cents per liter of water taken from the aquifer, up from 1/3 cent. And the government deported David Roth, Fiji’s Director of External Affairs.

But, after shutting down and laying off 400 workers, the company decided to reopen.

Trouble in paradise: Fiji government now
taxes the dickens out of Fiji water. Photo courtesy Fiji Water.

Fiji Water lovers can take a breather for now. But they might be in for a price hike: perhaps 15 cents per liter?

• What’s the difference between an artesian aquifer and an artesian well? Between mineral water and spring water? Find all in our Water Glossary.