If you’ve got nuts and honey, you can take the duo one step further:

Combine them into a delicious bread spread and dessert topping, as people in Greece, Italy and elsewhere in the Mediterranean have been doing for thousands of years.

You can find jars of honey with nuts at stores that specialize in Greek and Italian foods, or in cheese shops. They are lovely gifts and stocking stuffers.

RECIPE: NUTS & HONEY

Ingredients

†If you’re making this for home use, you can recycle an empty jar. If it’s for a gift, look for a prettier jar.

Preparation

1. TOAST nuts in a hot, dry pan, keeping them moving until the aroma wafts up (how to toast nuts). Cool.

2. LAYER the nuts and honey in a clean jar. The nuts may migrate to the top of the jar, but you can easily stir them prior to use.
 

VARIATIONS

If you like the combination, try different variations: sage honey with walnuts, orange blossom honey with almonds, and so on.

 
How would you use honey and nuts?
  

Make a couscous salad. Here’s another delicious end-of-the-summer idea from a very delicious blog, Stasty. Thanks, Vicky!

The pecorino cheese and salami strips add an Italian twist.
 
 
RECIPE: COUSCOUS SALAD WITH GRILLED
PEACHES

Ingredients

Preparation

1. COOK the couscous. Shave Pecorino with a vegetable peeler.

2. CUT the peach and apricot into segments and remove the stones. Brush with melted butter.

3. HEAT a grill pan over high heat. Using tongs, place the fruit segments on the pan. Cook for about 2 minutes, then turn and grill the other side. Once the fruit is nicely marked by the grill, remove it with tongs and set aside on a plate.

4. MIX the vinegar and olive oil in a small bowl; add salt and pepper to taste.

5. MIX the the cooked couscous with the finely chopped chives, strips of salami and shaved Pecorino. Pour the dressing over the couscous and mix together with a fork. Place the couscous in a large serving dish and place the grilled stone fruit on top.

Serve with a crisp white wine.

Pecorino cheese and strips of salami add an Italian twist. Photo courtesy Stasty.com.

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

Ingredients For Four Pockets

1. PREHEAT oven to 350°F/175°C.

2. DIVIDE crescent roll dough into rectangles on ungreased cookie sheets. Do not separate at the diagonal perforations. (Try pinching the diagonal perforation together to make a solid piece of dough).

3. MIX the ground beef together with the onion, salt, pepper, and paprika, in a medium mixing bowl.

4. PLACE ¼ cup of the beef mixture onto each crescent sheet; top with your pickles or jalapeños. Stretch dough over meat.

5. BAKED in preheated oven until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Serve with a ramekin of ketchup for dipping.
 
 
ABOUT STEAKHOUSE ELITE

Steakhouse Elite produces American-raised Wagyu beef products that are known for their velvety texture and buttery flavor.

For more information, visit the company website.
  

The Pink Pearl apple is an apple cultivar developed in 1944 from Surprise, another red-fleshed apple, by Albert Etter, a northern California breeder. It has distinctive pink flesh beneath translucent, pearly yellow skin. As with blood oranges, the skin can develop a pink blush.

Pink Pearls are harvested in August through mid-September, and don’t last long in storage; they’re a summer apple. Check at farmers markets to see if you can find them; or grow your own: Buy a tree from TreesOfAntiquity.com.

The crisp flesh is tart to sweet-tart. Enjoy them as a hand fruit bake them, especially in tarts where their pink color will be a standout.

Our gluten-free products editor, Georgi Page, tastes lots of gluten-free baking mixes. We’re as happy as she is when she finds something she likes.

One of the hardest things about being gluten-free has been the difficulty of not being able to have a cookie when I want (need?!) one. Without even realizing I was using it as a crutch, I resorted to making homemade granola, and snacking on that.

It was only when I got a chance to try Among Friends “Phil ‘Em Up” Chocolate Cranberry Cookie mix, made with Oatmeal flour, that I realized just how big the hole in my cookie-loving heart had been.

Among Friends Hand-crafted Baking Mixes come in regular and Gluten-free varieties. All have healthier, better-for-you ingredients.

The gluten-free line-up includes Phil ‘Em Up, the oat-y chocolate cranberry mix I baked; Shane’s Sweet-n-Spicy Molasses Cookies; CJ’s’ Double Chocolate Cookies and a Trish the Dish Crisp Mix.

The names accurately capture the homey taste and flavor of the end result: toasty, tasty, hearty cookies that are relatively low in fat. The oat cookies I sampled have a very sturdy texture provided by the oat flour, so they’ve got plenty of fiber, without the grittiness of rice flour.

They also have a faint salty, coconut-y aftertaste that I loved. Some gluten-free products have a mysterious aftertaste that is faintly bean-like, or raisin-y, but that is not a problem here.

The chocolate chunks are rich but not so plentiful as to be a distraction, and the cranberries retained a chewy tartness. The cookies made me forget I am gluten-free.

And, I got 14g of whole grain in my serving of two cookies.

Among Friends’ mixes are made with premium GMO-free ingredients, and the price point of $5.99 reflects it. You’re also getting Callebaut chocolate chips, which are top-of-the-line.

For more information about Among Friends Baking Mixes, check the website.

Here’s a store locator. You can purchase the cookies at Whole Foods Markets, Meijers and Sprouts (coming soon) and online at Amazon.com and AmongFriendsBakingMixes.com.
— Georgi Page