In eight years of reviewing specialty foods, the only pepper jelly lines we’ve liked enough to review are Aloha From Oregon, Cherith Valley and Diane’s Sweet Heat.

And now, there’s Hellfire Pepper Jelly—not a line of pepper jellies, but just one variety in the Jenkins Jellies line. The website can be a bit hyperbolic (e.g. the jelly does not contain “psychotically hot peppers”) but perhaps that’s because one of the company’s owners is related to a famous Hollywood family: actors Blythe Danner and her daughter Gwyneth Paltrow; directors Bruce Paltrow (husband to Blythe) and son Jake Paltrow (among other family members in show biz).

Hillary Danner began making jams and jellies from the bounty of the fruit trees and grape arbor in her Los Angeles backyard. She began to sell her most acclaimed recipe, the hot and spicy Hellfire Pepper Jelly, at farmers markets. Demand exploded, and Danner partnered with Maria Newman and chef Jared Levy to create a line of artisan jams and jellies (we wish we had access to the rest of them!).

Hellfire Pepper Jelly is a very fine example of the genre. The complex flavor comes from a mix of seven different chiles (sorry, we can’t bear to call them “peppers” because of a mistake* made 520 years ago by Christopher Columbus).

Buy it on the company website. A portion of sales goes to the Bruce Paltrow Oral Cancer Fund.

What Is Pepper Jelly?

Pepper jelly is a clear, sweet-and-spicy jelly that contains flecks of hot chile peppers. Different fruits and spices can be added for complexity—for example, pineapple or mango on the sweet side, and tomato or bell pepper on the savory side.

Pepper jelly is often made with jalapeños and serranos, which are medium-heat chiles. Habañero is one step up on the Scoville Scale, and Scotch bonnet is at the top of the scale, categorized as extreme. (See the different types of chiles.)

While on the hotter side, Hellfire Pepper Jelly does not cripple your taste buds. It’s exhilarating rather than searing.

Bring some Hellfire as a host/hostess gift for Halloween, or keep it in mind for teacher gifts, stocking stuffers and other small holiday gifts.

How To Use Pepper Jelly
Pepper jelly is most famously served as an hors d’oeuvre or snack with cream cheese—typically poured over a block of cream cheese on a plate and surrounded with crackers, so guests can help themselves. You can do the work yourself, garnishing individual crackers with cream cheese and jelly for passed hors d’oeuvre. Sweet and tart, hot and spicy, creamy and crunchy: it delivers a spectrum of favorite flavors.

You don’t need to have a party to serve it: We enjoy pepper jelly with peanut butter or cream cheese on whole wheat toast.

But don’t stop there: Here are dozens of uses with everything from omelets and yogurt to meatballs and cheesecake.

 
*Chiles were “discovered” in the Caribbean by Christopher Columbus, who called them “peppers” (pimientos, in Spanish) because of their fiery similarity to the black peppercorns with which he was familiar. However, there is no relationship between the two plants, or between chiles and Szechuan pepper. “Chile pepper” is a misnomer, and the term “pepper” is not used in Latin America. There, the term is chili, from chilli, the word in the Nahuatl language of the Aztecs. More on the history of chiles.
  

Eyeball food is fun Halloween food. These Halloween Eyeball Bites will have everyone eating more veggies, too—a counterbalance to all the candy.

Using favorite veggie slices—cucumbers, carrots and cherry tomatoes, for example—you only need to add cream cheese and olive slices.

For a more sophisticated flavor, substitute fresh goat cheese for cream cheese.

The recipe uses canned sliced black olives, which are very bland—they’re more of a decoration than a food. If olive lovers are eating these, buy some quality pitted olives or pimento-stuffed olives and slice them yourself.

Here’s looking at you—from the plate!

A good chunk of real Parmigiano-Reggiano (or other Italian grating cheese) can be found in pretty much any grocery store across the country. When it comes to quality and flavor, there truly is no comparison.

If you don’t already buy your Parmesan in wedges, get some of the good stuff on your next trip to the store and grate it over your pasta. The difference is undeniable.

With a wedge of hard cheese, you get two uses for the price of one.

When you’ve grated the cheese down to the rind, don’t throw it away! The rind can be an amazing flavor booster for soups, stocks, sauces and even pasta water.

Don’t throw away the rind of Parmigiano—or other fine cheeses. Photo courtesy AG Ferrari.

Pull the rind out before serving.

If you’re not planning to cook anything appropriate when you get down to the rind, wrap and save it until you do.

Or, you can toast the rinds and eat them.
FOOD 101: WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PARMESAN AND PARMIGIANO?

Anyone in the world can make a cheese called “Parmesan,” using a recipe similar to authentic Parmigiano-Reggiano. While there are some perfectly fine Parmesans made in America and elsewhere, the same name is also used for that dried-out grated cheese sold in cardboard tubes.

The real-deal Parmigiano-Reggiano is regulated by law and must be produced in the Emilia Romagna region of Italy, and made by a cheesemaker who is a member of the Consorzio Formaggio Parmigiano-Reggiano (Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese Consortium, a self-governing body of dairies). The cheese is produced in accordance with strict regulations: Cheeses deemed not good enough to bear the stamp of Parmigiano-Reggiano are removed from the aging caves and declassified.

Parmigiano-Reggiano is one of the glories of the cheese world—and that includes its rind. Read more on the history and production of Parmigiano-Reggiano.
  

For better flavor, pop your corn from scratch!
Photo by Katharine Pollak | THE NIBBLE.

Everybody loves popcorn. It’s great for watching movies, you can fill a ziplock bag of it for an on-the-go snack and it’s a much healthier alternative to potato chips and other high-calorie snack foods. (Popcorn is a whole grain that helps you eat the recommended 48 grams daily.)

But with the modern convenience of microwavable popcorn, it seems much of the world is eating popcorn from nuked bags that are lackluster and artificially flavored (not to mention artificial-tasting).

By making your popcorn at home on the stove instead of in the microwave, you’ll find that it tastes more like popcorn and less like hydrogenated oil.

How To Get Started
All you need is a large, heavy-bottomed pot with a lid, some vegetable oil (preferably canola oil, a healthy, monousaturated fat with a good smoke point) and popping corn (which you can find at any grocery store, although we prefer the better flavor of gourmet popcorn kernels).

To yield about two quarts of popped popcorn, you need roughly half a cup of kernels and two tablespoons of oil.

Preparation
1. Start by cranking your stove up to high heat.

2. Toss the oil in the pot and add the popcorn kernels, then cover with the lid. As everything begins to heat up, you’ll hear the oil start to make some noise.

3. Keeping the lid on tightly, give the pot a good shake every 30 seconds or so to evenly distribute the heat and keep the kernels form burning. You will hear and see the popcorn start to pop, which is far more entertaining than in the microwave version!

4. Once the popping slows to one pop every three seconds or so, pull the pot off the heat and let it sit for a moment to let any stragglers catch up. At this point, you have a light, fresh, healthy snack.

But why stop there?

How To Make Gourmet Popcorn
Your microwave is probably jealous at this point, so bring it back into the mix by melting a couple tablespoons of butter to drizzle over your popcorn. (Want to avoid cholesterol? Use extra virgin olive oil or other flavored oil. Our favorite is truffle oil.)

Want even more flavor? Spend a moment foraging though your spice cabinet to punch up the flavor. Here are some flavor combinations to start with. For best results, start with butter and salt, and then continue to dress up your popcorn to make it:

Glove manufacturer Clean Ones researched consumer dissatisfaction and launched a new “premium” household glove, the Ultimate Latex Free Glove. It’s odor-free and allergen-free: no BPA , no phthalates and, of course, no latex.

The gloves are pink, and 10% of proceeds benefit the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation. The foundation funds breast cancer research, education, advocacy, health services and social support programs.

Here’s what else you get with these nifty household gloves:

Pretty in pink, and it contributes to
the Cure. Photo courtesy Good Ones.

The gloves are available at major retailers nationwide. Here’s a store locator.