Melt-in-your-mouth meringue ghosts.
Photo © Michael Klashman |
ButterFlourEggs.com.

Meringues are gluten-free, cholesterol-free airy bites. Airy ghosts are perfect Halloween fare.

This recipe makes about 24 ghosts, each 2- to 3-inches: crunchy on the outside and slightly gooey on the inside.

Serve them on a tray, use them as cake or cupcake toppers or make a ghostly sundae.

MERINGUE GHOST COOKIES RECIPE

Ingredients

1. PREHEAT the oven to 225°F. (Always use an oven thermometer—you can’t trust the calibration, even on the finest oven.) Prepare two cookie sheets by lining with parchment paper.

2. BEAT the egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, at medium-high speed just until frothy (about a minute).

3. ADD the salt and cream of tartar. Continue beating and very slowly add the sugar. Continue beating until the whites have become very thick (although not dry) and glossy. The whites should hold their peak when the beater is pulled out of the bowl.

4. ADD the vanilla extract, and continue beating for another fifteen or twenty seconds, just until it has been absorbed into the meringue.

5. TRANSFER the meringue to a large piping bag fitted with a plain, wide tip (for example, Ateco #808). Pipe ghost shapes onto the lined cookie sheets. Using a pair of tweezers, set the dragée “eyes” into the ghosts. This is the painstaking part of recipe, so be patient and have fun. You can use the back of the tweezers or other implement to draw an optional smile. (We used an straightened-out paper clip.)

6. BAKE for fifteen minutes, checking frequently to make sure the meringues do not brown. After fifteen minutes, turn the oven off and leave the meringues inside for 3-4 hours to dry.

Then, WATCH those ghosts disappear!

*Dragée, pronounced drah-ZHAY in French, refers to various types of hard, sugar-based confections. Jordan almonds, for example, are called dragées in France. In the U.S., the term most often refers to a tiny ball of colored sugar, commonly 3-4 millimeters in diameter, used to decorate cookies and cakes. In comparison, the dragées on nonpareils candies are 2 millimeters in diameter. The word derives from the Greek tragêmata, meaning sweets or treats. According to Wikipedia, the dragée was originally a spiced lump of sugar eaten after meals as a digestive.
  

But what if you don’t like a creamy, homogenized PB paste, writes a reader? Or the amounts of salt and sugar in your PB?

Your dilemma can be solved in minutes, with a bag of peanuts and a food processor.

You can adjust the salt and sugar (or use a low-glycemic sugar substitute) and you’ll end up with a far more aromatic and peanutty-tasting spread. You’ll save a few cents in the process.

PEANUT BUTTER RECIPE

Makes 2 cups. You can split the batch and make some plain, some with honey or low-glycemic agave nectar, for example.

Ingredients

 
*Peanut oil and canola oil are monounsaturated fats: good for you. Vegetable oil is a polyunsaturated fat: less good for you. More on healthy oils.

Preparation
1. Combine peanuts and oil in a food processor and grind to a creamy paste. Add more oil if needed for thinning. PB will firm up in the fridge. If it’s too thick for you, just put it back in the food processor with a bit more oil.
2. Sweeten and salt to taste.
3. Stir in optional chopped peanuts.
4. Store in the fridge in an airtight jar. Without preservatives, it will keep for 4-6 months.

PB FUN

Enjoy delicious ravioli as you contribute
to breast cancer research. Photo courtesy Pasta Prima.

While cheese ravioli can be bland, we never turn down butternut squash or pumpkin ravioli. (INSIDER FOOD TIP: Butternut squash, which has a smoother texture and a similar flavor, is often substituted for pumpkin in prepared foods—from ravioli to “pumpkin” pie.)

Enter 100% Natural Pasta Prima Butternut Squash Ravioli. A delicate balance of sweet and savory flavors including imported Parmesan cheese, sage and cinnamon, each pasta pillow sports three pink stripes for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, with $20,000 pledged to cancer research.

Who can resist? Add your favorite white sauce or a mild red sauce, or simply toss with extra-virgin olive oil and grated Parmesan cheese.

The family-owned business is one of a number of fine companies to produce a special edition for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Every pink package purchased from Pasta Prima supports The Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

 
*For those who care enough to read this footnote, the others on our personal Top 10 list include bagels (with lox and cream cheese, pickled herring or whitefish salad); bundt or loaf cake; Chinese dumplings; gourmet mac and cheese; the ice cream, sorbet and frozen yogurt group; mashed potatoes (with basil, goat cheese or truffles); pain au chocolat; PB&J with a glass of milk; and scrambled eggs with a toasted English muffin.

†Comfort food lists typically include beef stew, biscuits, chocolate, cereal, fried chicken, grilled cheese, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, meat loaf, pot pie, soup and spaghetti.
  

If you’re a yogurt lover who travels, instead of looking for a lunch spot, consider heading to the nearest fine grocer to check out the local yogurts.

Artisan fresh dairy products tend to be regional businesses, and there are luscious yogurts to be found in many regions.

The Atlanta Fresh company recently sent us their 2% Low Fat Greek Yogurt line (it’s also available in fat-free and whole milk versions). We ate it as eagerly as if it were dessert—for which it can easily substitute.

Made using old world methods—by hand, in small batches—this all-natural yogurt is a treat. Talk about “from scratch”: The company makes its own fruit conserves to flavor the yogurt. Nothing premade is added from a jar.

The yogurt is available in plain, plus eight flavors: Black Cherry & Port Wine (don’t worry—you can feed it to kids), Chocolate Rocket, Ginger Peach, Mixed Berry, Tropical Sweet Heat, Vanilla Caramel, Vanilla and Wildflower Honey.

We eat lots of yogurt—all of it Greek-
style. Photo courtesy Atlanta Fresh.

Fot us, the hands-down winner is Tropical Sweet Heat: diced mango, pineapple and ginger with habanero and ginger heat (plus brown sugar for complexity). We were sad when carton was empty. The heat and ginger accent enliven the creamy yogurt in a way you can’t imagine until the spoon is in your mouth. It’s the first “hot” yogurt we’ve had, aside from our homemade concoction of plain yogurt with pepper jelly. Yogurt artisans of America: Follow the heat!

The runner up: Vanilla Caramel, a delicious dessert masquerading as yogurt.

The handmade artisan yogurts are rBST-free. The freshly cultured yogurt, made from the milk of happy Jerseys at the nearby Johnston Family Farm, is very high in active bulgaricus and acidophilus probiotic bacteria.

Learn more at AtlantaFresh.com.
What Is Greek Yogurt?

Greek yogurt (or more accurately for products made in America, Greek-style yogurt) is triple-strained to make it thicker and creamier than American-style yogurt. It often has the consistency of sour cream. Most yogurts are thickened with gums, starches or milk powders. Greek yogurt is thickened by removing the moisture.

Greek yogurts can also be sweeter, meaning less tangy, than European- and American-style yogurts. While many mass-marketed American yogurts have evolved from tart-and-tangy to pudding-like, there’s nothing like the texture and flavor of Greek-style yogurt.

How “Cultured” Are You?

How much do you know about yogurt? Talk the talk like a pro: Check out our Yogurt Glossary.

Find more of our favorite yogurt products, recipes and other yogurt information in our Gourmet Yogurt Section.

Our favorite Honeycrisp apples, beaming with a wax coating (photo © The Fruit Company).

Those shiny, tempting apples are wearing make-up: a layer of wax. Waxing apples (and other fruits and vegetables) not only makes them look better, but it also helps them last longer.

All-natural waxes—such as carnauba wax, derived from the leaves of a Brazilian palm tree, and candellia wax, made from a small desert shrub native to the southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico, are certified as edible by the USDA and have been used on fruits and vegetables since the 1920s.

After harvest and before the apples are packed and shipped, they undergo several washings to remove dirt. The extensive washing removes the natural wax that many fruits and vegetables make to help retain moisture.

Replacing the wax also helps inhibit mold growth and protect fruits and vegetables from bruising. The amount of wax used is minuscule: Each apple (or other waxed produce) is coated with only a drop or two.

You don’t want to peel the apple to remove the wax: Most of the nutrition is in the skin and the seeds. (But don’t swallow too many seeds for the nutrients—they have minute amounts of cyanide that build up in quantity.)

> There are 18 apple holidays, starting with January 1st, National Apple Gifting Day. See them all below.

> The history of apples.

We don’t have a problem with the wax—although we are wary that it can cover pesticides that aren’t fully removed during the washing cycle.

But we do miss the apple aroma we enjoy when picking apples at orchards. Removing the wax releases the lovely apple scent and completes the organoleptic* experience.

Take your pick of these wax-removal techniques:

 
Buying organic isn’t the solution: Organic apples may also be waxed. But you can find unwaxed apples at some supermarkets and farmers markets.

Wax may turn white on the surface of fruits or vegetables that have been subjected to excessive heat and/or moisture. This whitening does not impact the flavor or the healthfulness.

Thanks to Rainier Fruit Company for much of this information.
 
 
MORE APPLE HOLIDAYS

 
 
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*Organoleptic: Relating to qualities that stimulate the senses: appearance, aroma, color, feel and taste.

†There are two dates that celebrate Johnny Appleseed, born John Chapman. The September 26th is Appleseed’s birthday in 1774. People across the country prefer the March date due to the planting season, and his passing on March 18, 1845.

‡ Since apples symbolize good health, giving people apples on New Year’s Day wishes them good health for the entire year.