Bowl-shaped containers have been the signature of Greek-style yogurt. Why is Emmi following suit?

The company sees the shorter height and wider mouth of the container as superior from both a consumer and a retailer perspective.

Consumers like it because it is easier to use as a bowl and to spoon the last drops from the bottom. There’s also more surface area to sprinkle fruit and granola.

And it’s easier to stack* in the fridge—a fact that retailers like as well, says a company representative. The shape has been successful in European markets for some time, and was tested in American focus groups.

*Our own stacking attempts were not particularly successful. The foil top is not as stable as a solid plastic top. We had as much tipping over as with any other foil-topped yogurt container.

The Real Need: Recyclable Yogurt Containers

Our issue with yogurt containers is not related to shape, but to the #5 polypropylene plastic that the industry uses. Few municipalities are set up to recycle it.

Technically, almost everything manufactured could be recyclable. However, a reliable end-buyer for the recycled material is required before a municipality will recycle it. Currently, there is no reliable market for #5 polypropylene.

Eat a yogurt or two a day, and you contribute a substantial amount of plastic to the landfill.

It’s not just yogurt, of course: Cottage cheese, hummus, margarine, whipped butter, sour cream, take-out containers and other popular foods are all typically packed into #5 polypropylene. No matter how committed you are to sustainability, it’s hard to avoid products that are basic to your diet.

A number of Whole Foods Markets, food cooperatives and other locations will accept #5 plastics for recycling. They’ve teamed up with Preserve Products, which makes household products from recycled plastic, to create a recycling program called Preserve Gimme 5. Stonyfield Farms and Organic Valley are also part of the project. Check for recycling locations in your area.

Committed as we are to recycling just about everything that crosses our path, the combination of distance to Whole Foods Market and no place to store the stack of #5 containers in our small New York City apartment (no car to store them in, either) makes this a challenge. If you can recycle conveniently, though, go for it!

Plastic Recycling: What The Numbers Mean

Just because a plastic container features the three-arrow triangle recycling symbol doesn’t mean it can be recycled. The recycling symbol is unregulated: No authority controls who places the symbol on what product.

The number inside the symbol only identifies the type of plastic resin. It doesn’t mean the container is recyclable. It is not the number that determines if the plastic is recyclable, but manufacturing processes (the same types of plastics can have different melting points) and community guidelines.

The plastics industry uses the numbers as a coding system to identify resin types. The system wasn’t designed to indicate recyclability.

What to do about all this unrecyclable plastic? Ay, there’s the rub.

You can find other purposes for it, but if you eat any quantity of yogurt, the packages will pile up far faster than the ideas for reusing the empty cartons.

It’s in the hands of the food manufacturers to move to greener packaging. When they do, we’ll commit to buying it.
  

Here’s looking at you: creepy eyeball snacks
or garnishes for Halloween. Photo courtesy
Shop Anatomical.

Who doesn’t love eyeball food? We’ve just ordered this eyeball mold, which uses a base of JELL-O or custom-flavored gelatin, should you want a savory flavor.

The irises and pupils are made with colored plain gelatin. The veins are dabbed on with food coloring. Here’s a recipe.

Instead of sweet eyeballs, you can make savory ones (to garnish a Bloody Mary, for example). Substitute the sugar and lemon extract in the recipe with garlic salt and a dash of hot sauce. (We haven’t made them this way before, so you should try a test batch to finalize the proportions.)

Serve your eyeball food on a platter or atop lollipop sticks, which can also be inserted into cocktails.

CupcakeTower.com sells cake pop stands to hold the eyeball pops upright. You can create a tiered eyeball pop tower or buy a single tier to pass around as a tray.

Ice Cream Eyeball Food

You can make ice cream eyeballs by scooping vanilla ice cream with a cookie dough scoop.

1. Wear plastic gloves to better shape the ice cream balls. Use a spatula to smooth out a flat bottom so the eyeballs will stand without rolling around.
2. Create a crater for the iris with a chopstick, espresso spoon or other utensil.
3. Place the balls on a tray, cover with plastic wrap and put into the freezer to harden.
4. Remove them one at a time to decorate. Head to this recipe for instructions on how to create the iris, pupil and bloodshot effect.

Call it “eyes cream.”

Dig Into Some Brains
If eyeball food takes more effort than you want to expend, go for a nice, juicy brain.

Get a brain mold and use it to mold JELL-O, or pack it with vanilla ice cream.

Return the ice cream brain to the freezer for an hour or two. Unmold and create red “blood” streaks with a Q-tip and food color. Return to freezer until ready to serve.

Brains and eyeballs: great Halloween fare!

Take a drink of Death’s Door. The company makes gin and vodka, shown, plus white whiskey. Photo courtesy Capital Brewing.

It’s got to be Death’s Door.

Made in Wisconsin by Capital Brewery, Death’s Door takes its name from a strait between the Door County peninsula and Washington Island—both located between Lake Michigan and Green Bay in eastern Wisconsin—where the spirits are made.

Death’s Door can be a perilous body of water. The name dates way back to pre-Colonial times, when a war party of 300 Winnebago natives tried to cross to Washington Island in canoes on a stormy night. They all perished, giving birth to a legend that the waters were infested by an evil spirit. When French traders arrived, they called it Port de Morts (the French translation) to ward off other traders.

But back to the real spirits: Death’s Door products are distilled from organic hard red winter wheat grown on Washington Island.

See the company website for a store locator.

TRIVIA
“Winnebago” means “the people from the stinking water,” which may have referred to the stagnant waters of Green Bay or the aromatic, algae-filled waters in local lakes and rivers. The French shortened the name and referred to these Native Americans as “the Stinkards.”

Why didn’t the Winnebago change their name? According to Wikipedia, the Algonquian words do not have the negative overtones attached to the French and English translations, puant and stinky.

Bezuidenhout is Brand Ambassador for Tequila Partida. A brand ambassador is a corporate employee who represents a brand to consumers, the trade, the media and other key constituencies. The job focus is to communicate the brand message: product features and benefits, and how the brand differs from others in the category. The Partida Brand Ambassador travels the country (or the world) meeting people. Of course, in the process, glasses of tequila are shared. Put this on your bucket list as a job to have.
 
 
HEATED AFFAIR: A HOT APPLE CIDER COCKTAIL / TODDY RECIPE

Ingredients Per Cocktail

Snuggle up with a hot apple cider cocktail (photo © Tequila Partida).

*You’ll get more exciting flavor from fresh-ground nutmeg. Buy the nets in your supermarket and grate them with a fine grater like this one from Microplane, or a pepper grinder-style nutmeg grater that keeps your fingertips safe.

Preparation

1. WARM a small wine glass (you can do this in the microwave). Add tequila and hot apple cider. Stir.

2. FLOAT a half-inch of heavy cream on top. Grate nutmeg over the top and serve.

Apple Cider Preparation

1. ADD in a saucepan, 6 ounces of apple cider for each drink you’ll be serving.

2. ADD winter spices: a pinch of allspice, a few cloves, a cinnamon stick, and some orange peel. If you want more spiciness, you can add more later.

3. COOK over low heat for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. The cider should be warm but not bubbling.

4. TASTE for flavor and add more spice if desired.

5. REMOVE the pan from the stove. Strain out the spices and orange peel.
 
 
MORE WARM COCKTAIL RECIPES

 
 
TEQUILA TYPES

What’s the difference between an añejo, a blanco, and a reposado tequila?

There are five different expressions of tequila. Take a look.
 
 
TEQUILA TRIVIA: THE WORM

Why is there a worm in some bottles of tequila?

There isn’t! It is prohibited by law to put anything other than the tequila in a tequila bottle.

Worms are placed in some bottles of mezcal, a less refined spirit and a precursor of tequila. But it’s strictly for tourists. The better brands of mezcal are worm-free. The worm, by the way, is a larval form of a moth that lives on the agave plant, from which both mezcal and tequila are made.
 

How does one pick a favorite pie or tart when one loves them all?

Given a choice—facing a restaurant dessert menu or a bakery display case, for example—we almost always pick the lemon tart. A buttery crust filled with a creamy, refreshing lemon filling, it’s hard to come across one that isn’t a delight. (Note: It won’t be a delight if bottled lemon juice, or anything other than fresh juice and zest, is used.)

Lemon tart is popular with those who love their sweets, as well as others who don’t like sugary desserts. The video below walks you through the process of making a lemon tart. While the speaker doesn’t sound too animated, the results are exciting.

The video doesn’t address garnishing, but a bit of whipped cream works just fine.

As a dessert or for afternoon tea, consider serving tea with lemon or espresso with lemon peel.

If you’d like to serve a wine with your lemon tart, a sweet muscat is the best choice. It’s easy to find a Beaumes de Venise or a California Muscat like Bonny Doon at your wine store. Check out our dessert and wine pairing chart whenever you need a pairing idea.

Pie versus tart. Do you know the difference between a pie and a tart? There are quite a few!

Discover a world of delicious tarts, pies and pastries. Take a look at our beautiful Pastry Glossary.

Love lemon? Check out the different types of lemon.