Send sweet “Happy Mother’s Day” wishes with this collection of heart and flower cookies from Fancypants Bakery, maker of THE NIBBLE’s favorite decorated cookie gifts.
Why are Fancypants cookies different from other decorated cookies?
These are top-quality shortbread, not dry sugar cookies. You can taste the buttery goodness in each bite.
The cookies are made with all natural ingredients, including enriched wheat flour, butter, pure cane sugar, eggs, vanilla and cream of tartar. Coloring is used only in the decorator’s icing.
And the icing is delicious, too. Having tasted our way through cookies topped with too-sweet and hard-as-cement icings, we know a winner when we find it.
The classic French preparation: asparagus with hollandaise sauce. Photo courtesy California Asparagus Commission.
Asparagus has been popular since ancient times. The spring vegetable was cultivated by the Egyptians, appearing on a frieze dating to 3000 B.C.E.
The Greeks and Romans liked asparagus so much that they dried it to enjoy after the short asparagus season (April-June) ended. The oldest surviving cookbook, De Re Coquinaria by Apicius, has a recipe for cooking asparagus. France’s King Louis XIV built special greenhouses to grow asparagus.
Louis XIV (1638-1715) no doubt enjoyed his asparagus in what is now known as French style: with Hollandaise sauce, a rich sauce made from butter and eggs. In 1651, the great French chef François Pierre de La Varenne (1618-1678) published a recipe for Asparagus in Fragrant Sauce (Hollandaise) in his cookbook, Le Cuisine François.
Asparagus is one of our favorite vegetables: delicious, delicate flavor and only 20 calories per 5.3 ounces, or 4 calories per spear. It’s low in sodium, has no fat or cholesterol and is a good source of fiber, potassium and other vitamins and minerals.
You don’t need a special asparagus pot; a regular steamer does just fine. Enjoy asparagus:
It’s been a long time since we made dip from a mix. Back in college, dip made from sour cream and French’s Onion Soup mix alongside chips and pretzels was all the rage.
We were taken down memory lane recently when we received samples of Lays Dip Creations, dry seasoning mixes in Garden Onion, Country Ranch and Freshly Made Guacamole. (In some parts of the country, the products are branded as Tostitos Dip Creations.)
The packets contain dry seasonings such as onions, garlic and a combination of herbs and spices.
In these days of healthier eating, we’re surprised that the package directions indicate only sour cream as the base. Sure, you can buy reduced fat and nonfat sour cream.
But we substituted 0% Fat FAGE Greek yogurt and loved the result. FOOD TIP: While fat has been called a “flavor carrier,” it actually coats the tongue and inhibits tasting the subtleties of the recipe. The less fat, the more you can taste the seasonings.
Make a healthy, delicious lunch of yogurt- based onion dip and crudités. Photo courtesy Frito-Lay.
We made a happy, healthy lunch of crudités (raw vegetables) and yogurt-based Garden Onion mix, using 0% Fat FAGE Greek Yogurt. We’re always happy when we enjoy something that is so good for us.
We liked the lively flavor of Garden Onion seasoning mix, and have put it on our shopping list.
Ranch isn’t generally one of our favorite flavors, so it wasn’t surprising that Country Ranch didn’t score well with us.
We’re still waiting for the avocados to ripen, so we’ll have to report back on the third flavor, Freshly Made Guacamole.
The dips are all-natural and certified kosher by OU. They are soy free, MSG free and contain no gluten ingredients.
If large amounts of Easter chocolate are bestowed upon you and your family, develop a strategy for consuming it. Otherwise, it’s easy to overindulge.
Forget all the media hype about chocolate as an antioxidant food.* Chocolate is not health food. It’s high in calories and fat. A 1-ounce serving of plain chocolate has from 140-160 calories and about 12 grams of fat. A 1.5-ounce Hershey bar, in comparison, has 210 calories, about half of which come from fat. (Note: Sugar and fat content varies by manufacturer.)
*Most antioxidants can be processed out of chocolate, unless deliberate care is taken to preserve them.
Jelly beans seem like a better bargain: 35 pieces have 140 calories and 0 grams of fat. But they’re composed almost entirely of sugar.
Our personal Easter chocolate strategy: one or two servings a day for adults, three ounces a day for children. It’s a good way to teach kids about portion control and an equally important lesson: Ration your treats and you’ll be able to enjoy them longer.
Pomegranates are an unusual fruit. There’s no flesh, per se, inside that big red globe. Instead, there are scores of seeds, each covered with a translucent, ruby-colored juice sac.
The seeds in the juice sac are called arils, a term that refers to a specialized outgrowth that covers the seeds. The edible parts of the mangosteen and the mace of the nutmeg seed are other examples of arils.
Boxes of pomegranate arils, ready to eat, are available at many supermarkets. They’re an easy way to add sophistication to a variety of dishes.
Toss them into a green salad or fruit salad.
Garnish ice cream, sorbet and hot or cold soup.
Sprinkle onto dinner plates or platters.
Drop into clear cocktails such as Martinis.
Two simple Easter desserts:
Ice cream or sorbet sprinkled with arils and a mint leaf.
Pound cake topped with whipped cream, arils and a mint leaf.
A pomegranate and its arils—juice sacs covering the seeds. Photo by Kelly Cline | IST.
As with raspberries, some people enjoy the crunchy seeds and others don’t. But the seeds are wholly edible—in fact, they provide fiber. Those who don’t like them can enjoy the juice, then remove the seed from their mouth with a spoon.
An overview of the pomegranate: history, health benefits and how to eat a pomegranate.
