Our favorite: pistachio gelato dipped in
dark chocolate and rolled in crushed
pistachios. Photo courtesy Popbar.

So we’re happy that a Popbar opened in our town, serving gelato, frozen yogurt or sorbet on a stick.

An idea imported from Italy, Popbar serves handcrafted gelato or sorbetto made with all-natural ingredients in small batches: just 24 popbars at a time.

The customized designer pop of your choice is is hand-dipped by a “certified popologist” in your choice of dark, milk or white chocolate.

Then, it’s rolled in a choice of toppings—almonds, biscotti crumbles, brownie chunks, coconut, coffee grains, granola, hazelnuts or pistachios.

It’s not a revolutionary concept, but it’s a fun and tasty one. If popbars prove popular, there could be Popbar franchises all over America.

Popbars are all-natural, certified kosher and gluten free (some toppings have gluten; consult with your popologist). They’re becoming popular catering fare at parties in New York City, site of the first U.S. Popbar.

Want to own a Popbar? Visit Pop-Bar.com.

You’ll find a parade of cupcakes dressed up with clever wrappers and toppings, sold in kits that enable you to quickly transform a plain cupcake into a dazzler.

The St. Patrick’s Day kit in the photo is one of 30+ different designs on offer, some of which are quite elaborate. Cupcake Cuties enable you to easily create just about anything your celebration calls for:

The kits are $23.99, which might sound expensive — until you realize that your designer cupcakes are at least half the price and twice the fun as buying them off the shelf.

The cheeseburger and sushi cupcakes were a huge hit chez nous. Next, we’ll be making the St. Patrick’s Day cupcakes. Sure, we could hunt down a jar of shamrock sprinkles and cut cupcake wrappers from green paper…but with the Cupcake Cuties kit, we know we’ll finish the task on time.

Cupcake Cuties are a fun project for family members. They may even motivate those who have no great interest in cooking and baking to do more of it. The kits themselves are very giftable. Add a couple of boxes of Sprinkles cupcake mix and the recipient is guaranteed to have a memorable day.

Make a simple tomato sauce, or add
meat or mushrooms. Photo by Trutenka |
IST.

Pasta with homemade tomato sauce is one of the tastiest, most convenient and affordable meals you can make. The prep work is quick and simple.

Just boil some water for the pasta, chop up some onion and garlic, open a can of crushed tomatoes and you’re ready to get cooking. Your dinner can be on the table in as little as half an hour.

Appealing any time of the year, pasta is a comfort food staple over the winter, when we’re too cold to do much grocery shopping. It’s also less expensive than take-out food. You can use whole wheat pasta, which provides valuable fiber and nutrients as well as a distinctive nutty flavor.

If you want to add meat, keep a package of sausages in the freezer; thaw and cook in the microwave and garnish your plate of pasta.

All you need to complete your meal is a green salad.

That’s because today is National White Chocolate Cheesecake Day.

We invited a bunch of celebrants, and they’ve just left.

Here’s the recipe, served with a raspberry coulis (COO-lee, French for fruit purée).

The key to deliciousness is using real white chocolate made with cocoa butter, not “white baking chips” made with vegetable oil. We used a few bars of our favorite white chocolate. Heavenly!

[1] Mini cheesecakes with red grapefruit topping. Get the recipe (photo © Texasweet Citrus Marketing [permanently closed]).

[2] Sautéed salmon with mandarin segments in an orange juice vinaigrette (photo © Ocean Prime Restaurant | New York City).

This tip comes from one of our favorite food educators, Alissa Dicker-Schreiber, The Kitchenista.

While waiting for spring fruits to appear, citrus fruits are a culinary bright spot. Oranges, grapefruits, clementines, mandarins, pomelos, tangerines, and their kin—while available year-round—are our “winter fruits.” You can incorporate them into just about any meal.

One of the easiest ways to do this is by cutting citrus segments: skinless wedges of citrus fruit. Since the segments are free of the harder-to-eat, less-tasty citrus parts like peel, membranes and pith (that bitter white layer beneath the skin), you can easily add them to any dishes you like.

Some favorite ways to use citrus segments:

 
Take a look at these creative recipes—from cocktails to dessert—using red grapefruit.

Organic citrus” Is it better than conventional citrus?: