Get Up & Go! with Smucker’s Snack’n Waffles.

• THE PRIZE: One lucky winner will receive a Smucker’s Snack’n Waffles Get Up & Go! package that includes four Smucker’s Snack’n Waffles coupons, an alarm clock and an mp3 player to create a morning music playlist. Retail Value Of Prize: Approximately $100.00 for the Get Up & Go! Package and $3.00 for the product coupons.

Five additional winners will each receive a product coupon to try the delicious breakfast waffles.

• To Enter This Gourmet Giveaway: Go to the box at the bottom of our Waffle History Page and click to enter your email address for the prize drawing. This contest closes on Monday, January 3rd at noon, Eastern Time. Good luck!
• To learn more about Smucker’s, visit Smuckers.com.

There are two reasons to toast spices.

First, a bit of heat releases the flavor of the spices, giving you much more punch. This extra flavor is worth the five minutes of time to toast them.

It’s easy to toast your spices:

Before grinding, toast whole spices in a dry skillet over low heat. Stir frequently until the spices begin to release their aromas.

The aromas are a delicious kitchen sachet, which leads to the second good reason to toast spices:

If you’ve recently burned some popcorn, fried a batch of fish or have that leftover meat-browning odor in your kitchen, toasting some spices in the oven should help alleviate bad kitchen aromas.

Simply place 4 or 5 cinnamon sticks, a few tablespoons of cloves and/or some orange peel onto a baking sheet, and bake at 350°F until the aromas fill your home. The scent is much longer-lasting than aromatic sprays and more effective than kitchen candles.

Oh: And if you’re selling your home, you don’t have to go so far as to bake cookies for a homey household aroma. Just toast some spices.

Here’s one of our favorite products from Jacques Torres: chocolate-covered cornflakes, a crunchy chocolate snack.

In this week’s cooking video, Jacques Torres himself shows both how to temper chocolate and how to make his chocolate-covered cornflakes. Simple as they are to make, they’re also fancy enough to be a gift for your New Year’s Eve party host. We love them as a cupcake topping.

For more tips and how-tos, visit our Cooking Videos Section.

We use this salt cellar in THE NIBBLE test
kitchen. It’s easier to clean than wood
versions, since it gets a lot of spatter from
the stovetop).

Chefs salt meat and fish by sprinkling the salt from a height of roughly 6 to 8 inches.

This ensures that an even layer of salt seasons the meat, and there are no bland spots.

Another thing: Many chefs don’t use a salt shaker. Instead, they use a large salt cellar and sprinkle on salt by the pinch.

Salt is often kept in an oval wood box with a swivel lid. We prefer our glass and stainless salt cellar, for ease of cleaning.

Similarly, many chefs prefer to use kosher salt or sea salt for seasoning. The coarse texture makes it easier to take a pinch for seasoning.

Kosher salt (also called koshering salt) gets its name because coarse-grained salt is used in the koshering process to draw the blood out of meat and poultry.

• Check out THE NIBBLE’s Salt Glossary for the many different types of salt (you won’t believe how many!).

Photo © Victoria Pearson for Sprinkles Cupcakes.

THE NIBBLE

WISHES YOU

HOLIDAY JOY