Mix up your favorite ingredients. Photo
courtesy eCreamery.com.

We’ve become eCreamery addicts: We can’t wait to make the next flavor…and the next.

In addition to choosing the flavor (there are 80 for ice cream and gelato, and nine for sorbetto) and two mix-ins, the pints are custom-labeled with your creative name for the blend: Happy Elf Eggnog, Mom’s Youth Serum, Cher’s Chocolate Fantasy, and so on.

The products are top-quality, and the fun experience is memorable.

• See the full review.
• Find our favorite dessert gifts for Holiday 2010.
• Learn the difference between ice cream and gelato.

• Make a Ginger Martini with Ginger Soother (from The Ginger People, available at Whole Foods Markets) or use ginger syrup (recipe provided).
• Or go for a Crantini (a cranberry martini).
• For a non-alcoholic drink, serve ginger beer. It’s much more robust and gingery than ginger ale. An alcohol-free, sophisticated soft drink, it can be enjoyed straight from the bottle or as a cocktail mixer.

GINGER BEER TASTING
For our Thanksgiving guests, we purchased every brand of ginger beer we could find at two stores. During the cocktail hour, instead of having everyone drink too many martinis, we’re having a ginger beer tasting. Just print up sheets with all the contenders. Here’s a guide for how to do it.

Perfect for Thanksgiving: a Ginger
Martini. Photo by Bryan Delodder | IST.

Chef Cutaneo works with a brined turkey. While this step is optional, if you have the time to include brining, the difference in tenderness and flavor will be worth it. Here’s last week’s video and guide to brining.

Delicious olive oil from Nudo, crushed with
your choice of six different fruits or herbs.
All it needs is a bow. Photo courtesy
Nudo-Italia.com.

But what we like best about Nudo is not the bare oil (which is lovely) but the crushed fruit and herbs that infuse the flavored oils with so much pizzazz.

Within hours of being picked, late harvest olives are stone-milled together with fresh-picked fruits and herbs. (Late harvest olives have a subtler flavor than early harvest olives, allowing the infused flavor to burst through.) Crushing the fruits/herbs with the olives provides much finer flavor than infusing the olive oil with an extract. That’s why Nudo is the real deal.

Choose from Basil, Chillie, Garlic, Lemon, Mandarin, Thyme or Original olive oil. We also like the pizzazz of the can decoration, which makes Nudo olive oil a charming small gift.

An 8.4-ounce can is $11.99 at Nudo-Italia.com.

• Find more of our favorite savory stocking stuffers, one of our 13 gift lists for 2010.
• Learn all about olive oil in our Olive Oil Section.

Want to avoid soggy cereal?

We find that our morning bowl of cereal, filled with milk, becomes soggy after three spoonfuls.

It occurred to us: Why pour milk over dry cereal? Why not use a glass of milk as a chaser?

We tried it, it worked, and now it’s our favorite way to eat cereal:

1. Fill a bowl with cereal plus any sweetener or fruit.
2. Fill a glass with milk.
3. Insert a spoonful of cereal into mouth. Crunch once.
4. Follow with a sip of milk.
5. Repeat until all cereal and milk are consumed.

Just because it seems unusual doesn’t mean that it isn’t a better way.

After all, forks weren’t used in England until the mid-17th century, although they were introduced to the country in 1608 by an Englishman who brought them back from Italy.

According to The History Of The Fork, the English ridiculed forks as being effeminate and unnecessary. “Why should a person need a fork when God had given him hands?” was the refrain.

So, learn a lesson from history: Try new things, as strange as they may seem.

Keep it crunchy: Follow a spoonful of dry cereal with a shot of milk (photo courtesy PreserveProducts.com).