Make your holiday cheese plate even more festive by adding slices of fruit and nut bars.

We’ve been serving KIND bars, an in-depth assortment of flavors that pair beautifully with cheese.

• From the KIND Fruit & Nut line, serve Almond & Apricot Bar, Date & Walnut Bar and Fruit & Nut Delight Bar.
• The KIND Plus line is fortified with vitamins and fiber—perhaps even a better choice for those who party hearty. Serve a variety of flavors from choices that include Almond Cashew + Flax, Almond Walnut Macadamia Bar, Blueberry Pecan, Cranberry Almond, Mango Macadamia and Pomegranate Blueberry Pistachio.

You can cut bars into square pieces or let guests tear off their own. Everyone will think your idea of pairing fruit and nut bars with cheese is ingenious.

What cheeses should you serve?

• Browse through our Cheese Glossary for inspiration.
• How to plan a cheese tasting.

Serve fruit and nut bars with your
cheese plate. Photo courtesy KIND.

Good things come in small packages, especially when the package contains Delysia Chocolates.

Nine of Delysia’s beautiful little truffles—square chocolate shells filled with seasonally-flavored ganache and beautifully decorated—are tucked into a four-inch-square scarlet box. The bright red box tied with a white satin ribbon is holiday-perfect.

Pieces in the Winter Collection, shown in the photo, are filled with eggnog, gingerbread and mint chocolate ganaches.

Want other flavors? Delysia makes 31 different collections (berry, citrus, latin, nuts, spirits, tea, white chocolate, wine, etc.)

We love smaller truffles rather than large ones because you can taste two different pieces for the caloric “price” of one. Delysia enable you to give special chocolates to someone who doesn’t want to over-indulge but still wants the best.

A nine-piece box is $20.00 at Delysia.com.

The artisan chocolatier also makes bark in six flavors, molded Christmas trees and much more that is truly delysi-us.

How do you keep a sliced apple from turning brown?

(Here’s why apples turn brown.)

Our grandmother dipped the slices into a solution of lemon juice and water. But the experts at the U.S. Apple Association recommend fortified apple juice, a better alternative not available to Granny (or to Mom, either).

The vitamin C that is used to fortify apple juice contains the same ascorbic acid as lemon juice. And it maintains the flavor.

So toss those apple slices into a bowl of fortified apple juice until you’re ready to serve or use them. There’s no need to toss out the apple juice: Drink it!

Pick The Right Apple

As with all fruits and vegetables, each cultivar (variety) has unique properties. In the case of apples, some varieties brown more quickly than others. So the second part of the tip is to look for “slicing apples” with better browning qualities.

If you want to serve apple slices, or keep them from browning as you prepare a pie, use this tip. Photo courtesy U.S. Apple Association.

This may become moot in the future. Okanagan Specialty Fruits, a biotechnology company in British Columbia, has genetically engineered apples so the flesh won’t brown.

However, as a genetically modified organism (GMO), the cultivar is currently seeking USDA approval, which can take years.

Although some consumers steer clear of GMOs, there is overwhelming evidence that GMOs are safe.

GMO tomatoes and grapes, for example, are already in supermarkets.
  

Help turn your favorite kid into a curious
chef. Photo courtesy CuriousChef.com.

Hand a kid a meal and he never learns to cook. Teach a kid to cook and spare him from a lifetime of unhealthy take-out and salt-and-sugar-laden processed food.

Even preschool children can be given safe and simple tasks, learn the love of cooking and take pride that the whole family is eating “their” food.

It may take a small investment of time up-front to teach a kid how to stir seasonings [neatly] into a yogurt dip or tear lettuce into the right-size pieces. But you may end up with a teen who loves to cook the family dinner.

• Chef’s hat
• Apron
• Pair of oven mitts
• 3-quart mixing bowl set
• Kitchen timer
• 6-piece measuring cup set
• 6-piece measuring spoon set
• Kitchen tool set: spoon, rolling pin, whisk, spatula, pastry brush, nylon turner, bear cookie cutter, flower cookie cutter and butterfly cookie cutter

The set is $59.99 at CuriousChef.com. Other combinations of items are available.

• Find more of our favorite holiday gifts for kids.
• Check out our favorite all-purpose kids’ foods.

All year, THE NIBBLE elves seek out and taste (or test) thousands of foods and drinks, kitchen products and books.

When we find something that we think a food lover would really appreciate, we earmark it for one of our holiday gift lists.

• Book Gifts ~ General Gourmet
• Book Gifts ~ Healthy Cooking
• Chocolate Gifts
• Cookies, Cakes & Other Desserts
• General Gourmet Gifts
• Kids’ Gifts
• Kitchen Appliances
• Kitchen Gadgets
• Kosher Gifts
• Liquor Gifts
• Stocking Stuffers: Kitchen
• Stocking Stuffers: Savory
• Stocking Stuffers: Sweet
• Sugar-Free, Gluten-Free & Low Calorie Gifts

A six-ounce box of excellent chocolate-dipped
peppermint sticks is just $5.95. Photo
courtesy King Leo Candies.

You can find stocking stuffers for as little as $2. (Because of the recession, we didn’t create a “Luxury Gifts” list this year.)

If your mission this weekend is holiday shopping, consider clicking instead of elbowing the crowds. Don’t let shipping costs dissuade you. Think instead of gas, parking battles, lengthy treks and long waits to pay (or get a gift box!).