Pecan lovers, rejoice. As of Monday, November 22nd, American Pecans, the American Pecan Council, is launching a special Thanksgiving campaign to help travelers whose flights get delayed or canceled—“pecanceled,” as the pecan folks have described it.

Holiday travel this year is expected to be nuts, says the American Pecan Council. Anticipating record travel delays, the Council wanted to do something to support Thanksgiving travelers.

Welcome to the “Pecanceled” Flights Set Right campaign, created to give succor to delayed and canceled passengers this Thanksgiving holiday.
 
 
FIRST, PECAN SNACK BITES

Mmm, delicious pecan treats (photos #1 and #2)! Partnering with Farmer’s Fridge, a company that operates hundreds of automated smart fridges (photo #3), American Pecans will give away free, limited-edition pecan pie snack bites in select airports coast-to-coast, to anyone whose flight gets delayed or canceled. 

To receive a jar of pecan pie snack bites, passengers can simply DM @americanpecan on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter with their canceled/delayed flight information. They’ll receive a code to get a jar from a Farmer’s Fridge vending machine at the airport (for a limited time while supplies last).

This holiday treat is made with pecans, rolled oats, maple syrup, and vanilla beans, and is packaged in a portable jar, ideal to help fuel weary travelers (and for the rest of us, too—they’re DEElicious [or should that be PEAcanlicious?], not to mention, packed with protein and energy).
 
 
NEXT, THE PECANCELED FLIGHTS SET RIGHT SWEEPSTAKES

If your flight is delayed or canceled, you’re eligible to enter the “Pecanceled” Flights Set Right Sweepstakes.

One unlucky traveler who misses his or her Thanksgiving as the result of a “pecanceled” flight, will be the lucky winner of the “Pie in the Sky” grand prize:

Round-trip, First Class air travel for the next five years to their Thanksgiving destination. Plus a year’s worth of American Pecans, and more treats.

Wow!

Pecanceled passengers can enter the sweepstakes by visiting PecanceledFlights.com and submitting their “pecanceled” flight stories.

The sweepstakes runs nationwide from November 22nd to November 30th, 2021.
 
 
Of course, we hope that none of our beloved readers are delayed or canceled.

For everyone who is traveling, we recommend taking a package of shelled pecans with you as an energy snack food.
And check out all the great pecan recipes at AmericanPecan.com.
 
 
PECANS: THE GREAT AMERICAN NUT

Did you know that the pecan is the only major tree nut indigenous to North America?

 
Pecan trees have been growing in North America for millions of years. Although they are now planted in orchards, wild pecan trees account for about 30% of the nation’s harvest.

Check out the history of pecans.
 
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*Although they grow on trees, cashews are actually seeds. They are the seeds of the drupe of the cashew tree. The shell is inedible due to the presence of toxins, which is why you never see cashews in their shells.

†Peanuts are legumes, but are classified as nuts due to their similar characteristics to other tree nuts.

[1] Pecan pie snack bites. Find them in Farmers Fridge vending machines in airport locations over the Thanksgiving Holiday (photos #1, #2 © American Pecan Council).

[2] These are so good, wish we could get the recipe (it’s secret!). But there are plenty of great pecan recipes on the American Pecan website.

[3] An example of Farmers Fridge vending machines in airport locations. Here’s more about them (photo © NBC News | Harriet Baskas).

[4] The shell doesn’t look intimidating, but “pecan” is an Algonquian word meaning “requiring a stone to crack” (photo © American Pecan Council).

[5] Pecan nuts inside their husk. As the pecans inside start to ripen, the husks will turn brown and eventually begin to crack. Soon, the pecans start falling to the ground (photo © American Pecan | Facebook).

[1] Pour yourself a glass of apple cider…or turn it into an apple cider cocktail with your favorite spirit (photo © Bonnie Kittle | Unsplash).

[2] Add club soda for an apple cider spritz. You can add just a splash, or use mostly club soda for a type of apple cider club soda (photo © Pesce Huang | Unsplash).

[3] For a touch of elegance, bring the cider or spritz to the table in a carafe (photo © Jennifer Schmidt| Unsplash).

[4] Apple cider donuts. Here’s the recipe (photo © Karo Syrup).

[5] Sweet and spicy pickled apples are a delicious condiment. Serve them wherever you’d serve cucumber pickles. Here’s the recipe (photo © US Apple).

[6] Apple cider caramels

[7] Fall duo: a scoop of apple cider sorbet with a scoop of pomegranate sorbet. Here’s the recipe (photo © US Apple).

November 18th is National Apple Cider Day. Why not set up an apple cider bar and invite friends and neighbors? You set out the cider, spirits, mixers, and garnishes, and guests make their own. Don’t forget the cookies: Gingersnaps and snickerdoodles are great with cider. There are also apple cider cookies with nuts and raisins, and of course, apple cider donuts. Check it out!

Or, go directly to the hard cider. Here’s how to plan the cider party, and a list of some hard ciders to try. Also, what to know about hard cider.

You can also plan a cider tasting party for Mother’s Day or Father’s Day.
 

So dig in…and if you don’t have time to cook or mix a cocktail, enjoy fresh or hard cider straight.

Another occasion to celebrate: World Cider Day is June 3rd.

> What Is Hard Cider?
 
 
APPLE CIDER RECIPES

Food

 
 
APPLE CIDER HISTORY

Wild apple trees originated in the mountains of Central Asia. The center of diversity of the genus became eastern [present-day] Turkey.

The apple tree may have been the earliest tree that humans cultivated (the history of apples). Over the millennia, through selective breeding, farmers improved the fruits [source].

When the Romans invaded England around 55 B.C.E., they found the local Celts cultivating apple orchards and drinking apple cider.

The original apple varieties weren’t for eating. They were bitter, so were pressed for their juice and left to ferment into alcohol.

The Romans immediately embraced the drink, and cider quickly spread through the Roman Empire and across Europe: from the Germanic tribes to the east, to the Normans in the south (northern France).

When the Normans invaded England in the 9th century, they returned to Normandy with the rootstock to grow their own apple orchards and left behind the word “cider” for the English language [source].

Everyone drank cider or beer: adults and children alike. Due to unhealthy water sources, it was the safer choice.

Fast forward: Colonists brought apples to North America in the 17th century—the bitter cider apples. Apples were being grown in Massachusetts as early as 1630. At the end of the 18th century, Johnny Appleseed traveled west to spread apple trees for cider.

As in Europe, cider or beer was drunk instead of water.

Mutations were continually creating new breeds of apples. The McIntosh mutation was discovered in 1796, by a farmer named John McIntosh. It was sweeter, and was best for eating rather than fermenting.

More sweet mutations followed, and today, we have as many varieties of sweet apples as cider apples.
 
 
Apple Cider In America

When English settlers arrived in the Americas, they planted apple trees with the hopes of making [alcoholic] cider. It was a necessity: All water sources potentially harbored waterborne diseases that could be deadly for the family or community.

Beer, the common alternative to harmful water in Europe (for adults and children alike), wasn’t an option. The climate wasn’t suited to growing the barley, wheat, and rye essential for brewing beer.

But apple trees adapted to the New England climate, and apple cider became the standard drink for everyone including children.

Children were often served a watered-down version of cider called ciderkin or applekin.

The average family at the time consumed 90 gallons of cider each year [source]!

The apples were also made into cider vinegar, which was essential in pickling and preserving food.

Cider spread beyond New England, of course. Cider was considered to be exceptionally valuable in early America and even became an acceptable payment for work. Virginia planter William Fitzhugh noted around the late 1670s that his 2,500-tree orchard and the cider it produced was as valuable as 15,000 pounds of tobacco—then Virginia’s top cash crop.

As most Americans know, in the early 19th century, John Chapman, better known as the “Johnny Appleseed,” made his fortune from growing apples. By planting temporary tree nurseries throughout unsettled areas in the Midwest, Chapman was able to sell families bound for the West, established apple trees ready to plant and yield crops.

During the latter 19th and early 20th centuries, the Temperance Movement and subsequent Prohibition lessened, then ended, the demand for hard cider. While non-alcoholic cider endured (it is pressed from sweet, not cider, apples), many cider apple orchards were cut down or burned during Prohibition (1920 to 1933).

After Prohibition’s end, apple cider orchards remained limited: The cost involved in planting new orchards wasn’t paid back by the limited demand for cider. Farmers who did stick to growing apples switched to the sweeter varieties that are used for baking and fresh apple juice [source].

Over the last 20 years, craft brewers have revived the art of cider brewing. Seeing the trend, the Angry Orchard hard cider brand was launched in 2012 by the Boston Beer Company, brewers of Samuel Adams beer.

Our Tip Of The Day, St. Lucia Distillers Chairman’s Reserve Spiced Rum, is a winner for these reasons and more:

 
 
ST. LUCIA & ITS RUM

St. Lucia is a volcanic island nation situated in the eastern Caribbean: lush rainforests with waterfalls, dramatic mountains, volcanic beaches, reef-diving sites, fishing villages…and luxury resorts enabling vacationers to enjoy it all.

But before the resorts, there was sugarcane. Sugarcane was brought to St. Lucia in the 1700s, likely from India (the history of sugar cane), and was used to contribute to the Caribbean’s thriving rum trade.

By the 1950s however, demand for rum had lessened in favor of other spirits, and many Caribbean islands closed their distilleries. The last operating distillery on St. Lucia, St. Lucia Distillers Group, produces this wonderful spiced rum.

Spiced rum is a tradition in St. Lucia. The island grows numerous spices, which are sold in the island’s open-air markets.

Local families buy the spices and make their spiced rum at home, using a base of white rum. Every family has its own special recipe, and the recipes vary widely. At the end of the workday, everyone relaxes with a glass of it—whether at home or visiting a neighbor.

There is a breadth of options in choosing spices, along with local fruits. They can include allspice, almonds, anise seeds, cinnamon, cloves, coconut, coriander, ginger, hibiscus, lemon and/or orange peel, mace, nutmeg, raisins, rosemary and vanilla pods.

St. Lucians also add bois bande (pronounced bwah bond, “hard wood”), the natural bark of a tree by the same name. The bark is added as a bittering component (and it’s known in Santa Lucia as a natural aphrodisiac). It differentiates St. Lucian rum.

St. Lucia spiced rum is often made with overproof rum, a distillate that contains more than 50% alcohol by volume (A.B.V.) The proof of a spirit is double the A.B.V. Hence, we’re looking at rum that is 100 proof or more.

However, St. Lucia Distillers Chairman’s Reserve Spiced Rum is not overproof. It’s a conventional 40% A.B.V., 80 proof.

> Check Out The Different Types Of Rum & The History Of Rum

August 16th is National Rum Day.
 
 
ST. LUCIA DISTILLERS CHAIRMAN’S RESERVE SPICED RUM

A blend of rums from both column and pot stills (photos #3 and #4), the rums are aged for an average of 5 years in used American oak casks (photo #5). They’re married after maturation, and then returned to oak for blending and final finishing—another six months. The end result is the flagship Saint Lucian rum: harmonious with well-rounded finesse, rich in color, aroma, and flavor.

The nose has spicy vanilla from the oak, honey, and fruit. We think it smells like a heavenly dessert, inspiring thoughts of cake batter, crème brûlée, and vanilla custard, with a hint of orange). We can be happy simply by inhaling it.

But of course, we also love to drink it. The palate: balanced with a mellow but complex mix of raisiny fruit, spice, and tobacco. The finish is long and oh-so-enjoyable.

This is nothing like the Captain Morgan spiced rum which we were happy to drink in college. Everything has a time and place; but now that we’re an adult foodie, we want the real thing.

So set aside your idea of what spiced rum is, and treat yourself to a bottle of a great one: St. Lucia Distillers Chairman’s Reserve Spiced Rum.
 
 
WHERE SHOULD YOU BEGIN?

Begin, of course, by procuring a bottle for yourself, and for gifts. In addition to the serving ideas above, here are some favorites from the St. Lucia Distillery team:

[1] A bottle of St. Lucia Chairman’s Reserve atop a cask in the aging cellar (all photos © St. Lucia Distillery).

[2] Spice up your Mint Julep: switch the Bourbon for spiced rum. Here’s a recipe.

[3] Copper pot stills. Copper is better for distilling spirits because the copper removes sulfides from the distillate (the distilled spirit), which produces a better tasting and better smelling final product.

[4] A copper column still.

[5] Rum aging in casks. The next step: Into the bottle and ready to sell.

[6] A Manhattan cocktail made with St. Lucia Distillers Chairman’s Reserve Spiced Rum instead of Rye. Here’s the Manhattan recipe.

[1] The medium Hanukkah Chocolate Assortment: 30 pieces of deliciousness (all photos © Burdick Chocolate).

[2] You can repurpose the empty box for jewelry, keepsakes, office supplies—or use it to package another gift.

[3] Some of the bonbons.

[4] Close up on the menorah bonbon.

[5] The large box, 50 bonbons.

L.A. Burdick is one of the finest artisan chocolatiers in America. For the first time, the company is debuting a special Hanukkah chocolate box. The individual bonbons feature ingredients that are central to Jewish cuisine and imagine what some of the quintessential Jewish foods might taste like as chocolate bonbons. (No, there are no matzoh ball bonbons. See the flavors below.)

A variety of Hanukkah-inspired bonbons, as well as signature bonbons from the Burdick signature collection, are presented in Burdick’s elegant wooden gift box (which is a keeper).

Each box is hand-tied with a blue ribbon and hand-stamped with a silver menorah design wax seal.

The collection is available now through December 10th, while supplies last.

You can order:

 
 
WHAT’S IN THE BEAUTIFUL WOOD BOX?

Both boxes include:
 
Hanukkah Bonbon Flavors

 
Classic Burdick Bonbon Flavors

 
Oh, how delicious!
 
HEAD TO BURDICK CHOCOLATE.COM TO ORDER YOURS!
 
 
> THE HISTORY OF CHOCOLATE

> UNDERSTANDING TRUFFLES & GANACHE

We really like pumpkin pie, and couldn’t wait until Thanksgiving to get our pumpkin pie fix. So on two different days, we went into two different well-regarded bakeries and bought ourselves a slice. We were a bit disappointed with each, because the spices weren’t our cup of tea. One had too much allspice, the other not enough cinnamon. So on the third day, we tried this recipe, which has the wild card of maple syrup (that’s because it was sent to us by the Pure Maple from Canada folks.

So how was it?

Overall: a delicious pumpkin pie-like dessert that requires no baking, in fact, no kitchen skills whatsoever if you don’t toast the pecans. You don’t have to toast them, but the flavor is so much better if you do. You can toast nuts on the stove top, in the microwave or in the oven. The instructions are below.

The maple syrup was a pleasant flavor alternative to the customary brown sugar.

We made one substitution and one addition to the recipe. We didn’t have chia seeds, but we did have pepitas: unshelled, unsalted pumpkin seeds.

We also added a streusel “crust” at the bottom of the pudding parfait. You can do the same with:

 
It was a nice extra layer of flavor.

We used Tru Whip, which we find has better flavor than Cool Whip—and it’s all natural. The next time we make this recipe, we’re going to try substituting stabilized whipped cream for the whipped topping. Here’s a recipe to start off with.
 
 
RECIPE #1: PUMPKIN PIE PARFAIT
 
Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. TOAST the pecans. Combine the pecans and 2 tablespoons of maple syrup. Reserve 2 tablespoons of the pecan mixture and divide the remaining mixture evenly between 4 glasses.

Note that if you are using a “crust” option, that should be your first layer before you add the pecans.

2. COMBINE the pumpkin purée in a bowl along with 4 tablespoons of maple syrup, the chia seeds, and the pumpkin pie spice. Fold in 1 cup of whipped topping and divide the pudding evenly in the four glasses over the pecan mixture.

3. TOP with the remaining whipped topping and the reserved pecan mixture, dividing evenly. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours or overnight.
 
 
RECIPE #2: HOW TO TOAST NUTS, SEEDS & SPICES

Why toast nuts, seeds, or spices?

 
For all methods, shake the pan during toasting to even the browning. When finished, remove the nuts from the pan to cool.
 
Like all cooked foods, the nuts/seeds/spices will continue to cook when removed from the heat.
 
Notes:

 
 
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*If you don’t have a prepared blend, combine ¾ teaspoon cinnamon and ¼ teaspoon each of allspice, cloves, ginger and nutmeg.

[1] “Pumpkin pie parfait” is actually, a pumpkin pudding parfait. By any name, it’s a tasty treat (photo © Pure Maple From Canada).

[2] You’ll need pumpkin puree—a can will do although this one is homemade by Foodal. Here’s the recipe (photo © Foodal).

[3] Mmm, pecans. We ate half of them before we toasted them! Fortunately, we had a whole bag full (photo ©

[4] A leaf bottle is a cute gift (photo © Canada Maples).

[5] Tru Whip: a natural whipped topping (photo © Tru Whip).

[6] The pumpkin pie spice mix proportions can vary, but it typically includes allspice, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and ginger (photo © Silk Road Spices).