I vant to drink your blood. Photo
courtesy Riazul Tequila.

First produced by French monks in the 16th century as a cure for snake bites, jaundice and “wretchedness,” crème de cassis is perfect for celebrations with a red theme (Halloween, Independence Day, Christmas).

While those monks would not win any prizes for medicine, the delicious liqueur can certainly help make one less wretched and brighten up drinks. Perhaps the most famous cocktail with crème de cassis is the Kir and its sparkling sibling, Kir Royale.

VAMPIRE COCKTAIL RECIPE

Ingredients

Preparation

1. Combine tequila, crème de cassis and squeezed lime juice with ice in a cocktail shaker. Shake and strain into a chilled glass.

2. Top with ginger beer.

3. Bonus points: Garnish with glow-in-the-dark or wax candy vampire fangs!

Here are substitutions using cranberry juice and ginger ale:

 
Find more of our favorite cocktail recipes.

According to the Random House Dictionary, it’s:

1. A usually cold dish consisting of vegetables, such as lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers, covered with a dressing and sometimes containing seafood, meat or eggs.

2. Any of various dishes consisting of foods, such as meat, seafood, eggs, pasta or fruit, prepared singly or combined, usually cut up, mixed with a dressing, and served cold: chicken salad; potato salad.

3. Any herb or green vegetable, such as lettuce, used for salads or eaten raw.

We propose a minimalist style of salad like this one, created by Chef Terrance Brennan of Picholine restaurant in New York City. All you need to create a salad work of art is your imagination and a stroll down the produce aisle.

Salad as art. Photo courtesy Chef Terrence
Brennan, TerranceBrennan.com.

With a pinch of sea salt, the tomatoes need no dressing. But you can drizzle olive oil or a vinaigrette on the dish, or serve a side ramekin of vinaigrette or pesto.

Inspired to create? Let us know your favorite combinations.

Cheese straws come in different forms, all of
them delicious. Photo by River Soma | THE NIBBLE.

We are grateful to that unknown Southern cook who whipped up as a snack from leftover biscuit dough, some time in the 1800s.

We love to give cheese straws as a house gift. When we don’t have the time to bake our own, John Wm Macy’s keeps us happily supplied.

Learn about John Wm Macy’s CheeseSticks and the different ways you can use them to accent different foods. In addition to a variety of cheese flavors, there are whole-grain WheatSticks and CheeseCrisps, the cracker shapes shown in the photo.

The company also makes SweetSticks in chocolate and cinnamon, delicious with ice cream and other desserts.

• Find more snacks and cocktail snacks.

Here are some tricks to overcome excessive treating, courtesy of Pirate’s Booty guilt-free snacks and THE NIBBLE:

• Set up rules. Explain beforehand that Halloween is for fun, costumes and treats—but not to over-indulge on candy, which should be enjoyed in moderation. If you haven’t already done so, this is the time to explain healthy food vs. less-healthy food. Your guidance now will set kids up for a lifetime of wise food choices.
• Fill ‘em up. Feed kids a full, nutritious meal before they head out to trick-or-treat. That way they’ll be less likely to devour a lot of candy before they return home.
• Trade agreement. Offer kids a cash honorarium or a coveted toy for giving up the candy. Explain the options before trick-or-treating begins.

Coppery plastic mini yo-yos are as low as
$1.99/dozen at OrientalTrading.com, which has many inexpensive Halloween toys.

• Treat others. Let kids pick out the 10 pieces of candy they want most. Call it “10 Days Of Halloween” and let them have one treat a day. Donate the rest of the sweets to a local food bank. Bring the kids with you to the food bank and teach a valuable lesson in the joy of sharing with the needy.
• Cavity cutback. Some dentists participate in the Candy Buy-Back program the day after Halloween. Kids receive a monetary reward, while the candy gets shipped to U.S. military forces abroad. If your dentist doesn’t participate, give him or her this URL so you’ll have a program next Halloween: HalloweenCandyBuyBack.com.
• Divide and conquer. When the candy arrives back at home, allow them to pick two pieces. Then, put it away and enable them to pick one piece a day, for dessert after dinner.
• Don’t be an enabler. Distribute non-sugared treats such healthy popcorn or whole-grain pretzels. Find single-serve bags at club stores. Or, look at inexpensive toys like plastic or gummy spiders and worms. 

It will make your coffee taste better. Photo
courtesy Heinz.

If your home-brewed coffee doesn’t taste as good as it should, it may be due to coffee oils and mineral deposits from the water that build up. Fortunately, it’s easy to remove them using a time-honored technique with distilled white vinegar.

1. Fill the glass carafe (or whatever receptacle your coffeemaker has) to the maximum cup level, using one part white vinegar to two parts water. If the carafe makes 12 cups, that’s 24 ounces of vinegar and 48 ounces of water, since coffeemaker “cups” are 6 ounces, not 8 ounces.

2. Pour the solution into the water reservoir of the coffeemaker. Turn on the appliance and let the solution run through (the basket that holds the ground coffee should be in place).

3. When the solution is completely back in the carafe, turn off the appliance. Allow the pot to cool for 20 minutes. Then pour the solution down the drain and rinse the carafe well with water.

4. Next fill the carafe with cold water, pour it into the reservoir and run it through the coffeemaker. Pour the cycled water out, rinse the carafe well, and repeat this step with a second pot of cold water.

If you use a single-serve coffee system with pods or cups, read the product manual to see how often (and how) it needs to be cleaned.

How To Make A Great Cup Of Coffee