Check out these peanut recipes:

Savory Peanut Recipes

• Colonial Peanut Soup
• Indian Layered Dip
• Thai Beef Salad
• Vietnamese Spicy Squid Salad

U.S. nut consumption in 2009. Chart
courtesy USDA Educational Research Service.

• Bacon Peanut Brittle
• Easy Peanut Butter Fudge
• Flourless Peanut Butter Chunk Cookies
• Gourmet Peanut Butter Desserts: PB Panna Cotta, PB&J Dessert Ravioli and PB Cake With Malted PB Ice Cream.
• Snickers Icebox Pie

Peanuts, which originated in South America, actually came to the U.S. with African slaves. They were first brought to West Africa by Portuguese and Spanish traders, where they became a staple crop.

See who invented peanut butter.

Heirloom tomatoes are grown from seeds of older tomato cultivars—tomatoes that tasted great. The taste disappeared from most markets in the 1950s, after seeds were developed for mass production.

The tomatoes can be found in a wide variety of colors, shapes, flavors and sizes. Some are beautiful in their irregularity—considered a “defect” in the 1950s, but highly desired in the reborn farm-to-table era. The flavors can be so rich and surprising that people who don’t like tomatoes can be converted to fans.

Wash the tomatoes and dry thoroughly. Although the tomatoes are delicious plain, a pinch of sea salt perks up the flavor. We particularly like a sea salt and herb blend.

Heirloom tomatoes taste as good as they
look. Photo courtesy GreenAccessAtSuncadia.com.

School has never been so tasty. Photo
courtesy OneToughCookie.com.

One Tough Cookie, which actually makes very tender cookies, has a solution for your favorite back-to-schooler or teacher. The hand-decorated, buttery shortbread cookies are sure to please. (“I feel like my freezer is empty if I have less than 15 pounds of butter,” says Gail.)

Gail Dosik, founder of the New York City-based boutique bakery, departed Seventh Avenue for a professional baking career, switching from designer dresses to designer cookies and cakes. She attended the French Culinary Institute, traded in Manolos for kitchen clogs and opened the doors to her bakery at age 50.

Tomorrow, we’ll feature a cookie-making secret from Gail.

• Find more of our favorite cookies plus recipes in our Gourmet Cookie & Brownie Section.
• See the different types of cookies in our beautiful Cookie Glossary.

You can cook frittatas, omelets and scrambled eggs the night before and microwave them for seconds in the morning, putting a hot dish on the table in a minute. Steel-cut oatmeal and other non-instant hot cereals can be made ahead as well.

Make this delicious frittata today and enjoy it tomorrow morning:

FRITTATA RECIPE

Ingredients

• 6 eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Cheddar cheese
• 3/4 cup chopped zucchini
• 1/4 cup chopped red bell pepper
• 2 tablespoons chopped red onion

Make individual frittatas in a muffin
pan. Photo courtesy IncredibleEgg.com.

2. Add cheese, zucchini, bell pepper and onion; mix well. Spoon evenly into 12 greased muffin cups, about 1/4 cup each.

3. Bake until just set, 20 to 22 minutes. Cool on rack 5 minutes.

4. Remove from cups.

5. Serve immediately or refrigerate and microwave for 30 seconds to heat when you’re ready to eat.

This recipe is courtesy of The American Egg Board, IncredibleEgg.org.

• Find more egg recipes in our Egg Section.

It was targeted to kids, teaching healthy cooking: basic cooking skills plus kitchen safety and where food comes.

If you have children, look for kids’ cooking classes in your area. You’ll do yourself a favor: Fun classes lead to childrens’ empowerment, independence and responsibility for what they eat. Plus, they’ll be able to make their own simple meals, and you won’t have to spend time teaching them. They’ll be more enthusiastic in a group of other kids, where it becomes “play.”

And, they may grow up with a penchant for cooking the family meals.

Chef Toni’s healthy buffet worked beautifully for both children and adults, and reminded us that we too should eschew the fattening cheese plate for equally delightful, yet good-for-you foods. The menu included easy recipes:

• Kiwi lemonade, kiwi puree mixed with lemon juice and water

Instead of a bread-based canape, try fruit:
Here, watermelon topped with tabbouleh and
crumbled feta and a chive “bow.” Photo courtesy Watermelon.org.

• Hint flavored, unsweetened water (a NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week)
• Stuffed eggs filled with spinach creamed with milk, instead of a cholesterol-filled deviled yolk
• Cucumber in thick slices topped with taramosalata, Greek caviar spread made with olive oil and lemon juice
• Guacamole (which is caloric, but nutrient-rich) and corn chips (which are whole grain)
• Watermelon salad: cubes of melon with shredded basil, and queso blanco substituting for the traditional feta cheese (which can be too potent a flavor for kids)
• Grape and walnut salad: halved green and red grapes with walnut halves and a light yogurt dressing
• Large, flat ravioli with scalloped edges atop skewers, covered with pesto
• Fruit skewers: melon, pineapple and grapes
• A heaping platter of red and green grapes
• Pineapple flowers, cut from pineapple slices with a large cookie cutter, placed on skewers and anchored in a box of wheat grass (really beautiful!)
• Cupcakes by Melissa, single-bite tiny cupcakes that allow you to enjoy a small bite or two of different flavors instead of eating a regular cupcake or two

Kids must really like a certain color of green food. They lapped up the guacamole, hard-cooked egg halves filled with spinach and kiwi lemonade and the grapes, plus the ravioli and fruit skewers, and left the rest to the grown-ups.