As the saying goes, if you can’t lick ‘em, join ‘em.
If your kids want junk food instead of vegetables, give them vegetables packaged like junk food. And proclaim that those veggies are, in fact, junk food.
That’s what the 50-odd carrot growers behind BabyCarrots.com have done. In what is perhaps the best food campaign since “Got Milk?” began in 1993, “Eat ‘Em Like Junk Food,” an ad campaign that begins next week, will hopefully double the $1 billion baby carrot market in two to three years. (We spend a billion dollars on baby carrots?!?!?)
But alas, the ads are breaking in just two markets (Cincinnati and Syracuse), so the rest of us will have to be content with the BabyCarrots.com website. As of today, there’s not much on it except for a hypnotic heavy metal chant “Eat. Baby. Carrots. EXTREME!” It’s begging to be a ring tone.
We’ll check in next week.
No more smiling bunnies: baby carrots are
packaged like junk food. Photo courtesy
BabyCarrots.com.
Black garlic. Photo by Katharine Pollak |
THE NIBBLE.
Black garlic was was developed about 10 years ago by a company in Korea, and has been available to American chefs for about two years. But until recently, it hasn’t been easy for consumers to find it.
Now it’s popping up at specialty food stores and is available online. Anyone who delights in new flavors—or who loves garlic—should try it.
Skordophiles (that’s garlic lovers) may enjoy popping the fermented black garlic cloves directly into their mouths to get an intense wash of garlic, soy, molasses and tamarind flavors.
Cooks will have fun playing with a flavorful new ingredient.
As food writers, we spend most of the day tasting and reviewing products. We do a lot of cooking and baking and explore new ways to use ingredients.
Recently, we joined the Pepperidge Farm Recipe Challenge that invites bloggers to test their creativity with puff pastry. The challenge is not only to create an original recipe using Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry, but a dish evocative of our home state, New York (cheesecake? chopped liver? oysters?).
While we’re working on our hopefully-winning recipe for the challenge, you can check out the many delicious savory and sweet puff pastry recipes from Pepperidge Farm.
Which recipes would you like to make? Let us know your favorites.
Keep an eye out for THE NIBBLE’s puff pastry recipe, which we’ll post soon.
Creamed Bananas in Puff Pastry Shells is a
Recipe Challenge winner. Here’s the recipe.
Find more recipes at PuffPastry.com. Photo courtesy Pepperidge Farm.
Enjoy grilled bread plain or as bruschetta.
Photo courtesy California Asparagus
Commission.
Almost everyone toasts burger and hot dog buns on the grill, but how about regular bread?
You can toast any bread on the grill (it will rejuvenate bread that is no longer fresh, too).
Grilled bread has a lovely smoky flavor and great crunch. It’s a welcome accompaniment to any meal and is very popular with soup and salad. You can also use grilled bread to make bruschetta, crostini or open-faced sandwiches.
1. Crusty bread is most delicious when grilled. Slice the bread (not too thin), drizzle or brush lightly with extra virgin olive oil and place on the grill.
2. When the down side turns toasty on one side, flip it to brown on the other side.
3. Bread will cook pretty quickly, usually within a few minutes. Keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t burn. Serve warm from the grill.
Take a look at the different types of bread in our Bread Glossary.
From its dawn, mankind has sought herbs and spices to flavor food and to cure ills. Ancient travelers brought them back from foreign lands. Given the long and treacherous journey, imported spices and herbs were costly, beyond the reach of the common man.
Some spices were often used as currency: 3,000 pounds of peppercorns, the world’s most popular spice, were required to ransom Rome from the Visigoths 410 C.E. (Learn more about pepper.)
But is there a difference between herbs and spices? Actually, yes: It depends upon what part of the plant the seasoning comes from.
Herbs are the leafy parts or petals of plants. Along with basil, cilantro and oregano leaves, tea leaves are also herbs. Herbs can be used fresh or dried and stored.
There is a difference between herbs and
spices. Photo courtesy Allen-Cowley.com.
Spices are derived from the bark, fruit, root, seed or other part of the plant. Saffron, for example, comes from the stigmas of the saffron crocus (Crocus sativus), a beautiful flower. Vanilla is the dried pod of an orchid plant, Vanilla planifolia. Peppercorns are the dried fruit of Piper nigrum, a tropical flowering vine.
Salt, which falls into neither description, is a mineral—sodium chloride.
Most people have difficulty distinguishing between herbs and spices. The American Spice Trade Association describes spices as “any dried plant product used primarily for seasoning purposes.” While this is botanically inaccurate, it does simplify things for most people.
