THE NIBBLE BLOG: Products, Recipes & Trends In Specialty Foods


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TIP OF THE DAY: Get A Pressure Cooker

If you love dishes like braised short ribs and pulled pork, but don’t make them because they take so long to cook: You need a pressure cooker!

Today’s pressure cookers are not your mother’s (or grandmother’s) chugging hunks of iron. Sleek and 100% safe in stainless steel, they’re one of the biggest time-savers in the kitchen.

Two years ago we wrote all about pressure cooking and how it can change your kitchen life. There’s a brief learning curve, but you’ll be so happy that you decided to learn!

In the heat of the summer, when you don’t want to turn on the oven for one hour much less for four, the stove top pressure cooker will cook your food without heating up the kitchen.

You don’t have to stand over a hot pot: all the heat is contained within the pressure cooker until you’re ready to remove the lid. In the winter, hearty stews and other favorites take 30-40 minutes—not half a day.

Today, we take on two favorite recipes—braised short ribs and pulled pork—in our review of the new Kuhn Rikon Ecomatic pressure cooker. This shiny kitchen appliance is the best $100 we’ve spent in a long time.


Cut four hours of cooking time to 40 minutes (photo © Kuhn Rikon).
 
Read the full review.

 

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PRODUCT: The Most Fun Cupcakes

The picnic food we want most: a Cupcake
Picnic Pack from YummyCupcakes.com.

Be still our foolish heart: One of our favorite cupcake bakeries, Yummy Cupcakes in Santa Monica, California, has developed the cutest trio of cupcakes ever: the Cupcake Picnic Pack.

  • The corn on the cob cupcake is the company’s delicious buttered popcorn cupcake, cleverly decorated.
  • The burger cupcake is combination of vanilla and chocolate cupcakes and variously colored buttercreams.
  • The watermelon cupcake is a red velvet chocolate chip cupcake with a vanilla buttercream frosting.

 

We’ll bring our own beer cupcake.

 

Read our full review of Yummy Cupcakes, a NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week.

 

Find more of our favorite cupcakes in our Gourmet Cake Section.

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GOURMET GIVEAWAY: Dole Salad Kits

We loved the Southwest Salad and all the
others we tasted. Find our more at
Dole.com.

For the times when you just want a big, healthy salad but don’t have the energy or desire to do all the slicing and chopping, this week’s Gourmet Giveaway prize is for you.

Dole Salad Kits are a combination of salad greens, mix-ins (such as cranberries, nuts, croutons and cheese) and truly delicious salad dressings.

They’re ready to eat within 90 seconds of opening the bag. If you add a protein—leftover chicken or beef, for example—you’ll have a great salad lunch or dinner with almost no effort.

The 11 varieties of salad kids include Asian Island Crunch, Autumn Splendor, Hearty Italian, Perfect Harvest, Southwest, Spring Fling, Winter Jubilee and four Caesars: Caesar Salad, Garlic Caesar Salad, Light Caesar Salad and Ultimate Caesar Salad.

THE PRIZE: One winner will receive 7 coupons redeemable for free salad kits. Approximate retail value: $34.00

TO ENTER: Go to the bottom of our Gourmet Vegetables page and click to enter. This contest closes on Monday, July 12th at noon, Eastern Time. Good luck!

 

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PRODUCT: BLBL Super Tuscan Wine (Grab It If You Can)

What did Blake Leonard serve on July 4th?

Most likely, her delicious new red wine, an Italian and French varietal blend known as a Super Tuscan.

Blake Leonard and Beatrice Landini (who lives in Tuscany and doesn’t celebrate American independence) introduced their first bottling, BLBL, a few weeks ago. The two partners, who first met at the age of 14, are now 24 and old enough to be in the wine business.

Both BLs come from a noteworthy food heritage. Blake, the marketer, is the granddaughter of the founder of Stew Leonard’s, a fine food empire in metropolitan New York. Beatrice, the winemaker, is the daughter of Alessandro and Nicoletta Landini, proprietors of Fattoria Viticcio, one of the finest winemakers in the Chianti region of Tuscany.

Chianti and the other notable Tuscan reds—Brunello and Vino Nobile di Monepulciano—are made with at least 85% of Sangiovese grape, which is usually blended with other local grapes.

 

Photo by Joshua Wong Photography.

But step outside the region and blend in some of the great grapes of France, and you produce a style of wine known as a Super Tuscan, a name bestowed by wine writer Robert Parker in the 1970s at the dawn of this stylistic movement. Super Tuscans are “supercharged” with Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and/or Merlot—Bordeaux varietals that are not indigenous to Italy, but are popular with wine connoisseurs worldwide. Sometimes Syrah, from the Rhone Valley, is used.

BLBL is a blend of 40% Sangiovese, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot and 20% Syrah grapes. The wine is full-bodied with beautiful ripe fruit, and at $13.99 for a 750 ml bottle, it is the best bang for the buck we’ve had in a long time.

The wine is currently sold exclusively at Stew Leonard’s eight Connecticut, New Jersey and New York stores (and shippable to addresses in these states). Stew Leonard’s customers know a good deal when they see one: We expect the wine to fly off the shelves.

In this economy, when we can’t afford a $200.00 bottle of Sassicaia, our favorite Super Tuscan, we’re grateful that we live in one of the BLBL states.

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PRODUCT: Flings Trash Containers

Fill with recyclables or other trash, pull the
drawstring and it’s ready for the trash hauler.

If you celebrated July 4th at a cookout or other party, you no doubt participated in filling a trash bag with your share of recyclables.

Flings Pop-up Recycle Bins are an attractive and environmentally-friendly solution for collecting indoor or outdoor trash at parties, sporting events and barbecues.

They arrive flat and snap open to attention as a ready-to-use recycling container or garbage bag. Each bin holds up to 60 cans or bottles; the line has been certified green by the Sierra Club. Flings can be put out with the trash or taken to a recycling facility.

There are birthday bins, celebration bins, tailgating bins and other designs, including the “recycle” bin with the green universal recycling symbol. The designs add a festive air to any event (it’s as festive as trash gets).

Flings are available in 4-packs ($15.99) and 10-packs ($29.99) with free shipping from FlingsBins.com. You can buy a single unit on Amazon.com.

The manufacturer is continuously working with suppliers and trash haulers to ensure the optimum use of biodegradable and recycled materials, and compatibility with what it calls “our country’s trash infrastructure.”

 

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