This BLT salad is a guaranteed winner.
Photo courtesy Morton’s The Steakhouse.

RECIPE
1. Cut a small iceberg lettuce or large heart of romaine in half. (This is for a large salad. For a smaller salad, cut the iceberg in quarters or portions appropriate for your meal.)

2. Cover with finely-diced tomatoes and freshly-made bacon cut into 1/8″ horizontal strips.

3. For a main dish salad, add diced chicken or turkey.

4. Serve with ranch dressing or our favorite, blue cheese dressing with crumbled blue cheese. (You can substitute low-fat, low-calorie versions of the dressings.)

5. Optional: Garnish with homemade croutons—the “toast” from the BLT.

Find more salad recipes in our Gourmet Vegetables Section.

Most lids were combined with a ceramic mug, but Mug Hug can be purchased as a solo unit. It:

• Keeps the beverage warmer.
• Prevents spilling for mugs in transit.
• Reduces the use of disposable plastic lids that are filling up landfills around the globe. Bring your “green” lid to the coffee shop and tell them to hold the disposable one.

Mug Hug is flexible and fits mugs and larger-size paper cups. It fits snugly on both our jumbo 12-ounce mugs and our 8-ounce cups that have a 3-1/4-inch-wide mouth, as well as on large paper coffee cups.

At $6.99, the Mug Hug may become one of the year’s most popular stocking stuffers. Find it at Mug-Hug.com.

See more of our favorite kitchen gadgets.

Keep coffee or tea hot with a Mug Hug. Photo courtesy Mug Hug.

Make your cook-out something special with a gourmet hot dog bar.

1. In addition to standard franks, offer gourmet sausage or bratwurst. Our supermarket has bison, salmon, lamb, chicken with wild rice, chicken with feta and sundried tomato, chicken with apples, Thai and Indian chicken sausages, smoked andouille sausage and lots more.

2. Provide a variety of mustards and ketchups. Enable guests to customize their franks with a choice of ball park, Dijon, honey mustard and horseradish mustard.

3. Relish more toppings. In addition to the traditional sweet green pickle relish, serve corn relish, jalapeño relish and chow chow (also called piccalilli, a mustard base with chopped tomatoes, cabbage, onions, hot and sweet peppers and vinegar). Offer salsa, chili, chopped onions and grated cheese in addition to the sauerkraut.

Almost 30 items are on sale, including:

• Godiva Mixed Chocolate Assortments
• Ice Cream Parlor Truffles and Bars (we enjoyed these truffles and chocolate bars inspired by traditional ice cream parlor flavors such as Mint Chocolate Chip, Pecan Sundae, Neapolitan, Hazelnut and Oranges and Creme)
• Godiva’s Signature Biscuits (another favorite—cookies topped with chocolate bars, a gourmet version of the Le Petit L’Ecolier cookie)
• Chocolate-covered fruit, nuts and snacks

For a “protein snack,“ there are chocolate-covered cashews. If you’re on a diet or cutting back on sugar, there’s Godiva coffee.

Save 25% on chocolate dessert cups. Fill
with your favorite pudding, mousse, ice
cream or fruit. Photo courtesy Godiva.

Find more of our favorite chocolate—and learn all about chocolate—in our Gourmet Chocolate Section.

[1] A special-occasion bagel with smoked salmon and caviar (photos © California Caviar Company).

[2] A great breakfast with a great view.

For a special-occasion bagel, serve the bagel with affordable salmon caviar:

It’s a no-brainer to put smoked salmon on a bagel.

But how about salmon caviar?

Try salmon caviar instead (or in addition to) the smoked salmon. It’s available at specialty food stores and online.