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


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RECIPE: Frozen Yogurt Sundae Toppings


Treat yourself to a watermelon Pinkberry sundae. Photo courtesy Pinkberry.com.
 

Adjust your schedule, Pinkberry lovers: the new summer flavor, Watermelon, debuts tomorrow. It’s made with real watermelon. And there’s a great half-price deal.

The new sweet-and-tart treat is watermelon frozen yogurt topped with fresh watermelon purée, diced watermelon and diced cucumbers.

If cucumbers sound strange here, they’re actually a close relative of watermelon. Both are members of the Cucurbitaceae plant family. Taste the white watermelon rind—it tastes like cucumber (and because we like cucumbers, we eat that white rind!).

You can have it without the cucumber, of course. And you can enjoy the new flavor for half price during Watermelon Happy Hour: 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. daily at all Pinkberry locations. During Happy Hour you can have any size and configuration of Watermelon Pinkberry (cone, swirl, side-by-side) for half price.

 
You can be certain that we’ll be ready and waiting for our first serving at 5 p.m.

Pinkberry is made from nonfat yogurt, from milk that is rBST-free. Watermelon Pinkberry will be available for eight weeks, or until supplies run out.

It’s only here for a short time, so gather ye watermelon rosebuds while ye may. Here’s the store locator.

Find more of our favorite frozen delights, plus recipes, in our Gourmet Ice Cream & Yogurt Section.

 
FROZEN YOGURT TOPPINGS: DESIGN YOUR OWN SUNDAE

If you’ve ever been to Pinkberry, Froyo World or other frozen yogurt shop, you’ve seen the 50-plus toppings you can use to create your own sundae.

  • Baked Goods: Cubed brownies and other cookie bars, cubed pound cake or other loaf cake, crumbled cookies, fan cookies, graham crackers, wafer cookies.
  • Candy: Brittle, Butterfinger, caramel corn, chocolate chips, chocolate-covered pretzels, gummies, Heath Bars/toffee (chopped), Junior Mints, M&Ms, Mini Peanut Butter Cups, Reese’s Pieces, sprinkles.
  • Cereal: Cocoa Pebbles, Corn Flakes, Frosted Flakes, Fruity Pebbles, granola.
  • Fruit: Apple chips, bananas, berries, coconut, dried cherries or cranberries, grapes, kiwi, lychees, mango, melon, citrus sections, pineapple, pomegranate arils.
  • Gummy: Boba (tapioca balls), cookie dough balls, gummy candy, mochi.
  • Nuts: Almonds, pistachios, walnuts or other favorites.
  • Syrup: fruit syrup for fruit flavors, chocolate or caramel syrup for others (chocolate, coffee, vanilla, etc.).
  •  
    Plan ahead for a DIY frozen yogurt sundae party. National Frozen Yogurt Day is February 6th and June is National Frozen Yogurt Month.
      

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    TIP OF THE DAY: Homemade Lemonade Recipe

    When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!

    Why purchase bottled lemonade or mixes, when it’s so easy to make better-tasting homemade lemonade from fresh-squeezed lemons? The difference is night and day.

    This recipe makes fifteen 8-ounce glasses of fresh lemonade. You can adjust the sweetening to your own taste.

  • For a zero-calorie drink, use non-caloric sweetener.
  • For a low-glycemic drink, use agave nectar.
  • You can also use this recipe to make fresh limeade.
  • And varying the garnishes makes the recipe “new” each time.
  • A shot of vodka or gin turns lemonade into a splendid cocktail.
  • For Memorial Day, Independence Day or other patriotic occasion, add red and blue berries (red cherries, raspberries or strawberries, plus blueberries or blackberries).
  •  
     
    LEMONADE RECIPE

    Ingredients

  • 1.5 cups fresh-squeezed lemon juice (about 6 large lemons at room temperature)
  • 6 cups cold water
  • 1 cup of table sugar or equivalent (agave, honey, non-caloric sweetener, simple syrup)
  • Ice
  • Garnish: berries, cherries, lemon wheel, mint leaves, watermelon cubes
  • Optional: straws
  •  
    Preparation

    1. Roll lemons on the counter before squeezing, to maximize the juice output.

    2. Combine water, juice and the three-quarters of the sweetener in a pitcher and mix thoroughly. Taste and adjust sweetness bit by bit. The objective is to keep the lemon flavor first and foremost and not make sugar the first thing you taste. It’s better to under-sweeten than over-sweeten: People can always add more sweetener to suit their individual taste.

     


    Take advantage of the short fresh cherry
    season to add bright color and sweet flavor
    to your lemonade (photo © Cherry Marketing Institute).

    Lemons
    [2] When life gives you lemons… (photo © The Kitchn).

     
    3. Regular table sugar doesn’t dissolve easily in cold water. A better solution is superfine sugar or simple syrup (easy to make).

    4. Add ice to glasses and fill with lemonade and garnish. Ideally, chill the lemonade prior to serving so it will be cold and require less ice (or no ice), which dilutes the flavor. You can also use one of our favorite tips: make lemonade ice cubes.

    5. To garnish: Slice an extra lemon into wheels and cut notches so they sit on rim of glasses. You can also notch watermelon cubes. Or, fit a straw through the larger fruit such as watermelon and strawberries).

      

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    VIDEO OF THE WEEK: Grilling

    Don’t freestyle—learn how to grill like
    a pro. Photo by Anastazzo | IST.

    With a summer of grilling opportunities ahead, THE NIBBLE has videos to help you perfect your technique:

    • How to grill the perfect burger over coals
    • How to grill a burger on a gas grill
    • How to grill perfect lamb chops
    • How to grill a perfect ribeye steak
    • How to grill the perfect sirloin steak
    • How to grill a porterhouse on a charcoal grill or a gas grill

     

    Check out these tasty videos in our Videos Section. The grilling videos are in Player 1 under the tab “Techniques On The Grill.”

    Take a look 15 recipes from the Grilling Hall Of Fame of Crisco No-Stick Cooking Sprays.

     

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    JULY 4th: Which Beer To Serve?

    Americans like to celebrate their independence with beer:

    July 4th is the biggest beer-selling holiday in the country. Supermarkets alone are projected to sell 24 million cases for a total of $41 billion in retail sales.

    If you’re serving beer, look for craft brews for thematic names:

    • Samuel Adams, is available in most places.
    • Yards Brewing Company in Philadelphia makes Thomas Jefferson’s Tavern Ale, based on Jefferson’s original recipe.
    • What could be more perfect than Independence Pale Ale, from Independence Brewing in Austin, Texas.
    • Enlist the celebrants to sign the Declaration Of Beer Independence.

    You also can contemplate George Washington’s own hand-written recipe for beer (the original is in a notebook owned by the New York Public Library):

    Take a large Siffer [Sifter] full of Bran Hops to your Taste. — Boil these 3 hours then strain out 30 Gall[ons] into a cooler put in 3 Gall[ons] Molasses while the Beer is Scalding hot or rather draw the Melasses into the cooler & St[r]ain the Beer on it while boiling Hot. let this stand till it is little more than Blood warm then put in a quart of Yea[s]t if the Weather is very Cold cover it over with a Blank[et] & let it Work in the Cooler 24 hours then put it into the Cask — leave the bung open till it is almost don[e] Working — Bottle it that day Week it was Brewed.”

    That’s too much work for us—we’ll just head for the Samuel Adams in the fridge.

    Enjoy THE NIBBLE’s Beer Glossary.

    Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin and
    George Washington loved their beer! Photo
    courtesy Yards Brewing Company.

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    TIP OF THE DAY: July 4th Burgers

    What’s between the bun? Not beef! Photo
    courtesy Rudi’s Organic Bakery.

    Celebrate your independence on July 4th by grilling ground meat other than beef. We’re not talking turkey burgers, but:

     

    They may not be familiar between-the-bun choices, but they’re terrific and also healthier than beef—lower in fat, calories and cholesterol. (In fact, we prefer them to beef burgers.)

    Check with your butcher, or consider a sampler pack from Blackwing Quality Meats, a NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week and North America’s leading producer of certified organic meats.

    A seven-pound sampler of tender, delicious “alternative” ground meats includes all of the varieties above plus Piedmontese beef, a uniquely lean and tender heirloom cattle breed that originated 25,000 years ago in the foothills of the Italian Alps.

    • Check out the sampler at iGourmet.com (search for “ground sampler”).
    • Want to stick with beef? Snazz it up with our 35+ burger recipes: more than a month’s worth of different ways to serve a burger.

     

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