There’s a delicious brownie underneath the
ghosts and pumpkins. Photo
courtesy Browniepops.

This week, Browniepops—a NIBBLE Top Pick of the Week (read the review)—is giving three lucky readers six of their Halloween brownies-on-a-stick.

The concept behind Browniepops is, like many big ideas, quite simple: Take a scoop of brownie, coat it in hard chocolate and add festive decoration.

Then put it on a stick—because food on a stick is always that much more special—and you’ve created something that will have children and adults out-maneuvering each other to get to them.

We won’t blame you if you refuse to share!

• To Enter This Gourmet Giveaway: Go to the box at the bottom of our Gourmet Halloween Candy page and click to enter your email address for the prize drawing. Retail Value Of Prize: Approximately $35.00. This contest closes on Monday, October 25th at noon, Eastern Time. Good luck!
• For more information about Browniepops, visit Browniepops.com.

Savvy party-givers always provide some low-calorie snacks. A platter or basket of crudités (croo-dih-TAY, French for raw vegetables) attracts dieters, vegetarians, the generally health-conscious and those who are reminded that they should be eating more veggies.

While there’s nothing wrong with the standard repertoire of baby carrots, cherry tomatoes, celery sticks and broccoli florets, you can dazzle by trading up to specialty produce:

EAT THE RAINBOW

Look in farmers markets and specialty produce stores for maroon and yellow carrots; green, purple and yellow cauliflower; baby broccoli (a cross between broccoli and Chinese broccoli); baby heirloom tomatoes (the size of grape tomatoes in colors from yellow to purple); yellow and white beets; watermelon radishes; radicchio di Treviso (which looks like red romaine); baby summer squash; and oyster mushrooms.

And look in your supermarket for Red Celery, a brand-new, all-natural variety of celery developed from heirloom seeds by Duda Farm Fresh Foods, the world’s largest grower of celery. It’s available year-round. Learn more at DudaFresh.com.

Available in supermarkets from coast
to coast. Photo courtesy DudaFresh.com.

Lightly-sweetened jams make delicious
cheese garnishes. Photo courtesy
Artisanal Cheese.

Portuguese pumpkin jam is a delicate, autumn-spiced cheese condiment. It’s a colorful addition to any cheese platter and pairs especially well with aged sheep’s milk cheeses.

Artisanal Cheese sells an artisanally-produced pumpkin jam, made in small batches using a generations-old family recipe. The jars are $9.00 each at ArtisanalCheese.com.

• See more cheese condiments and a pairing guide.
• Learn all about cheese in our Cheese Section.

One option is to wrap it and stick it in the freezer. But bread easily picks up freezer odors; and even half a loaf takes up a decent amount of room.

To the rescue: Bread Armor artisan bread bags that are reusable and recyclable. These FDA approved, high-performance storage bags keep your artisan loaves fresh longer. They’re sized to fit baguettes and other French breads, ciabatta, rustic loaves and more.

In addition to preserving leftover bread for a week or more, it also keeps your fresh bread from drying between the time you purchase it in the morning or afternoon, until dinnertime.

Bread Armor keeps bread fresh for a week
or more. Photo courtesy Bread Armor.

You can order the bags at BreadArmor.com. They’re $2.99 each, with discounts for quantities.

While plastic bread bags may seem an unexciting house gift or stocking stuffer, anyone who receives a set will be grateful to you.

[1] Sunsweet Ones make it easy to tote healthy, individually wrapped prunes. (photo © Sunsweet).

October 17th is Four Prunes Day. It may sound like a funny name for a food celebration. But four prunes are the minimum of what people who want more “digestive regularity” should take per day (up to a maximum of 9 prunes a day).

The year’s prune holidays:

 
We love prunes and prune juice. But many Americans steer clear of them, perhaps because of their association with regularity, which goes back to before great-grandmother’s day. A campaign several years back tried to change the name of prunes to “dried plums” (which is what prunes are) to make them more appealing.

But as anyone who has ever made a pork or chicken roast with stuffed prunes knows, the dried fruits are delicious on their own. One of our favorite hors d’oeuvre is prunes stuffed with chicken liver mousse (you can marinate the prunes in Cognac overnight before stuffing).

The 21st-century view of healthy prunes should be as a high-antioxidant* fruit full of fiber†, potassium‡ and magnesium. A clinical study currently underway indicates that prunes may have the ability to reduce bone loss in post-menopausal women and may help fight osteoporosis.
 
 
PERFECT FOR SNACKING

While dried fruits such as prunes are easy to tote around for a healthy snack, Sunsweet Growers has made it even easier with Sunsweet Ones, which are individually wrapped. Four prunes have approximately 100 calories.

Some say that prunes are a good remedy for a sore throat. With cold season approaching, we’ll have to try that!
 
> The history of prunes and their nutrition values.

> Delicious was to serve prunes at every meal.

*Prunes’ high betacarotene content can help prevent cancer and help slow aging of the brain and body.

†Prunes are a good source of whole fruit fiber, and this may help keep hunger pangs at bay.

‡Studies suggest that potassium may help prevent hypertension and stroke. It may also play a role in helping support cell energy by regulating fluid balance, nerve impulses and muscle contraction to increase energy. Source: Sunsweet.
 

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