Using thin-sliced whole wheat bread, build your favorite sandwich. Center the ingredients away from the edges so that you don’t waste much when cutting the shape. Then use jumbo cookie cutters—flowers, hearts, gingerbread men, stars or any theme—to cut out sandwiches.

If you’re using salad fillings (egg, tuna, etc.), cut the bread and lettuce first, then add the fillings—or else they’ll squirt out when the sandwich is cut.

For an added touch, garnish the top of the sandwich with a pickle slice or other pickled vegetable (we love the pickled smoked okra from Rick’s Picks), or an olive.

Serve a ham sandwich that looks like a hog
with this pig cookie cutter. Photo courtesy
Old River Road.

You can print out or email a cheese gift
certificate at any time on Father’s Day.
Photo courtesy ArtisanalCheese.com.

Here’s a great solution from Artisanal Cheese, one of the country’s finest cheese purveyors:

A gift certificate!

All you have to do is print it out online and hand it to Dad (BYO envelope, gift box or a ribbon to tie a “scroll”).

Artisanal’s Cheese Gift Certificates can be used towards the purchase of cheese, a cheese gift basket, cheese accessories (books, cutting boards and knives, for example) and Artisanal’s superb cheesecake.

• Get your gift certificate (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader to print out—or select the email option).
• Find cheese reviews, recipes and an entire wheel of cheese education in THE NIBBLE’s Gourmet Cheese Section.

Vodka martinis overtook the original gin martini back in the 1990s. The trend was started by Bond, James Bond, who liked vodka martinis shaken, not stirred (and he picked that tip up from the writer Somerset Maugham).
 
But new artisan gins are providing a reason to return to the original.

Vodka is a simple, unflavored distillation. Gin is the opposite—so many different aromatics go into creating a fine gin, that each brand is very different from the next (see the components of gin).

With very complex flavors—as much as any fine wine—fine gin, like fine Scotch, is delicious straight up.

It also makes a better Martini. For Father’s Day, we’re trying a new small-batch gin, G’Vine. The word is a contraction of gin and the French word vigne, grapevine—for this gin is made in France from grapes instead of juniper berries.

Make artisan gin part of your weekend celebration. Even if you’re not celebrating with your father, you can toast in his honor.

Learn more about gin and find martini recipes:

• Bluecoat American Dry Gin, a delight that’s distilled in Philadelphia
• Martin Miller’s Gin, a special distillation from the U.K.
• The Organic Spirits Company makes organic gin

A Gibson is a martini garnished with cocktail onions instead of olives or lemon peel (photo © Philip Pellat | iStock Photo).

• Classic gin recipes: Gimlet, Gin Fizz, Gin & Tonic, plus adaptations like a Gin Mojito and a Bloody Snapper (the Bloody Mary made with gin instead of vodka) 

Flying with wine? Consider a Wine
Diaper. Photo courtesy WineDiaper.com.

Some people remember a gentler time when you’d just hand-carry precious bottles into the cabin and tuck them into the overhead bin.

Today, when any liquid is classified as a potential bomb ingredient, wine needs to be checked with the luggage, subjected to freezing temperatures and yes, breakage.

To all of those who’ve said, “We just wrap the wine bottles in our tee-shirts and have never have a problem”: We wish them continued good fortune.

For the rest of us, the Wine Diaper is an alternative to bulkier, padded leak-proof wine totes.

What exactly is a Wine Diaper?

The price is three bags for $15, 10 bags for $40. Unless there’s an accident, the bags can be reused in perpetuity (or at least, for many trips). Find out more at WineDiaper.com.

While the design is a bit cutesy, it can serve as a wine gift bag (be sure to include a bottle of wine).

Learn more about wine in our Wine Section, including wine and cheese pairings and identifying the aromas and flavors of wine.

Do you need your arm twisted to eat more shrimp? We don’t—yet, except for special occasions, we don’t think to cook it.

Major health organizations suggest that Americans eat seafood at least twice a week, which would add up to approximately 39 pounds per person yearly. But the average American eats just 16 pounds of fish and shellfish annually.

Meanwhile, we chow down on an average of more than 110 pounds of red meat and 70 pounds of poultry. To “beef down” your red meat meals and beef up your seafood intake, here are some tips from The Shrimp Council:

• It is less expensive to buy shrimp in the shell and peel and devein it yourself. It’s easy to do with a shrimp deveiner tool.

• If you’re grilling shrimp, buy shrimp in the shell to help lock in the moisture.

• Frozen shrimp is more affordable than fresh shrimp, and works just as well in many dishes (barbecue shrimp, curry, fried shrimp [try beer batter and coconut batter], pasta, scampi, seafood stew, shrimp salad, skewers, soup, stir-frys and much more).

Shrimp is a welcome way to enjoy the
government-recommended two seafood
servings a week. Photo courtesy FireAndFlavor.com.

• Shrimp are properly cooked when their color turns from brownish-gray to the famililar orangey-pink and the meat becomes opaque. But don’t overcook it: Shrimp should have just a slight curl. When they curl tightly inwards, the flesh becomes rubbery.

For tastiest results using frozen shrimp:

1. Thaw the shrimp in the refrigerator one full day before you plan to cook them. Place the container in the refrigerator on a low shelf. (NOTE: Keep all raw foods on the lowest shelf and cooked foods on higher shelves to prevent any contamination from raw juices dripping onto cooked food.)

2. Let shrimp defrost slowly for about 24 hours in a container covered lightly with plastic wrap, then remove any liquid that has collected in the packaging or the container. Use within one day.

3. Quick Thawing Technique: If you can closely monitor the shrimp, place it in a leak-proof plastic bag (if it is not in one already.) Submerge the shrimp in cold tap water and change the water every 30 minutes until it has defrosted. Do not try to hasten the process with warm water or hot water because the shrimp will begin to cook. Cook immediately after thawing.

NIBBLE TIP: Save the shrimp shells and use them in other recipes. Details.