This innocent-looking, low-calorie, fiber-
filled vegetable is #1 on the Dirty Dozen list.
Buy organic celery. Photo courtesy
BaldorFoods.com.

If not, you’re probably ingesting more pesticide residue than you’d like.

The Environmental Working Group has found that people who eat five fruits and vegetables a day from the Dirty Dozen list (below) consume an average of 10 pesticides a day. Those who eat from the 15 least-contaminated conventionally grown fruits and vegetables ingest fewer than two pesticides daily.

These data are based on produce tested as it is typically eaten: washed or rinsed, peeled, etc., depending on the type of produce.

Rinsing reduces, but does not eliminate pesticides. Peeling helps, but valuable nutrients are often contained in the skin.

The best approach, recommends the EWG, is to eat a varied diet, scrub all produce and buy organic when possible.

The Clean 15 Fruits & Vegetables
Asparagus, avocado, cabbage, cantaloupe, eggplant, grapefruit, kiwi, mangos, onions, pineapple, sweet corn, sweet peas, sweet potato, watermelon. Conventionally grown produce is A-OK.

Learn more at FoodNews.org. You can download a PDF version of the guide or the iPhone app.

Antonio Boffa emigrated from Italy after World War II, opened a restaurant in 1951 and made his sauces the old-fashioned way: with the best ingredients, bursting with flavor, without need for sugar and salt.

While son Tony joined the restaurant business, grandson Tom decided to take the family tradition in a new direction: marketing the family sauce at retail.

We taste a lot of sauces each year; few get to be Top Picks Of The Week. Tony Boffa is welcome in our home (and office) anytime. Retailers: Welcome him to your shelves!

There are currently four varieties:

• Marinara Sauce, the classic with basil and garlic.
• Meat Sauce, with lots of ground beef and pork sausage.
• Tomato Sauce, flavored with beef and pork fat.
• Vodka Sauce, done to creamy perfection and alas, given the higher calorie and fat count, our favorite.

Tony Boffa’s fine sauces elevate everyday
pasta. Photo by Trutenka | IST.

Read the full review. It includes more than 30 ways to use these sauces beyond topping your pasta—although topping pasta is a great way to start.

Find more of our favorite sauces, pastas in recipes in our Gourmet Pasta section.

These cookies are too cool for school!
Photo © Land O Lakes.

What’s especially nifty about these cookies is that they double as fortune cookies.

You can use the “default” set of fortunes provided in PDF format by the recipe’s creator, Land O Lakes; or you can make up your own with the graduate in mind.

Have lots of fun with this one!

See the recipe for “graduation cookies.”

Find more of our favorite cookies and cookie recipes.

One of our New Year’s resolutions was to stop wasting food. We looked at exactly what we were throwing out a week later, and figured out how to use it within a day or two. Here’s the plan we devised:

• Cooked Vegetables: All leftover vegetables go into an omelet or scramble for the next day’s breakfast or dinner.

• Proteins: Meat and fish leftovers too meager for a sandwich get added to the next day’s pasta or rice dish.

• Salad: We only dress half of the salad. If anyone wants more salad, it’s easy to dress and serve. Dressed salad turns into a soggy mess overnight; but washed, undressed salad stays crisp in paper towels and a plastic bag.

Leftover scraps go into omelets, pasta or rice.
Photo courtesy Callisons.

• Other Fresh Fruits & Vegetables: If they’re about to go bad and we don’t have the appetite to eat them, we slice and marinate them (use vinaigrette for veggies, liqueur for fruits) or quickly steam them. It buys another couple of days. Steamed fruit and veggies can be turned into purées or soup. Vegetables can be topped with sauce and grated cheese for a snack or side.

• Bonus: Chicken carcasses, meat and fish bones get converted into stock. Though we’ve often made excuses for not making stock (no time top make it, no place to store it), we find that if we start the stock as we’re cleaning up from dinner, it “makes itself.” And we don’t store it because we plan to use it the next day.

Think of how you waste food and write down—then follow—your own tips to stop it. If you need ideas, let us know.

Pretty patterns abound with Aequare Fine
Chocolates. Photo by Emily Chang | THE NIBBLE.

• THE PRIZE: Aequare Chocolates will give one winner a 6-piece gift box of French bonbons and two bars of chocolate, in Lemongrass and Mandarin Orange flavors. The melt-in-your mouth chocolates are an enjoyable experience. Approximate retail value: $22.00
• To Enter This Gourmet Giveaway: Go to the box at the bottom of our Gourmet Chocolate Section and enter your email address for the prize drawing. This contest closes on Monday, May 24th at noon, Eastern Time. Good luck!
• To learn more about Aequare Chocolate, visit AequareChocolates.com.