Enjoy something spectacular so kids can get
basic nutrition. Food shown is not part of the
event, but similar in spirit. Photo courtesy
Restaurant Tru.

Last night, Share Our Strength’s Taste Of The Nation tour launched in Charlotte, NC and Manchester, NH. It continues to 25 other cities from now through the end of June.

Billed as “the nation’s premier event to end childhood hunger in America,” the event raises money by serving affluent food enthusiasts elegant fare from top chefs.

Food, drink and services are donated, so 100% of ticket sales support Share Our Strength’s programs.

In Philadelphia, one of the tour cities, 24.5% of residents live below the poverty line and 260,000 people are “at risk for hunger.”

We won’t list all 25 cities here, but see if your city is on the tour and purchase tickets at Share Our Strength/Taste Of The Nation.

You can also make a donation directly or in someone’s name. Maybe that’s what Mom would really prefer for Mother’s Day (May 9th).

You can make a simple, salty whipped cream, curried whipped cream, garlic whipped cream or whipped cream infused with any of your favorite herbs. The idea is to flavor the whipped cream with a seasoning you’d normally use with the food.

• See how easy it is with our selection of savory whipped cream recipes.
• Prefer it sweet? Try these recipes for five sweet flavored whipped creams, including Bourbon, lavender and salted caramel.

Try a savory whipped cream. Photo by
Robert Matic | ist.

Each piece is infused with a different spice.
Photo by Jerry Deutsch | THE NIBBLE.

*A bonbon is a hard shell of chocolate filled with a variety of centers—caramel, cremes, ganache, etc.

Not exactly. It is true that more than a few boxes of traditional filled bonbons will include a piece of solid chocolate molded into a coin, a flower or other shape. But we think that Spice Rack Chocolate of Fredericksburg, Virginia, has created a new variation, neither classic bonbon nor classic solid chocolate.

The chocolatiers have married the spice cabinet (and the liquor cabinet, and a few other kitchen cabinets) to solid semisweet chocolate (54% cacao), creating 30 different flavors of solid “spiced” chocolate in pretty molded shapes. They’re not bonbons or plain solid chocolate: They’re (in our designation) solid bonbons!

In the hands of Spice Rack Chocolates, solid chocolate is flavored with coffee, favorite kitchen spices (basil, rosemary), hot spices (chile, wasabi), spiced fruits, spirits (Cognac, rum) and tea. There are six collections, focusing on each of these themes.

And there’s no Forrest Gumpian uncertainty, because there are five different flavors in each box, and each is color-coded.

These are a find for chocolate lovers who like to explore flavors, and for people who need to give gifts to them.

• Read the full review.
• Find more of our favorite chocolates.

African coffees are our personal favorites. From Ethiopia in Northeast Africa, we love the exotic, fruity, complex Harrar, a dry processed or unwashed or “natural” coffee. This is the original method of processing coffee, where the entire cherry is cleaned and then placed in the sun to dry before the beans are removed.

Perhaps our favorite coffee is the floral and citrussy Yirgacheffe, a wet processed or washed coffee, where the beans are removed from the cherry before they are dried (washing requires a lot of water, so the technique can’t be used everywhere).

Moving down the east coast of Africa, Kenya’s high-altitude-grown coffees are complex and appealing; and its neighbor to the south, Tanzania, grows similarly excellent coffee around Mt. Kilimanjaro. African coffees have earthy flavors that appeal to us, unique to the region.

Now back to Peet’s Uzuri, which means “beautiful” in Swahili: It was named by the small-scale coffee farmers whose beans—grown in Kenya, Rwanda and Tanzania—are included in the blend.

Uzuri African Blend has a great social mission.

New Uzuri is destined to be a Peet’s favorite.
Photo by Jerry Deutsch | THE NIBBLE.

Peet’s says, “Their lives begin to improve almost overnight as they rise from overwhelming poverty to stable incomes.” The farmers include survivors of the Rwandan genocide, who are rebuilding their futures through coffee farming. You can read their stories.

For some, this may be reason enough to buy Uzuri African Blend. But this is delicious coffee: It is medium-bodied, smooth and round, with malty with dark berry flavor and floral hints. There no acrid or bitter notes. We’ll be buying more of it (and we taste more up to 100 different coffees each year).

Buy Uzuri at Peets.com and wherever Peet’s coffee is sold.

• Find more of our favorite coffees, recipes and articles about coffee.
• Learn more about coffee in our Coffee Glossary.
• How to brew a great cup of coffee.

Enjoy the seeds (arils); save the skins. Photo
by Kelly Cline | IST.

Save the skins in the freezer, and use them to hold salads or desserts for special occasions.

From chicken salad to ice cream and sorbet, the skins make festive serving dishes—all sprinkled with a few pomegranate arils, of course.

To enjoy the arils (seeds) while preserving the skins:

1. Use a serrated knife to remove the top quarter of the pomegranate. Scrape out the seeds and the yellow-white membrane with a spoon. Discard membrane and save the seeds.

2. Wrap the shell and store in the freezer until you have enough shells to serve your guest list.

3. Plan the party, make your dish and serve it in the pom skin.

If you love pomegranates, take a look at these pomegranate dinner party recipes.