Bot Enhanced Water is a great-tasting sweetened water without artificial sweeteners. Photo by Hannah Kaminsky | THE NIBBLE.

Bot water makes it easy for adults and kids who prefer a sweet drink to drink more water. It’s made in family-friendly flavors—grape, berry, orange and lemon—with cartoon mascots to bring out the kid in all of us.

• THE PRIZE: One winner will receive a case of Bot Enhanced Water that includes all four flavors: grape, berry, orange and lemon. Stick ’em in your bag or briefcase and never be without a great-tasting beverage.
• To Enter This Gourmet Giveaway: Go to the box at the bottom of our Natural Soda & Energy Drinks Section and enter your email address for the prize drawing. Approximate retail value: $18.00. This contest closes on Monday, January 11th at noon, Eastern Time. Good luck!

• Learn more about Bot Water. 

Even the heat of cracked red pepper fizzles
as the spice sits on the shelf.
Photo colurtesy SXC.

After jars are opened, ground spices and dried herbs lose their potency—that’s why those jumbo jars are rarely a bargain.

• Buy only what you use regularly. If you rarely use mace, e.g., wait to buy it until you need it for a recipe. Even unopened jars of spices and herbs will degrade on the shelf after a couple of years.
• If exposed to heat or light, they deteriorate even faster. Store your herbs and spices away from the stove and oven, and avoid countertop spice carousels. The spices may look pretty, but the light destroys their potency.
• Whenever you can, buy whole spices and grind them in a spice mill as needed. We use a peppermill, a nutmeg grinder and a multipurpose spice and herb grinder.

Here’s what you need to know about checking the freshness of your spices, courtesy of McCormick.

We’re certain that neither of our grandmothers thought about “protein snacks” or “energy snacks,” and never heard the words ALA, antioxidant, Omega-3. Yet, who knew: All along they were giving us a healthier snack than, let’s say, a dish of Hershey’s Kisses (which we would have preferred back then) or a candy bar.

Three generations later, Planters has recaptured the grandmothers’ snack concept with NUT-rition, a line of different fruit and nut mixes:

• Digestive Health Mix, a higher-fiber mix of pistachios, almonds, cranberries, granola, and cherries
• Energy Mix, a blend of almonds, honey roasted sesame sticks, peanuts, dark chocolate covered soynuts, walnuts, and pecans
• Heart-Healthy Mix, with peanuts, almonds, pecans, pistachios, hazelnuts and walnuts

Nut-rition for a healthier New Year.
Photo by Hannah Kaminsky | THE NIBBLE.

• South Beach Diet Recommended Mix, with almonds, cashews and macadamias
• Almonds and Smoked Almonds, both with 50% less sodium than the regular Planters productsTwo new additions this month include:
• Omega-3 Mix, with ALA-rich walnuts, chocolate-covered soynuts, and dried cranberries
• Antioxidant Mix, perhaps our favorite, with almonds, banana chips, cashews and dried blueberries, cranberries and peachesAre these better for you than a candy bar or a cupcake? Sure. Are they less caloric? Not necessarily. The 1/4-cup servings range from 160 to 190 calories, so are lower than most candy bars and cupcakes. But for us, it’s hard to stick to a smaller portion once the can is opened. There’s no psychological portion control. (Some varieties come in 1.5-ounce portion-controlled tubes.) There are also NUT-rition bars, but in our opinion, the great taste is in the mixes.

  But if you want healthier sweet snacks in the New Year, these mixes are a good start. There’s a $1.00 coupon in today’s newspaper.

  The only lingering question: Why is the name NUT-rition instead of NUT-trition?

If you aren’t going to eat it, regift it!
Photo courtesy SXC.

Food products should be used within 12 months, or they begin to deteriorate—some items like cookies and candy, much sooner.

Many products have expiration dates, but if you don’t like the food to begin with, the dates don’t really matter. It’s better to share the item now, with people who will enjoy it.

Bring the food to your favorite cook, to your co-workers, be a friendly neighbor or donate it to a volunteer enterprise.

Or, call a Christmas White Elephant Party. Invite friends to bring a gift they’d like to trade. Let everyone draw a number from a hat for “picking order,” and choose their new gifts in from other people’s “white elephants.”

• Then, find reviews in our more than 70 categories of specialty foods, and pick something you’d rather have, and treat yourself.

• Take an hour this weekend to go through your pantry and fridge and throw out expired items. Look at dates that are at or near expiration, and put them on the counter to decide to eat them or give them away while they’re still good.

One might ask why the holiday-scheduling powers that be allowed January 2nd to become National Cream Puff Day. Haven’t we just finished six weeks of heavy eating? Don’t we have resolutions to diet in the New Year? Aren’t we running out of gyms?

But, since it is National Cream Puff Day, a few words of puffery:

Cream puffs are made from pâte à choux (pot-ah-shoo), also called choux paste, cream puff paste or puff pastry.

This very versatile dough is used for both sweet and savory pastries.

 
Pâte à choux is made by combining flour, butter, and boiling water, then beating eggs into the mixture until it becomes very sticky and pastelike. During baking, the eggs create irregular domes in the pastry.
 
> Learn how to make pâte à choux.

> Here’s a cream puff recipe from chocolatier Michael Recchiuti.
 
 
CREAM PUFF HISTORY

Of those two pastries that people consider siblings, the cream puff and the éclair, the cream puff is the elder, dating back to the late 16th century. The elongated éclair did not appear until 200 years later, in the late 18th century.

Originally, the cream puff was filled with whipped cream and served plain (or late, dusted with powdered sugar). Now, the round pastry, which is piped from a bag and baked, is often halved horizontally, as in the photo at right. Profiteroles, cream puffs stuffed with ice cream and topped with chocolate sauce, are a 20th-century dish.

Today, both can be prepared in any way that the pastry chef can conceive, from pistachio whipped cream and glaze to saffron custard with caramel glaze to blueberry jam with cassis whipped cream and cassis glaze. Some cream puffs have chocolate-glazed tops, similar to the éclair.

[2] There are also savory cream puffs, like this one of mozzarella and porcini mushrooms in choux paste (photo © Balsamic Vinegar of Modena The Original).