Our favorite ice cube trays from ISI Orka keep ice cleaner and fresher and color-code our “specialty” ice cubes.

Just freeze one of the following in each section of a regular ice cube tray:

• a whole cranberry
• a mint or basil leaf
• a rosemary sprig
• a piece of curly lime or lemon peel

We create different trays of “designer ice cubes” to match to different sweet or savory beverages. It’s easy to keep the garnishes straight in our favorite color-coordinated ice cube trays from iSi Orka.

Asked if he planned to replicate the burger concept elsewhere, Lagasse said he didn’t yet know: “We’ll have to see how it goes.” As the burger generally ranks on surveys as America’s favorite food, it should go well.

Chef Lagasse joins other celebrity chefs who find that the margins are higher (and more fans are to be made) in selling burgers over foie gras…although Daniel Boulud has done both with his pioneering gourmet burger stuffed with shorts ribs and foie gras, available at NYC’s Bistro Moderne.

“The Piggie,” at DBGB Kitchen & Bar in New
York City, features a beef burger on Boston
lettuce topped by pulled pork, with jalapeño mayonnaise. Photo by T. Schauer © DBGB.

Other chefs with burger restaurant concepts include Bobby Flay, Hubert Keller and Laurent Tourondel. “Top Chef” contender Richard Blais’s menu at Atlanta’s Flip Burger Boutique includes 30 rotating burgers, with a daily choice of 8-10 beef burgers, three vegetarian burgers, three pork burgers, and three “alternative meats,” lamb, duck and venison. Numerous others, like Chef Boulud, have added gourmet burgers to their casual restaurant menus. Boulud’s recently-opened DBGB Kitchen & Bar in New York (a favorite of the NIBBLE staff) offers three kinds of gourmet burgers, one of which is pictured above, a happy marriage of burger, pulled pork and jalapeño on a Cheddar cornbread bun.

• Make better burgers at home with these burger-making tips.
• If cheeseburgers are your thing, check out these gourmet cheeseburger recipes.

French Meadow Bakery’s Whole Grain Bread,
Sandwich Bread and Italian Rolls. Photo
by Hannah Kaminsky | THE NIBBLE.

When we taste gluten-free baked goods, we do it from the same perspective as we taste all products. We don’t judge if the product is “good for a gluten-free product,” but if it is a good product that anyone would enjoy. We tasted two products in French Meadow Bakery’s gluten-free line that scored on this front; anyone in the family would enjoy them.

Gluten Free Multigrain Bread is made of a tasty mix of whole grain flour blend (amaranth, quinoa, millet, sorghum, teff), egg whites, organic flax seed, organic millet and organic quinoa and a touch of honey, among other ingredients.

Gluten-Free Cinnamon Raisin Bread is made of corn starch, egg whites, tapioca starch, honey, rice bran and germ, plus raisins and other ingredients.

The Gluten-Free Italian Rolls and Sandwich Bread are more appropriate for those who must restrict their gluten intake.

• See the entire line, which includes a gluten-free pizza crust, tortillas, cakes, cookies and muffins, at FrenchMeadowBakery.com.
• There’s a $1.00 coupon on the website for any gluten-free product.
• Find more of our favorite gluten-free products.

1. Spread the inside of each slice with crème fraîche and a teaspoon of your favorite caviar or roe, but leave the last inch on each end clear of filling so it doesn’t spill out when you roll up. Then roll!
2. Put a few beads of caviar on top of the “cigar” for decor (consider some contrasting caviar, e.g. flavored whitefish roe or tobiko).
3. Garnish the plate with a sprinkle of snipped chives and dill and some finely diced red onion. This cigar is smokin’!

• Discover the different types of smoked salmon.
• Explore all the different types of caviar in our Caviar Glossary.

Can’t afford sturgeon caviar in a recession
(or any time)? Affordable salmon caviar is
delicious in this recipe. Photo courtesy of Red-Caviar.com, certified kosher.

Twice the size of a typical Anjou, Bartlett
or Bosc pear, one juicy Royal Riviera pear is
at least two fruit servings. Photo by
Hannah Kaminsky | THE NIBBLE.

How big are Royal Riviera pears? Helped by a lush rainfall this season, ours weighed about 13.5 ounces each, had a diameter of 3-1/2 inches and had “hips” (measured around the broadest part) of 11-1/4 inches! Grown in Harry & David’s orchards in Southern Oregon, they are transplants of the Doyenne du Comice pears France, grafted onto a sturdier American pear rootstock. The variety surfaced in France in 1849 and came to Oregon’s Rogue River Valley, home of Harry & David (Medford, OR) in 1897. “Doyenne du Comice“ translates to “Top of Show.”

We enjoyed our Royal Rivieras with some of our favorite blue cheeses from Harry & David’s Oregon neighbor, Rogue Creamery (co-owner David Gremmels is one of the greatest American cheesemakers). We had his cheeses in our fridge, but a gift box of this “pear-ing” is available through Harry & David, along with pears-only from $29.95 and up. Should you be so fortunate as to receive too many pears to eat up as hand fruit, the variety is excellent sliced into salads, baked (plain, like baked apples, or in a tart) and poached (one of our favorite desserts).

• To order Royal Riviera pears, visit HarryandDavid.com.
• Read more about the history of Harry & David and Royal Riviera pears.
• Find more of our favorite fruits, plus recipes, in our Gourmet Fruits & Nuts Section.