[2] A classic escargot dish. It can be metal or ceramic (photo © Williams-Sonoma).

Escargots don’t have much flavor. What brings them to life is the vibrant garlic-parsley butter, known in French cuisine as beurre maître d’hôtel butter.

It’s a popular compound butter that’s used on fish, meat, noodles, potatoes, vegetables and you-name-it.

It’s delicious year-round, and its bright hue from the parsley gives the dish some needed color.

Substitute the escargots for mussels, as this inspired recipe from Millesime restaurant in New York City shows, and serve it as a first course. (Or, use escargots: They work equally well.)

The only challenge is to decide what dishes you have to serve it in. Most of us don’t have escargot dishes.

But as you can see in photo #1, any dish will work. Have Champagne coupes? Time to use them for other than Champagne!

We’ve suggested extra toast, below, because most people will want to soak up every last drop of the butter sauce.

Going forward, we’ll use the American name for the butter sauce, sparing those who don’t speak French the need to pronounce beurre maître d’hôtel butter (burr meh-TRUH doe-TELL).

You may have seen escargots presented in the classic style: in a round “escargot dish” with five or more wells. One snail drenched with garlic butter is placed in each.

While escargots are cooked out of the shell, sometimes they are placed back in for serving (see photo #2): an impressive visual.

Escargots are a popular first course in France, Spain, and Portugal. They are also served North Africa, particularly Algeria and Morocco.

In this dish, escargots and mussels are interchangeable. However, for visual effect, triangles of toast make more impact than the traditional slices of baguette.

Ingredients For 4 Servings

 
Preparation

1. MAKE the garlic parsley butter. Keep on the stove.

2. REMOVE mussels and beards from shells; rinse and sauté lightly in butter.

3. MAKE the toast and slice into quarters. Warm garlic parsley butter sauce as necessary.

4. ASSEMBLE and serve: Fill dish with butter sauce, add six mussels and serve with toast points.

5. REFRIGERATE any remaining garlic parsley butter for other use, including garlic bread.

RECIPE #2: GARLIC PARSLEY BUTTER

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. PULSE all ingredients in a food processor until smooth. Pour into a microwave-safe dish or small pitcher.

2. KEEP on or near stove if making the mussels for immediate consumption. Otherwise, cover tightly and refrigerate until ready to use.

3. HEAT before serving.

Compound butter is preparation that combines unsalted butter with flavorful ingredients: fruits, herbs, nuts, spices and/or other savory ingredients (anchovies, capers, mustard, olives, etc.).

It is often used in French cooking to create an instant sauce for anything from grilled steak to sautéed chicken and fish to vegetables; it is also stirred into soups and stews for added flavor.

In the U.S., popular compound butters include strawberry butter for muffins, chipotle butter for corn on the cob, and perhaps the most familiar, garlic butter for garlic bread.

Here’s more on compound butter, plus recipes.

[2] Colcannon, a mash of potatoes and kale. Here’s the recipe (photo © Elise Bauer | Simply Recipes).

[3] A blend of mashed potatoes and mashed cauliflower, garnished with tarragon. Here’s the recipe (photo © Williams Sonoma).

They’re filling and affordable, but they’re a starch—they don’t count toward your daily servings of vegetables. Here are four easy ways to change that.
 
 
1. ROAST VEGGIES WITH THE POTATOES

Bell peppers, carrots, mushrooms, onions, squash—all are delicious with potatoes. One of our favorite dishes is roasted fall vegetables: potatoes with beets, Brussels sprouts, carrots, and turnips.

The added colors and flavors from the veggies make the potatoes taste even better. Here’s a popular recipe from Betty Crocker.
 
 
2. TOP MASHED POTATOES WITH COOKED VEGETABLES

A hearty garnish of diced red and green bell peppers (or any two vegetables you like) has eye appeal, palate appeal, and yes, it sneaks in more veggies.
 
 
3. MASH VEGGIES WITH POTATOES

You may already know the trick of cauliflower mashed potatoes, which look just like mashed potatoes.

You can also do a 50:50 mix of cauliflower and potato, or any proportion you like.

Along the same lines, mix in another favorite vegetable. Zucchini mashed potatoes are an excellent choice; carrot mashed potatoes are especially fun.

And don’t forget colcannon, the traditional Irish dish of mashed potatoes with cabbage or kale. Here’s a recipe.
 
 
4. MUST HAVE FRIES?

Combine French fries with French fried zucchini, carrots, onions, portobellos, summer squash, and more.

Here’s how to make fries from almost any vegetable.

Help everyone eat more veggies! Send us your suggestions and recipes!

CHECK OUT WHAT’S HAPPENING ON OUR HOME PAGE, THENIBBLE.COM.

The flavors have neutraceutical enhancements that turn them into functional beverages. For example, Vanilla Nut has “naturally-calming herbs to sooth feelings of nervousness brought on by everyday stresses”; Mocha has “powerful ingredients that will undoubtedly add a boost to your body’s immune system.”

Depending on the neutraceutical, each flavor is also labeled with a benefit: Energize, Focus, Relax, and so forth.

But we, who don’t put sugar in our coffee, found the flavors to be overly sweetened.

Recently, the company sent us new flavors made with coconut water: Cappuccino With Coconut Water and Dark Roast With Coconut Water.

The sweetness level seems to be toned down a bit—but still plenty sweet for sugar-craving Americans.

There’s more about the neutraceuticals below.

The line is Certified Kosher by The Orthodox Union.
WHAT’S THE BENEFIT OF COCONUT WATER?

Enjoy a coconut water drink for hydration, not for enhanced health. According to Web MD, the main benefit of coconut water is the potassium.

“Most Americans don’t get enough potassium in their diets…” says Web MD, “so coconut water can help fill in the nutritional gaps. Beyond that, the scientific literature does not support the hype that it will help with a laundry list of diseases.”

Here’s the full article.

WHAT’S THE REAL BENEFIT OF THE
NEUTRACEUTICALS IN YOUR BEVERAGE?

All seven varieties of RealBeanz are nutrient enhanced. Beyond the natural caffeine from brewed coffee, the different flavors include natural ingredients such as choline bitrate, green tea, grape seed extract, guarana, L-theanine, niacin, panax ginseng, vitamins B6, B12, B5 and yerba mate.

Each of these ingredients has shown efficacy, but the question is: How much of these nutrients is needed to provide noticeable benefit? To quote Price Hamlet, “Aye, there’s the rub.”

Whether you drink cups of green tea or beverages with a neutraceutical enhancement, there’s a threshold beneath which you’re not getting any benefits. The amount of the functional ingredient may be just enough to make a marketing claim and attract your attention.

So enjoy whatever you drink for the taste and hydration, and try to cut back on the sugar.