THE NIBBLE BLOG: Products, Recipes & Trends In Specialty Foods


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TIP OF THE DAY: Gourmet Sausages Barbecue For Labor Day

Make your Labor Day barbecue something special with a gourmet sausage bar. Instead of the same old franks, offer a selection of gourmet sausages. We did a quick tour and found a variety of tempting ones: not just pork, but bison, salmon, lamb, chicken with wild rice, chicken with feta and sundried tomato, chicken with apples, Thai and Indian chicken sausages, smoked andouille sausage and lots more. Put more excitement in those buns—and while you’re at it, buy whole grain or organic buns, along with some great mustards. Your guests will be thrilled.

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TOP PICK OF THE WEEK: Stony Brook Cookie Company

If you live in the vicinity of Geneva, New York, you can pop into the Stony Brook Bakery for warm, fresh-from-the-oven cookies. The rest of us have to order them by mail—slightly less warm, but sent fresh from the oven and arriving as delicious as if you’d baked them yourself (or as grandma baked them, if you’re not a whiz in the kitchen). In fact, in these days, when most of us have more good intentions than time to enact them, Stony Brook Cookie Company is our surrogate, baking home-style cookies with finesse, packing them in cocoa-colored excelsior and dark brown tissue paper, and nestling them in a dark brown or kraft paper box. It’s just homey enough to convey to the recipient that you could have baked them yourself.

All of the ingredients are fresh as can be: butter and eggs from a local dairy co-op, flour from a local artisan mill and almonds and pecans toasted in the bakery oven. The chocolate is from Callebaut. The varieties include Super Chocolate Chunk, a classic chocolate chunk cookie; Double Chocolate Pecan, made with bittersweet chocolate and cocoa; Oatmeal Cranberry & White Chocolate, a superior oatmeal cookie; and Stony Brook Jumble, with dried cherries, chocolate chunks, almonds and coconut. Read more about these charmers in the full review. And think of whose day would be brightened with a fresh-baked cookie gift.

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These times require comfort food. Photo by Hannah Kaminsky | THE NIBBLE.

One more tip: The same folks make a unique butternut squash seed oil under another umbrella, at WholeHeartedFoods.com. We’ll be writing more about it, but if you’re looking for an exciting new culinary oil, this is it.

 

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TIP OF THE DAY: Caramelized Onions

One of our favorite homemade condiments is caramelized onions. They make an ordinary sandwich a gourmet treat; they’re a plate garnish for everything from eggs and luncheon salads to dinner meats. And they’re so easy to make and keep until you need them. Cut two large onions into 1/2-inch-thick slices and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Melt 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter with 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add the onions and cook slowly, stirring occasionally until well caramelized, 15 to 20 minutes. Use immediately or refrigerate in an airtight container. People will love them on their Labor Day burgers.

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GOURMET GIVEAWAY: Diane’s Sweet Heat Habanero Jam

Lovers of heat and sweet: This week’s Gourmet Giveaway prize comes from Diane’s Sweet Heat—and the winner will be able to have quite a jam session. A NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week, these jams have a wonderful texture, thanks to the crisp bell peppers chopped into them; fresh fruit flavor, from ripe California fruit; and habanero heat that is just right without being searing (you feel the heat, but it doesn’t take out your taste buds). The six flavors include Blackberry, Blueberry, Mango, Peach, Raspberry and Strawberry. The experience is fruity, hot and exciting!

The winner will get six jars—one of each flavor or in whatever assortment he or she would like. The jams can be enjoyed on toast, crackers (with or without cream cheese), hors d’oeuvres, pancakes, sandwiches, as a condiment with meats—even on ice cream!

  • To enter this Gourmet Giveaway, see THE NIBBLE’s Jams & Jellies Section and click on the link at the bottom of the page to enter your email address for the Gourmet Giveaway prize drawing.
  • Check out our review of Diane’s Sweet Heat.
  • What’s the difference between habanero and all the other chiles? See our Chile Glossary.
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Yes, we know these are jalapeño chiles, not
habaneros, but the stores were out of habaneros the day of the photo shoot! Photo by Corey
Lugg | THE NIBBLE.

 

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PRODUCT: WowBacon Microwave Bacon Cooker

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Crisp bacon emerges from the microwave.
Pour off the fat at the bottom of the cup.

Here’s a “green” approach to cooking bacon—and a less messy one, too. WowBacon microwave bacon cooker cooks crisp bacon in the microwave, without the greasy, spattering stovetop mess or the need to drain the bacon on paper towels.

How’s that green?

Based on National Pork Council Data, Americans buy 500 million pounds of bacon a year to cook at home, and use 3 billion paper towels to drain it on and clean up the bacon grease. Put end to end, the towels would wrap around the world 20 times.

The NPC did not provide an estimate of how many trees were felled to make the paper towels, but you can guess that it’s more than a few. With WowBacon, the fat drips to the bottom of the cup so the bacon doesn’t lie in the grease; the bacon holder lifts up and you dispose of the fat at the bottom of the cup.

You can pick up a WowBacon unit at WowBacon.com or on Amazon.com.

Think ahead: It could be the solution to your holiday gift challenges.

Love bacon? Try Skillet Bacon Spread or make your own with our recipe.

 

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