How festive are these! Stuff peppadews
with feta or goat cheese. Photo
courtesy PeppadewUSA.com.

• Skewers. Take long toothpicks and bocconcini (1″ mozzarella balls—the word means “mouthfuls” in Italian) and stack one ball with a piece of red roasted pepper, a small basil leaf and a pitted picholine olive. (We love the bocconcini from Mozzarella Fresca, a NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week.)
• Canapés. Spread thin slices of baguette or flatbread with soft goat cheese, top with a marinated roma tomato (more tender and mild than a sundried tomato, which can be marinated and substituted), and garnish with baby arugula.
• Winter Caprese Salad. Roasted red peppers and mozzarella with green basil leaves (or mozzarella balls with pesto dip) are simple to organize on a tray.
• Bruschetta. Bruschetta is naturally bright red and green—and easy.

• Peppadews. Bright red peppadews can be stuffed, skewered or used to decorate cheese and canapé plates. (See photo above.)

And don’t forget those holiday mix shuffles!

What exactly are sugarplums, visions of which danced in the heads of the children in Clement Moore’s famous poem, “The Night Before Christmas?”

The original sugarplums were sugar-coated coriander (the seeds of cilantro). Tiny seeds coated with many layers of sugar were a popular confection known as a comfit (not confit); aniseed and caraway were other popular comfits. According to FoodTimeline.org, the earliest known mention of sugarplums is in 1668.

You’ll see sugarplums referred to as “a small round or oval sweetmeat, made of boiled sugar and variously flavored and colored.” That could sound like any hard candy, but it is, in fact, a comfit, and not a plum dipped into sugar.

Later, small pieces of fruit were used. In Victorian times, the word “plum” referred to raisins or dried currants, not plums as we know them.

Modern recipes are more complex, with dried fruits and nuts. Here’s a recipe courtesy of Wholesome Sweeteners, manufacturers of organic and Fair Trade sugar and agave syrup:

SUGARPLUMS RECIPE

Ingredients

Vision of a modern sugarplum. Photo courtesy of
WholesomeSweeteners.com.

• 2 cups whole raw unsalted almonds, walnuts or pecans
• 1/3 to 1/4 cup Wholesome Sweeteners Fair Trade Organic Amber Honey or Wholesome Sweeteners Organic Blue Agave (measure according to your sweetness preference)*
• 2 teaspoon grated orange zest
• 1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 cup dried plums, finely chopped
• 1 cup pitted dates, finely chopped
• 1 cup Wholesome Sweeteners Fair Trade Organic Powdered Sugar, Turbinado or cocoa powder

*Agave is our favorite sweetener, just as tasty as sugar and less than half the glycemmic index.

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
2. Arrange nuts on a baking sheet in a single layer and toast in oven for ten minutes. Set aside to cool and then finely chop.
3. Chop the dried fruit into bits the same size as the nuts.
4. Combine honey or agave, orange zest, cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg in a large bowl. Add the chopped nuts and fruit. Mix well (very clean hands work best).
5. Use a melon baller to scoop the mixture into balls.
6. Dust the sugar plums with powdered sugar or cocoa and refrigerate in single layers between sheets of wax paper in airtight containers for up to one month.

Please feel free to substitute your favorite dried fruits for the plums and dates—apricots, dried cherries, figs, and raisins work well. Pecans or walnuts can be substituted for the almonds. Just use an equal ratio of fruits to nuts.

While you prepare your sugarplums, play “The Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy” from Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker Suite.” You can download it for 99 cents.

If you don’t have time to bake them—or your own favorite recipe—pick up some delicious bakery cookies to enjoy for dessert with vanilla ice cream.

Or, if you’re in the holiday spirit, bake up a batch of Christmas butter cookies!

• Start with some cookie baking tips.
• Next, recipes for delicious Christmas butter cookies. We’ve got chocolate tangerine snowflakes, molten lava cookies, salted ginger crisps, espresso chocolate squares, fennel pistachio cookies, rosemary blue cheese ice box cookies and lemongrass snowballs.
• Can you name the eight different types of cookies?

Espresso chocolate squares are a bar
cookie—one of the 8 types of cookie.
Photo courtesy Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board.

Win $1,000 and a year’s supply!
Photo courtesy Lender’s Bagels.

Whether at breakfast, lunch, dinner or any time of day, your bagel experience could fill your bank account with some welcome bread!

Example: An entry of, “Now That’s a Bagel That… is the centerpiece to our weekly Sunday brunch,” might be accompanied by a photo of your family at the table enjoying Sunday brunch (don’t forget the bagels!).

All entrants will receive a free package of Lender’s Bagels.

• To enter, go to LendersBagels.com and click on the“ Now That’s a Bagel That…” banner.
• You must be at least 18 years of age, and enter no later than March 31, 2010. No purchase is required.

Our recent survey of five supermarket brands showed 190 to 230 calories per slender four-ounce portion. That’s without the rum and brandy, not to mention the whipped cream and/or vanilla ice cream added to many recipes. Have a full-size cup and “seconds,” and you can easily consume 1,000 egg nog calories!

So the tip of the day is: Plan accordingly!

• Don’t fill the cup up all the way.
• No matter how good it is, no matter that it’s “only at Christmas,” don’t have seconds and thirds unless you’ve worked it off beforehand.
• If you’re the host, set out shot glasses in addition to punch glasses, so guests can help themselves to smaller portions.

Drink egg nog in small portions—like shot
glasses! Photo courtesy Chefs.com.

• Check our our diet egg nog recipe.