We were not disappointed! Warm from the oven, we proudly served our eight handmade, individual-size flatbreads, highly seasoned with a “Mediterannean” herb mix of basil, bell pepper, chile, fennel, garlic, marjoram, onion, oregano, parsley and thyme. Once they cool down they get a bit dry (like pita), but can easily be warmed in the microwave. After two days of storage in our Fresh Vac food storage containers, they still warmed up nicely.

While there are recipes aplenty to make flatbread from scratch, don’t underestimate the convenience of a packaged mix. It was easy, delicious and impressive! We mixed the package ingredients into a dough with some olive oil and water, kneaded it briefly, let it rise for 30 minutes, divided and rolled the dough into eight flat pieces, brushed the tops with olive oil and sprinkled them with the seasoning blend. The flatbreads baked for six minutes and cooled for a few minutes. Aside from the rising and cooking time, prep was no more than 10 minutes, using one bowl and one cookie sheet.

Impress your friends and family with home-baked flatbread. Photo by Hannah Kaminsky | THE NIBBLE.

• Buy Canterbury Naturals flatbread mix online.
• Discover the many different types of bread in our Bread Glossary.
• Try this tzatziki recipe (cucumber yogurt dip) with your flatbread.

Vosges’ Red Fire Ice Cream with ancho and
chipotle chiles (plus cinnamon) lets you add
some fire to your chocolate ice cream. Then,
pair it with brownies or chocolate cake!
Photo courtesy Vosges Chocolat.

Another of our favorites, Reed’s Ginger Ice Cream (in Chocolate, Ginger and Original), is available at specialty stores nationwide. Ginger is a delicious pairing with pound cake, chocolate, fruit desserts—just about anything!

• Read our review of Vosges ice cream.
• Find out more about Reed’s Ginger Ice Cream.
• Check out all of our favorite ice cream, plus recipes and the history of ice cream, in our Ice Cream Section.

Made with 100% blue agave tequila, Tanteo uses all natural ingredients to infuse the tequila, and it’s a magical marriage. These are sipping tequilas and cooking tequilas—you’ll love flavoring sauces, desserts and marinades with them (more ideas in the full review). Pair them with mains or desserts that have similar flavor profiles. In terms of mixed drinks: If the possibilities aren’t endless, they’ll keep you busy for quite some time. The company offers recipes to start you off.

Tanteo tequilas are a great addition to your bar and a gift that recipients will be talking about for a long time. They can be the hit of holiday parties.

• Read the full review of Tanteo Tequila.
• Learn your tequila: the history of tequila, the five types of tequila, the difference between tequila and mezcal, and what that worm is doing in some bottles of mezcal.

Tantalizing tequila in three irresistible flavors. Photo courtesy of Tanteo Tequila.

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.