Glenmorangie’s stills are the tallest in Scotland—as tall as an adult giraffe!

Such tall stills create more space for taste and aroma to imbue the spirit.

The “giraffe-tall” stills are why they company has chosen to support Africa’s giraffes.

The iconic species needs help to conserve dwindling numbers for the next generation

Each purchase of Glenmorangie’s Original Gift Tin will support the Giraffe Conservation Foundation. It’s a gift with a bonus give-back to make the recipient feel even better.

Not to mention the beautiful “keeper” tin, with cut-outs patterned after giraffes.

It’s a beautiful gift, for $39.99.

Buy it here.

And if you don’t want Scotch but do want to help the giraffes, head here.
 
 
ABOUT GLENMORANGIE ORIGINAL

First released more than 175 years ago, Glenmorangie Original 10 Year Old has long been known for its mellow tones and delicacy of flavor.

The Giraffe Gift Tin, a special packaging, includes a 750ml bottle of Glenmorangie Original 10-Year-Old Scotch.

The metal is laser cut with a pattern of giraffe patches (spots).

The Bourbon Cask Matured Highland Single Malt Scotch Whiskey is the original expression of the distillery’s elegant, floral spirit.

The casks are American white oak and have been (as the name indicates) previously used in Kentucky to age Bourbon. Bourbon cask aging adds notes of citrus (orange), honey, vanilla and a burst of peach sweetness.

Enjoy it:

 
 
> Here’s more about Glenmorangie, including a broad selection of expressions.

> The different types of whiskey.

> The difference between “whiskey” and “whiskey.”

[1] Glenmorangie Original 10 Year Old Scotch in a keepsake giraffe tin (all photos © Glenmorangie).

[2] The beautiful giraffe, which ranges from 15 to 18+ feet in height.

[3] Glenmorangie pot stills: at 16 feet and 10 inches, they’re as tall as giraffes.

[1] A vanilla ice cream donut with a pink “magic shell” and sprinkles (photos #1 and #2 © Hannah Kaminsky | Bittersweet Blog).

[2] A cinnamon crumb coating made from waffle cones and cinnamon. Great with an iced coffee!

[3] A traditional take on an ice cream sandwich: Apple cider donuts with apple cider ice cream (photo © Tillamook Dairy).

[4] This ice cream sandwich uses glazed donuts. Here’s the recipe (photo © Paper & Stitch).

[5] Take the next step: Top a donut ice cream sandwich with chocolate sauce to make a sundae (photo © Emily B. Hall | The Mockingbird Diner | Nashville).

[6] Nonstick silicone donut molds are available from Amazon (photo © Bakhuk.)

Spell it donut or doughnut, it’s National Donut Day. The holiday takes place on the first Friday of June; and if that’s not enough, June is National Donut Month.

How did doughnut become donut? That impetus goes to Dunkin’ Donuts, which spelled its product “donut,” and then proceeded to expand nationally.

Here’s more donut history.

Out of respect for the classic and acknowledgement that “donut” has taken over, we’ll use both spellings in this article.

Back in 2017 we published two recipes for ice cream donuts.

Today we have two more, from our colleague Hannah Kaminsky of Bittersweet Blog.

Shape the ice cream in a donut mold.

“Thanks to the advent of flexible silicone molds,” she says (photo #6), “no food is safe from doughnut-ification.

“It didn’t take long for visually stunning sushi doughnuts to emerge as a clear winner, captivating hungry followers across all social media platforms—but the hits keep on coming.

“Ice cream doughnuts are more than just another excuse to use the molds. These frozen treats are as much fun to admire as they are to eat!

“Pretty in pink (photo #1), the glaze is actually a beet-tinted approach to Magic Shell*, flavored with vanilla and finished with those classic rainbow sprinkles. It just wouldn’t be a doughnut without them…

“Or would it? Almost as soon as the initial batch was devoured, I realized the opportunity that had been missed.

“Cinnamon sugar doughnuts, singing of warmth and comfort, are equally worthy candidates of imitation.

“Absolutely any flavor will work, so go wild and play with colors and textures, dressing up your doughnuts with edible extravagance.”

In addition to Hannah’s ice cream donuts, photos #3, #4 and #5 show creative options for ice cream donut sandwiches.

Dig in!
 
 
RECIPE #1: ICE CREAM DOUGHNUTS WITH “MAGIC SHELL” GLAZE

An easy hack here is to buy Magic Shell (which is made in caramel, chocolate and white chocolate); or to use royal icing.

Ingredients For 6 Ice Cream Doughnuts

 
 
RECIPE #2: ICE CREAM DOUGHNUTS WITH CINNAMON CRUMB COATING

For The Cinnamon Crumb Coated Doughnuts (photo #2)

 
 
Preparation

1. MAKE the ice cream doughnuts. Soften the pint of ice cream until spreadable but not melted. Smooth the ice cream evenly into the molds, taking care to fill any voids.

2. LIGHTLY TAP the mold on the counter to remove any air bubbles, and quickly slide it into the freezer. Let chill until frozen solid, at least 4-6 hours but ideally overnight. When ready to add topping…

3. MAKE the Magic Shell. Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave in 30-second increments, stirring at each interval until they are melted.

Heat the coconut oil or butter to liquid state. Stir the ingredients together until the chocolate has a uniform texture. For a white shell, tint as desired with food coloring.

Store in a container in the refrigerator until needed, then microwave to melt.

4. TAKE the ice cream doughnuts from the freezer and pop them out of the mold. Either dip each one or drizzle with the Magic Shell glaze before quickly topping with sprinkles. The glaze sets up almost immediately, so you need to be fast! Serve right away or return them to the freezer until ready to enjoy.

For the cinnamon crumb coating:

5. PLACE the ice cream cones and cinnamon in a blender or food processor and pulse until very finely ground. Transfer to a shallow dish.

Place the milk in a separate dish, and dip each frozen ice cream doughnut into the milk to ensure that the topping will adhere.

Press the crumbs firmly into the doughnut until completely coated. Eat immediately or return the doughnuts to the freezer until ready to serve.
 
 
> THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF FROZEN DESSERTS
 
________________

*The Magic Shell brand is owned by The J.M. Smuckers Company, and is trademarked.

Today’s article is an “oops.” We originally found this fun pie crust idea (photo #1) in our Twitter feed. It was from The Cupcake Project, “Repost from @chefclubtv via @kitchen.tv.”

Our process for cataloguing ideas is to take a screen shot with the URL or social media handle; then, if we want to share it, go back to the site and get more information about the author and the recipe.

In this case, we couldn’t find the post for an M&Ms pie crust under @cupcakeproject, @chefclubtv or @kitchen.tv.

We looked and looked and looked. We searched Twitter, Facebook, Google Images and the Internet overall.

There was a video attached to the recipe (photo #2). We searched YouTube and couldn’t find it there, either.

We found lots of other M&Ms pie crust ideas, but not anything like this one, which rolls the M&Ms under the rim of the crust (a relative of Domino’s hot dog pizza crust).

So we tried our best to provide instructions, below.

If you know where we can find the original recipe, please let us know so we can link to it.
 
 
RECIPE: M&Ms PIE CRUST

Surprise your friends and family when you hide M&M candies in your pie crust.

1. ROLL out your pie crust with an extra inch in diameter to roll over the M&Ms.

2. PLACE a rim of M&Ms around the bottom edge of the pie crust. (The photos show Peanut M&Ms. There are 11 flavors of M&Ms!)

3. ROLL the crust over the M&Ms. You should have enough dough to pinch or flute the top rim of the pie.

4. FILL with your favorite filling and bake as usual.
 
 
WHAT PIE FILLING SHOULD YOU USE?

Your own palate will guide you. Ours pointed us to cream pies.

There are so many different flavors of M&Ms these days, that you can conceive many more pairings.

The current M&Ms flavor lineup includes Almond, Caramel, Coffee Nut, Crispy, Dark Chocolate, Fudge Brownie, Milk Chocolate, Mint Peanut, Peanut Butter, Pretzel and White Chocolate.

Here are pairings for the two main flavors:

Fillings That Pair With Milk Chocolate M&Ms

 
Pie Fillings That Pair With Peanut Or Peanut Butter M&Ms

 
THE HISTORY OF M&Ms

M&Ms were created in New Jersey in 1941 by Forrest E. Mars, Sr., son of the Mars Company founder, Frank C. Mars.

During the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s, the story goes, he saw soldiers eating Smarties* candies—chocolate pellets surrounded by a colored shell of hardened sugar syrup, which prevented the chocolate from melting.

[1] M&Ms pie crust (photos #1 and #2 via Kitchen.tv).

[2] We wish we could find the video, but this arrow doesn’t lead anywhere.

[3] Get out the M&Ms and get to work. The history of M&Ms is below (photo © Robert Anasch | Unsplash).

[4] Ripped off: The idea for M&Ms was copied from Smarties (photo © Fritish | CC By SA 2.0 License).

He copied the idea and varied the product enough—both the chocolate filling and the shape of the candy, which is rounder than the flat Smarties—to receive a patent.

The two Ms of M&Ms represent the initials of Forrest Mars Sr. and Bruce Murrie, son of Hershey Chocolate’s president William F. R. Murrie. Murrie had a 20% share in the profits due to his ability to provide Hershey cocoa to Mars (Hershey had control of the rationed cocoa, the prime ingredient of chocolate, at the time).

Not surprisingly, the first major customer for M&Ms was the U.S. Army. Wwth chocolate rationing during World War II, M&Ms were exclusively sold to the military. Here’s more of the history.
 
 
> THE HISTORY OF PIE

> THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF PIE

 
________________

*The brand is now owned by Nestlé, with headquarters in London.

[1] Homemade lemon ice cream, from the gifted hands of The Baker Chick (photos #1 and #2 and recipe © The Baker Chick).

[2] You’ll need a quart container to hold the ice cream.

[3] Top with blueberry compote or raspberry sauce. Here’s the compote recipe.

[4] We tried the recipe with Meyer lemons*, which are sweeter and actually have more lemon flavor than the standard Bearss and Lisbon supermarket lemon varieties (photos #3 and #4) © Good Eggs).

June is National Lemon Month. We have a delicious lemon ice cream recipe for you below.

This is not the only lemon “holiday.” Here’s the lineup:
 
 
LEMON FOOD HOLIDAYS

 
And who knows what’s next on the horizon. We vote for lemon bars, lemon pound cake and lemon sorbet.
 
 
WHO DECIDES ON FOOD HOLIDAYS

Food holidays are just a drop in the bucket. Prior to the Internet, special observance days (“holidays”)—from National Kazoo Day to World Meteorology Day—were declared officially by governments: local, state and our Congress.

A book, Chase’s Calendar Of Events, published by McGraw Hill, served as an official compendium of holidays worldwide. You could also apply to Chase’s to create an official “event day.”

Here’s how it works.

But with blogging and social media, people who didn’t know the rules simply declared whatever holidays they wished, and the holidays went viral.

The first food holiday we remember as such is World Nutella Day, declared on February 5, 2007 by a blogger named Sara Rosso, who wanted to share her favorite spread to her friends.

And the floodgates opened.

 
RECIPE: LEMON ICE CREAMHead to her website: You’ll want to make every recipe.

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. BEAT the egg yolks slightly in a large bowl, to break them up.

2. HEAT the heavy cream, milk and sugar to a simmer in a large, heavy saucepan. Slowly pour the hot the milk mixture over the eggs and return the combined mixture to the saucepan.

3. SLOWLY COOK on medium heat until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. Stir in the lemon juice and zest.

4. REFRIGERATE for several hours. Freeze for an extra hour or two if you like your ice cream a little firmer.

5. CHURN in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions.

May we suggest a lemon ice cream sundae with raspberry sauce or blueberry compote (photo #3), with garnishes of mascarpone (instead of whipped cream) and pistachio nuts?
 
 
> THE HISTORY OF ICE CREAM

> THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF ICE CREAM & FROZEN DESSERTS

> THE HISTORY OF LEMONS

> THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF LEMONS
 
 
________________

*We used the sweeter, less acidic Meyer lemons (photo #4).

Why add olives to salsa? Because June 1st is National Olive Day.

Olives add another layer of flavor—tangy and piquant—to the sweetness of the tomatoes, the bite of the raw onion, and the heat of the chile spice(s).

This recipe from DeLallo shows how easy it is.

There’s also an easy hack: Add sliced or quartered olives to store-bought salsa.

Note that since salsa means sauce in Spanish, olive salsa is also a sauce made from chopped olives. Here’s a recipe.
 
 
RECIPE: OLIVE SALSA

This recipe is for a red salsa, but you can also add olives to salsa verde.

You can also use the salsa as a sauce or a condiment with chicken, fish, lamb, pork and vegetables.

For this recipe, DeLallo used their Piccante Green Pitted Olives, which are blended with hot chile flakes.

If you prefer black olives to green olives, make the switch!
 
 
Ingredients

 
Plus

 
Preparation

1. COMBINE all ingredients in a large bowl; mix gently until thoroughly incorporated.

2. TRANSFER to a serving bowl and serve with tortilla chips.
 
 
> THE HISTORY OF SALSA
 
 
> THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF SALSA
 
 
 > 15 MORE USES FOR SALSA
 
 
> TYPES OF OLIVES & OLIVE OIL

[1] Olive salsa with tortilla chips (photos #1 and #2 and recipe © DeLallo).

[2] DeLallo uses its Piccante Olives, with added red chile flakes. In English, piccante translates to spicy or hot.

[3] If you don’t like green olives, use black olives. If you like both, how about a mix (photo © Food Match)?