[1] >Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter has chocolate richness with no added sugar (all photos © Fix & Fogg).

[2] Everything Butter, a blend of 8 nuts and seeds, is a multiple award winner.

[3] Cashew Butter is available in Creamy and Oaty Nut Butter.

[4] Chocolate Hazelnut Butter is an epicure’s version of Nutella.

[5] Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Toast is garnished with granola clusters and freeze-dried raspberries. You can also add a layer of jam or a drizzle of maple syrup or date syrup.

[6] These No Bake Peanut Butter Bars are made with Smooth Peanut Butter topped with dried raspberries; but we made ours with Hot & Smoky Peanut Butter and chopped peanuts.

[7] These peanut butter and jelly cups are so much better with F&F PB.

[8] Stuffed sweet potatoes with black beans, corn, avocado and cashew butter-yogurt sauce.

[9] Everything butter pesto: a dip, a sandwich spread, a base for a salad dressing.Here’s the recipe.

What happens when two corporate lawyers in New Zealand decide to leave corporate life? If they’re foodies with great palates, they choose to make artisan food that’s sustainable, and delicious. They decided to make Fix & Fogg, “the world’s best nut butters.”

Now, the title of “the world’s best” isn’t an absolute except, perhaps, in athletic competitions. But Fix & Fogg nut butters—almond, cashew, hazelnut, and peanut—have won awards worldwide.

And while we’ve only tasted artisan nut butters from the U.S. until now, Fix & Fogg are certainly on the podium at The Nibble’s award ceremony.

Personally, peanut butter is our favorite nut butter. We’ve tasted our share of good artisan PBs, but Fix & Fogg is beyond good, very good, even excellent: It’s exciting peanut butter.

It made us say WOW after the first spoonful, and immediately scrap that evening’s dinner menu for several protein-rich tablespoons of F&F.

That’s why Fix & Fogg is our Top Pick Of The Week: delicious on your table and a delicious small gift and stocking stuffer (or a box of four jars).
 
 
WHAT MAKES FIX & FOGG SO VERY GOOD?

 
Because our favorite nut butter is peanut, we didn’t try almond and cashew. The peanut butter flavors we tried were outstanding. The Coffee & Maple PB has the crunch of ground coffee beans in addition to ground peanuts. What a delight!

We’ll keep these three flavors, plus Smooth and Crunchy flavors, stocked in our pantry going forward.
 
 
THE FIX & FOGG LINE

There are different variations of almond, cashew, hazelnut and peanut butters. Each one we tried was superb.

One reason the peanut butter may be so better than other artisan PBs we’ve enjoyed: They’re hi-oleic peanuts. We’d never heard the term before, but here’s what we now know, in the footnote* below..

 
A note: the chocolate butters—peanut and hazelnut—are not sweet. Don’t expect Nutella. The chocolate provides an almost savory richness—the nut butters have a small amount of added sugar, but are not sweet.

The Smoke And Fire is nicely smoky and tingly: not a heavy hand of either. As Goldilocks said about the third bowl of porridge: “Just right.”
 
 
HOW TO USE THE NUT BUTTERS

We know that you need no advice in order to spread nut butter on a sandwich and eat it straight from the jar. Have you tried it in dessert sauces, savory sauces, and dips?

If you’ve never cooked or baked with nut butter, F&F will inspire you. There are also plenty of recipes: for blondies, bowls, cookies, crumbles, muffins, noodles, scones, and much more.

You can download the e-book of 75 recipes.

We’ve already dug into:

 
You can peruse the recipes on the website if you don’t want to download the e-book.
 
 
GET YOUR F&F

Head to the Fix & Fogg website for the best selection.

There are currently six flavors on Amazon.

Try any of the retail stores: Central Market, Fresh Direct, Sprouts, Gelson’s, Kings, Market Of Choice, Streets Market, Thrive Market, United Supermarkets, and Whole Foods Market. (But again, for the largest selection, go to F&F directly).

Stock up for yourself, for party favors, stocking stuffers, teacher gifts, and mini gifts to hand out year-round.
 
 
ABOUT FIX & FOGG

The name Fix & Fogg comes from two characters from the classic 1873 adventure novel, Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne: Phileas Fogg and Detective Fix. Like the story, the idea of embarking on a great journey, taking risks, and trying new things, resonated with F&F’s founders.

“Although we’re not quite sold in 80 countries around the world,” they say, “maybe one day we could do just that.”

Beyond New Zealand and Australia, the brand has sailed to China, the Philippines, Samoa, Singapore, Tahiti and the U.S.

Come on Canada! Come on Europe! Come on Latin America, where the peanut and cashew originated. Great nut butters await you!

Toward their sustainability goals, Fix & Fogg is the first New Zealand-owned food manufacturer to be awarded B Corp certification.

B Corporations are businesses that act in ways that benefit society as a whole. B stands for beneficial.

What defines B Corporations is their belief that the purpose of a company is not just to make money, but to also do social and environmental good.

B Corp entrepreneurs are committed to a vision of using their businesses as forces for good: for inclusive, environmentally-sustainable prosperity. You can profit while doing good.

The B Corp certification was launched a decade ago. More than 2,200 companies in more than 50 countries are now certified. Here’s more about them.
 
 
> THE HISTORY OF PEANUT BUTTER

> THE HISTORY OF CASHEWS

*Hi oleic peanuts (yes, that’s the spelling) are known as “long-life” peanuts. They are only grown in a few places around the world. There’s a natural substitution of oleic acid for linoleic acid, which provides a much longer shelf-life. These are non-GMO; there is no molecular manipulation involved in this process at all. It’s all conventional breeding. Hi oleic peanuts stay crunchy and taste great for up to 10 times longer after roasting than regular peanuts. They’re also higher in monounsaturated or “good” fats. Here’s more about them. At this time, there are no other hi-oleic nuts.

†There are small amounts of sugar in the chocolate flavors and small amounts of maple syrup in the maple flavors.
 
 

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

We remember the days when party guests went home with one small party favor. That got exploded into gift bags. But we think that less is more, so we tend to send guests home with a few homemade cookies or a slice of pie. This year, while there will certainly be pie “to go,” they’re also getting a pumpkin Pie Spice Popcorn Bar.

The flavors of the season—pumpkin spice, dried cranberries, pecans—are blended into a snack bar with popcorn, marshmallows, and white chocolate.

Wait a minute: Why do we say “bar,” when the recipe is called “bark?”

With all due respect, some people who write recipes often give names that they feel make it sound more exciting or more relatable, even though it may be inaccurate (and sometimes they don’t realize that it’s inaccurate—see the footnote for examples).

This is a popcorn snack bar. The original name of the recipe, from the Popcorn Board, is popcorn bark.

However, bark is a sheet of chocolate, often covered with nuts, dried fruits, candies, or even additional pieces of chocolate; then broken into pieces. This pan of popcorn is cut into proper squares.

Call it a bar or bark, we’re making it as gifts for our Thanksgiving guests to take home. (Because as stuffed as they may be as they walk out the door, they’re happy to have a treat for the following day.)

We purchased these pretty snack bags as packaging.

Don’t want to make popcorn bars?

Here are more pumpkin snacks and desserts.
 
 
RECIPE: PUMPKIN SPICE POPCORN BARK

Ingredients For 12 Three-Inch Squares

 
Preparation

1. LINE a large baking sheet with foil and spray lightly with cooking spray; set aside.

2. COMBINE in a large bowl, the popcorn, marshmallows, pecans, cereal, pepitas, dried cranberries and pumpkin spice mix.

3. PLACE the chopped chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl and heat in the microwave for 1 minute. Stir to combine; then microwave an additional minute. Stir until the chocolate is melted and smooth.

4. POUR the melted chocolate over the popcorn mixture. Mix until well coated and spread in an even layer into the prepared pan. Cool at room temperature until firm (or refrigerate).

5. CUT into squares to serve. Store in an airtight container.
 
 
> THE HISTORY OF POPCORN
 
 
> THE HISTORY OF MARSHMALLOWS
 
 
> THE HISTORY OF CHOCOLATE

________________

*One example is a Welsh Rarebit. Its proper name is Welsh Rabbit, because it was a meatless dish made with melted cheese on toast, easy to make when the hunter of the house failed to come home with any game for dinner. It was changed to “rarebit” to sound more appealing to Americans. A related recipe that never crossed the pond is Scotch Woodcock, which is scrambled eggs on buttered toast spread with anchovy paste.

But if you like anchovy paste, doesn’t it sound delicious?

More misnomers: Cheesecake is not a cake but a cheese custard pie. Boston cream pie is not a pie but a layer cake—and don’t spell it “creme,” which is an American attempt to make a dessert sound more elegant. “Crème” is a French word pronounced KREM, not CREEM. Rocky Mountain Oysters are the testicles of calves, goats, or sheep. Prairie oysters are bull testicles.

On another note: Yams are a totally different tuber than sweet potatoes (the difference). The animal that roams the American West and ends up in the meat case is bison, not buffalo (the difference). Peanuts are not nuts but legumes (in the same family as peas and lentils). Cashews are not nuts, but seeds. And so on and so on.

†In some recipes you can substitute three tablespoons of white chocolate chips to replace one ounce of white baking chocolate. However, do not substitute in this recipe or others that call for melting the white chocolate. Chocolate chips contain less cocoa butter than baking chocolate or chocolate bars, and have added stabilizers to help them keep their shape in the oven.

[1] Pumpkin spice popcorn bark (photo © Popcorn Board).

[2] You can pop your own or buy it popped (photo © Hannah Kaminsky | Bittersweet Blog).

[3] Pecans are delicious in this recipe, but if you need to omit nuts, make it up with more cranberries and marshmallows. If it’s for Halloween, you can substitute candy corn. Or if you just don’t like pecans, pistachios are a delicious substitute (photo © American Pecan Council).

[4] Even though we’re not vegan, we think that Dandies vegan marshmallows taste better than the big supermarket names (photo © Dandies).

[5] Although this bar isn’t health food, both the popcorn and the Cheerios are whole grain foods (photo © Annette Gulick | Stock Xchange).

[1] You can use both green and purple figs in this recipe. A combination is more alluring (all photos © California Figs).

[2] Kadota figs keep their color when pickled.

[3] Mission figs, combined with Kadota figs, give the jar of pickled figs more eye appeal.

[4] All figs, be they fresh, dried or picked, can be variously paired as cocktail garnishes Here’s the recipe.

We’re almost at the end of National Fig Week, the first week of November. We’ve provided plenty of fig recipes, but we saved this one for the end. It sounds unusual—pickled figs—but it’s a delicious condiment and snack. The figs aren’t sour, they’re sweet-tart, somewhat like a sweet gherkin. It’s a charming gift to bring to Thanksgiving hosts, or those who host us at any time of the year. Thanks to California Figs for the recipe.
 
Because this recipe makes 8 pint jars that will last for 5 days in the fridge, plan to whom you’ll give them.

Truth to tell, we consumed three of the jars in one week, and we were sorry we didn’t keep more of the jars. We ran out of time to make more: Fig season is May through November.

The recipe is below, but first:
 
 
USES FOR PICKLED FIGS

First and foremost, pickled figs are a condiment. But you’ll see other uses on this list.

 
Once you taste them, your palate will lead you to even more ideas.

 
RECIPE: SPICED PICKLED FIGS

Tips:

 
Prep time is 15 minutes, cook time is 20 minutes.

Ingredients For 8 Pints

 
Preparation

1. COMBINE 1 gallon of water with tablespoon salt. Add the figs. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and cook for 15 minutes.

2. COMBINE the brown sugar and vinegar in a large nonreactive pan and bring to boil over medium-high heat. Add the cinnamon and cloves.

3. DRAIN the figs well, add to the boiling syrup, and adjust the heat to maintain a simmer. Simmer for 1 hour, until the figs are soft and surround by a thick syrup. Carefully discard the cinnamon stick.

4. PACK the hot figs into 8 sterilized pint jars, adding hot syrup to cover. Cover the jars with the sterilized lids and cool completely before using the figs. Store unused figs in the refrigerator for 3 to 5 days.
 
> THE HISTORY OF FIGS

November 6th is National Nachos Day, a good occasion to have a nachos party. What’s that? An occasion to get together with friends and try different nachos recipes—with different types of beers, of course, and different Margaritas.

Who doesn’t enjoy a hearty plate of nachos for a snack, or even for a main course? They’re the easiest Mexican dish to make at home.

At the most minimal, you can simply cover tortilla chips with shredded Cheddar, Jack or other semi-hard cheese, with or without salsa; then use the microwave or broiler to melt the cheese.

Of course, there are more elaborate recipes.

And you can top the tortilla chips with anything you have on hand (including such luxury items as crab, lobster, scallops and shrimp).
 
 
NACHOS TOPPINGS

Our favorite add-ons to nachos:

 
For visual and flavor interest, we like to use a mix of yellow and blue corn tortillas (for Independence Day, go red, white, and blue!).

Confessions of a tortilla chip addict:

While we have our favorite brands, as long as the chips before us are crisp and not over-salted, they are very welcome.

If you want to make your own tortilla chips, here’s a recipe.

 
MORE NACHOS RECIPES

 
PLUS

 
 
> THE HISTORY OF NACHOS

[1] Carnitas nachos with shredded pork (photos #1 and #3 © Good Eggs).

[2] Double-sauce nachos, with salsa and crema (photo © Natasha Bhogal | Unsplash).

[3] Nachos with salsa verde, green salsa made with green chiles, tomatillos, and cilantro. Check out the different types of salsa.

[4] Here’s a nicely loaded plate: nachos with black beans, cilantro, crema, pico de gallo, sliced jalapeno, sliced radish, queso/cheese sauce (photo © Hannah Kaminsky | Bittersweet Blog).

[12] Olavida, Spanish goat’s milk cheese from a tiny producer took first place out of 4,000+ entries! (photos #1 and #6 © Quesos y Besos).

[2] This Epoisses produced by Fromagerie Berthaut in the town of Epoisses, France, was a close runner-up (photo © Marky’s).

[3] Eminence Gris Tomme Chevre, a Dutch goat’s milk cheese, is aged in caves that held ammunition on World War II (photo © Van der Heiden Kaas).

[4] Baracska, a semi-hard cheese from Hungary, took fourth place (photo © Csíz Sajtműhely).

[5] Twentse Bunkerkaas Geit is another goat’s milk cheese, and another winner from The Netherlands (photo © Gastropedia).

[6] Another winner from Quesos y Besos, Camembesos is made in the style of Camembert.

[7] Caerphilly is a hard, crumbly white cheese that originated in the area around the town of Caerphilly, Wales. The winner is Gorwydd (photo © Vin Sullivan Foods).

[8] Montano Intenso is an aged Gouda from The Netherlands (photo © Maaz Cheese).

[9] Gorgonzola Dolce DOP from Caseificio Brusati is so creamy, you can eat it with a spoon (photo © Caseificio Brusati).

[10] Vorarlberger Bergkäse g.U. is a traditional mountain cheese from Austria (photo © Alma).

A soft, creamy goat’s milk cheese from Spain was named World Champion Cheese in Oviedo, Spain—where coincidentally this year’s World Cheese Awards was held. On Wednesday, November 3rd, Quesos y Besos’ Olavidia was voted to the top of the shortlist of 20 cheeses. This year, it is the best cheese on the planet.
 
 
ABOUT OLAVIDIA GOAT CHEESE

Produced by a husband-and-wife duo who established Quesos y Besos (Cheese and Kisses) in 2017, the cheese is made in the small town of Guarromán in Andalusia, in southern Spain. Head cheesemaker Silvia Peláez and her team of six people make the cheese entirely by hand.

What makes a cheese #1 of 4,000+ entries? It has “everything” in exceptional amounts: appearance, aroma, texture, flavor, and originality.

One of the judges in the final judging, Jason Hinds of the famed Neal’s Yard Dairy in the U.K., commented:

“This cheese charmed me and stole my heart. This is unlike anything I’ve seen before. Its appearance is so original and it didn’t let me down. It’s unctuous, seductive, pillowy, warm and comforting.”

The Peláezes come from a long line of shepherds, and decided to make a lactic cheese*, which is one of the oldest forms of fermentation. Lactic fermentation gives the cheese a buttery flavor; the the vegetation in the pasture where the goats graze provides and floral notes.

The goat’s milk cheese is matured with Penicillium Candidum* and has a visually striking layer of olive stone (olive pit) ash running through its middle.

John Farrand, managing director of the Guild of Fine Food, organizers of the World Cheese Awards, noted: “As the World Cheese Awards was founded over three decades ago to showcase the work of small artisan cheesemakers, it gives me immense pleasure to see a tiny family-run cheesemaking business taking top honours once again.”

Ms. Peláez noted, “We’ve been making cheese for less than 5 years, so we never imagined we could win the world’s biggest prize in cheese so soon….To have such recognition from the World Cheese Awards judges is an incredible achievement and truly overwhelming.”

And that’s not all. Her other cheese, Camembeso, took 6th place!
 
 
A VERY CLOSE FINISHbeautifu

In a close finale, second place was awarded to Epoisses Berthaut Perrière, made by Fromagerie Berthaut of France.

All 4,000+ entries were judged in a single day, as 250 experts from 38 different countries. A super jury of 16 judges selected the World Champion Cheese from a 20-cheese shortlist. The Top 10 are below.

The 4,000+ competing cheeses represented 45 different countries. Recent additions such as Colombia, India, and Japan joined established cheesemaking nations such as France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and the U.K.
 
 
THE TOP 10 CHEESES IN THE WORLD, 2021

Thanks so much to Love Food of the U.K., whose review of the Top 20 finalists provided the tasting notes on these cheeses. You can review all 20 cheeses here.

Styles of cheese are made by multiple producers—Caerphilly and Gorgonzola, for example, in these Top 10. The awards go to cheeses made by particular producers. So if you want the best Caerpohilly, for example, look for the one made by Trethowan’s Dairy.

1st Place: Olavidia, Quesos y Besos, Spain (photo #1)

2nd Place: Epoisses Berthaut Perrière, France The pungent cheese, with fans around the world, is on the official list of Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) products in Europe. It is only produced in central France. Made since the 16th century, Epoisses is a cow’s milk cheese with a washed rind, soft texture and creamy taste. This winning version, made by Fromagerie Berthaut in Burgundy, is washed with Marc de Bourgogne. (photo #2)

3rd Place: Eminence Grise, Tomme Chèvre Grise au Bleu, The Netherlands. This Dutch goat’s milk cheese is aged in caves in France. Made by Van der Heiden Kaas, it has delicate blue veins and a natural rind. Tomme Chèvre Grise au Bleu is ripened for at least six months and has a soft, mild taste. (photo #3)

4th Place: Baracska Semi-Hard Cheese, Hungary. The fatty milk of Hungarian cows grazing in the Váli Valley gives this cheese a particular richness and flavor of the pasture. Produced by Csíz Sajtműhely, it’s a flexible cheese that softly melts in the mouth with a sweet flavor, reminiscent of caramel. (photo #4)

5th Place: Twentse Bunkerkaas Geit, Netherlands. Another Dutch winner, Twentse Bunkerkaas Geit, is an aged goat’s milk cheese. It’s ripened in former ammunition bunkers for 25 weeks. Creamy and spicy with an intensely pure flavor. The producer is Zijerveld Food. (photo #5)

6th Place: Camembesos, Quesos y Besos, Spain. Another cheese from the first-place winning cheesemakers, Camembeso, a Camembert-like cheese is made from the milk of Malagueña goats. The cheese is pasteurized and matured for 60 days to ensure it has a wonderful depth of flavor. The flavor is light and buttery with floral and nutty notes. (photo #6)

7th Place: Gorwydd Caerphilly, Trethowan’s Dairy, United Kingdom. Gorwydd Caerphilly is a semi-soft cheese produced by Trethowan’s Dairy in North Somerset, England. Caerphilly is thought to have been created in Caerphilly, Wales to provide food for the local coal miners.

Made with unpasteurized cow’s milk, it has a natural rind and a mushroomy cream layer around a springy, citrus core. The same dairy made the 14th-place-winning Pitchfork Vintage Cheddar. (photo #7)

8th Place: Montana Intenso, The Netherlands. Dutch producer MAAZ Cheese makes Montana Intenso, an extra-aged Gouda with a sweet and extra piquant taste flavor. It’s aged for 40 weeks on wooden shelves. (photo #8)

There was a tie for 9th Place, meaning that there was no 10th Place winner this year.

9th Place: Gorgonzola Dolce DOP Caseificio Brusati, Italy. Made by Caseifico Brusati, this is a particularly creamy Gorgonzola Dolce. It can be eaten with a spoon! The aging process helps it develop its signature soft texture and slightly sweet flavor.

It’s also beautiful to look at, with typical light blue and greenish veins that are irregular, as a result of the handmaking process. (photo #9)

9th Place: Vorarlberger Bergkäse g.U. – über 10 Monate, Austria. Vorarlberger Bergkäse is a traditionally produced hard cheese made from raw cow’s milk made in Vorarlberg, a mountainous province in westernmost Austria. The cheese is produced exclusively in the Alpine Bregenz Forest.

Made from fresh hay milk, the cheese is matured for more than 10 months in special air-conditioned rooms, which delivers a unique hearty, spicy flavor. This cheese was also an award winner in 2014. g.U. is an abbreviation for Geschützte Ursprungsbezeichnung, German for Protected Designation of Origin or P.D.O. (photo #10)
 
 
> THE HISTORY OF CHEESE
 
 
> THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF CHEESE
 
 
> HOW TO TASTE CHEESE
 
 
> CHEESE TASTING TERMINOLOGY
 
 
> A GUIDE TO CHEESE CONDIMENTS
 
 
> HAVE A CHEESE TASTING PARTY
 
 
> PAIRING CHEESE WITH BEER & WINE
 
 
> PAIRING CHEESE & TEA
 
 
> A GUIDE TO CHEESEMONGERS
 
 
________________

*Lactic cheeses, as opposed to the firmer rennet-set cheeses, are primarily made with little to no rennet and rely primarily on the action of the bacteria converting the milk lactose to lactic acid. When the milk acidity becomes high enough, the milk will coagulate even without the use of rennet. Here’s more about it.