[1] French Fries with peanut butter (satay) and jelly dips. From left to right: satay sauce, crushed peanut and scallion garnish, smoked raspberry jelly (photo © Idaho Potato Commission).

[2] Idaho russet potatoes (photo © Potato 101 | Idaho Potato Commission.

[3] Satay sauce is very versatile. Here’s a recipe for a classic use: a Thai-style stir fry (photo © Nourishing Amy).

[4] Want to make your own raspberry jelly? Here’s an easy recipe from Sweet + Savory By Shinee (photo © Sweet + Savory By Shinee)

French fries with peanut butter and jelly?

This recipe comes with a sub-title: Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.

The recipe was created by Mike McKinnon, owner of Potato Champion restaurant in Portland Oregon.

The restaurant began selling Belgium-style fries (twice fried for extra crispness), served with a variety of dipping sauces, plus poutine, the “national dish of Canada.”

Over the years, the menu has expanded into inventive fry-related dishes. French fries with PB&J is one of those.

Mind you, it’s not PB&J from the jar: The peanut butter is made into a satay sauce, and the jelly is smoked (with liquid smoke). These are served as dips with the fries.

Any leftover sauces can be served with skewers, as sauces for meat and poultry, or as dips for crudités.

Are you ready for a French fry adventure for National Peanut Butter & Jelly Day?

Thanks to the Idaho Potato Commission for the recipe.

If you don’t want to make this amount, use this ingredient converter to decrease the recipe size.

> More great peanut butter and jelly recipes.

> The history of peanut butter.

> The history of jelly.

> The different types of jelly and preserves.
 
 
RECIPE: FRENCH FRIES WITH PEANUT BUTTER & JELLY
 
Ingredients For 10 Servings

For The Fries & Garnishes

 
For The Satay Sauce

 
For The Smoky Raspberry Jelly

 
Preparation For The Satay Sauce

1. BLEND the ginger, cilantro, onion and garlic in a food processor. Add to a stockpot. Add the sweet soy sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil and sambal oelek and bring to a boil.

2. ADD the coconut milk and lime juice and return to a boil. Turn off the heat and the add the peanut butter.

3. BLEND with an immersion blender until smooth and creamy. Reserve.
 
Preparation For The Smoky Raspberry Jelly

1. COMBINE the jelly, lemon juice and liquid smoke in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then stir in the sugar.

2. BLEND well with immersion blender. Reserve.
 
Preparation For Fries

1. CUT THE potatoes into 3/8-inch-think sticks. Wash the starches off. Blanch in oil between 325°F and 350°F, then fry to crisp at 375°F.

2. PLACE the fries on a sheet pan to cool a bit; then season with salt. Garnish the fries with the crushed peanuts and scallions, and serve with the satay sauce and smoked jelly.

We re-created this Easter milkshake, after seeing the photo on the Facebook page of Alden’s Organic Ice Cream.
 
 
RECIPE: EASTER MILKSHAKE

Ingredients Per Shake

 
Additional Garnishes

This Easter milkshake is the definition of “food fun.” Affixing the malted milk eggs to the rim was the biggest challenge in re-creating it (photo © Alden’s Ice Cream | Facebook).

Milkshake: The milkshake portion is simple. Just combine the first three ingredients in a blender and process to desired consistency. Pour into the glass, garnish with sprinkles, add the straw and top with garnishes of choice.

Note that to keep heavier candies on top of the whipped cream so they don’t sink in, you should use homemade whipped cream: It’s thicker than the airy aerosol whipped cream. Also check out stabilized whipped cream.

Macaron Pops: Run a kabob skewer or a long lollipop/cake pop stick through the macarons.
 
Candy Rim: The tough part is affixing the jelly beans or other egg-shaped candy to the rim of the glass.

They’re just too heavy for the standard affixing of simple syrup, which works for shredded coconut or sprinkles.

 

Here’s more about Alden’s Ice Cream, an organic line.
 
 
> THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF ICE CREAM & FROZEN DESSERTS

> THE HISTORY OF ICE CREAM

[1] Chocolate Earl Grey tea is available year-round, and in this special Easter packaging [all photos © David’s Tea).

[2] You can see why this tea is called Hot Chocolate. It’s pu’ehr tea with chocolate chips that melt into the brew.

[3] An Easter sampler with six different chocolate flavors. During the holidays, there’s a holiday sampler.

[4] Here’s another winner: Hazelnut Chocolate.

Here’s a calorie-free chocolate treat: chocolate-flavored tea.

David’s Tea has blended its fine loose teas with chocolate flavors.

They are available year-round, but for the Easter season there’s special Easter Egg packaging.

Plus, there’s a gift box with six chocolate flavors.

Yes, the teas do have the subtle and delicious taste of chocolate, and can be enjoyed hot or iced.
 
 
LIMITED EDITION EASTER PACKAGING

 
The Limited Edition Easter Sampler (photo #3) is a gift box that includes:

 
 
YEAR-ROUND PACKAGING

 
 
ETHICAL TEA PARTNERSHIP

David’s Tea has partnered with the Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP).

The organization’s mission is to create a more fair, more sustainable tea industry for the tea farmers, the tea workers and the environment.

They also created the David’s Tea Impact Fund, which enables meaningful change by supporting projects in countries where they source their tea.
 
 
GET YOUR CHOCOLATE TEA!

For a tea lover, for a calorie counter:

This is a much more welcome Easter gift than sugar-laden Easter candy.

In fact, the chocolate teas have so much flavor that we didn’t even need to sweeten the tea.

Head to DavidsTea.com.
 
 
> THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF TEA
 
> THE HISTORY OF TEA

We were grumpy because there was no decent bakery in our neighborhood. Then fate intervened and brought us…

Premium biscuits, scones and sweet rolls from Mason Dixie Foods.

The line, which is sold frozen, is simply wonderful. No bakery could do a better job.

Quality and freshness are key to good baked goods, and freezine helps to keep them that way.

“That’s why our bakers handpick the freshest, natural pantry ingredients and why we freeze our products, locking in all the goodness without any additives or preservatives,” says Mason Dixie

The line, which is sold frozen, is simply wonderful.No bakery could do a better job.

“We’re about good, clean baking: for the people, by the people. Because when we eat good, we feel good. When we feel good, we live good. And when we live good, it’s all good.”

“So go ahead!” she says. “Butter that biscuit, crack into that scone, and lick those sticky bun fingers clean!”

Thank you Ayeshah: We will!
 
 
THE MASON DIXIE LINE

The products add something special to breakfast, lunch and dinner.

They’re terrific for a coffee or tea break.

And they also make one heck of a brunch or tea party.

We loved everything we tried; and damn the carbs. We’ll be a frequent customer.

(Online orders have free shipping!)
 
 
BEAUTIFUL BISCUITS

“What makes a perfect biscuit?” asks Mason Dixie. “Ice-cold butter, fresh buttermilk, clean, simple ingredients, and a lot of practice!”

If you’ve made biscuits from scratch, you know the challenge of getting that perfect texture.

“Ours took years to perfect, multiple broken machines, and lots of visits back to the drawing board. We went out of our way to unravel mass manufacturing processes to make our biscuits the right way,” notes Ayeshah.

“They even have the bumps, the nooks and crannies and bumps,” she continues.

Imperfections make for biscuit perfection. The biscuits are as close to handmade as you can buy (photos #1, #2 and #3).

We’re a biscuit-aholic, and now that we’ve tasted Mason-Dixie’s, we’ll never again be without an assortment in the freezer.

The tough part is decided among:

 
 
SCRUMPTIOUS SCONES

Scones are some of the hardest pastries* to make. They can be moist and crumbly, or they can be unpleasantly dry.

Mason Dixie got them just right (photo #4), using the biscuit dough and the best fruits, chocolates, and spices.

Even the Queen would be proud, says Mason Dixie.

Have them all:

 
 
SATISFYING SWEET ROLLS

The sweet rolls started out as a post-lunch treat for the staff, made by the team from biscuit dough scraps. They were so popular that they became a new product line (photo #5).

The fillings and icings are made with only the simplest, cleanest ingredients—unlike those chemically-enhanced “rolls” you get at the mall, says Mason Dixie.

Like the other Mason Dixie products, they contain no oils, no stabilizers, no artificial enhancements, only the real stuff .

How can you resist:

 
 
GET YOURS!

Here’s a store locator.

Or shop online: There’s free shipping!

 
________________

*Scones are classified as small pastries or quick breads. The originals were baked on a griddle.

A quick bread is any bread leavened with a chemical leavening agent, rather than a natural one like yeast or sourdough starter. Quick breads include many cakes, brownies and some cookies, as well as banana bread, beer bread, biscuits, cornbread, muffins, pancakes, scones and soda bread.

[1] Tea, blood orange and a buttermilk biscuit (all photos © Mason Dixie Foods).

[2] Bacon and eggs with a cheddar biscuit.

[3] Fried chicken with a jalapeño cheddar biscuit.

[4] Blueberry lemon scones: tender and moist, not dry and crumbly.

[5] Sticky buns, warm from the oven. You can add as much or as little icing as you like.

[6] You can’t have too many boxes, for biscuits at breakfast, lunch, dinner and coffee breaks.

A scone is not a biscuit. A biscuit should have a soft, light, flaky crumb (interior). A scone does not flake—it crumbles—and is slightly dryer than a biscuit. It should not be dried out, disintegrating into crumbs when a piece is broken off.

In the U.K., the correct pronunciation of scone is skon, to rhyme with gone; not the American pronunciation skone, that rhymes with bone.

Here’s more about scones.

[1] Need an “Easter cheese?” Put bunny ears or a tail on a wheel of it (photo © Jasper Hill Farm).

[2] How about surrounding the cheese board with small foil-wrapped Easter eggs? Chocolate and cheese are a good pairing (photo © Murray’s Cheese).

Turn a great cheese into the Easter Bunny (photo #1).

That’s what Jasper Hill Farm did with one of our favorite cheeses, Moses Sleeper, a bloomy-rind wheel made from pasteurized cow’s milk.

Jasper Hill Farm is an artisanal cheese maker in Vermont, and all of its 15 cheeses are glorious.

They were a Nibble Top Pick Of The Week.

Moses Sleeper is named after a Revolutionary War scout who was killed while defending Northeast Kingdom’s Bayley Hazen Military Road.

(Bayley Hazen is one of Jasper Hill’s famous blue cheeses.)

Moses Sleeper has a classic bloomy rind and underneath that delicious rind, a gooey, milky core.

One of our treats during the pandemic has been a monthly order of their great cheeses.
 
 
IS THERE A SPECIAL CHEESE FOR EASTER?

In some countries, a homemade cheese is served at Easter dinner.

These cheeses are easy to make at home:

 
Otherwise, if you’ll be serving cheese at Easter, treat yourself to the best—like the cheeses from Jasper Hill Farm.
 
 
> THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF CHEESE: A GLOSSARY
 
 
> THE HISTORY CHEESE