A jar of artichoke dip creates elegant snacks or canapés (photo by Evan Dempsey | © THE NIBBLE).

We hasten to say these are elegant cream cheese dips and spreads. KC Classic Cheese Dips and Cheesecake Fondues have nothing to do with a “queso,” the melted cheese dip enjoyed with tortilla chips.

KC Classic cheese dips are seasoned cream cheese spreads—both savory and sweet varieties—that make entertaining or serving specialty dishes easy. You can warm them up to serve as dips, drizzles, and sauces, or spread them on any variety of foods.

The savory flavors—Artichoke Leaf, Chipotle, Green Olive & Pimento, Raspberry Jalapeño and Pineapple Jalapeño—are a treat and a flexible ingredient that can go from canapé to sandwich to snack or wine complement.

The Cheesecake Fondues—Chocolatey Cherry Amaretto Cheesecake, Luscious Lemony Cheesecake, and Vanilla Cheesecake—are delicious with muffins, as French toast fillings and cupcake icings, and to make cookie sandwiches. Eating them as “cheesecake in a jar” is a delightful experience.

The jars are a high-perceived-value mini-gift. Recipients of one or two will be very happy.

Read the full review.

Today’s pressure cookers are not your mother’s (or grandmother’s) chugging hunks of iron. Sleek and 100% safe in stainless steel, they’re one of the biggest time-savers in the kitchen.

Two years ago we wrote all about pressure cooking and how it can change your kitchen life. There’s a brief learning curve, but you’ll be so happy that you decided to learn!

In the heat of the summer, when you don’t want to turn on the oven for one hour much less for four, the stove top pressure cooker will cook your food without heating up the kitchen.

You don’t have to stand over a hot pot: all the heat is contained within the pressure cooker until you’re ready to remove the lid. In the winter, hearty stews and other favorites take 30-40 minutes—not half a day.

Today, we take on two favorite recipes—braised short ribs and pulled pork—in our review of the new Kuhn Rikon Ecomatic pressure cooker. This shiny kitchen appliance is the best $100 we’ve spent in a long time.

The picnic food we want most: a Cupcake
Picnic Pack from YummyCupcakes.com.

• The corn on the cob cupcake is the company’s delicious buttered popcorn cupcake, cleverly decorated.
• The burger cupcake is combination of vanilla and chocolate cupcakes and variously colored buttercreams.
• The watermelon cupcake is a red velvet chocolate chip cupcake with a vanilla buttercream frosting.

We’ll bring our own beer cupcake.

Read our full review of Yummy Cupcakes, a NIBBLE Top Pick Of The Week.