Decorated sheets of parchment are a gift
idea for a cheese-loving friend. Photo
courtesy MurraysCheese.com.

So keep cheeses in the warmest part of the refrigerator: usually the top shelf. You can also use the vegetable bin at the bottom.

Except for aged, dry cheeses like Parmesan, most cheeses should be wrapped in parchment—not plastic—so they can breathe. Fine cheese stores will typically wrap your selections in parchment paper. Don’t toss the paper—reuse it to rewrap the leftover cheese.

Of course, the best tip is to buy only the amount of cheese that you need; but we all fear “running short,” especially when planning a cheese plate for guests.

• If you’d like to buy cheese parchment paper for yourself or a cheese-loving friend, Murray’s Cheese sells the brightly-designed sheets in the photo.
• Learn all about cheese, see reviews of our favorites and find exciting cheese recipes in our Gourmet Cheese section.

Essentially, this is a basic cookbook that mines the current vampire craze by titling recipes with vampire themes: Embrace The Darkness Frittata, Frightful Filet Mignon Caesar Salad, Suffering Suck-O-Tash, and so forth.

There are also “Tasty Tidbits” about vampires, such as:

Curiously, some legends make mention that a stake is only to be hammered into the vampire’s chest in one blow, for if it’s struck twice, the revenant can reanimate and return to its vampiric state. So remember that, when you’re faced with killing a vampire.

A revenant, by the way, is a person who returns after a lengthy absence, or one who returns as a spirit after death—a ghost, for example. (Are the undead “spirits?”)

A cookbook for those obsessed with all
things vampire.

If you’d like to teach someone to cook, or encourage him or her prepare feasts for their friends, a gift of “Love At First Bite” could be in order.

The reason other people might be interested is the list of some 100 cocktails at the end of the book that will keep you going for many Halloweens to come: Black Death, Devil’s Blood, Howl At The Moon and Satan’s Whiskers, to name a few.

You can buy it on Amazon for less than $10.00.

Start with the right meat. These burgers
are from Ottomanelli Brothers.

While most of us love burgers, many of us don’t know how to cook them properly.

For example, making dense patties and pressing down on them as they cook is a sure way to get a less-juicy burger.

And while most experts agree that the best burger comes from sirloin or chuck, not all “ground chuck” is created equal. Your chuck could come from a nine-year-old dairy cow instead of a two-year-old steer.

Take a look at these tips for better burgers, and soon you’ll be grilling like a pro.

While you‘re at it, check out the history of the hamburger, a true American sandwich.