THE NIBBLE BLOG: Products, Recipes & Trends In Specialty Foods


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RECIPES: Holiday Cocktails


It’s a pumpkin pie in a glass.
This holiday season, start your guests off with the same flavors that end the meal—pie! These cocktails take advantage of seasonal flavors to perfectly complement your cocktail hour—or dessert.

Caramel Apple Pie Cocktail

The seasonal flavors of this sweet cocktail come from butterscotch schnapps and real apple cider. For more pie flavor, you can dip the rim in graham cracker crumbs.

Ingredients Per Cocktail

-1 ounce tequila
-1/2 ounce butterscotch schnapps
-1 ounce apple cider
-1 teaspoon lemon juice
-Apple slice garnish
-Graham cracker crumbs for rim (optional)

Preparation

1. Fill a cocktail shaker with ice.
2. Add tequila, schnapps, apple cider and lemon juice.
3. Shake well and strain into a chilled martini glass. If desired, first moisten rim of glass and dip into graham cracker crumbs.
4. Garnish with notched apple slice.

Pumpkin-tini

You can try different rims for different flavors. This recipe calls for cinnamon, but you could use graham cracker crumbs, shredded coconut, cocoa powder—or a blend.

Ingredients Per Cocktail

-1-1/2 ounces vanilla vodka
-1-1/2 ounces crème de cacao
-2 tablespoons pumpkin purée
-1-1/2 ounces milk

Preparation

1. Shake milk and pumpkin purée to combine.
2. Pour in vodka and crème de cacao, and shake over ice.
3. Strain into cinnamon-rimmed martini glass.

Learn how to plan a cocktail party.
Find more winter cocktail recipes in THE NIBBLE’s Cocktail Section.

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TOP PICK: Le Grand Pesto

We know about pestos. For our review of the best pesto sauces, we dipped and sauced with hundreds of them, from the classic pesto alla Genovese* to scores of variations from A to Z (or at least to S, including shiitake mushroom, spinach, sundried tomato and sweet red pepper pestos).

*The classic recipe contains basil, olive oil, Parmesan and Pecorino cheeses, pine nuts, garlic and salt.

The good news is, no matter how much exciting food you’ve tasted in a specialty food category, there’s always more to discover. So we smacked our lips when we came across Le Grand Pesto, an all-natural line of artisan pesto sauces and tapenades made by a couple in Canada. Since then, we can’t imagine life without Le Grand Pesto Lemon Confit & Pumpkin Seed Aromatic Sauce—it may ensure our cult status among foodie friends who credit us with the discovery (try it with fish, seafood, pasta, vegetables and anything that lemon takes a shine to).

We’ve been snacking on spoonfuls of the five other flavors, in between using them as a condiment on everything from eggs to sandwiches to soups and salads. Just try enlivening that Caprese salad or cheese pizza with Spicy Olive & Sun-dried Tomato Tapenade. Squirt a spoonful of 4 Nut & Cheese Pesto into a bowl of tomato soup or onto pear slices. Try


Pesto can enliven almost every dish (except sweet
desserts, but try them with cheese). Here, Le
Grand’s herbalicious Garden Pesto turns the same
old poached egg into a gourmet delight. Healthy
eaters can enjoy the egg, pesto, microgreens and
stewed plum tomatoes. Revelers can rest a
pancake and some bacon underneath.
some Sun-dried Tomato Pesto on that sandwich instead of mayonnaise, or serve it as a spread with cocktails. You’re a hero without doing any actual cooking (but, then, being a top hunter-gatherer is as great a skill as being a good cook). The products are very thick—no oozing pools of oil, but vegetable paste with only as little oil as needed to bind the ingredients. You can spread them, or dilute with your own oil into sauces. All are made with the finest ingredients, no preservatives and no sugar or sweeteners of any kind.If you love fresh, new tastes, want easy ways to make your everyday foods fly high and can’t wait to play with six new ready-to-cook-or-eat condiments/sauces/ingredients, read the full review on TheNibble.com.

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TRAVEL: California’s Artisan Cheese Festival


Award-winning Mount McKinley chevre from
California’s Cypress Grove cheesemaker.
  Still have money for gourmet travel? Need a spectacular gift for that cheese-loving someone special? Head to four days of turophile revelry at California’s Artisan Cheese Festival, held in Petaluma (Sonoma County) from March 20-23, 2009. The third annual festival, held at the Sheraton Sonoma County–Petaluma Hotel, is a wonderful opportunity to:

-Educate people who want to learn more about artisan cheese
-Support the artisan cheesemaking community and its sustainability
-Celebrate and enjoy the creations of the artisan cheesemakers
-Eat a heck of a lot of great cheese that is hard to come by

Over the four day festival weekend, you’ll explore handcrafted cheeses, foods, wines and beers from California and beyond. At the second annual festival in March 2008, more than 1,700 attendees met more than a dozen international award-winning cheesemakers and learned how to taste, buy, serve and enjoy distinctive artisan cheeses from the experts.

The educational seminars and tastings were led by cheese experts, cheesemakers, chefs and fromagiers from across the country, and virtually every session involved tastings and/or pairings of artisan cheeses.Planning for the 2009 festival is underway, and the schedule of events will be posted and tickets will go on sale shortly. Sign up for updates at the website, ArtisanCheeseFestival.com.

Visit THE NIBBLE’s Cheese Section for reviews of our favorite artisan cheeses.
Discover the meaning of “turophile” in our Cheese Glossary.
Learn the History Of Cheese.
Take our Cheese Trivia Quiz.

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