[1] Cranberry, pumpkin seeds, spices and a chocolate drizzle (recipe and photo © The Popcorn Board).

[2] Dried cranberries (photo © King Arthur Flour).

[3] Toasted pumpkin seeds (photo © Simply Recipes).

October is National Popcorn Poppin’ Month, and The Popcorn Board has created a new recipe to mark the occasion.

Loaded with chocolate, cranberries, pumpkin seeds and fall spices, this is a recipe you can enjoy now through the holidays.

It’s also a food gift for anyone, from Halloween and Thanksgiving through Christmas.

Check out the wine pairings below.
 
 
RECIPE: CRANBERRY & CHOCOLATE SPICED POPCORN

Ingredients For 8 Cups

 
Preparation

1. TOSS together the popcorn, cranberries, pumpkin seeds, coconut oil, cinnamon and nutmeg in a large bowl.

2. LAY the mixture flat on a parchment paper–lined tray. Drizzle with the melted chocolate and sprinkle with sea salt.

3. LET stand at room temperature for about 20 minutes or until chocolate sets. Break apart into chunks.
 
 
MORE SEASONAL POPCORN RECIPES

 
 
SITTING IN FRONT OF THE FIRE WITH POPCORN & A GLASS OF WINE

Here are wines that complement this fall popcorn recipe…and a cozy evening in front of the fire or T.V.

Banyuls Or Ruby Port

Fortified fruity wines like Banyuls and Ruby Port have cocoa or chocolate in the nose, as well as cherry, raspberry or other berry fruit on the palate. They are classic companions to chocolate.

Tawny Port Or Zinfandel

Tawny Ports, which have nutty and tobacco/leather notes, also make good pairings.

We don’t recommend Vintage Port: Its high sugar and alcohol content can overwhelm anything that doesn’t have a sharp counterpoint (which is why blue cheese and walnuts are such good pairings).

Spicy Zinfandel brings out the spices in the recipe, and also pair well with chocolate.

Beaujolais Or Orange Muscat

Beaujolais and Orange Muscat bring out fruity notes of the cranberries. Orange Muscat, a dessert wine, also complements dark chocolate.

Beaujolais is a more unusual choice, but if you like the wine, try it.

Cabernet Sauvignon (including Bordeaux)

Whether from Bordeaux or elsewhere, Cabernet Sauvignon brings out the fruity-peppery-grapey notes in the chocolate and pairs well with the spices.
 
 
>>>THE HISTORY OF POPCORN<<<

Everyone has heard of linguine with clam sauce, and pasta with mixed shellfish: clams, mussels, scallops, shrimp.

But how about fish?

This appealing dish of spaghetti with red snapper (photo #1) was created by Rickie Perez, Executive Chef/Founder of Logan Oyster Socials, a traveling oyster bar in Chicago.
 
 
RECIPE: SPAGHETTI WITH RED SNAPPER

The spaghetti is tossed with a fresh sauce of citrus and olive oil, and served with crisply-seared red snapper (skin side down).

Grilling is an alternative way to get the hearty flavor that marries the fish to the pasta.

Chef Perez uses a finishing splash of a spicy pineapple vinegar, a Puerto Rican condiment called pique.

It’s a simple blend of chilies, garlic, and spices, with a bit of pineapple added for sweetness. Here’s a recipe. You can make it and use it immediately, and can substitute pineapple juice for the pineapple rind in the recipe.

Don’t want to make vinegar? Use a splash of whatever flavored vinegar you have.

Chef Perez serves the dish with tostones, fried plantains (here’s a recipe). You can sauté bananas, or simply use a garnish or choice.

Here’s a different approach to red snapper and pasta, by Debi Mazar and Gabriele Corcos (photo #2).

Here, the seared snapper is de-skinned, then broken up and added to a tomato sauce.

October is National Pasta Month. Plan some pasta-and-fish combinations; perhaps you’ll discover a new favorite.
 
 
RESTAURANTS & INSTAGRAM: THE PHONE EATS FIRST

According to Datassential, the food industry’s leading market research firm, Instagram appeal has become a major concern for restaurant chefs and operators.

With more than 250 million posts, #Food is among the top 25 most popular hashtags on the social media platform.

Evidence of how this is shifting menu development is everywhere, says Flavor & The Menu, a leading trend magazine and website for chefs.

Instagram’s influence has forced restaurants to create more impressive presentations, over-the-top desserts and eye-popping cocktails.

“We used to eat with our eyes,” says Yury Krasilovsky, executive chef of pasta giant Barilla America.”

“Now, the phone eats first. [Restaurants] of all types to pay more attention to presentation.”

As a chef responsible for recipe development that Barilla offers to chefs, he keeps a keen eye on Instagram, looking at how chefs and home cooks have stylized pasta dishes in a striking manner.

“The most popular posts tend to be colorful, and either highly composed and stylized….,” he says.

“At the end of the day, it’s about appetite appeal: Food photos should make the viewer want to dive in for a forkful.”

But the photos only capture what’s put on the table. The creativity comes from you.

[1] Spaghetti With Red Snapper. It’s garnished with tostones and a squash blossom (photo © Barilla America).

[2] In this dish, the red snapper is crumbled and mixed into the sauce (photo © Debi Mazar and Gabriele Corcos | Cooking Channel).

[3] Rotini with peas and cubed swordfish. Here’s the recipe from Barilla.

[4] Casarecce with swordfish and eggplant. Here’s the recipe from Barilla.

Honeybees gathering nectar. Their bodies pick up pollen, which they rubs off on the next flower they visit (photos © The Honeybee Conservancy).

Last week, The Honeybee Conservancy launched a new initiative: Bee The Solution.

It’s a nationwide call-to-action and educational tour to raise awareness around bee conservation and the important role bees play in our society and local communities.

Bees are essential to grow hundreds of basic crops helping with food production and sustainability.

These little pollinators travel from plant to plant collecting nectar to make honey.

In the process, the plant’s pollen adheres to their bodies, and in a vital interaction, they inadvertently transfer the pollen from flower to flower, which pollinates the plants.

This process:

 
For the launch event, The Honeybee Conservancy created a six-foot-tall beehive with some 70,000 bees in the heart of midtown Manhattan. Oh yes: It was in the shape of the Empire State Building.

As part of the program, the Conservancy wants you to sponsor a beehive.

Sponsor-A-Hive is an annual program targeting two major issues in the U.S.: declining bee populations and limited access to food in low-income communities.

Each year, Sponsor-A-Hive selects partner organizations to which they deliver native bees or honey bees along with their hives, beekeeping equipment, and continuous training and support.

Sponsor-a-Hive recipients also participate in the Conservancy’s Bee Ambassadors program, with discussions that advance science and environmental education.

Equipped with materials such as lesson plans and presentations,Bee Ambassadors deliver hands-on, motivating programs about bees.

In their new homes, the bees thrive, pollinate, and help boost the crop yield of community gardens.

Your organization—school, community garden, etc.—can help to create a more sustainable America by caring for a beehive that pollinates and educates.

Help to build a movement dedicated to reclaiming habitat and protecting the bees that are so necessary to our local ecosystems and food systems.

Over the last ten years, the national Sponsor-A-Hive program has deployed 10 million bees into underserved communities in 44 states, producing half a million pounds of food and helping many thousands of people gain access to organic, sustainable food.

DISCOVER MORE HERE.

[1] A Bloody Mary with three Mexican restaurant garnishes (photo © J-Remy | Blue Moon Café).

[2] Japanese accents: ingredients in the mix, an octopus tentacle and a skewer of raw tuna and beet cubes. Here’s the recipe (photo © Bamboo Sushi | Portland, Oregon).

[3] The Wayfarer in New York City calls this its Fully Loaded Bloody Mary, but we think of it as “Surf And Turf.” Here’s the recipe (photo © The Wayfarer | NYC).

[4] It’s called a Philly Cheesesteak Mary with grilled garnishes, but there’s no cheese cube because it would melt over the grill. Here’s the recipe from Campbell’s Kitchen. You can adjust the recipe with pearl onions, add cheese cubs when the skewer comes off the grill, or use halloumi cheese, which doesn’t melt. You can find the circular kabob skewers on Amazon.

You may have seen online photos of Bloody Mary’s so extensively garnished, that you wonder how anyone can get through the garnishes to enjoy the drink.

While this one is not quite so packed, it is fun. We like that an entire celery stalk more than doubles the height of the glass.

At the most basic level, anyone can use a 14″ stalk of celery to make an impression.

But Blue Moon Mexican Café, in Englewood and Wycoff, New Jersey, adds much more.

The restaurant has introduced a new Sunday brunch menu with different Bloody Mary garnishes.

We don’t know the recipe, but we do know the garnishes (see our Chipotle Maria Recipe below).

Here, the garnishes from Blue Moon Café (photo #1):

 
Visitors to the restaurant can order a 68-ounce pitcher of Bloody Marys, served with fixings that include:

 
Plus, the familiar wedges of lemon and lime.

An upgrade at the restaurant includes a tray of bacon, plantains, mini cheese quesadillas and shrimp.

But these additions are tame, when you look at these 10 outrageous Bloody Mary garnishes.

What’s on your Bloody Mary?

Here are some recipes we’ve published previously:
 
 
MORE BLOODY MARY GARNISHES

 
 
RECIPE: CHIPOTLE MARIA

You can use the conventional vodka, or substitute tequila.

Ingredients Per Drink

 
Preparation

1. SHAKE all ingredients with ice and strain into an old-fashioned glass over ice cubes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

2. GARNISH with celery and skewered cornichons, cocktail onions and a cube of blue cheese.
 
 
BLOODY MARY HISTORY
 
 
BLOODY MARY RECIPES WITH INTERNATIONAL ACCENTS

Gnocchi for breakfast? It’s a pasta lover’s delight.

Eggs, tomatoes, pesto and cheese create an Italian breakfast bake‚—so good and versatile that you can serve it for lunch and dinner, too (photo #1).

Thanks to DeLallo for the recipe. You can purchase authentic Italian ingredients on the DeLallo website, including a kit to make your own gnocchi from scratch.

We bought ours ready-to-cook, but here’s a gnocchi recipe to make without the kit.

Whatever meal you choose, serve the gnocchi bake with a side salad, lightly dressed in vinaigrette.
 
 
RECIPE: BAKED EGGS WITH GNOCCHI & PESTO

Ingredients For 4-6 Servings

 
Preparation

1. PREHEAT the oven to 375°F and grease a 9-by-9-inch square pan.

2. BRING a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook the gnocchi according to package directions. Drain and set aside.

3. WHISK together the eggs, milk, salt, and pesto. Place the gnocchi in the prepared pan and cover with the egg mixture. Drop heaping spoonsful of ricotta onto the mixture, placing them as evenly as possible throughout the pan.

4. PLACE the tomatoes between dollops of ricotta. Sprinkle with the parmesan and bake until the eggs are completely set and starting to brown, about 30 minutes.

5. REMOVE from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes before serving.

 
THE HISTORY OF GNOCCHI

A classic Italian pasta, these pillowy potato dumplings (photo #3) delight many pasta lovers.

The word “gnocchi” (pronounced N’YAW-kee) has an unknown origin, but it may have derived from the Italian word nocca, meaning knuckle.

Another possibility is the Italian word nocchio, meaning a knot in wood.

Gnocchi has been a traditional type of Italian pasta—the shape is probably of Middle Eastern origin—since Roman times. It was introduced by the Roman legions during the expansion of the empire into the countries of the European continent.

In Roman times, gnocchi were made from a semolina porridge-like dough mixed with eggs [source].

Gnocchi were the perfect peasant food, both filling and inexpensive. Before the potato version was created, gnocchi were made with ingredients such as breadcrumbs and squash.

The use of potato is a relatively recent innovation, occurring after the introduction of the potato to Europe in the 16th century (it was one of the food discoveries in the New World).

[1] Gnocchi and eggs for breakfast (photos #1 and #2 © DeLallo).

[2] You can purchase ready-to-cook gnocchi, or make your own from scratch with this kit from DeLallo.

[3] Pillowy gnocchi, ready to cook (photo © Neco Garnicia | SXC).

While gnocchi are dumplings, we like to include them in the group called pillow pasta, stuffed with a pillowy filling. (Ravioli is a pillow pasta. What other varieties can you name? Click the link.)

Introduced to different regions of Italy, gnocchi became made variously of semolina, potato or sweet potato; with optional cheese or eggs added to the dough; and optionally flavored with basil, saffron, spinach or tomato. Today, pumpkin is an option.

The most common way to prepare gnocchi today is to combine mashed potatoes with flour, although modern variations add different cheeses—goat, gorgonzola, ricotta, Parmigiano-Reggiano. In addition to the flavors noted above, creative chefs make gnocchi in beet, butternut squash, carrot, sweet potato and other flavors.

They can be served mixed with vegetables (asparagus, broccoli rabe, cherry tomatoes mushrooms, peas, spinach, etc.) and proteins (chicken, clams, ham, pancetta, sausage).

Depending on their flavor, gnocchi pair with many sauces, from simple butter and parmesan or tomato to oxtail or pork ragù. One of our favorites is brown butter with crispy fried sage.

Is it time to expand your gnocchi horizons?
 
 
CHECK OUT THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF PASTA IN OUR PASTA GLOSSARY
 
 
WHAT ARE GNUDI, & HOW ARE THEY RELATED TO GNOCCHI & PILLOW PASTA?