We love this idea from food photographer and creative cook Melina Hammer, via Handsome Brook Farm.

Handsome Brook Farm is a pioneer in organic pasture-raised eggs, with distribution on the East Coast. We can assure you that in blind tastes tests two years apart, organic eggs were the clear winner over other eggs.

Which brings us back to Melina Hammer’s inspiration for today’s tip. When we saw her egg garnishes (photo #1), we said: Wow, what a better idea than deviled eggs. Who needs mayo calories when you can add flavor like this?

For holiday entertaining, summer picnics, anytime: Exercise your creative egg garnishing skills.
 
 
35 GARNISHES FOR YOUR EGGS

While you can use a single garnish, combine them for a visual, textural and taste sensation.

You’ll have to cut some items to size. Don’t be afraid to slice and dice.

 
 
ABOUT THE BOILED EGGS

Melina calls her 6-minute eggs custard eggs, after the creamy consistency of the centers (photo #1). We like them too.

Boil a couple and see how you like the consistency.

[2] Anchovy fillets are a good contrast with the bland eggs. Roll them or cut them to size (photo courtesy Vital Choice).

[3] A single caperberry is more weildly than multiple small capers (photo Elvira Kalviste | THE NIBBLE).

[4] Tomato chutney. You can use sweet or savory chutney to garnish (photo courtesy Food TV).

[1] Robert Lambert’s artisan fruitcakes are available in dark and white (shown) styles. The candied fruits are made by hand (all photography courtesy Robert Lambert).

Three vintages of Robert Lambert fruitcakes: 2018 at top, 2017 in the center and 2016 at bottom.

Some people cringe at the word “fruitcake.”

That’s because their experience is limited to mass-produced versions loaded with yucky neon candied fruit.

If you’ve never had artisan fruitcake, made by loving hands by a gifted baker, treat yourself to one from Robert Lambert, now on sale.

These are the best fruitcakes you can buy. All of the candied fruit is made by hand. There’s nothing processed or artificial.

Robert Lambert’s small-batch fruitcakes are made in Marin County, California, using local fruits and rare varieties he painstakingly sources. They sell out quickly, so buy them now, even if you want them as Christmas or Thanksgiving gifts. The fruitcakes don’t go stale.

In fact, Mr. Lambert sells aged fruitcakes. In addition to purchasing the current 2018 “vintage,” you can also buy 2017 and 2016.

Aged fruitcake? Yes, fruitcakes including figgy pudding are typically aged for five weeks or longer, so the flavors can meld.

Then there’s extra-long aging. Mr. Lambert explains:

“Over time the flavors radiate out from the moisture of the fruits and peels. They intersect and form new flavor compounds. This intensifies the complexity.

“In the 2-year-old cake (at the bottom of photo #2), that process is complete.”

As with the 2018 vintage, the aged cakes are available in both dark and white flavors*.

> Fruitcake toss day is January 3rd.

> National Fruitcake Day is December 27th.

> The history of fruitcake is below.
 
 
SOMETHING NEW FOR THE 2018 SEASON

Robert Lambert’s 2018 cakes all contain candied shekwasha† peel, a rare Japanese citrus. Tangy and voluptuous, it has a fruity, floral, tropical flavor with notes of lemon and pineapple—“as unique as jasmine or magnolia,” says Lambert, “an unforgettable addition to the symphony of flavors these cakes embrace.”

Since Mr. Lambert’s artisan products are limited in production, head to the website now to secure yours. At $65, $75 and $85 respectively, based on vintage, they are well worth it.

We assure you that everything else Mr. Lambert makes is equally delicious. He has the lead for the number of “Top Pick of The Week’ products we’ve recommended.
 
 
BEVERAGES WITH FRUITCAKE

Rich, dense fruitcake needs little garnish. Some people use whipped cream, although we prefer a dab of mascarpone or crème fraîche.

To add some color, we like a piece of candied orange peel; although a few plain, julienned pieces work, too.

We love a good cup of black tea with our fruitcake, or a spiced tea like Bigelow’s Constant Comment (which is also available in a decaffeinated version and a green tea version).

 
 
A BRIEF HISTORY OF FRUITCAKE

The earliest known recipe for fruitcake dates to ancient Rome, and included pine nuts, pomegranate seeds and raisins.

By the Middle Ages, honey, preserved fruits and spices had been added and the cake was enjoyed throughout Europe. Recipes varied widely by region, incorporating local ingredients.

In the 16th century, sugar from the Caribbean—and the discovery that sugar could be used to preserve fruits—made fruitcakes more affordable and popular. Wedding cakes were often fruitcakes.

Everything was delicious for a few centuries.

But the industrial production of prepared foods that followed World War II led to low-priced and not-great-tasting fruitcakes.

Following European tradition, people still gave them as Christmas gifts, but few recipients enjoyed eating them.

Many people regifted their fruitcakes; thus the joke from comedian Johnny Carson, that there was only one fruitcake in the world and it got passed from person to person.

Buy or bake yourself a really good fruitcake and see why it deserves its place among the most delicious and looked-forward-to Christmas foods.

________________

*The main difference between a white fruit cake and a dark fruit cake is the sugars. Traditional dark fruit cake is made with brown sugar and molasses. White fruit cake is made with white granulated sugar.

Shekwasha, Citrus depressa, is also called shequasar, Taiwan tangerine, flat lemon, hirami lemon, or thin-skinned flat lemon. It’s a small, green citrus fruit rich in flavonoids, and native to Taiwan and Okinawa.

With Halloween coming up, most of us will be nibbling more candy than usual.

At least when you eat candy, you know that you’re eating sugar, and can monitor your intake.

But added sugars have infiltrated our lives in a food intake way in a covert way, from sugar-laden products like barbecue sauce, to sugar sneaked into pasta sauce to compensate for less-than-ideal tomatoes.

So today’s tip is a “public service announcement”: some pointers from Dr. Nimali Fernando, a Fredericksburg, Virginia-based physician who explains why we may not be aware of our sugar intake.

According to the American Heart Association:

 
That includes not only the sugar you put onto oatmeal and into tea, but the hidden added sugars, which can comprise the majority of sugar grams consumed daily.

Added sugars are those sugars that have been used by the food industry to enhance a food’s flavor. These are processed sugars, compared to the natural sugars in a piece of fruit.

While a piece of fruit is a good nutritional choice, packaged “fruit snacks” (the kind that come look like soft candy, for example) have added sugars.

Even some foods that seem healthy may contain “hidden” added sugars, making it important to get to know the terms and become label-readers.

“Added sugars” do not include sugars that naturally occur in food, for example, the fructose in fruits or the lactose in milk.

Here’s what to watch out for:
 
 
1. CONFUSING FOOD LABELS

Figuring out how many added teaspoons are in a food product is not straightforward.

 
 
2. SMALL PORTION SIZES

A food label may not look indicate that the product has a large amount of sugar per serving.

But if you look closely you may notice that the serving size is much smaller than what you may actually eat.

 
 
3. SWEETENING WITH “HEALTHIER” SUGARS

Sweeteners like honey, agave and maple syrup may make a food appear healthier, but that doesn’t mean they actually are. Don’t be fooled.

While they may be more natural than refined sugar, and their glycemic index may be lower, manufacturers are still adding sugar calories to the product.

[1] You can see sugar in a sugar bowl, but not when it’s hidden in processed foods (photo courtesy Hannah Kaminsky | Bittersweet Blog).

[2] Brown sugar and raw sugar have just as many calories and glycemic index as white sugar (photo Matteo Pescarin | SXC).

[3] It’s the same with corn syrup and high fructose corn syrup (photo courtesy The Cupcake Project).

[4] And the same with maple syrup and honey (photo courtesy Federation Des Producteurs Acericoles Du Quebec).

Sometimes it can be hard to spot sugar in an ingredient list. That’s because there are so many different types of sugar: “White sugar” and “brown sugar” are the two that most people consider to be “sugar.”

One nutrition source reports that sugar can be spotted with as many as 61 different names.

Sweeteners that behave like white sugar include barley malt, corn syrup (and HFCS), dextrose, golden syrup, maltose, molasses, rice syrup and brown rice syrup.

Using different sweeteners in the same product is a great tactic to hide sugar, as nutrition labels require that the ingredients be listed by weight in decreasing order. By listing different sugar types (that may not sound like sugar in the first place), different sweeteners can appear further down on the list, making it seem like there is less sugar.

 
 
CHECK OUT THE
DIFFERENT TYPES OF SUGAR
IN OUR SUGAR GLOSSARY

[2] Red potatoes (photo courtesy Good Eggs).

[3] It’s easy to make a vegan paella, since the recipe uses no dairy products. This version replaces meat with cauliflower florets (photo courtesy Blossom Restaurant | NYC).

The recipe was created by Black Gold Farms, fourth-generation family farm and grower of potatoes.

The recipe uses chorizo as the protein, mixed with onion, garlic, peas, bell pepper, and cilantro.

You can tailor the recipe as you like, adding other paella proteins such as chicken, clams, mussels, and shrimp.

Prep time is 10 minutes, cook time is 45 minutes.

There are more paella recipes below.
 
 
RECIPE: POTATO & CHORIZO “PAELLA”

Ingredients For 6 Servings

 
Preparation

1. HEAT half of the oil in a high-sided skillet or large saucepan set over medium heat. Cook the sausage for about 5 minutes or until golden and crispy. Transfer to a plate. In the same pan…

2. HEAT the remaining oil. Cook the onion, red pepper, garlic, turmeric, and smoked paprika for about 3 minutes or until slightly softened. Stir in the rice, salt, and pepper; cook for about 3 minutes or until well coated.

3. STIR in the wine; cook for about 5 minutes or until almost no liquid remains in the pan.

5. STIR in the peas in the last 5 minutes of cooking. Cover and let stand for 10 minutes. Remove the bay leaves; top with chorizo and cilantro. Serve with optional lemon wedges (a squirt before eating brightens the dish).
 
 
TIPS
Use a short-grain rice, such as paella rice, bomba, or Valencia. Alternatively, use arborio rice.

Substitutes:

 
 
MORE PAELLA RECIPES

Other Uses For A Paella Pan

Yes, there is black vodka. It tastes like regular vodka, and is used the same way. The only difference is the color.

You can buy black vodka or make it. The brand available in the U.S. is Blavod, a premium vodka made in Germany for a British corporation.

It was created by a marketing consultant named Mark Dorman, and was introduced in 1998 (around $30/750ml bottle).

While different brands use different coloring agents, Blavod is colored with black catechu, an extract made from the bark of a Burmese acacia tree. The coloring agent adds no flavor, and it doesn’t stain.

It makes a heck of Halloween drink. If you’re headed to a party, bring a bottle to your hosts.
 
 
MAKE BLACK VODKA WITH FOOD COLOR

Perhaps the easiest way to get hold of black vodka is to make your own.

All you need is a bottle of vodka and McCormick black food coloring. (If you can only find coarse salt, pulse it in a food processor to the texture you want.)

Start with 10 drops of food coloring in the bottle and shake. Then add drop by drop until you achieve the color you want.
 
 
BLACK VODKA RECIPES

Make a black Martini (photo #2); if you like, use black lava salt to make a black rim around the glass.

Make a Screwdriver. Pour orange juice in a collins glass filled with ice. Float black vodka on top (it will look like photo #1).

Serve shots: orange liqueur on the bottom with black vodka on top (photo #3). For all of these, use the spoon method described in step #2 below.

There are numerous black vodka cocktail recipes online. Here’s one from Andrea Correale of Elegant Affairs Caterers.
 
RECIPE: BLACK MAGIC

Ingredients Per Cocktail

 
Preparation

1. COMBINE the ice, orange juice and triple sec in a cocktail shaker. Shake well and strain into a glass.

2. USING the back of a spoon, pour the black vodka slowly into the glass so that the vodka sits atop the orange juice mix.

3. CAREFULLY DIP one edge of the orange wedge into the vodka or black salt, and place the wedge on the rim of the glass.
 
 
If you don’t finish the bottle of vodka, you can drink the rest on Black Friday.
 
 
MORE HALLOWEEN COCKTAILS

Check out these options. We’re especially fond of the Bloody Eyeball Martini.

[2] A black Martini (photo courtesy Honestly Yum).

[3] Black and orange shot (photo courtesy Cocktail Hacker).

[4] Blavod black vodka (photo courtesy Distil Plc).