A pretty basket of baby veggies will delight the healthy eater (photo © Melissa’s Produce).

Who can resist the allure of baby vegetables?

Here’s a special gift from specialty company Melissa’s Produce, for your favorite vegetarian, vegan, healthy eater or foodie-in-general.

Each delicately woven gift basket is brimming with fresh vegetables, which are artfully arranged into a charming presentation.

The gift basket is available year-round, so the assortment of baby vegetables can vary from season to season.

It may include baby versions of artichokes, beets, broccoli, carrots, kohlrabi, leeks, potatoes, radishes, romanesco cauliflower, squash and turnips.

Wrapped in cellophane and trimmed with a colorful ribbon, this tasty gift is high in nutrition and eye appeal—and low in calories!

GET YOURS AT MELISSAS.COM.

Try this seasonal spin on salsa: Switch out the tomatoes and garlic for cranberries and apples.

Low in calories and gluten free, you can keep it in the fridge for snacking or as a general condiment: mixed into yogurt for breakfast or lunch, as a creamy dip with the yogurt, as a salad dressing with oil and vinegar, or as a side with dinner.

Thanks to Pampered Chef for the recipe.
 
 
RECIPE: CRANBERRY SALSA

You can make this recipe ahead of time. Just store it in the refrigerator, covered, for up to two days.

You can use fresh or frozen cranberries (the history of cranberries).

For a less spicy salsa, remove the seeds and veins inside the jalapeño. They are the source of the capsaicin, the chemical compound that provides the heat of the chile.

Different chile varieties have different levels of heat. Check out the different types of chiles.

Check out this interesting kitchen tool, Core & More, from Pampered Chef.

A multitasker, for this recipe it quickly and easily remove the seeds and veins of the jalapeño.

Ingredients For 10 Servings

 
Preparation

1. REMOVE the stem from the jalapeño, then cut in half lengthwise. Remove the seeds and veins with a paring or utility knife. Place the jalapeño into a food processor.

2. CUT the apple and scallion into chunks and add to the processor. Process until finely chopped.

3. JUICE the lime and add 1 tablespoon of juice (15 mL) to the processor. Add the cranberries, sugar and cilantro. Process until the cranberries are coarsely chopped, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

4. SERVE the salsa in a small bowl with the dippers on the side.
 
 
Nutrition Per 2 Tablespoon/30 mL Serving

Calories 20, Total Fat 0 g, Saturated Fat 0 g, Cholesterol 0 mg, Sodium 0 mg, Carbohydrate 5 g, Fiber 1 g, Sugars 4 g, Protein 0 g

[1 Cranberry salsa: fusion food for the holidays (photo © Pampered Chef).

[2] Fresh cranberries (photo © Ocean Spray).

[3] Frozen cranberries (photo © Good Eggs).

[1] What to serve before holiday dinners: Bourbon Milk Punch (photos #1 and #2 © Woodford Reserve.

[2] Woodford Reserve makes several expressions of Kentucky Bourbon, including a double-oaked version that’s a real find for oak lovers. They also distill malt, rye and wheat whiskeys.

[3] You can serve milk punch in whatever glasses you have, from rocks to stems to (of course) punch cups (photo © Bread Booze Bacon).

[4] Milk punch on the rocks (photo © Michelle Banovic | The Atwood | Chicago).

Milk punch falls in the category of drinks made with milk or cream.

Examples include the Brandy Alexander, Classic Ramos Gin Fizz, Eggnog, Grasshopper, Irish Coffee, Mudslide, Pink Squirrel, Ramos Gin Fizz, White Russian, and many others (hey—another idea for a themed cocktail party: cream-based cocktails).

Milk punch combines brandy or bourbon* with milk, sugar and vanilla extract, typically garnished with grated nutmeg.

FOOD TRIVIA: When cocktails were first being developed and spirits were not as elegant as many are today, sugar was added to cocktails to cover up the [bad] taste of the alcohol, as was milk.

The history of milk punch is below.
 
 
COCKTAIL RECIPE: BOURBON MILK PUNCH

Woodford Reserve Bourbon created this Milk Punch recipe (photo #1) using their Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey (photo #2).

It’s a crowd pleaser that’s easy to make.

For the fresh-grated nutmeg garnish, just buy nutmeg “nuts” (they’re not nuts, but seeds that look like nuts)†.

Then, using a Microplane or similar tool at your disposal, freshly grate the garnish over each drink.

We personally use a nutmeg grinder that saves our fingertips, because the “nuts” aren’t easy to hold. It’s an inexpensive must-have if you use a lot of nutmeg.
 
Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. PLACE a metal bowl over an ice bath. Whisk together the cream, milk, bourbon and sugar, until nice and frothy.

2. ADD the vanilla bean and pour into a pitcher (we used a lidded plastic container). Place in the freezer for 30 minutes to an hour, stirring occasionally.

3. STRAIN out the vanilla bean through a fine mesh strainer and return to the pitcher for serving. (If you’ve used vanilla extract, skip this step).

4. POUR into glasses and garnish with freshly grated nutmeg.
 

MILK PUNCH HISTORY

Milk punch was popularized in the 17th century by Aphra Behn, one of the first English women to earn her living by her writing. At the time, all types of punch were served from a punch bowl.

The milk punch of the era was made with cream curdled with lemon juice. Those recipes gave way to milk punches that use(d) fresh milk or cream, like egg nog—which is a milk punch enriched with eggs.

Milk punches—egg nog or other—became holiday and celebratory traditions (for example, Mardi Gras).

In modern-day New Orleans, milk punches vie as brunch drinks with the Bloody Mary, created in 1940 in New York City (Bloody Mary history).

There are as many recipes for milk punch as for anything else, but for Mardi Gras we serve up the recipe from Brennan’s, a favorite New Orleans restaurant since 1946.

For a 17th-century-type recipe, try Benjamin Franklin’s recipe. He used brandy and included lots of lemon juice (which curdled the milk).

This, and other cognac-based milk punches, often use Napoleon brandy, a designation for a brandy or cognac aged at least five years. Feel free to use VSOP; with all the cream and sugar, the nuances of the Napoleon will be covered up.

If you don’t like or don’t have brandy, you can substitute bourbon, rum, whiskey and even tequila.

Despite its name, nutmeg isn’t a nut. It’s really a seed. If you have a nut allergy, you may be able to eat nutmeg without any risk of an allergic reaction. However, if you have a seed allergy, you may need to avoid nutmeg since it’s technically from a seed.

*Bourbon is the traditional spirit, as is brandy. But you can substitute another whiskey or rum, and add some liqueur.

†Nutmeg is a spice made from the seed of the nutmeg tree, Myristica fragrans, an evergreen tree. Native to Indonesia, it is the source of two popular spices: nutmeg and mace. Nutmeg is the inner seed, while mace is the red, lace-like substance that covers the seed.