October 24th is National Good & Plenty Day, celebrating the oldest branded candy in the U.S.

It’s an American version of the licorice pastilles that have been made in Europe for hundreds of years.

Good & Plenty candies are narrow capsule shapes of sweet black licorice, coated in both bright pink and white hard candy shells (both colors taste the same).
 
GOOD & PLENTY HISTORY

The licorice candies were first produced by the Quaker City Confectionery Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1893 (the brand is now owned by Hershey Foods, after changing ownership multiple times).

The box and its contents have a percussive quality. Since there’s a lot of air space in the box (it’s perhaps half full), shaking the box creates a cadence that’s fun. It’s fun, also led to the kids’ slogan disparaging the low fill:

Good & Plenty,
Hardly Any!

Evidently, Good & Plenty executives or their advertising agency also noticed the percussive quality, which sounded like the chug-a-chug produced by the pushrods that linked the wheels on older trains.

More than 50 years after the candy was introduced, the brand developed a cartoon character, Choo Choo Charlie, an engineer on a steam locomotive.

Charlie shook the box to make the sound, with this jingle (to the tune of a popular folk song, “The Ballad of Casey Jones”):

Once upon a time there was an engineer
Choo Choo Charlie was his name, we hear.
He had an engine and he sure had fun
He used Good & Plenty candy to make his train run.
Charlie says “Love my Good & Plenty!”
Charlie says “Really rings my bell!”
Charlie says “Love my Good & Plenty!”
Don’t know any other candy that I love so well!
The brand has extended to Good & Fruity, in blue raspberry, cherry, lemon, lime and orange, with colored candy shells to match.

Try either variety as a cupcake garnish, or on top of ice cream or sorbet.

[2] The pink and white capsules may look delicate, but they pack a licorice punch (photo courtesy Hershey’s).

[3] The licorice core (photo courtesy Hershey’s).

[2] For Halloween, Andrea replaces the red “eyeball pupil” with a black one (photo courtesy Recipeland).

Just add eyeball ice cubes to a Bloody Mary in a rocks glass (photo #1).

To make the optics more Halloween-y, Andrea replaces the red pimento centers in stuffed olives (photo #2) with black olives. But if you prefer the look of the red, you can save yourself the step.

You can also take pitted black olives and add red pimento pupils—perhaps even spookier!

NOTE: A traditional rocks/Old Fashioned glass holds 6–8 ounces total, whereas a highball/Collins glass can hold 12–14 ounces.
 
 
RECIPE: MUTANT MARY, A HALLOWEEN BLOODY MARY

Ingredients Per Drink/Rocks Glass

 
Plus

 
For The Bloody Mary Mix (Per Drink)

You can, of course, use a commercial Bloody Mary mix.

1. FREEZE ice cubes in a tray. While the ice freezes, remove the green olives from the jar and replace the red pimento pieces with black olive slices. When the cubes are slushy, insert the eyeball, with the pupil face up.

2. MAKE the Bloody Mary mix; add the vodka and chill.

3. ASSEMBLE: Place the ice cubes in the glass, top with Bloody Mary mix and serve.
  

“This Pumpkin Fudge is seriously super simple,” she says, “No candy thermometer, no special equipment.”

And, it’s done in 22 minutes: Prep time is 10 minutes, cook time is 12 minutes.

You can serve the fudge plain, but we have some suggestions for holiday-themed garnishes:

HALLOWEEN GARNISHES

 
If you’re wary of fudge because it has “too much sugar,” the solution is simple: Cut the squares to half the size. You don’t really need a two-inch square: a one-inch square is fine. We even cut them into half-inch squares and served one or two pieces on the saucer of an espresso or coffee cup.

You can also thread the fudge squares on fruit skewers.
 
THANKSGIVING GARNISHES

 
EITHER HOLIDAY

 
RECIPE: PUMPKIN FUDGE

Ingredients For 48 Pieces

[2] Seasonal-colored sprinkles work for either holiday (photo courtesy Wilton).

[3] Fall leaves edible confetti (photo courtesy Creative Converting).

1. LINE an 8 x 8-inch baking pan with foil and spray with nonstick cooking spray.

2. COMBINE the sugar, evaporated milk, pumpkin, butter, salt and pumpkin pie spice in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium to a boil; allow the mixture to boil for 12 minutes, stirring often.

3. REMOVE from the heat and stir in the white chocolate chips and marshmallows. Stir in the vanilla.

4. POUR into the baking pan and chill until set. Cut into squares.

5. TO STORE: Layer the pieces on wax paper, then place in an airtight container. A sealable plastic bag works as an airtight container, but to keep it horizontal and flat, place a piece of cardboard on the bottom.
  

[2] In original plus three flavors, it’s our new favorite snack cracker (photo courtesy Beaches And Brie).

[3] In original plus three flavors, it’s our new favorite snack cracker (photo courtesy Pompeian).

[4] In original plus three flavors, it’s our new favorite snack cracker (photo courtesy Pompeian).

1. FARMER’S PANTRY CORNBREAD CRISPS

Farmer’s Pantry, a snack brand that launched last year, has generated feelings of snack-love in our home and office.

Farmer’s Pantry Cornbread Crisps are the first cornbread cracker snack to hit the market—and if that doesn’t sound exciting, let us restate:

The crisps are like cornbread in a crunchy chip.

Our bona fides: We love cornbread, we can’t get enough cornbread, when we have extra time, we bake cornbread. Ditto for corn muffins.

So after a few chips, when the cornmeal flavor and texture had titillated our taste buds, we:

 
There are three flavors, equally worthy of your attention:

 
The chips are all-natural and certified kosher (OU).

They crisps are available in 6-ounce bags of regular size crisps and 2-ounce bags of bite-sized crisps—although the regular size are bite-size enough for us.
 
We enjoy them:

 
Another fan turned them into cornbread stuffing, and inspired us to make a savory pie crust.

About the company:

Farmer’s Pantry gives back to American farmers, and is a proud sponsor of the National FFA Organization (formerly Future Farmers Of America), supporting students interested in a future in agriculture.

Look at your local food markets or do what we did: race to buy them online so you won’t be without for long.

See more at FarmersPantry.farm.
 
 
2. POMPEIAN OLIVE OIL

Recently we were treated to an olive oil tasting led by Dr. Luisito Cercaci, one of the most experienced olive oil scientists in the world. Our team was guided through the professional olive oil tasting technique used by official grading panels.

Luisito is Pompeian’s Vice President of Quality and Research & Development, following decades of work at the Department of the Food Quality Authority of the Italian Ministry of Agriculture, and other Italian food quality authorities.

Some of us were already users of Pompeian olive oils, but pretty soon into the tasting, all of us became converts.

How good is it? We drink two tablespoons of heart-healthy olive oil daily (the FDA’s suggestion). We’d been drinking pricey olive oil from a variety of California artisan producers.

Not to mention, we’ve also converted to Pompeian Extra Virgin Olive Oil for salads, and are using the Classic Pure Olive Oil for cooking.

There’s a Pompeian Olive Oil for every palate and every purpose:

 
You’ll no doubt find the line of Pompeian oils at your local markets. Buy them and taste the quality for yourself.

Discover more at Pompeian.com.
  

Is this black ice cream spooky enough for you?

Perfect for Halloween, it’s actually part of a “Goth” ice cream trend that sprang up in Los Angeles as an alternative to unicorn/rainbow ice cream trend.

We found this recipe at Baking Bites, a technique that uses activated charcoal to make a deathly black color with any flavor ice cream.

We added a selection of Halloween garnishes:

 
RECIPE: BLACK HALLOWEEN ICE CREAM

The original recipe is vanilla mint. To make it more Halloween-themed, we eliminated the mint for a pure vanilla flavor.

You can make any ice cream recipe and turn it black with activated charcoal.

Ingredients For 1 Quart

 
Preparation

1. COMBINE the heavy cream, milk and sugar in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer, stirring to dissolve the sugar.

[2] Activated charcoal, a natural, edible product, turns food black (photo Pro Teeth Whitening Co. | Amazon).

3. POUR the into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Eat at once or transfer to a covered container in the freezer.
 
 
WHAT IS ACTIVATED CHARCOAL?

Activated charcoal is a very fine form of carbon powder that is has numerous purposes, including teeth whitening and water purification.

The charcoal is typically made from coconut shells. It is odorless, tasteless and safe to eat.

Activated charcoal has long been a homeopathic remedy for indigestion. You can find it at health food stores and online.

Just don’t buy the capsules, or you’ll be spending lots of time opening them to shake out the contents!

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*You can substitute whole milk for a less rich ice cream.