For Thanksgiving favors, Christmas stocking stuffers, or good food for your pantry, purchases from Women’s Bean Project help women trying to get back on their feet.

By giving employment to the chronically unemployed: convicted felons, recovering addicts, victims of domestic violence. Many were teenage mothers and high school dropouts.

Your purchase creates jobs for women (donations are very welcome). In just six to nine months, the women are trained to be great workers for other employers. The women learn to find a purpose, break the cycle of poverty, become self sufficient, support their children and feel good about themselves.

Supporting them will make you feel good, too.

The nourishing products they make include:

 
Everything is nutritious and delicious, but our current favorite are the Instant Meals single-serving rice and bean cups.

Simply add water, microwave for 60 seconds, let stand, stir and dig in. They can serve as a side dish or a light meal.

Beans are a superfood, a low-glycemic-index food that makes a person feel full, so they eat less of other things. They are full of fiber, potassium, folate, iron, manganese and magnesium, and they are cholesterol- and fat-free. Add some vegetables and fruit for vitamin C.

The Instant Meal cups are our current favorite way to eat more beans. Flavors include:

[1] This Instant Meal cup of rice and beans is a nutritious stocking stuffer or party favor. All photos courtesy Women’s Bean Project.

[2] Delicious popcorn, already seasoned with your five different options.

[3] Great training in work skills leads to economic opportunity.

For stocking stuffers, we love the popcorn, pre-seasoned with seasonings, including Chocolate Peppermint, Coconut Curry, Garlic Parmesan, Pink Himalayan Salt & Black Pepper, and Salted Caramel.

Order at WomensBeanProject.com.

If you use place settings at Thanksgiving, or party favors, an Instant Bean Cup or tube of popcorn will make everyone feel truly thankful for their family and bountiful dinner.
  

[2] Brown Turkey figs, a popular variety (photo © Good Eggs).

[3] Fig fondue (photo © California Figs).

[4] Ham and fig sandwich with arugula (photo © The Model Bakery | St. Helena, California).

 
 
TYPES OF FIGS

Buy whatever is plumpest and most visually appealing. Or, buy as many varieties as you can find, and have a comparison tasting.

In the U.S., commonly-found varieties include:

 
 
THE HISTORY OF FIGS

Wild figs have grown in Africa, the Mediterranean, West Asia, and South Asia beginning around 100 million years ago, during the time of the dinosaurs.

Many primates eat wild figs, and the first humans ate them as well. They discovered that figs could be dried and stored as winter staples.

In hot climates, fig trees produce two crops every year. The leaves of the fig tree are also edible.
 

 

This variation of classic roasted figs was created by Chef Ida Rodriguez of Melissa’s Special Produce.

Serve it with a glass of muscat or other dessert wine.
 
Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. PREHEAT the oven to 400°F, setting a rack in the center. Coat a shallow baking dish with the butter and place figs in it, stem up. Sprinkle with 4 tablespoons of the sugar and add the wine.

2. BAKE in a preheated oven for 20 minutes, basting occasionally.

3. ADD the pecans and sprinkle them with the remaining tablespoon of sugar. Lower oven temperature to 300°F and bake 6 to 8 minutes longer.

4. TRANSFER the figs and pecans carefully to a serving dish. Add the honey to the cooking juices, and cook over low heat to blend. Spoon the syrup over figs and sprinkle with lemon juice and pepper.

5. SET aside to cool and then refrigerate. Serve cold with crème fraîche.

[5] Roast figs with pecans and honey (photo © Karcich | Dreamstime).

[6] Fig tree (photo © Serjan Midili | Unsplash).

[2] Creepy Bonne Bouche (for Halloween, it’s Bone Bouche).


3] Got brains? Coupole cheese is one big brain.

4] Cremont, dripping with honey.

Something wrinkled this way comes…with a beautiful Halloween Cheese Board from Vermont Creamery.

What are a cheese connoisseur’s fantasy for most of the year become creepy cheeses for Halloween.

Wrinkled, moldy and dusted with ash, these geotricum-rinded cheeses are a perfect cheese treat for the holiday (along with some wine, hard cider or beer, of course).

Geotricum candidum is a yeast—not a bacterium, fungus or mold, as is often written. Call it “geo” for short.

Geo is in the air around us, and under the right conditions, it grows on a fresh cheese to develop an opaque rind that wrinkled as it ages.*

Many of the traditional cheeses of France are made with geotricum rinds. The yeast is used to make the non-wrinkled rinds (no “brain” texture) on cheeses such as Camembert, Saint-Nectaire and Tomme de Savoie.

In the U.S., geo cheeses have been called ghostly little cheeses, franken-rinds, and beautiful brains—the highest of compliments on All Hallows’ Eve.

They’re creepy and they’re kooky, mysterious and spooky, they’re altogether ooky…and delicious.

Yes, you eat the rind.
 
 
MORE HALLOWEEN CHEESES

Not a goat cheese fan?

Check out this article for spooky cheeses:

 
Also consider:

 
MORE HALLOWEEN CHEESES RECIPES

*On the down side, the mold also acts as a plant pathogen, causing sour rot on carrots, nectarines, peaches and tomatoes.
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PUTTING TOGETHER A HALLOWEEN CHEESES BOARD

1. Start with a selection of frightful cheeses. If you’re not a goat cheese fan (maybe you’ve never had one as good as Vermont Creamery’s?), see the “More Halloween Cheeses’ paragraph above for other suggestions.

2. Set the tone with a dark cheese board. We love the “gravestone” look of a gray slate board (see photos above).

3. Add pairings such as dark olives (especially wrinkled ones), dark dried fruits (cherries, cranberries, raisins) and toasted pumpkin seeds. Slices of dark rye bread and crackers studded with dried fruit and seeds suit the scary season.

4. Decorate with dried moss and these simple DIY ghostly maple leaves (or oak, or elm, etc.) from the wonderfully creative folks at Sweet Paul.

5. Drip some honey (consider spicy honey!) over the edges for more creepiness. This works best with one board or platter that sits on top of a larger one, so the honey drip has a neat landing spot.

6. Place the crackers and breads around the larger platter.