"EdibleGifts" news and stories

Today's featured edible gift (although you might want to keep at least one batch for yourself) is from Rebecca of Ezra Pound Cake. It's her mom's recipe and looks to be simple and addictively tasty. It's just freshly popped corn, a couple of cups of nuts (your choice - Rebecca used pecans, but I bet it would be delicious with almonds or peanuts) and a homemade caramel syrup. You mix the popcorn and nuts with the caramel sauce and bake in a low oven for an hour. Get the exact recipe over at Ezra Pound Cake.

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I've gone a little crazy for the Trader Joe's Candy Cane Joe Joe's this year. In previous years, I've managed to avoid their siren call, but this year, my will power just wasn't strong enough and a box of those delicious, minty, better-than-Oreos, cookies leaped from the shelf into my shopping basket. I've been pretty good, rationing them out in sets of two every night as an end-of-day treat but really, what I want to do is dive head first into the box and devour them all.

I have about half a box left and I'm planning on transforming them into a small batch of this chocolate bark from the girls at Fries With That Shake. They've used white and dark chocolate in addition to the crushed cookies to awesome, chocolately, minty effect.

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Each Thursday, we round up a selection of scrumptious links from our friends over at YumSugar. Here's what they've got cooking this week.

• YumSugar wants to know if you're making edible gifts to distribute this year.
• Get dinner on the table quickly with this recipe for Gemelli with Broccoli Rabe and Anchovies.
• Hanukkah is nearly here, so bone up on your latke skills with these recipes.
• Need a last minute gift for the gourmet in your life? Look no further!
• Starbucks is teaming up with Subway to sell coffee along side the sandwiches.
• When you're prepping bread for a party, make sure to save the bag for easy transport and leftover storage.
• Change up your standard holiday punch with this Sparkling Shiraz Punch.
• A Manhattan buffet is now charging patrons for the food they leave behind, in order to prevent waste.

The first time I tasted homemade candied citrus peel was last Christmas, when my friend Jamie made it as part of her holiday cookie plate. I was wowed by the pungency and flavor that she had gotten out of grapefruit peel and I added it to my mental list of things I wanted to make someday.

I still haven't gotten around to it yet this season, but the YumSugar crew made it this year as part of their 12 Days of Edible Gifts feature. They used oranges, but you could also use lemons or grapefruit (as Jamie did). They've included, as part of their post, a step by step slide show that will walk you through the process of making your candied peel, which is very helpful for the first timers.

First, a confession: I am not a chocoholic. I don't generally crave the stuff. Faced with a typical assorted box, I can stop after just one. But when the right chocolate product comes along, I morph into both fiend and pusher. Here are three of my very favorite indulgences, all available for purchase online.

• See's Candy Toffee-Ettes. The ultimate bite-sized morsel. At the center, Danish butter toffee, perfectly salted, encases toasted whole almonds. Around that is a layer of luscious milk chocolate. Then the whole tiny chocolate parcel is rolled in more coarsely chopped almonds. By now, See's, which began in Los Angeles, has much more than a cult following; in my opinion, they could have made their name on the strength of Toffee-Ettes alone. Fifteen bucks for a pound.
• poco dolce Aztec Chili Bittersweet Tiles. Another California find. If See's is all about down-home comfort, poco dolce appeals to the more uptown or Continental area of the taste bud map. Grey sea salt, roasted pumpkin seeds, cinnamon, and an swift kick of ground chili all meld beautifully with the silky dark chocolate. The price is a bit more uptown, too, at $18 for a box of eight tiles.
• sweetriot Cacao Nibs. A Slashfood colleague wrote about these two Decembers ago, so I will defer to her thorough description. I have only these three words to add: Perfect. Stocking. Stuffer.