"christmas tree" news and stories

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:

• It's Christmas Eve -- if you haven't bought a present for your gourmand better half; well, we're here to save you with these last-minute ideas.
• Risking one's life by consuming food from dubiously hygienic vehicles was the big food deal of 2009.
• If you're too tuckered out to make a grilled cheese after the gift-buying crunch --and who isn't? -- cook up this oven-made version.
• A Christmas Dining Miracle -- brunch on a Friday!
• When holiday candies depart from traditional flavor and hue, do you skip the seasonal aisle?
• We won't tell if you cheat on your (gingerbread) man with gingersnap palmiers this Christmas.
• Chef Aarón Sanchez is developing a taco town.

A pair of North Carolina entrepreneurs is making sure crab pots remain a common sight along the state's coastline – at least at Christmastime.

Don Acree and Mary Smith this year took over crab-pot maker Neal "Nicky" Harvey's burgeoning crab-pot Christmas-tree business, selling more than $150,000 worth of converted crab pots strung with lights. Acree says many buyers, who just like the modernist look of the green mesh trees, are unaware of the design's waterlogged origins.

But there's no mistaking a crab pot in Down East North Carolina, where the crabbing industry was once a leading source of jobs. As recently as 1998, the state's fishermen harvested 63 million blue crabs; last year, they caught barely half as many. Unable to fend off threats posed by pollution, rising fuel costs and the global market, dozens of crab houses shut down over the past decade. "The state's blue crab industry is in serious trouble, if it isn't dead already," Harvey's hometown paper, the Carteret County News-Times, reported in 2008.

Harvey, who once sold 3000 crab pots a season from his single-wide trailer, was lucky if he could unload 300 pots a year. So the craftsman decided to reconfigure his sheets of wire into four-foot tall Christmas trees. He soon gave up on his line of pots.

While naysayers might argue that sushi has little or nothing to do with the Holiday season, there are those who realize that Christmas is a hearty mix of culinary delicacies and cultural inclusion. After all, this is the holiday that regularly brings together roasted birds and flaming puddings, egg-based drinks and chocolate monstrosities. In the grand scheme of things, claiming culinary purity at Christmas is like trying to find religious justification for the Easter bunny: while it's fun to watch, the process is completely hopeless.

Besides, there's something just plain fun about sushi. The bright colors, intense contrasts, and exciting flavors seem perfectly tailored to a season that welcomes surprises and is noted for its flamboyance. However, even those who question the seasonal appropriateness of raw fish will have to acknowledge the joy of seeing plastic chunks of seafood hanging from a tree. With that in mind, I am pleased to present the wonder of sushi ornaments. Available in cooked egg, shrimp, salmon roe and special roll shapes, they will add a note of culinary adventure to your tree, while reminding your friends and family that Christmas is a time for love, togetherness, and raw fish.

(Incidentally, for an extra note of verisimilitude, you might try leaving an open can of wet cat food near the tree. While the overall effect might be a little off-putting, you're sure to enjoy the spectacle of watching your family members line up to sniff the ornaments. Happy Holidays!)

When it comes to Christmas trees, the big debate is usually "live" versus "artificial," with both sides having pros and cons. Live trees can be expensive and get needles everywhere, but they have a wonderful scent and a look of freshness. Artificial trees are easy to put up and are less expensive in the long run, but very few actually look realistic. This year, we can add a third category to that discussion: chocolate. La Maison du Chocolate has a chocolate Christmas Tree for sale. The base is made of dark chocolate pralines infused with mandarin orange and milk chocolate praline infused with winter spices. Decorating the exterior of the tree with a cubist bent are circular and square chocolates in dark, white and milk. It costs $138, but is only available in cities where there is a Maison du Chocolate boutique - New York, London and Paris - because it is too delicate to be shipped.

Source

Here's a Christmas twist on a classic snack, caramel corn.

I got it from a the Busy Cooks section of About.com, where they have a bunch of recipes for food you can serve at your tree trimming party. Does anyone have tree trimming parties anymore? That sounds like a great thing to do, though I haven't had a bunch of people help me set up a tree in years. I'm not quite sure (except for the Gingerbread Caramel Corn) what makes these recipes - including Beer Cheese Soup, Asparagus Tarts, and Crockpot Artichoke Spinach Dip - tree trimming-ish, but they sound good nonetheless.