"crackers" news and stories

Break out of the same old, same old hummus routine-add eight cloves of garlic. And for an authentic touch of the Middle East, sprinkle the surface of the hummus with powdered sumac, which imparts a tart, lemony flavor. At blog purplefoodie a batch of the chickpea dip accompanies a stack of thin, crisp olive-oil-based crackers that they say has same consistency (and take a lot less time) than traditional lavash (ultrathin and brittle Arabic bread). Find both recipes here. The crackers are adapted from U.K. restaurateur Yotam Ottolenghi and his Ottolenghi cookbook.

See how Gail Simmons makes her hummus (along with some toasted pita chips), at Kitchen Daily.

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Avoiding being left in the dust of the new health wave, as propelled by Mrs. Obama's meeting with major food markets in May, Kraft announced Monday that it will be pumping up its whole grain content in more than 100 of its products over the next three years.

This move comes after four years of development, the company says, in an effort to increase the use of whole grain without sacrificing the taste consumers have come to know. Despite industry skepticism, Kraft and other major food companies, including ConAgra and Del Monte, recently claimed they've made reductions in sodium; others, in sugar. Last June, Kellogg claimed it would increase fiber by the end of 2010 and last week introduced a line of FiberPlus cereals.

The term "whole grain" signifies an unadulterated product of wheat, something that became less common as major food companies realized that stripping the grain's kernel of its bran, endosperm and germ (all of its nutritional fiber, iron and vitamin content) would produce a finer texture and increase shelf life.

• As the economy has gotten tighter, restaurants have gotten a whole lot friendlier and more solicitous, all in the hopes of getting and keeping your business.
• The show The Biggest Loser showcases the problem that most Americans don't know how to cook for themselves.
• The peanut butter salmonella scare has led people to wonder about the safety of nearly everything they put in their mouths.
• Frank Bruni reviews the Oak Room at the Plaza Hotel and finds that it's heavy on atmosphere and light on dependably delicious dishes.
• After experiencing a couple bad years, Eric Asimov declares that the barolo is back to its former glory.
• For inexpensive Indian food in Manhattan, you can't go wrong at Dhaba.
• Andrew Carmellini is teaming up with Robert De Niro to take over the restaurant in the Greenwich Hotel.
• Mark Bittman takes a standard cracker recipe and tarts it up with cheese, butter and cream for a richer result.
• Most recipes for braised rabbit require lots of fat to keep the lean meat moist. Melissa Clark has figured out a way to keep the meat tender without making it heavy.

If you think about it, it's rather amazing that in the year 2008 they're still coming up with new kinds of crackers. Haven't we already been through every cracker combo, chip/cracker combinations, exotic flavors and various shapes? Now Keebler has a snack that is cracker on one side and pretzel on the other., Flipsides. If you're in one of those moods where you don't know if you want something salty or something buttery (they also come in cheddar, but I've only tried the original so far).

Actually, they're pretty good. At first I thought they were going to be either a.) bland, or b.) a situation where one flavor overwhelms the other. But they're pretty tasty, and you can actually taste the pretzel side and the cracker side at different times as it moves around in your mouth.

I haven't tried any toppings on them yet, but they're good right out of the box.

Ah, the cheeseball. I always associate them with Thanksgiving and Christmas. I'm the guy in charge of cheese and dips and crackers on those holidays, and that seems to be the only time I eat cheeseballs. I never liked them as a kid, but I love them now.

Today is National Cheeseball Day. (Do you spell cheeseball as one word or two? I'm going with one.) Here's a recipe for Party Cheeseballs from CD Kitchen, and here's one for a Cheeseball from AllRecipes.com.

And let's not forget the recipe for a 'Lil Smoky Cheeseball from Amy Sedaris! That's a pic of it above.