America (at least the segment of the population that reads the New York Times Dining & Wine section) has already embraced artisanal raw milk cheeses, boutique breads, bacon from pigs hand-fed on nothing but acorns.

Now, according to the lead story in the Wednesday Dining & Wine section, small-batch milk, cream and butter are the next Big Thing in refined gourmandise. In the article, It-chef Thomas Keller of Napa's French Laundry raves about butter handmade at a small Vermont creamery. "It has a different flavor profile and nuances throughout the year," he rhapsodizes. Fresh local dairy products are great, certainly - I buy pints of thick, downy cream from a nearby farm, and love nothing more than a hunk of baguette slathered with good butter, paved with sliced radishes and sprinkled with sea salt.

But my favorite part of the story had less to do with food and more to do with seventh-grade giggles: a quote from Nancy Nipples, founder of the Pike Place Market Creamery in Seattle. Full legal name: Nancy Nipples the Milkmaid.

We already know that although it's creamy and delicious, eggnog might be one of the worst Holiday cocktails out there. However, there are a few others that you might want to avoid just to get a jump start on those health- and weight-related New Year's Resolutions:

• White Russian, made of coffee liqueur, vodka, and cream, it has 863 calories!
  
• Mudslide, which is basically a White Russian with the addition of Bailey's Irish Cream and chocolate syrup. No wonder it's 851 calories.
• Hot Buttered Rum Latte exceeds the recommended daily intake of sugar by 36 grams.
• Chocolate Martini is probably the least evil on the list because "chocolate is healthy." It's also 438 calories.
• Admittedly, we had never heard of the Blushin' Russian, and wonder why not because it has delicious Amaretto in it! Oh yeah, maybe because we'd rather take 404 calories as a Big Mac.
• Mulled Wine is bad?!?! We were crushed, but if you make it yourself and cut back on the sugar, you'll do better than the usual 356 calories and 40 grams of carbs.
• Eggnog, surprisingly, is lower than the previous half dozen drinks with only 343 calories, but we think it's evil comes from the fact that you drink at least one every night, everywhere you go, from Thanksgiving to New Year's.
• Brandy Alexander has 297 calories. Oh well. There goes another luscious creamy drink.
  
• At 210 calories, Irish Coffee is the slimmest of the cocktails, but let's not get crazy. It's still 210 calories that you could down in 20 seconds (you'll also burn your mouth, but that's not the point, now is it?)

My parents had Thanksgiving dinner with some old friends this year and after the meal was over, my mom called me to rave about the Brussels Sprouts that Lucy, the friends' daughter, had made. Lucy has two young sons and had made these sprouts in the hopes that her boys would eat them. She put a lot of effort into them, removing each leaf from every small sprout head in order to get a kid-friendly consistency. When she gave my mom the recipe, she stressed that one does not have to go to such labor-intensive lengths in order to make this dish.

The way we did it last night was to chop 2 pounds of sprouts into eighths (quarter them and then halve the quarters), which took some time but was worth it in terms of cooking speed. In a large skillet, I sauteed four thinly sliced leeks (they were fairly small leeks, total yield was about 1 1/2 cups) and two chopped shallots in a couple teaspoons of olive oil. Then the chopped sprouts went in, along with a sprig's worth of minced rosemary. When the started to get a little dry, I added about half a cup of chicken stock (there happened to be some around, otherwise I would have used water). Cover until soft. At the very end, add 1/4 teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg and 1/2 a cup of cream or half and half. Lastly add salt and pepper to taste.

They were so good and while they felt a little decadent, they weren't overwhelmingly rich. I think these are going to end up on the table come Christmas dinner.

I've never made ice cream. It's one of those foods that I think it's unnecessary to make because what you can buy in the store is just as good (if not better) than what you could make at home. I feel the same way about pasta.

But I was reading one of Andy Rooney's books (he's one of my favorite writers) and he makes ice cream a lot. He has a very simple recipe, and it doesn't include eggs at all. He says that if you add eggs, it's not ice cream, it's custard. He was on Martha Stewart's show one time, making ice cream, and she agreed that adding eggs was a bad idea. But when she was on CBS a while later, she made ice cream, and she added eggs!

So I'm curious: who's right in this? Is ice cream better with no eggs? Do eggs make it richer in some way, or just turn it into something else?

One of the side effects of blogging about food is that you start to want to play around with platings and presentation a lot more than you would if you were not photographing your meals. Joe, from Culinary in the Country, for example, augmented his already attractive Chocolate Crème Caramel with some extra caramel rounds along the outside of the plate and a little freeform sugar sculpture on top. The overall effect is great and really brings the look of the dessert up to restaurant-quality - and probably an expensive restaurant, at that.

The crème caramel itself is actually quite easy to make. The most difficult part for someone attempting their first one is to not burn the caramel before you pour it into the empty ramekins, as it can be sensitive. The "crème" part of this dessert is made with soy milk and bittersweet chocolate, held together with eggs, just like the traditional versions are. The chocolate will cover the soy taste, for anyone sensitive to it, but using soy milk will make the dessert a lot lighter than if it were made with cream.

And if you have somehow managed to overdose on chocolate from Valentine's Day, you might want to check out Elise's recipe for Rose Petal Flan instead!

At home, if I use cream in my coffee, I tend to simply pour it right out of the carton and into my mug. A creamer of some kind looks much nicer when guests come over, though, so it's nice to have something on hand to serve milk or cream in. This science lab-inspired creamer set from Crate and Barrel is a fun take on the creamer idea. The three-piece set comes in the approximate shape of an Erlenmeyer flask, but with a small spout added to the upper lip for ease of pouring. The top portion, which is lidded, is used to hold cream and the base can be used for sugar. Sugar cubes (pictured) seem to add to the science theme because their amounts are standardized, but loose sugar can be used as well.

You might want to consider using a set like this one with some caffeine molecule mugs or even a mathematics mug, just to complement the look.

Having tea with milk or cream in it is not quite as popular in the US as it is abroad, but the practice is far from uncommon. Milk mellows the flavor of black teas and rounds them into a mild, satisfying drink. It seems that the addition of milk might also reduce the effects of some of the flavonoids in tea, so that those who take tea with milk are not getting all the "protective effects against heart disease" that they would be getting if they took their tea black.

This conclusion was published in the European Heart Journal just this month. The study looked at the ability of women's arteries to relax and expand after drinking tea, either with or without milk. The otherwise healthy participants showed a significant improvement in their blood flow after drinking plain tea, while the tea with 10% skim milk showed no benefits. Similar experiments were conducted on rats with the same results.

All it takes to enjoy caramel is a sweet tooth and, fortunately, I happen to have a large one. I say fortunately, because that sweet tooth is what prompted me to try Caramoo caramels at the SF Winter Fancy Foods Show this weekend. The all-natural caramels are loaded with European butter and full-cream milk, hand made in small batches and individually wrapped. They have the unusual property of being delicate and crumbly, so that with each bite the candies almost seem to dissolve on your tongue. It is a sharp contrast to the very commonly found chewy caramels, but a welcome one, as each buttery candy is incredibly satisfying. They come in original and honey flavors. The latter clearly tastes like honey, but I happened to have a slight preference for the classically flavored original.

The company also stocks Caramoo Creme Fudge in Chocolate, Vanilla and Mocha, each of which starts with the same caramel base as the original caramels and ends with a product that is light, creamy and delicious.

Most of the candies seem to be heading towards wholesalers at the moment, but you can easily place an individual order on the company's website.

Ask the barista how much milk they go through in one day then next time you go into Starbucks for a latte. At some stores, the baristas probably far to busy to take note of the number of gallons used, but it is safe to say that it is a lot. And with over 5,500 stores in the US, Starbucks must be one of the largest consumers in the country, so the dairy industry will feel the effects of Starbucks decision to drop all dairy containing the artificial growth hormone RBGH. So far, the coffeehouse has hormone free milk at stores on the west coast (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Alaska, Montana, New Mexico and Northern California) and in New England, or roughly 37% of all of their dairy products. The company is still developing their plan to phase out the milk from the rest of their stores and it is safe to say that it will be a gradual process when it begins.

Representatives from the dairy industry who support the use of the hormone say that it is only a matter of time before Starbucks passes increased costs onto consumers, but supporters of the switch say that more dairy farmers will stop using the hormone as consumers and businesses look for dairy produced without it, keeping prices under control. Starbucks has not said how this change has affected their operating costs, but will say that they are not planning to raise drink prices as a result of the switch.

In 1971 a team of product developers set out to create a uniquely Irish drink combining Irish cream and whiskey, aimed at the US market and American tastes. Baileys was eventually released in 1974. As of 2003 it was the highest selling liqueur brand in the world. Baileys claims it is the first of the cream liqueurs, and while this is debatable, it is the first of the Irish Cream liqueurs. It became very popular and was soon followed by many other Irish, French, Scottish, rum, tequila, and a slew of other cream liqueurs.

Baileys Irish Cream Original- 17%abv / 34 proof and is very thick and creamy in body. The flavor has a very sweet, thick, vanilla, buttery toffee, whipped cream, malt, hints of coffee and chocolate, egg taste; and leaves a slippery beaten eggy coating on my tongue. It's not bad, but not great.

Millions of women love cream puffs and a good number of them wouldn't mind having a croquembouche - tower of cream puffs - at their wedding. Very few would actually want to be a croquembouche. Ukrainian pastry chef Valentyn Shtefano made his wife's wedding dress entirely out of cream puffs and caramelized sugar. It took over 2 months to make and used 1,500 puffs. Despite the fact that it appears to be heavy, the dress weighed only 20 pounds. Shtefano is a well-know figure in his town due to the elaborate desserts that he makes "in a place where cake is often layers of heavy cream, wafers and nuts or poppy seeds - more something to eat than to look at." His creations, like the dress, are both.

Without a doubt, the most striking thing about this photo of the Winemaker's Cake from Lex Culinaria is the whipped cream. Its astonishing whiteness is evocative of the lightest cloud, but a cloud that will simply melt away to nothing but satisfaction in your mouth. In short, the feelings inspired by the whipped cream almost overshadow the cake, which is lovely in and of itself. The cake is very grapey, made with fresh grapes, and uses both butter and olive oil in the batter. The finished dessert is a bit dense and almost clafoutis-like, although the description notes that it is reminiscent of a very moist coffee cake. If grapes aren't your favorite choice for dessert, berries or cherries can also be used to sweeten up this simple, not-too-sweet cake. And don't forget the whipped cream.

Pumpkin season is coming up and without getting in to GMO pumpkins and the nutritional value of ice cream, let's get imaginative and make some pumpkin ice cream, served in a creative way.

• You'll need an ice cream maker (there are even ball shaped models that can be kicked around at partie, though I have never tried one) and a good pumpkin grown for its meat, rather than just its appearance.

• This can be a family endeavor-- messy. In this typical ice cream recipe I would add two cups of good and mashed pumpkin meat. Not too stringy. Make the ice cream and then serve it the carved out pumpkin, lid and all.

A poached prawn is not exactly a traditional component of vichyssoise. The thick and creamy chilled leek and potato soup is almost always simply garnished with a sprinkle of chives, but Jocelyn at Kuidaore, wanted to accent her version of vichyssoise with the prawn and a few drops of prawn oil. The fishy flavor stands out beautifully against the mild soup, just as the contrasting color of the prawn does, and transforms a good dish to a great one for seafood fans. The soup is velvety and smooth thanks to a large amount of butter and cream, but there are lighter versions available that preserve the flavors of the dish while saving a few calories. No matter which version you choose to make, the soup is a wonderful addition to your recipe file and a nice change of pace from gazpacho when you want a cold soup in summer.

Breyers is known for its all natural ice creams, but they are now branching out into the organic market, joining in on a trend that has largely been followed by specialty or premium brands until now. The flavors they will offer include Vanilla Bean, Chocolate, Coffee and Vanilla Fudge Swirl, with more flavors to be added depending upon consumer response. The organic ice cream market is facing ever greater demand from consumers, increasing by 50% since 1997. Production has been able to increase due in large part to the fact that more dairy farmers are changing to organic because of the demand for organic milk. The ice creams should be on store shelves this fall.

Along with their organic offerings, Breyers will also be debuting Lactose-Free Vanilla for consumers who are lactose intolerant, which is good news to the millions of people who prefer the taste of dairy ice cream to rice or soy-based frozen desserts but were unable to enjoy it for medical reasons.