Pile of Maryland crabs. Photo: Kjunstorm, Flickr

• Piles and piles of glorious crab with a dip into Maryland's crab shacks.
• Calling all mixology fans -- Manhattan will preview its namesake Cocktail Classic at a two-day event this fall.
• Rejoice, Canadian expats! Coffee and donut chain Tim Hortons hits the Big Apple through Dunkin Donuts converts. More on the invasion, and even more here.
• The Minimalist makes a frittata.
• Spain's Ribeira Sacra wine region might be a couple of thousand years old, but it's getting new energy and life with renewed vineyards.
• Kronos Foods explains exactly what a gyro is, and why it's so prevalent on Greek menus stateside.
• Olive oil adds a new element to granola.
• Grand Central, Chelsea and Essex St. Markets all offer great fare for a picnic.
• Kid quirks: Dining Editor Pete Wells' son Dexter selects his own carefully managed stash from the weekly grocery haul.

Granola was one of the staples of my childhood. It was always in the house and we ate it with milk for breakfast, with yogurt for lunch and straight out of the jar as an afternoon or evening snack. Sometimes my mom would make batches of it up from this recipe but as life got busier, she would resort to buying bags of it from the bulk bins at the local health food store.

So going into this particular taste test of Bear Naked Native, I brought along with me my years of granola eating experience. My first encounter with these two new flavors (Mango Agave Almond and Yumberry Goji Currant) were during lunch. I settled down with a bowl of yogurt (Pequea Valley, to be precise) and sprinkled a few spoonfuls of the mango flavor on top. I crunched my way through and then did the same with the yumberry variety.

This is a breakfast, and you can probably guess from the name that it's not the most healthy breakfast you could have. But you know what? It's really not as bad as it sounds. I mean, they have peanut butter, honey, and granola in them.

This recipe for Crunchy Monkey Peanut Butter Banana Sticks is from one of the Rachael Ray shows on Food Network (I know, I know, she's everywhere, but stick with me here). They make for a good breakfast for when you're in a hurry and need something portable, and I think they'd be a great snack for at night when you're watching television.

If you've been following along for a while, you might remember the granola recipe I posted back in the summer. It's a basic, easy recipe that is a great way to get comfortable with the process of making your own granola. However, as the post up today on Dorie Greenspan's blog reminds me, there are a variety of ways to spice up your granola. She describes the homemade granola that friends brought with them when they came to visit over the weekend.

I am intrigued by the combinations she describes, especially the one that they made just for her that included bits of black licorice. I've never thought of incorporating that kind of sweet into granola and already my brain is racing with the possibilities.

If you are traveling this week to spend the holiday with friends or family, think about stirring up a batch of homemade granola to take with you. It is sure to inspire exaltation and joy from whomever receives your bag of oat-y, nutty goodness.

Back in the early 1970's, my mom had a friend named Melinda who had a small business making homemade granola. One day, on her way home from shopping for several weeks worth of ingredients in her VW Beetle, she was rear ended. She was not hurt, but the force of the impact sent oats, nuts, raisins, oil and honey flying all over the interior of the car. Even after the body work was completed, the car was never the same. She stopped making granola sometime soon after that. Customers all over the Bay Area mourned her choice, as it was very, very good granola. Thankfully, before she closed up shop, she shared the recipe with a few fortunate people. I thank my lucky stars that my mom happened to be among that number.

This much-coveted recipe is after the jump. It is delicious eaten with yogurt, given away as gifts and eaten as a before-bed snack, right out of the jar or bag in which you are storing it.

photo by Marisa McClellan

Granola fans should introduce themselves to Bear Naked granola, if they aren't familiar with it already. The award winning, good-for-you cereal is on of the best selling and best tasting granolas in the country. Made with wholesome, all-natural ingredients, the company's goal is to make sure that their customers enjoy living a healthy lifestyle and eating healthy - starting with granola, of course. Their granolas are hand-crafted in small batches with real whole grains and other "bearly processed and utterly naked ingredients." They have been available in three flavors for a couple of years now: fruit and nut, apple cinnamon and banana nut. This month, the company is rolling out two new flavors, Peanut Butter and Jelly granola and Peak Protein Blueberry Walnut. The peanut butter flavor is designed to taste like one of the most popular sandwiches in the country and to appeal to kids as well as adults. The blueberry flavor is intended to remind eaters of freshly baked blueberry muffins.

Only the blueberry flavor is available at their online store right now, but both should be on store shelves alongside the original flavors within a couple of weeks.

If, for some reason, you aren't familiar with the practice of giving candy out to costumed children on Halloween, you might want to take a look at the guide put together by Stuff Magazine explaining the best and worst things to give out. Eager trick or treaters look forward to participating in the ritual every year and we wouldn't want to disappoint them. The worst "treats" include:

• Apples -- They're tasty, but they're not candy. They're "disappointing as hell for a little kid expecting a Snickers."
• Marshmallows -- Yes, they're candy, but they don't usually come individually wrapped -- a must for Halloween treats.
• A bag of pennies -- "It's like giving away a gift certificate for a piece of gum." Save up all those pennies and buy a bag of the real thing.
• Smarties -- The U.S. Smarties are chalky and kids don't even seem to enjoy them, despite the fact that they sometimes eat them on the grounds that they still constitute candy. Try to get U.K. Smarties (similar to M&M's) or avoid the candy mixes that include these.
• Anything homemade -- "This one is alright if you only give them to kids with neglectful parents." Any responsible parent is going to dump something unwrapped as fast as possible. Save your energy.
• Raisins -- "People generally give them out under the pretense that they want to make kids healthier. In reality, they give them out because they hate fun." The boxed raisins never taste all that fresh anyway.

The best options would include "anything made by a real candy company," preferably king-sized versions.

After all, any resulting cavities aren't going to end up on your dental bill.

[Thanks, Patrick]

We love coffee - a sentiment that most bloggers probably share - but you cannot subsist on coffee alone and the pastries at coffee shops often leave much to be desired when it comes to flavor, as well as a little extra that we don't desire around our waists. With coffee and better-for-you options already on our minds, the new granola bars from Caribou Coffee caught our attention right away. The bars come in two coffee flavors - Vanilla Latte and Chocolate Mocha - but have only as much caffeine as decaf coffee, despite their taste. Each bar has about 140 calories and 3 grams of fat. Caribou says that they're a good source of calcium and whole grains, too.

Both flavors of bar are available online, so you can pick them up without trying to hunt down a store that carries them.

Even with a huge number of diet-friendly products appearing on grocery store shelves and constant reminders from the media about how bad junk foods and fast food are for us, some people still feel that "health food" will taste like cardboard and continue to chow down on fatty, salty and/or sugary foods that are not exactly waistline-friendly. And that's fine, in moderation, but it's important to note that healthier foods don't always taste bad.

Kashi wanted to really drive this point home, so to prove that their new Chewy Trail Mix granola bars don't taste like cardboard, they are sending out free granola bars for people to taste. Their nutritionist & brand manager, Jeff Grogg, will eat a cardboard box if people don't like them. Just sign up at their website, wait for your granola bar to arrive, then log back in and tell them what you thought. The bars have roasted almonds, cranberries and honey and are made with all natural ingredients, so it sounds like they have a head start on the cardboard, but you'll have to wait for your own bar before making up your mind.

[via Hungry Girl]

Gone are the days when granola was stigmatized as a crunchy, hippy food. Now, granola is considered to be a tasty addition to breakfast, due to the fact that it is a combination of some foods touted for their health benefits: oats, nuts and fruit. This homemade version from Cheryl at Free Range Living uses all those ingredients, with the addition of shredded coconut for some extra flavor. She sweetened hers with honey and maple syrup, and it looks better than most store-bought versions.

Healthy ingredients or not, granola is also high in fat and calories, so it should be eaten in small portions. Cheryl suggests using it as a topping for yogurt parfaits, mixtures of fruit and plain yogurt, for a nice, healthy breakfast.

Starbucks Gossip mentioned a rumor that Starbucks will be partnering with Kellogg's to introduce a line of granola cereals. The cereal will be packaged in individual portion cups, so steamed milk can be added easily for a convenient, quick breakfast. 

This seems like a great idea because so many people start their day at Starbucks. Along with a latte, people order breakfast of a muffin, scone or other pastry virtually every morning. The granola - which will most likely be a low-fat variety - will probably have more to offer nutritionally than the jumbo sized chocolate scones Starbucks serves. At the very least, the whole oats in the granola will add an extra serving of fiber to the daily diet. Offering both steamed and cold milk to top the granola gives the cereal the versatility to be appealing all year long.

I like to call the Red and Black Cafe in Portland, Ore. the Socialist coffee shop. It's a subversive place full of ratty couches, angry radicals and server-owners who are forever forgetting what you've ordered. But the food, well, it's worth all the trouble. Like this homemade organic granola, served with its own pitcher of milk. It's crunchy, nutty, with plump raisins, and just the teeniest bit sweet (never with refined white sugar), the very epitome of health. And delicious to boot. Get it with a pot of one of the house blend herbal teas... even though that will take an extra 10 minutes and you'll have to remind your server at least twice. You'll still thank me for turning you on to the Red and Black.

[Photo Sarah Gilbert]