Green and red crab apples. Photo: Pink Sherbet Photography, Flickr.

• Chef Normand Laprise writes about the health perks, versatility and deliciousness of apples, and offers a recipe for Geneva Apple Puree.
  
• Canada's Le Mamirolle uses a French process to create a strong cheese with a sweet and salty taste for fromage fiends.
• Toronto's Pico serves "bipolar" cooking on the whole, but boasts an exceptional brunch.
  
• Sweet dining spots across Canada are experimenting with fancy versions of the classic marshmallow -- from pumpkin flavors to gelatin-free concoctions -- and offering up refined s'mores.
• As fall approaches, there are five things to add to your pantry: spelt, icewine jelly, matcha tea, spicy chocolate and barbecue sauce.
• Fish continue to suffer as we delight in all things from the sea. Now a new study says our obsession with omega-3 fatty acids could bring on "a forage fish wipeout."
• If done right, corn dogs can be a perfect party treat.

Not all candy-making is a science involving a delicate dance of temperature and time. One Easter candy, in fact, can be quite fun -- fun to make, fun to eat, and fun to play with. You know what I'm talking about -- the cute, adorable, and delicious Peeps.

While many candies have devoted fans, nothing seems to inspire the fun and frivolity of the Peep. These little marshmallow suckers inspire an insane following. The blog Unlikely Words found just about every Peeps-themed site of note on the Internet -- pickled Peeps, Presidential Peeps and even anti-Peeps. Even better is the annual contest held by The Washington Post in which people diorama the heck out of their Peeps. We're talking everything from excellent movie recreations like The Wizard of Oz and Ghostbusters to an awesome plumber Peep.

They're almost too good to recreate yourself ... almost! You can still go out and buy your beloved chicks and bunnies, but why not whip up some pals for them as well?

The mallow family contains several plants we see growing wild. Common mallow is the one most easily found, and was growing all over my friends Adirondack farm. It seems to love disturbed soil and likes to grow along fences, barn walls, curbs, and other obstructions. Relatives include cotton, okra, hibiscus, and durian. The original marshmallows were made from a plant actually called marsh mallow by boiling pieces of the root of the plant in water, adding sugar and whipping. Then, the thick, white confection was dropped in spoon fulls onto waxed paper to dry into candy.

You know what I love most about America? The way that we have a holiday for everything. And even when we run out of holidays, we just make up more holidays and continue using them as excuses to glut. And when it's a food holiday, we are officially permissed to double-gorge! So here's a heads-up for my favorite August food holidays -- y'know, so you can get your shopping done early and beat the mad holiday rush.

• August 1 - Raspberry Cream Pie Day: This shortcut Chilled Raspberry Cream Pie recipe from Rachael Ray can be whipped up in a jif. It'll be just like one of those No-Bake commercials when your friends and family are fawning over you for spending the day slaving over the stove while you're secretly sniggering to yourself, "Heh heh, it was no bake, you fools!"
• August 2 - Ice Cream Sandwich Day: Sure, you could wade through the freezer case, or you could man up and make your own. Consider these decadent peanut-butter-'n'-honey-flavored "Bee-Nut Butter Ice Cream Sandwiches" from Domestic Goddess.

When you're making S'mores, all you think about is getting your chocolate-marshmallow fix, right?

But does anyone ever think of the marshmallows? What about how they feel, getting jabbed onto the end of a dirty branch and thrust into a hot flame?

Well, let me tell you: they hate it. And they'd take any opportunity to get revenge. Gee, if only there were a t-shirt to illustrate this point...

But wait! There is! Check out the "Let's Go Camping" tee on Barry's Farm, a fantastic new crafty site that also features laptop covers that look like furry monsters and cute lil' change purses. The best part? Barry's shirts come in tons of sizes.

I've never been a big fan of food that looks back at me when I'm looking at it. I was in a supermarket once and I saw an entire sheep (or maybe calf) head wrapped in plastic in the meat department. It not only still had its eyes attached it also had its teeth. Freaked me out.

I thought of that after seeing this Edible Flying Spaghetti Monster. The eyes are made with gelatin capsules, rainbow nonpareils, and malted milk balls! Then you attach the eyes to the "spaghetti," which is actually various noodles and marshmallow. I bet kids would get a kick out of this.

[via Boing Boing]

Today is one of those days where we get two different holidays. It's National Banana Split Day and also National S'mores Day.

I've only had s'mores once in my life, I think (I guess that happens if you're not a boy scout). As for banana splits, I haven't had one of those in years, though I still remember the theme song to the TV show ("La La La, La La La La, La La La, La La La La"). Here's a recipe from Epicurious if you want to make the grahams and marshmallow from scratch. If you want to just use store bought food, take a look at the Honey Maid recipe. And if you want a variation, here are a million more recipes for s'mores.

For a banana split, try this. The Banana Split Cake sounds great too.

These two holidays actually go together, so here's your assignment: make a banana split, and put some s'mores in it. Then go for a walk or do a sit up or something.

Run for the hills folks, an army of thousands of Martian whoopie pies has just landed and is intent on colonizing Earth. Their marshmallow-filled wrath knows no mercy. OK, fine they're not from outer space, but this closeup shot sure makes the sweet treats look like they're flying through the ether.

They were cooked up by the Barmy Baker, who says that the sandwiches of chocolate cake and marshmallow are a great way to satisfy one's sweet tooth. She also includes a recipe for the treats, which she adapted from Lora Brady's Chocolate American Style. Compared to some of the whoopie pies I've had in Maine, these things look like they're on steroids.

As we've admitted before, here at Slashfood we are all a little obsessed with Peeps. Love them or hate them, it is hard to escape the little marshmallow treats, especially at Easter time. In the past we've torched them, used them in recipes and looked at how to make your own using a Williams-Sonoma kit.

Now, the Evil Mad Scientist has sent us this recipe which eliminates the marshmallow altogether but adds a few unexpected twists. Using a meringue base and adding saffron strands for added oomph, I'm fairly certain these "Peeps" will be unlike anything you have ever had before.

Yes, you read that title correctly. In case you were blissfully unaware like I was, Just Born, the makers of Marshmallow Peeps, hold a 'Celebrity Survey' every year. Apparently they conduct this survey "to keep up with today's trends and cultures." Maybe it's just me, but I can't recall ever seeing anything other than various shapes and colors of Peeps emerging from their factories depending on the season. If their products have ever actually reflected trends and cultures, it is news to me.

Now don't get me wrong, I love the little marshmallow treats as much as the next person - but there are limits. Though I'm fairly certain this one can simply be filed under "for those that have way too much time on their hands," in the spirit of Easter (or maybe just because it is Friday) I'll let you in on the results after the jump. I apologize in advance.

Just Born is always expanding their Peeps lineup, as the sugar-coated marshmallows are one of their most popular products. Instead of only offering yellow chick Peeps at Easter, they have chicks, bunnies and egg shapes in a variety of colors and flavors. And for other holidays, they have themed Peeps, with hearts on Valentine's Day and trees at Christmas.

At Halloween, Just Born introduced cocoa-flavored black cat Peeps, which I passed on because I was somewhat put off by the color. I am a huge fan of Peeps, but I like my Peeps in the spring. While shopping this week, however, I came across Cocoa Bunny Peeps and, as they were Eastery-enough to meet my standards, I picked up a package for a taste test.

The important thing to note about these candies is that they are not chocolate marshmallows, despite the promising light chocolate color. They are merely cocoa-flavored and that flavoring is entirely limited to the sugary coating on the outside of the bunny. The subtle chocolate flavor didn't really do anything to enhance the Peep and, although I would eat them again, if I really want chocolate with my Peeps, I'll stick with Milk Chocolate Peep Eggs - or better yet, a dark chocolate Peeps s'more using a regular Peep.

For a closer look at the cocoa bunnies, click past the jump. *warning - the photo after the jump is graphic, and may not be suitable for all viewers*

Fat free, low sodium, cholesterol free burger and fries? Yup, Kandy Kastle Inc. makes a Mallow Burger, Mallow Dog, and Mallow Fries; to be served with Sour Candy Gel Ketchup. Mmmm... just what I want for lunch. The novelty candies are pretty good copies of the real things with the burger around the size of a hefty White Castle Slider. Anyway, I did some research and came up with a review. From what Jeff Eaton blogs, the fries are supposed to have a slightly fluffy and gummi consistency with little flavor to them. The burger has several layers of texture which sounds interesting, in a lose your teeth from sugar chunk kind of way. The coolest part is the sour ketchup, which is a mess that clashes violently with the fries. Wow, that sounds just like how I wanted my candy as a kid. Back then I always said the grosser, the better. So here's some more zany stocking-stuffers like the Wonkazoid, to get your kids all riled up and running around with a sugar high on the holidays. Hey, don't blame me, I didn't give it to them.

I have pie dough in the fridge, pies in the oven, a defrosted turkey and partially prepped veggies in various places around the kitchen. With all the holiday meal prep that we've been doing (I know I'm not the only one), something delicious, but simple, sounds really good right about now. Those pies aren't going to be fair game until tomorrow night. Thankfully, Allie, from Something So Clever posted some really tasty sounding Chocolate Dipped Peanut Butter Rice Krispies. The addition of peanut butter to the standard rice krispie recipe makes them a little bit more interesting. Adults will like them because the peanut butter adds a new salty-sweet dimension to the flavor and kids will like them because they almost all like rice krispie treats. Speaking of kids, these are so easy to make that if you have any kids around at the holidays, you can assign them the job of making a batch to keep them out of your hair as you work on the main meal.

It's that time of year again. I'm not talking about the holiday season or the fact that there is a whole new array of winter vegetables in the produce aisle. I'm talking about the fact that late fall is when Nabisco puts out Mallomars again. Mallomars are a cross between cookies and candy, with a fluffy marshmallow topping a crispy cookie, all covered in a thin layer of dark chocolate. It is the chocolate layer, which hasn't been replaced with a chocolate-flavored, heat resistant substance, that makes Mallomars so vulnerable to destruction in warm weather. They are at the top of the snacking pyramid for marshmallow lovers and, as they are only readily available for a few weeks each year, they are quite the hot item, despite the fact that they can only be sold when the weather is cool.

They have been around since 1913, so they have nostalgic appeal in addition to generally being appealing to new, younger audiences. The place where Mallomars are the most popular is New York, which Kraft/Nabisco says makes of 70% of its annual sales of the treat. Not only that, but some of the vendors that carry it say it is their best selling cookie all year - probably because people are stocking up for the off season.

Homemade marshmallows are definitely one of my favorite candies. Unlike store-bought marshmallows, they are like little clouds of sweetness that are soft, tender and melt in your mouth. They are easy to eat, go perfectly with coffee, flavored coffee drinks and hot chocolate, and are ideal for making s'mores. They are also surprisingly easy to make, and very impressive when you bring them out to serve to friends or family. The only real drawback is that you really need a stand mixer to make them, as it allows you to keep your hands free while you're working and has a very large whisk (as opposed to the beaters of a hand-held mixer) that does the job quickly and efficiently.

I really recommend using vanilla bean paste or vanilla bean crush instead of plain vanilla extract because the tiny bean specks really look fantastic in the finished candy. Read on for the recipe, which I have made and enjoyed countless times: