"pretzels" news and stories

I first discovered taralli a year or two ago. My friend and I went out for beer and ordered an "Assortito" plate. What arrived was pure finger food heaven -- meats, cheeses, pickled vegetables, roasted vegetables, and these small pretzel-like crackers boasting the wonderful taste of fennel seed. But I drank too much to remember what they were called, and forgot until this weekend, when I once again ordered the Assortito. Memory wasn't going to stop me this time! I went home and researched.

Taralli are an Italian snack food popular in southern Italy. They look a lot like an untwisted pretzel, and are really quite close to a bagel -- formed and pinched, quickly boiled, and then baked. But whereas the bagel is soft and chewy on the inside, perfect for toppings and bread-like meals, the taralli is crisp and dense, like a cracker. With the addition of fennel seeds, which are folded into the dough, these are absolutely wonderful with the foods I mentioned above. It's not quite a sweet flavor, but one that wonderfully balances strong, savory flavors.

It takes a little time to make these -- forming the dough, working with stickiness, a 2-hour rise time -- but if you like the flavor of fennel, you must try it. (But don't go overboard and add anise. I added a little ground anise and it was way too strong for this snack.) The taste is too good to pass up -- I'm even scheming to make some small ones for my salads -- a tasty alterna-cruton.

To make the above taralli, I used the recipe noted on BreadBasketcase and LemonPi, from Maggie Glezer's Artisan Baking.

As we head into the holiday season, aka the Season of the Endless Buffets, portion control sticks in the back of any health-conscious or body-conscious mind. You know, at least while that mind is sober.

How are your portion control skills? Check them here on WomensHealthMag.com in a test where you are presented with pictures of two separate servings of pretzels and you have to guess which one you think is the 100 calorie serving. Sound tough? It is!

I got it wrong. Whatever, I just ate a pint of Ben & Jerry's. That's about 100 calories, right?

Also, I'd like to take this opportunity to declare that all those 100 calorie packs totally bite, except maybe the Wheat Thins. They taste like the cereal version of whatever they're supposed to be. When I want Oreos, I don't want 100 calories worth of hexagonal Oreo-inspired crisps.

Everyone knows the secret of a good diet is to go ahead and eat what you crave, just don't eat too much of it. My entire pint of Ben & Jerry's? Well, I guess I'm not on a good diet today. Blame the economy. I don't know why, just do it.

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.

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• This week's recipes: Roasted Asparagus and Egg Pizzas on Grilled Dough, Caramelized Onion Pitas with Goat Cheese and Prosciutto, and Whole Salmon Fillet Baked in Foil.

Are pretzels a "healthy" snack? Probably depends on what you mean by "healthy." They're certainly better than chips and they're low-fat, but they're also carb-heavy and have a lot of salt.

But if there's one day you should go crazy and eat lots of pretzels, let it be this one. It's National Pretzel Day! I like all kinds of pretzels. When I was a kid I loved the little pretzel sticks, and then when I got older I liked the pretzel rods (you can put them in your mouth like a cigar!). I like the twists too, and all the incredible flavored pretzels (mustard

Here's a recipe for Soft Pretzels from Alton Brown, and here's one for New York Pretzels, from Gourmet. If you like your pretzels sweet, here are recipes for Pretzel Turtles, from Rachael Ray, and one for Chocolate Covered Peanut Butter Stuffed Pretzels from RecipeZaar.