"spiced nuts" news and stories

• An easy slice-and-bake variety perfect for last-minute holiday gatherings and as gifts for friends, icebox cookies are "a boon to busy holiday bakers."
• Milagro's Dominican Cuisine in South Beach is "Caribbean comfort food at its homemade, belly-filling best."
• In the "Desperation Dinners" column, spiced nuts -- particularly, Pumpkin-Spiced Whiskey Walnuts -- make excellent stocking stuffers.
• Writer Fred Tasker provides a list of vino libations for the holiday celebrations.
• Ratatouille from the South of France and cornmeal-crusted chicken make an easy meal during the busy holiday season.

I have a friend who always used to make an addictive, rosemary and sugar spiked nut mix for parties. She moved out of town last spring to go and be a doctor in Ohio. For the last few weeks, ever since the cooler weather really settled in, I've been craving her nut mixture like crazy. On a whim a couple of nights ago I tried to recreate it with half a jar of elderly peanuts. While they tasted good, it just wasn't quite right. I've got an email into her in the hopes that she'll share her secret.

In the meantime I went looking around on the internet to see what I could find and stumbled across this recipe on Epicurious that was printed in this month's issue of Gourmet. It looks pretty darn good. Here's hoping it will hold me until AnnElise comes through with her recipe. If any of you have a signature nut mix recipe, I'd love it if you'd send it my way!

Source

The pumpkins that are the best for carving are not the best pumpkins for eating. They tend to be water, string and rather flavorless, as they are bred to be large and light, with the maximum surface area for carving and the minimum amount of "goop" (as termed by a very young neighbor) inside. All too often pumpkin seeds get tossed out with the rest of the pumpkin innards when a jack o' lantern is being carved out for Halloween and although the rest of the pumpkin isn't that appetizing, the seeds can be a tasty treat.

Pumpkin seeds need to be washed and dried before you start to work with them. Once they are clean, they can be prepared in one of two ways. The first method comes from Simply Recipes and involves boiling the seeds briefly in salted water before toasting them. The second method is much like the one used for the candied pecans I made last week, where the seeds are mixed with egg white and spices before being baked at 375F for about 12 minutes. This is the method used by Heidi at 101 Cookbooks and she provides three different spicing combinations to get you started, although you can use any sweet or spicy combination that strikes your fancy.