Sweet Deals During a Potentially Bitter Time

With so much on the line in Copenhagen (for updates, go to the Sierra Club's Copenhagen group ), it's easy to worry about whether politics might find a way to derail more climate legislation. But while we wait with bated breath on word from Denmark, elsewhere in the world, a couple of mega-corporations have provided some unlikely but welcoming news. Yesterday, Nestl é UK announced that their Kit Kat bar will be certified fair-trade in the U.K.

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Sweet Deals During a Potentially Bitter Time

 Cookie Swap, Creative Treats to Share Throughout the Year

Come December, it’s hard not to think about cookies (especially since today is National Cookie Day).  For me, it’s usually a vision of a pretty box full of ten different kinds of cookies I can send off to my far away friends.  I’m usually lucky to end up with a few bags of toffee. But Cookie Swap , Julia M. Usher’s beautiful new book, offers a better way to have many types of cookies at your disposal (whether or not you’ll want to give them as gifts is up to you) – have a party

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Cookie Swap, Creative Treats to Share Throughout the Year

 An All-About-Cookies Friday Fun Links

Chocolate Peppermint Sandwich Cookies from Joy the Baker Day 3 of the 12 Days of Cookies: Apricot Bow Ties from Lottie + Doof Mmm, just like mom used to make: Pignoli Cookies from The Pioneer Woman Mocha Java Hazelnut Cookies from Luna Cafe Eat or put on the tree? Festive Ginger Christmas Cookies from The British Larder Marcy Goldman’s kids’ Chanukah Cookies from Christie’s Corner Cardamom & Browned Butter Cookies from Recipe Buzz Blog Dangerously good meringue Christmas cookies from Jane Green Sea Salt Ginger Cookies from The Merlin Menu Spiced Macadamia Cookie s from Citrus and Candy Possibly Related Posts: Baking with beer The Importance of Excellent Cocoa Powder Rustic Fruit Desserts We’re Baking up a Storm This Week Today is National Pie Day!

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An All-About-Cookies Friday Fun Links

 How to Put A Cheese Plate Together

Ugly Christmas sweater party, white elephant exchange, Hanakkah dinners and winter solstice gatherings all call for festive food and none more coveted in my opinion than the cheese tray.  I simply adore good cheese in all forms, but when a cheese platter is done right, I don’t even think about seeking out other appetizers, I’ve found the cheese! Instead of preparing a 1970’s cheese ball , or cheese fondue , I invite you to get your creative juices flowing and create a cheese plate. With a couple tips and techniques, your cheese platter can look like an edible sculpture. Cheese Tray Making Tips Choose a variety of cheeses made from a variety of milks: cow milk, goat milk and sheep’s milk.

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How to Put A Cheese Plate Together

 The Importance of Excellent Cocoa Powder

I buy organic eggs, French butter, Marcona almonds.  And yet, without giving it a second thought, I’ve always used Hershey’s cocoa powder from the grocery store in any recipe requiring cocoa powder.  It’s never caused a noticeable problem – everything’s turned out properly chocolaty and sweet. And then one day, armed with a chocolate biscotti recipe, I saw a container of Valrhona cocoa powder on a shelf of my favorite specialty food store.  I considered how much more a bar of Valrhona chocolate was than a bar of Hershey’s, and suddenly began to question my cocoa powder tradition.  I went ahead and splurged ($14 for 8.8 oz)

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The Importance of Excellent Cocoa Powder

 Today is National Pie Day!

I know we’re all probably still full from Thanksgiving, but that’s no reason not to celebrate National Pie Day! Stretch that belly! Make space for a little slice of heaven. Our Editorial Team pick is Tom Douglas’ Triple Coconut Cream Pie .  If you aren’t a fan of cream pie, this pie will surely convert you (it sure did me!) Here are some other yummy pie recipes from those in the blogosphere: Lemon Sour Cream Pie from Chaos in the kitchen Drunken apple/pumpkin pie from Cook Advice Cranberry Cream Pie from Cater-Hater Lemon Meringue Pie from Tanglewood Pumpkin Molasses Pie with a Gluten-Free Walnut Crust from de keukenmeid Possibly Related Posts: The Best Way not to Burn Your Cookies Vegan baking: simple substitutions Gluten-free, egg-free, dairy-free Thanksgiving pie Thanksgiving Ice Creams Spice Up Dessert Pears Poached in Beaujolais

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Today is National Pie Day!

 Twitter, Facebook and Sciencebase

Regular readers will hopefully have spotted I’ve cleaned up the site a little recently and added a couple of new widgets to the Sciencebase sidebar menu just below the About section link to my Research Blogging posts . The first widget heralds the relaunch of the sciencebase.com Facebook fan page and its adoption of a proper URL – http://www.facebook.com/sciencebase.fans . Become a fan and your mugshot will appear at some point on the site itself, amazing, huh?

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Twitter, Facebook and Sciencebase

 Sparkling Wine, The Solution to Your Thanksgiving Challenges

Ah, shopping on the day before Thanksgiving.  The crowd makes it a stressful experience even if you know what you want – add having to make a wine choice while you’re there and the whole thing can be come miserable. There’s an easy solution, however, (to the wine problem, not the parking) and it’s bubbles.  “Champagne” may be synonymous with “expensive”, but luckily it’s far from being the only option.  There are a number of widely available, affordable, and delicious bottles of sparkling wine

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Sparkling Wine, The Solution to Your Thanksgiving Challenges

 One-Minute Thanksgiving Place Cards

Top off your Thanksgiving table setting with an extra special touch.  Place cards are often reserved for more formal occasions, but I love to include them for my guests.  They add an element of surprise, whimsy, and elegance. Plus, the components are right under your nose.  Literally .  Simply step into your front yard or reach into your fruit bowl.  These one-minute place cards are the perfect way to welcome your loved ones as they sit down for your much anticipated Harvest Feast

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One-Minute Thanksgiving Place Cards

 Thanksgiving Ice Creams Spice Up Dessert

Thanksgiving is a holiday of tradition, all the way to dessert.  Even when something adventurous is attempted for the last course, a pumpkin and pecan pie tend to accompany regardless. There is, however, still a way to keep them interesting – with the ice cream you top them with.  There is an answer to the timeless dilemma aside from “a small piece of each”.  Go with the pumpkin, and top it with a maple pecan ice cream .  Try the pecan, add a dollop of pumpkin ice cream

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Thanksgiving Ice Creams Spice Up Dessert

 Fish is Delicious, But What’s the Catch?

Isn't it frustrating when your best efforts to do the right thing are thwarted? That's what may be happening to customers at some sushi restaurants that are serving endangered bluefin tuna without telling their clientele . Researchers at the Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics tested the fish at 31 sushi restaurants in New York and Denver; they found that where bluefin tuna was served, it was correctly labeled “bluefin” only 36% of the time

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Fish is Delicious, But What’s the Catch?

 Pears Poached in Beaujolais

No matter how packed full of turkey, potatoes and stuffing our bellies become, everyone I know has an uncanny ability to make wiggle room for dessert at the end of Thanksgiving dinner.  I mean, how could you not?  I’m sure everyone you know has this same natural ability.  It wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without having at least a small sliver of the Aunt Betty’s famous pumpkin pie . Pumpkin pie, however, was never a mandatory staple during our family’s Thanksgiving dinner ritual.  In fact, I never remember a single pumpkin dessert of any kind growing up.  What I do remember is fruit.  Lots of fresh fruit

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Pears Poached in Beaujolais

 The Very First Thanksgiving Menu

The year is 1621.  You’ve been invited to the First Thanksgiving by your gracious hosts:  the Pilgrims and the Indians.  What do you expect to see on the menu? Sure, there was wild turkey, but you may be surprised to learn what was not served on the menu during this historic autumn harvest feast. Photo: reproduction by Jean Louis Gerome Ferris Possibly Related Posts: Friday Fun Links Young Winos The 2,000 Pound Rib Feast Kabocha and Ginger Squash Soup How I Slaughtered a Chicken

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The Very First Thanksgiving Menu

 More Than You Want to Know About Cranberry Sauce

Cranberry sauce can be controversial.  In fact, often enough the issue cannot be resolved unless a family can agree to have two types of cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving dinner – fresh and canned. Though often treated as a supporting character in the feast, cranberry sauce is certainly the most versatile dish next to gravy, delicious piled atop nearly any other dish.  Cranberries were considered a seasonal fruit until Marcus L.

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More Than You Want to Know About Cranberry Sauce

 What Celebrity Chefs Are Making for Thanksgiving

Everyone has their favorite Thanksgiving recipes, but let’s be real – the ones we care about are the those written by the famous people.  Fortunately, celebrity chefs are more than willing to spread their turkey (and stuffing and pie…) knowledge around.  Here are a few. Anthony Bourdain made a holiday meal for ten at his brother’s house in Connecticut.  Here are some of the dishes he made. David Chang tells you how to make Turkey Breast With Ginger-Scallion Sauce with your leftovers

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What Celebrity Chefs Are Making for Thanksgiving

 Daily Roundup: November 17, 2009

Super Powers: President Obama and China’s Hu Jintao, the leaders of the world’s two most polluting nations, agreed to share information about renewable-energy technologies and to work together to pursue efficiency and greener modus operandi. Treehugger and Dot Earth ( NYT ) The Other Kind of Green: More Americans would prefer that Obama focus on the economy rather than the environment, according to a new report. GreenBiz.com Gassy Blip: Fossil-fuel carbon emissions rose 2 percent last year to an all-time global high, which sounds like bad news –- and it is –- but it’s actually a decline over the average annual increase of 3.6 percent since 2000.

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Daily Roundup: November 17, 2009

 The Ultimate Holiday Cookie Contest!

The Four Seasons Hotel here in Seattle is calling all cookie enthusiasts to join the search for the Ultimate Holiday Cookie Recipe! The winning cookie will be served at ART Restaurant and in the Hotel this holiday season. And, you don’t have to be in Seattle to submit a recipe! In fact, they’ve gotten recipes from England, so join in the fun! Here are the details: ART Restaurant and Pastry Chef Ryan Witcher are searching for the ultimate holiday cookie recipe. From November 1 to December 1, the public is invited to submit a recipe , along with 150 words describing what makes it a holiday cookie

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The Ultimate Holiday Cookie Contest!

 5 Food Games to Help Burn Off The Turkey

For many of us, Thanksgiving is about the day, not just the evening meal.  And though eating is a time consuming affair (in my family we have one meal mid-afternoon and a second later in the evening), there’s always some down time.  Here are five ways to fill it – consider them ice breakers, education tools, or the Thanksgiving equivalent of a treadmill. 1.  Food Lover’s Trivia – With food as your game pieces and 1800 questions about all things food, this game may replace the turkey as the highlight of your Thanksgiving.  It manages to be a challenge to the food-educated without isolating the less food saavy. 2.  Foodie Fight – A somewhat simpler version of Food Lover’s Trivia with a thousand questions about all things foodie – formal service, celebrity chefs, cooking methods, cookbook authors, and ingredients.  There’s room for debate with some of the questions, which can lead to discussion, debate, laughter, and occasionally an actual food fight

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5 Food Games to Help Burn Off The Turkey

 Latest science headlines

Time to bring you up to date on the latest science headlines I’ve put together for other sites this last couple of weeks, so here’s a quick round-up: On the SpectroscopyNOW site, this issue, I covered natural chemicals that can help sunflowers soak up toxic cadmium from the soil (another example of the phytoremediation process I discussed in more detail on Sciencebase.com recently). I also describe a new approach to spectroscopy that could help chemists work out the absolute structure of natural products with medicinal potential

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Latest science headlines

 Daily Roundup: November 16, 2009

Bait and Switch: After Chrysler took (and kept) $15.3 billion in taxpayer money for the purpose of producing electric vehicles, it scrapped its program to produce electric vehicles. About.com Bye-Bye Bluefin: A 40 percent decrease in bluefin tuna fishing was agreed upon in a deal brokered in Brazil. The move relieved Japan, which feared a complete trade ban, but upset environmentalists, who maintain that a complete trade ban is necessary to prevent the species from being fished to extinction.

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Daily Roundup: November 16, 2009