With kids on the go and playing hard, they need snacks that taste good but are healthful as well. Instead of chips, cookies or an ice cream novelty, serve Peachsicles for a quick cold and nutritious treat. With just five ingredients, Peachsicles are easy to make for parents or children.

 

8.25 ounce can light sliced peaches in fruit juice, drained

1 cup fat-free or low-fat plain yogurt

1/4 cup frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed (about 2 ounces)

2 teaspoons honey

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

 

Cut peaches into bite-size pieces. Put 3 pieces in each of four paper or plastic 5-ounce juice cups. Transfer remaining peaches to small bowl. Stir remaining ingredients into bowl with peaches. Pour into juice cups. Insert a wooden popsicle or craft stick into center of each cup. Cover cups with plastic wrap or aluminum foil, allowing sticks to poke through covering. Put cups with stick side up on a level surface in the freezer. Freeze for three hours, or until solid. To serve, peel or cut paper or plastic from frozen pops. Serves 6. (Canton Repository)

 

 

The pumpkin is the official fruit of what state?

 

A. Arizona

B. New Hampshire

C. Illinois

D. Pennsylvania

 

 

 

Spatula up: There’s a war out there, and it’s clucking. McDonald’s is playing chicken with Chick-fil-A’s signature chicken sandwich. The big gun is the new Southern Style Chicken Sandwich, a worthy fighter. This is a very simple weapon, part of a chicken breast fried and served on a sweet bun with dill pickles. It looks like a smaller Chick-fil-a, and the price on both is almost the same ($2.89-$2.99). The Mac attack is slightly inferior. It’s drier than the Chick, which has a fresher flavor. Both are seasoned, the Chick a little stronger. Both come on buttered buns. The McDonald’s offers flavor very similar to the Chick’s, tender meat and a welcome relief from hamburger. The Chick is better packaged for take-out in an insulated envelope. The Mac comes in the usual box. At 400 calories, the newcomer is 10 less than a Chick-fil-A and 140 less than a Big Mac, but almost as filling. It’s 130 calories less than McDonald’s Premium Crispy Chicken. The sodium is 1,030 mg., close to half your daily recommended allowance. It comes in a breakfast model on a biscuit. Now, that one’s really crying for gravy. Chicken for breakfast? Why not? (Jim Hillibish/Canton Repository)

 

 

A rich, flavorful dessert wine that is made by picking grapes that are frozen on the vine, then pressing them before they thaw. Because much of the water in the grapes is frozen, the resulting juice is concentrated — rich in flavor and high in sugar and acid. Ice wines are renowned in Germany, where they're called Eiswein. (www.epicurious.com)

 

 

Number of people in the United States who have gotten sick as of last week from eating tomatoes tainted with salmonella. Officials are still trying to track down the cause of the bad tomatoes.

 

 

 

Hang on for the ride: with characteristic poetry and pluck, Barbara Kingsolver and her family sweep readers along on their journey away from the industrial-food pipeline to a rural life in which they vow to buy only food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves or learn to live without it. Their good-humored search yields surprising discoveries about turkey sex life and overly zealous zucchini plants, en route to a food culture that's better for the neighborhood and also better on the table. Part memoir, part journalistic investigation, “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” makes a passionate case for putting the kitchen back at the center of family life, and diversified farms at the center of the American diet.

 

 

I’m planning on doing a blind Imperial stout tasting with some friends. The idea is to sample some of the hard-to-find, well known imperial stouts such as Dark Lord from Three Floyds, the Abyss from Deschutes and Founders Kentucky Breakfast Stout. I’m also trying to get my hands on some Kate the Great from the Portsmouth Brewing Company. What I want to do is sample those world-famous imperial stouts and several, easy to find imperial stouts, or local imperial stouts. I want to see if something like Dark Lord is really worth driving out to Indiana to pay $15 for one bottle, or is something like North Coast’s Old Rasputin a good stand in. What are your recommendations? What are the best, easy to find Imperial stouts?

 

 

 

B. New Hampshire