I had a bit of a panic moment earlier this month. Our annual office holiday meal was right around the corner and I was having no luck locating good foraged mushrooms (Chanterelles) for the dish I traditionally contribute. Fortunately I had a trip scheduled to Austin the day before the event and the Whole Foods Market store there had about 25 pounds of perfect chanterelles. I also discovered in the process that carrying four pounds of fresh mushrooms through airport security raises some eyebrows but is generally allowed. Read the rest of this entry »

What do brownies, cookies and cupcakes all have in common? In addition to being just plain fun to eat, these favorites have all received recipe makeovers as features in our Make It Natural posts. Whether they needed lighter ingredients or substitutions for special diets, the following reader favorites got top honors in rating and comments.

The ultimate winner? Flourless Brownies! These incredibly moist brownies taste great and include a super secret ingredient that won over the skeptics. Read all about it and give them a try. Read the rest of this entry »

With Christmas and New Year’s just around the corner, many of us will be packing our bags and heading off to celebrate. Unfortunately, most airports, train stations and roadside stops offer the standard American junk-food fare. The good news is you can bring your own food!

While there are specific rules about what you can take through security onto a plane (no creamy, saucy foods allowed, for example), there are foods that you can pack to eat well, which will keep you feeling better on your trip. Read the rest of this entry »

…on an open fire, Jack Frost nipping at your nose. I’ve sung that song for (many) years but grew up with little understanding of chestnuts. Living in Texas and California, I spent more time decorating cactus at Christmas time than ice skating, playing in the snow or eating roasted nuts.

For anyone who joins me in the unfamiliar terrain of chestnut roasting, here’s how it’s done at home:

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
2. With a very sharp knife, cut an X in the rounded side of each chestnut, making sure to cut all the way through the shell. This is an important step, because it will prevent the chestnuts from exploding.
3. Place the chestnuts on a baking sheet in a single layer. Bake for about 10 minutes. Sprinkle a few tablespoons of water over the chestnuts, shake the pan, and bake for another 10-15 minutes.
4. Wrap them in a towel, and let them sit for about 10 minutes. Crush them gently with the bottom of a heavy pan. Unwrap the towel, and place the chestnuts in a big bowl.
5. Take the bowl to a comfy spot (a roaring fire is good) with some friends and family (and maybe some glasses of port). Peel the skins off of the meat, while you have a pleasant chat.

You can also give them a try in this Brussels Sprouts with Roasted Chestnuts or pick up a jar of prepared chestnuts to use in this Madeira-Glazed Chestnuts.

How do you enjoy chestnuts?

Holiday time is the perfect time to enjoy a delicious port wine! Port wine is a “sipper” kind of wine – it slowly warms your spirit and soul while you mingle and enjoy time with family and friends.

We brought in this delightful port wine called “The Portly Gentleman” from Buller Wines, a fourth-generation Australian winery. Made in the style of a Tawny port, this wine comes from Grenache, Shiraz and Cabernet grapes. It is oak-cask aged for three to five years, which gives it a beautiful almost Burgundy pale red color. With a bouquet of liquored berry fruits and flavors of strawberry and cherry syrup, it is delicious as an after dinner drink on its own or as an accompaniment for dessert. We love port wine with chocolate and this wine pairs deliciously with bittersweet Belgian chocolate.

Another part of this port wine that we love is its price tag. You will warm someone’s heart (and palate) if you show up with a bottle of “The Portly Gentleman” at your next holiday party. And you may as well pick up a few bottles so you can keep at least one for yourself – who said gifting was only for others? The time seems just about right for a little gift from you to you!

Got a lot of extra mouths to feed with holiday guests? We do! Here are some of our best recipes for serving a house full of hungry visitors. What are your go-to favorites for a crowd? Share your recipes in the comments below so we can try them out!

From Barry:

I made this Spinach and Cheese Lasagna the other night for house guests. I added pine nuts and grilled eggplant (which I grilled at home but you could also use roasted veggies from Prepared Foods). It was really easy to prepare – just simple assembly. I would suggest turning up the heat for the last 10 minutes to let the top get brown and crispy. It was really good and great as leftovers too. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m a terrible shopper. Clothes. Household goods. Gifts. Even when it comes to food, despite all my good “guru” advice, I buy more than I need, struggle to carry it all home on my bicycle, struggle again to fit it in my fridge and cabinet and then struggle to use up all the so-beautiful-I-can’t-resist fresh veggies before they’ve given up all their nutrients. Fortunately, I’m a creative cook and do manage to let very very little go to waste, but back to gifts…

Maybe it’s my humble beginnings, or my grandparent’s humble beginnings or just the Grinch in me; I can’t stand the thought of a pointless gift. Nor can I stand the thought of a low-quality gift…some plastic thing that makes someone laugh or smile for about 2 seconds then gets forgotten for 5 years in a drawer somewhere until it gets tossed. Don’t get me wrong; being a food lover, I am perfectly fine with the temporary satisfaction of something that tastes amazing. I just believe it really should be amazing and memorable if it’s going to be temporary. Food, therefore is often my gift solution. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the things I love most about the holidays is celebrating with a variety of foods – and having lots of leftovers when everyone else goes home! And, as you may have guessed, leftover cheese is my favorite. I even plan the type and quantity of cheeses I buy for a gathering to make sure I’ll have exactly what I want for dishes the next day. Here are some of the ways I like to use up those various bits of cheese.

Cranberry Cheddar

Definitely a seasonal favorite. Produced using milk from cows not treated with growth hormones, this cheese is creamy and has nice flavor characteristics. It comes from the Hennings family in Wisconsin. If you have leftovers, you can’t beat it on a grilled turkey sandwich. Just place the cheese on top of slices of turkey and grill. I like it much better than using cranberry sauce because it doesn’t ooze out. The cranberries are contained in the melted cheese and provide that lovely fruit flavor that goes perfectly with turkey leftovers. Read the rest of this entry »

Change up traditional holiday fare and celebrate with cioppino, an Italian-inspired seafood stew. The rich and flavorful tomato broth can be made ahead of time, making this a smart choice for entertaining.

Explore more great tips, recipes and creative ideas for taking this holiday season to a new level of taste on our All Things Good holiday pages.

One of our core values at Whole Foods Market is to care about our environment. As such, we set out a few months ago to give our new gift cards a fresh look, including our limited edition “peas on earth” holiday design. One of our primary goals was to find a more environmentally sound substrate on which to print the cards.

You might not think about it, especially given the small size and long life of your plastic cards, but the volume of cards out there creates an enormous impact! Most of the 17 billion plastic cards produced every year¹ are made of virgin PVC. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Americans use more than 1.5 billion credit cards alone, which if stacked would reach 70 miles into space²! When these cards expire, we just throw them away, contributing more than 75 million pounds of PVC to the waste stream every year³!

We thought there had to be a better way. And while there is, we quickly learned that there is no perfect solution. We examined dozens of different substrates, from recycled PVC to cards made out of wood to PLA-based biodegradable cards. There’s even a PVC-based substrate that biodegrades! But we found none of these to be the silver bullet. Read the rest of this entry »