Vanilla

My husband and I have been on the South Beach Diet for over four months, and so far it is working great. Around the holidays, my husband usually makes eggnog with just a splash of rum, vanilla ice cream, and half a gallon of store-brand eggnog. He also adds whatever he feels might add a different taste, including vanilla, almond or strawberry flavorings. Is there any way to make a low-carb, low-sugar eggnog? All I could think of was to use as many low-carb, low-sugar ingredients as possible, but I'm not sure how that would taste.

Item: General Foods Cappuccino Coolers What you get: 6 one-serving packets Cost: About $2.25 Preparation time: Stir and serve Review: Last summer, on forays into coffee bars, I became addicted to flavored iced coffee. When I saw General Foods' mixes for "Sweetened Instant Iced Cappuccino," I wondered if one could duplicate the same great taste at home. With friends, I tried the French Vanilla and Chocolate flavors. I thought the French Vanilla was dead-on, with the right mix of coffee and milk, as did a few others.

Say what you will about the snow -- that it is cold, slippery and a nuisance. It also makes excellent ice cream. I found this out recently when the tradition of making ice cream with snow returned to our home. To make this ice cream, you need a lot of snow and a casual "why worry" attitude. You can't fret over what might be in the snow. You can't think about the possibility of particulates from coal-burning power plants in the Midwest traveling in the upper atmosphere to Maryland and descending in your backyard as "acid snowflakes."

Ice cream bars messy but marvelous Item: Nestle Tandem ice cream bars What you get: 4 bars Cost: About $3.75 Preparation time: Serve right out of freezer Review: For some people, especially children, ice cream never goes out of season. Nestle's newest frozen treats can definitely be enjoyed no matter what the weather. The Tandem bars are, as the name suggests, two flavors in one. We tried the vanilla-chip sandwiches -- one part chocolate chip ice cream between two chocolate wafers, the other vanilla ice cream coated with Nestle chocolate and cookie bits.

America's sweet tooth isn't a recent development.Amelia Simmons' "American Cookery" was delightfully heavy on cakes, puddings, pies, tarts and trifles. Cinnamon, nutmeg and mace were the most common spices, and rose water was used then much the way vanilla is now. Butter was used with glorious abandon, and even brandy made its way into the kitchen on occasion.Chocolate, however, is never mentioned.A cake she called "plain cake" is close to what is now called a poundcake. Her concise recipe was thus: "Three quarters of a pound of sugar, 1 pound of butter, and 6 eggs, worked into a pound of flour."

1995 Beringer Chardonnay, Napa Valley ($12).This is becoming a very predictable recommendation. Another year, another fine chardonnay from Beringer. Because it's made in large quantities, you can find it almost anywhere, but it bears none of the obvious signs of mass production. There's fine intensity, a delicate balance of oak and fruit, and well-integrated nuances of vanilla, apple and toast. Beringer continues to be one of the most reliable names in California wine.Pub Date: 8/03/97@

The name on the window said Maron, and inside were candy counters and an ice cream parlor. I was walking along Philadelphia's Chestnut Street and, for a second, I was back home 40 years ago. I thought of the old Baltimore Maron and couldn't help remembering all the revered but now-vanished foods once distinctive to the city. Do unattainable foods resonate better in our memories? I'm sorry, but the fountain Coca-Colas of my youth, made by a uniformed drugstore soda fountain employee, were superior to today's bottled Cokes.

Item: Stonyfield Farm Yo Baby yogurtur What you get: six 4-ounce cups Cost: About $2.50 Nutritional content: Both the peach and vanilla flavors 110 calories; 4 grams fat; saturated fat not listed; 65 milligrams sodium Preparation time: Feed to infants and toddlers right from cup Review: Just when you thought every market had been tapped, here comes Stonyfield Farm with yogurt for babies. But what a yogurt it is. Its made with all-organic ingredients, including whole milk. Dont be alarmed by the funny-looking stuff on the top; thats real cream, something we dont see much in todays dairy products.

While in France, I ate wonderful little vanilla cakes called canneles. I have tried several recipes for these cakes. Can you give me some tips to help them come out like the ones that I remember? History says that more than 200 years ago, canneles were created by nuns who salvaged spilt flour from the holds of sailing ships. The key to getting the crisp, crunchy crust is the beeswax, which is available in health food stores. There shouldn't be any leavening agent in your recipe (i.e., baking powder, baking soda, yeast)

Brownies are easy to make. Just buy a mix and stir it up: A few minutes in the oven and what do you have?Some average chocolate squares that sort of lie there in the pan.You can do better than that.You can make brownies from scratch that will sit up and bark. They may take a little more time, but they cost about a third less and have a better flavor than the mix.The following recipe was devised for a training class for Indiana high school home economics instructors. Besides producing great-tasting brownies, it illustrates why ingredients for homemade brownies are superior to those in the mixes, especially if you read the labels.