The posh pie
Holiday pies take a fancy trip from oven to table in a Vintage Kitchen pie plate from Typhoon. The stoneware pan also is microwave- and dishwasher-safe. The 10-inch dish is available in cream, pastel green and light blue for $17-$23 at Just Ducky in Darien and Naperville, some Sears stores, including Vernon Hills, and online at sears.com. The red pictured here, along with the other colors and smaller 8-inch pie dishes ($15), can be purchased by mail too: typhoonus.com or 877-897-4872.
Quick fix for dessert
Hosts who hate baking, as well as scratch bakers facing (gasp!) a last-minute disaster, will appreciate Lollipop Tree’s mocha bread mix with chocolate espresso beans. Just add eggs and butter, and you’ll have a rich, delicious, tastes-like-homemade loaf cake in an hour. Top with the easy recipe for glaze that’s on the bag, or buy a jar of the complementary chocolate mocha sauce. The velvety, coffee-laced topping works great with ice cream too. Find the mix and sauce ($8.50 each) at Macy’s.
All in the numbers
Nestle’s Chocolatier line of dark and bittersweet baking chocolates ups the ante with various percentages (53 and 62 percent, respectively) of cacao content in bars, chunks and morsels; the higher the number, the more intense the chocolate flavor. We tasted it blind against a more expensive brand and were impressed with the depth of flavor. Dominick’s, Sunset Foods and Valli Produce in Hoffman Estates sell 8- to 10-ounce packages for $3.80-$4.30 each.
