From left to right: Pepperidge Farm's Dark Chocolate Cheesecake, Boston Cream Pie Milano Melts, and Carrot Cake cookies

When our food team ripped open a package from Pepperidge Farm housing their latest — and hopefully greatest — cookie flavors, a collective "ooooooh" broke out among all members. Its new offerings include cookies inspired by dark chocolate cheesecake, carrot cake, and my personal holy grail dessert: Boston cream pie. As longtime fans of Pepperidge Farm Dark Chocolate Milanos and Chessman cookies, our expectations were high.

Dark Chocolate Cheesecake

These soft, doughy cookies looked scant on their promised dark chocolate element. Thankfully, our fears were eliminated on first bite. While some tasters docked points, citing their failure to resemble the promised sweet treat, most enjoyed the cookie's balance between chewy cookie, dark chocolate, and cream-cheese-flavored chunks. That said, we wished they had a more prominent cream cheese tang, and we'd have appreciated a more generous hand with the chocolate chunks. Still, as a whole, they satisfied our afternoon snack craving quite well.

Keep reading to see how the other offerings fared.

• Get acquainted with 16 stellar artisanal food producers — Zagat
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• Fast food menus have barely improved nutritionally in the past decade — Delish
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Whether you're going the DIY route and asking a friend or family member to bake up a cake, or working with a pastry shop, wedding cake design doesn't stop at aesthetics. From ultratraditional (triple chocolate) to tropical and trendy (coconut passion fruit), these flavor combinations will help inspire the most important aspect of your cake: what's inside. Consider our suggestions as just that, the baker or bakery you're working with will likely have ideas of their own, and many of these flavor combinations can be mixed and matched as well. You're sure to be truly inspired: just keep reading.

• David Chang and Paul Kahan are James Beard's outstanding chefs — Eater
• Ditch the dairy: vegan recipes that entice — HuffPost Taste
• Check out the afterparty scene at the Beard Awards — Zagat
• Cooking tips from New York's top restaurant chefs — Grub Street New York
• Rat meat passed off as lamb pulled from Chinese shelves — Delish
• Is it OK to store butter on the kitchen counter? — Chow
• Must make: homemade Drumstick ice cream cones — The Kitchn

Fresh and light but immensely satisfying, poached-egg-topped quinoa cakes with greens from Fresh Tart is just the sort of fast and easy meal we turn to on harried weeknights.

Eating light, colorful, crunchy food makes me feel good, fits the season, and makes cooking more fun and interesting. Although I generally steer away from grains and high-carbohydrate food, I do occasionally indulge in quinoa. I just love the nutty taste, and that it makes a terrific breakfast "cereal" as well as a base for a flavor-packed salad. I've been eating a lot of hemp seeds lately because they taste a lot like quinoa, but are even higher in protein and fiber with very few carbohydrates. Now when I make quinoa, I make a 50-50 combination of quinoa and hemp seeds (1/2 cup red quinoa, 1/2 cup hemp seeds, 1 cup water, 1/2 tsp. salt; bring to a boil, cover, simmer for 15 minutes or until quinoa is tender and water is absorbed; eat warm or cover and chill to use in salads or the recipe below).

Keep reading for more and the fast and easy recipe.

Today's artisanal sweet blows York Peppermint Patties out of the water, even if we are longtime devotees of the chocolate mint candy. Hailing from a family mint farm in Oregon, Seely Peppermint Patties ($8 for five) are a close cousin to their drugstore analogue, but have a snappier, slightly thicker shell; delicately textured fondant; and a bright and bracing mint flavor that makes them an all-in-all win.

A word of advice: order up a pack or two of these winning sweets before the Summer heat makes shipping chocolate a poor choice. If you play your cards right, you'll have enough to tuck a few away in the freezer for a frosty treat perfect for cooling down on balmy days.

There's no denying the allure of traditional slow-cooked BBQ pulled pork, but it's more of a project than is always practical. That's where this ingenious shortcut of a recipe from Whipped comes in.

Thirty-minute BBQ pork sandwich: a quick and healthy twist on traditional pulled pork.

For more — and the recipe — visit her blog and then be sure to share your food photos via Savory Sights on POPSUGAR Social or by starting your own blog. If you're on Instagram, then chime in on the conversation with the hashtag #savorysight.

Whether you're hosting a festive Cinco de Mayo party or have mellower plans, including frosty bottles of Mexican beer is an easy, refreshing, and perfectly on-theme way to round out your South-of-the-border spread. From light and crisp (read: compulsively drinkable) to thicker-bodied malty brews, there's a cerveza for nearly any taste. Here are three of our go-tos.

Tecate

Our day-drinking pick, Tecate is exceptionally light and easy to drink. Though critics may call it watery, we think it's utterly refreshing and a solid choice if balmy temperatures are in your forecast this Cinco de Mayo. For extra freshness, try it with a squeeze of lime, or, if spicy is more your style, doctor a can up michelada-style.

Keep reading for two more suggestions.

Wasting food in general is frustrating but particularly irksome when working with precious and pricey asparagus. Fed up with throwing away nearly half the snappy stalks in the name of more palatable results, I was thrilled to find a simple solution from food scientist Harold McGee. After prepping asparagus per usual, reserve the woody ends; much more can be utilized than conventional wisdom suggests.

How to Salvage Asparagus Ends

• Trim away the last inch of irretrievably dried-out, extra-woody ends.
• Slice the remainder of the asparagus ends into thin (between 1/8- and 1/4-inch) coins. Slicing these less-tender parts breaks up the fibrous grain, much like thinly slicing celery; the coins become nearly as tender as the tips.
• Sauté, steam, blanch, roast, or even serve the coins raw as part of a salad. They can be used in nearly any application one would use the tips; just make certain to reduce their cook time, if heating them at all.

"Chipotle serves margaritas?" That was the resounding reaction when we set up today's officewide taste test of the chain's latest offering: made-to-order margaritas. Ardent Chipotle fans may raise their hackles at that statement: since day one, the burrito chain has served margaritas, though they were little-publicized as an option. But two weeks ago, Chipotle announced it was rolling out a new made-to-order margarita program, featuring freshly squeezed citrus juice, organic agave syrup, Cointreau, and an optional salted rim in lieu of a preblended mix (as was the old standard).

Were the newly revamped margaritas an improvement on the original — and more importantly, should you sip 'em or skip 'em? Keep reading for our conclusion.

Silver, while a gorgeous addition to the table, has a reputation for being finicky to maintain. Luckily there's an easy solution to tackling tarnish — no trip to the store to procure supplies needed. All you'll need is a large pot, tinfoil, baking soda, water, a pair of silicone-tipped tongs and a soft dishcloth — really, that's it.

The Low-Fuss Procedure

1. Line the pot with tinfoil. Add a quart of water and 2 tablespoons baking soda to the pot, and bring the solution to a boil.
2. Working with a few pieces at a time (to minimize scratching) gently lower the tarnished silver into the baking soda solution, let sit for 10-30 seconds, or until the tarnish dissolves. Remove the silver with the tongs; set aside.
3. Once all of the silver is tarnish-free, rinse each piece with soapy water, and dry with a soft dishcloth.

Keep reading for a few tips and tricks.