The Green Cream

This pistachio cream, imported from Italy by Williams-Sonoma, can be made into a pale green ice cream that tastes like the essence of pistachios. Or you could use it to make pistachio custard, pistachio pudding, sandwich cookies with pistachio filling or perhaps pistachio creme bru^lee. The really depraved might just eat it out of the jar. Cooks in The Times Test Kitchen have found it to be a good addition to the pantry, and this is a good time to stock up on it for holiday baking--12-ounce jars are being sold at half the usual price.

Smooth Pistachio Cream, $4.89 at most Williams-Sonoma stores.

‘96 Nectars

If you’ve never had any honey but clover or orange blossom, the honeys from Mario Bianco of Caluso, Italy, may be a revelation. They’re thick, inclined to crystallize and quite richly flavored. Wine Expo has had various flavors of the ’96 harvest in stock. The rhododendron (nettare di rododendro) is delicate and floral, the eucalyptus (nettare di eucalipto) very thick with a caramel flavor that lingers.

Mario Bianco honeys, $11.99 (17.5 ounces) at Wine Expo, 2933 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica; (310) 828-4428.

Sweet Stepping

At first this looks like just one more step down the shameful slope of kitchen laziness (or convenience, if you prefer): ready-made cookie dough that you don’t even have to roll out, because it comes ready to bake in a disposable aluminum pan. But even moms and pops who could spare two minutes to roll their own might buy the Pillsbury One Step Cookie, because it’s instant gratification for young potential cooks--they stick it in the oven and voila, their own cookies. In short, it’s the ideal gimmick for a Halloween cookie party. Comes in chocolate chip and M&M; versions, and each cookie is sliced in wedges just like pizza.

Pillsbury One Step Cookie, in supermarkets.