Instead of giving chocolates, wine or sweet treats, why not give fruit gift baskets instead? I am sure that it will be more appreciated by new moms, people who are sick, your parents and new neighbors. We all have reasons to stay healthy these days. The gift of fruit is a thoughtful way to encourage everybody to eat healthy!
Here are some fruit gift baskets from Red Envelope. Take your pick!
Just in case my husband is reading this – I have found the perfect gift you can give to me!
Who wouldn’t want to receive these amazingly sweet chocolate gifts? Even if you do not have a sweet tooth, I am sure you would still appreciate this. Look at the presentation!
These are all from Shari’s Berries. They are on Facebook (who isn’t?) so you can check from there and receive updates. You can also go directly to their web site and order. These really make the perfect gifts!
This June 2011, my high school batch mates are planning to have a grand reunion, 10 years after we graduated from our alma mater. I volunteered to help out with the preparations, particularly with the food planning. It is an easy task for me because I have friends who are in the food business that are willing to give their services for a very affordable price. A friend also offered to give the members of the planning committee a free tasting class of fine wines. I’m very interested to try it out because this is something new to me. I haven’t thought that wine tasting is an art that can be learned.
The person who will teach us about wine tasting is my friend’s husband who’s been a bartender for a very long time. According to him, not all wines taste the same. Just by tasting it, one can determine if it’s a rare wine, a cheap wine, or a premier wine. All you need to develop is your keen sense of taste. Through practice and experiences of tasting different kinds of wines, he can easily identify the brand and type of wine that he drinks without looking at the label. I was amazed when he showed it to us and it made me want to become a wine expert just like him. I could probably make a career out of it.
Online shopping saves my day yet again. I completely forget that my uncle’s birthday party is this weekend and we are going to be in charge of bringing the wine. My schedule is quite full already and everything is just too far from where I live. It is a good thing I have learned the art of shopping in my pajamas – online shopping. So I was able to buy a couple of fine wines for the party 4AM through Sokolin.com. They come recommended by a friend who is a wine connoisseur.
Sokolin is a renowned, international wine retailer and you can find they offer premier wine and rare wine and ship internationally as well. Their online store is very easy to navigate, with wines classified per year, per brand, country, region and even get to find rare wine.
The store was founded in 1934 when original owner David Sokolin received one of the first liquor licenses issued by New York State after Prohibition was repealed. Today, Sokolin is run by Dave Sokolin, grandson of David, and is an internationally renowned luxury retailer specializing in fine wines from long-established wine-producing regions.
An advantage of having to shop online from their site is the vast knowledge you will gain from reading their articles alone. You can even ask them recommendations and they will be glad to give you suggestions.
There are numerous cake recipesand cookie recipes on the internet. A simple search can produce lots of results and recipes you can try out. However, only a few of these are easy enough to be done at home or without experience. Here are some tips on how you can get cake and cookie recipes that are easy to prepare.
Search for food magazines online.
Online food magazines contain a large collection of cake and cookie recipes. Tidingsmag.com, in particular, is a repository of healthy recipes that feature easy dinner recipes from all over the world. Aside from very easy dinner recipes, it also features cookies and cakes that you can easily prepare at home.
Browse through the dessert recipes.
Dessert recipes are some of the most popular recipes in any food magazine. Navigating through the dessert recipes of Tidingsmag.com can give you access to some of the healthiest and easiest-to-prepare treats like cranberry pecan coffee cake and lemon sponge cake. Depending on the ingredients and the manner by which the cookie or dessert is prepared, you can choose which one is easy enough for you to make.
Read reviews.
In order to make sure that the recipes are easy enough, read the reviews of people who have tried the recipe before. Usually, those that are quite easy to make will be popular even to those who are not experienced bakers.
We all enjoy BBQ parties – the camaraderie, the weather (if it’s done outdoors) and of course the food! I especially like grilled food because it is so easy to cook that you can pass the responsibility to your husband. And the fact you can cook everything on a BBQ grill – meat, pork, chicken, corn, veggies (kebabs!), hotdogs, seafood, the list is endless.
It’s no surprise then that there are families who would invest on lynx grills, the best grills in the market according to reviews. Having a BBQ grill saves time on last minute dinners, entertains guests easily at home and not to mention, gives a great feast.
Some take into consideration cost, functionality, ease of cleaning and taste when buying a grill.
Cost:
Most families take this as the top most consideration when buying grills. Gas grills cost more than electric and charcoal grills. Many families buy charcoal grills as it is the cheapest, but charcoal won’t save you money in the long run. Charcoal is more expensive than fuel. You will spend much more money on charcoal than you will on gas down the road when you are having a BBQ. Electric grills are not that expensive and most families with a small space in their house use this.
Taste:
There are people who say grilled food taste differently depending on how and where it is grilled. A charcoal grill or pellet grill should be your selection if taste/flavor is at the top or your list. It is even said that choosing a certain type of wood to smoke or a certain type of charcoal that will give you the flavor you are looking for. Ever read "smoked" ribs or salmon when dining out in restaurants? Consider a gas grill though when you need quick cooking.
Additional Features:
Gas grills like fire magic grills can have side burners, rotisserie kits, and multiple burners which allow you more cooking space and the ability to cook other types of food at the same time.
Happy grilling!
Christmas time in our family always means two things: family + good food = great times and a fond memories. Never did one Christmas go by without me remembering all the great food, cooked with love by my aunts and grandmothers, we have shared with one another. In fact, it has been a tradition for us to eat certain recipes at certain food gatherings, like my Mom’s pasta during Christmas dinner, my aunt’s special kaldereta and the special ham we buy at a store centuries old (They opened when my grandmother was just 6 years old!).
Healthy Recipes are included in our menu this year. Let’s face it, most of my aunts and uncles are not getting any younger. We are not getting younger. This year, we have another generation in our family – the great grandkids who are my kids and my niece and nephew. We need to be conscious of our health. Low fat and sugar free are on most my list since we are diabetics.
Christmas Recipes are hard to come by, most of what we originally serve have only been passed on by word of mouth. I should take the initiative to write it down sometime. However, things are going to be easy for us with 1001Recipe.com. I love how varied their recipes are and how everything is categorized! It makes finding certain dishes super easy.
Take for example a Fruitcake Recipe I was looking for. I want the fresh fruit kind with no wine since my kids eat it and I found one in less than five minutes.
Main Ingredients:
Dried fruits: 1.5 cup, chopped (cranberry, mango and pear)
Orange juice: 1/2 cup
All purpose flour: 1 cup
Butter: 1 stick at room temperature (1/2 cup or 1/4 lb)
Brown sugar: 1/2 cup
Eggs: 3
Walnuts: 1/2 cup, chopped
Baking soda: 1/4 tsp
Salt: 1/4 tsp
Ground cinnamon: 1/2 tsp
Ground ginger: 1/2 tsp
Apricot jam: 3 tbsp
Directions:
1. One day ahead of time, soak the cranberries, pears and mango in the orange juice and cover tightly, refrigerated.
2. On the day of preparation, preheat oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
3. In a mixing bowl, cream butter with brown sugar.
4. Add eggs one at a time and beat until smooth.
5. Stir in the fruit pieces and walnuts. Mix the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and salt and add to creamed mixture.
6. Pour this into a round pan and bake for 40 minutes or until golden.
7. To decorate the cake, combine apricot jam with 1 tbsp water in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir until melted and thoroughly mixed. Strain through a fine mesh strainer and brush it over the cake.
