Mother's Day Gifting woes

Submitted by Steve
Time's almost up! Are you still looking for last day Mother's Day gifts? Call us and see if we can get you something overnight. As for me, how do I avoid the trap of getting Mom the same Hallmark card and flowers as last year?

2007 James Beard Cookbook Awards

Submitted by Steve
Over at Amazon Daily, they mentioned that the annual James Beard Cookbook Award results have come in. I've never heard of James Beard, but the cookbooks that won look interesting enough. Click through to Amazon Daily.

Vegetarian Food For The Rest of Us

Submitted by Steve
If you ever get a chance to visit Athens, GA, you'll find a number of great local restaurants to try, but if you can only try one, I have to recommend The Grit. Now, if you are not from the South, then you probably already hate grits, and then finding out that the place is a vegetarian restaurant... well, I can see why you'd might want to avoid the place, but trust me, you'll be blown away. When most people hear about vegetarian food, images of veggie burgers and tie-died shirts pop into their heads. Well, according to Yahoo! Travel, The Grit is "so good that even nonvegans wait in line for the tofu chicken salad." I recommend the Golden Bowl.

Check it out. Pick up their recipe book. Maybe, you'll spot Michael Stipe!

Desayuno Tipico

Submitted by Steve
A few years back, my friends and I made a trip to Manuel Antonio National Park in Costa Rica, a beautiful Pacific rainforest. Besides the monkeys that try to steal your socks and poisonous frogs the color of crayons, what I remember most is what I was served for breakfast each morning.

Desayuno Tipico--the "typical breakfast"--is so aptly named, that you have to wonder if someone at Denny's should take a trip down south and rewrite their menu. (Moons Over My Hammy? Are they sure that isn't an episode of Loony Toons?). For the Manuel Antonio Costa Rican, Desayuno Tipico is a serving of scrambled eggs, sausage, corn tortillas, a green tomato-based sauce, and an amazing sour cream. The combination of which is brilliant in its simplicity. I think the secret is in the corn tortillas, but I've never had breakfast

Genies and Spirits

Submitted by Steve
Could there be anything cooler than pouring your Yellow Tail out of a crystal decanter resembling something that seems like it could house a genie?

Decanters make for a flashy presentation and serve to oxygenate your wine while also keeping it separate from any sediment that comes in the bottle. This can be especially useful for bringing out the flavor of younger wines.

Pictured is a Lady Anne wine decanter, an inexpensive piece of crystal that you can find on our site, but we also sell a number of others, and you can Google for others, as well.

The Fun in Fondue

Submitted by Steve
When I mentioned our new blog to our Customer Service team, I was first laughed at. What would we talk about? Would anyone care? Well, frankly, I don't know how many people will care, but we already have some topics to bring up. In fact, Tara from our Marketing team recommended I talk about fondue. "Fondue?" I asked. I must have missed something in my twenty some years, because I have never eaten fondue, and I never thought I'd blog about it. Meanwhile, Tara meanwhile has been having fondue parties!

What exactly is a fondue party, and why hasn't she invited me? Here's the skinny (on the first part... I still haven't figured out why she hasn't invited me):

You start off with a melted yummy goo of most often cheese, but perhaps chocolate instead... mmm... This is melted in a small burner, and you toss in bread or cake crumbs, and any other tasty thing you can find. Then you use that melted yummy goo as a dip for your crackers, strawberries, whatever! Find out more at Wikipedia.

If you are wondering about some fondue recipes, try out http://www.fonduebits.com/ for a good start.

If you think you are ready to make the plunge into some yummy fondue goodness, you'll need a fondue pot! You can pick up a Le Creuset or Mauviel piece from our site, but you can also find some sets at someplace like Target.

Easy Cooking for Mother's Day part 2

Submitted by Jim
Still looking for ways to impress Mom? This one is good for the kids, too.

Baked French Toast
Keeping with my promise to keep you away from an open flame, this French Toast recipe is simple and will amaze and impress any mom you may know. French toast in general is about as easy as it gets, but I have a method that is even simpler. This way we can bake the whole mess while keeping the counter clear and kitchen clean.

You need french bread, 1 cup of half and half, 1 cup of milk, 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, eggs.

1. To feed about 6 people, start with loaf of French style bread. Find a loaf with a nice thick of crust. Cut this in slices about 1 inch thick and set it aside.
2. Take one cup of half and half cream (you can buy small containers like you used to drink milk from in school) and one cup of milk.
3. Wisk in 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar until it dissolves and add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.
4. Grease the inside of an oven proof cake pan and arrange the bread slices in it.
5. Pour the egg mixture over it. Let sit a few hours or ideally over night.
6. Bake 350 degrees for 35 –40 minutes. If it’s runny, bake it a little longer, otherwise you are done!
   

Goes great with real maple syrup.

These tips work great with kids of almost any age. Mine started cooking young and have mastered these quite well along with other recipes by about age ten.

Easy Cooking for Mother's Day

submitted by Jim
Nothing makes Mom feel special and appreciated on “Her Day” more than breakfast in bed. Now of course, the Family Circus version of burnt pancakes from a flour strewn kitchen are perfectly acceptable. Once. After that, your choices are to get better or make brunch reservations. Dad's that don't like to cook, like mine was, can master one or two signature items for these special occasions, under controlled conditions.

Impact is important for the occasional chef, and for Mothers Day, a positive one is preferred. (The making of memories should not have to include fire suppression). Hence, my suggestions will focus on the oven. For you real novices, that is the metal box under the burners. Besides not exposing yourself to the dangers of open flame, it is harder to screw up stuff in the oven. The dishes I will recommend will be either obviously under baked (i.e. runny) or done. If it’s a little over done, well heck, what can she expect, you only cook once a year right?

Quiche for the Queen
What is great about quiche is that you can put anything you like in it, and it’s still pretty good. I have made great quiche with leftovers from old pot roast, burnt bacon and produce well past its peak. Pick ingredients the mother in your life loves, and have about a 1 ½ cups of them pre-cooked and ready. I’ll cover how to pre-cook them in bit.

The basic quiche is really simple.
Step one: Buy Pillsbury ready-to- use pie crust. The ones in the refrigerated section of the grocery store, not the nasty frozen kind. They will probably be between the dozen large eggs and the 8 oz. package of shredded cheese you will need too. Just walk the full length of the dairy case and look for them all and get a small container of sour cream while you are there.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This is not a healthy recipe. If you want be impressive and slimming too, try reduced fat cheese and low fat sour cream if you like. But around our house, that just ain't quiche.

Step two: Prepare the filling for use. Spinach and mushrooms make good filling, and I have had luck with Tomato, Bacon and Seafood. (Some take a little more work, but are usually worth it). I saute a box of frozen spinach in a bit of butter with lots of garlic and bit of salt & pepper. Be sure to cook it until all the liquid is gone or the quiche won’t work. For tomato & bacon, I cut 4 strips of bacon in bits, brown them and a diced tomato once the bacon in nearly done. Drain the oil be fore adding to the quiche. Easiest of all, is mushroom: Take an 8 oz. Package of sliced mushrooms, add a dap of butter and cook in the microwave for about 90 seconds. Pour off the excess liquid.

What is great about this step is it can be done in advance. When I am going to be making a lot of quiche in different varieties, I will make these up the night before so I can bang out 3 or 4 flavors in no time.

Step three: Roll out the crusts. Hey, the fat little dough boy did the hard part for you already. So now, instead of fighting with the rolling pin and covering yourself with sweat and flour, just set the oven to 400 and unfold the pie dough in a pie pan.

Tip: when I am making multiples, I will often buy disposable pans to make cleaning up very easy.

This is also the time you get to scrunch the edge of the pie crust by pinching the excess together. If you’re not sure what I mean, look at the picture on the box. Do that. If you can't, it's not too late to call Mom's favorite eatery and book a table.

Step four: Mix the core quiche ingredients. Crack 8 eggs into a large bowl and whisk them. I like to add about a tablespoon of flour and add about ½ cup of the sour cream too.

Step five: Ladle about ½ cup of the egg mix into pie pan and add half the cheese. Then put in whatever ingedient you have chosen, top it with the rest of the egg and add the remaining cheese. Gently fold the fillings together.

Step six: Bake at 400 degrees for about 40 minutes. Check it. If it is still runny, bake longer. If not, it’s done!

This is great with cut fruit and will feed a couple adults and children. Check back again tomorrow for another quick Mother's Day recipe!

Piano Playing Kitty Cat

This is getting to be old news, and this certainly doesn't have anything to do with Dishes, Decor, and More, but have you seen this piano playing cat? Amazing!

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