Gourmet Gift Baskets for Loved Ones

I love giving gourmet gift baskets to my friends and loved ones. I usually get mine at www.gourmetgiftbaskets.com.

Giving gifts, whether food, homemade or bought from store are truly appreciated. That is one of the reasons why I love giving gifts on special occasions and sometimes, during "just because" moments. I sometimes make decorative boxes and shapes for my gift baskets when I have enough time to do it myself, but if I my schedule is a little tight, I go ahead buy beautiful gourmet gift baskets online.

Most members of the family love to cook and bake every gathering. I usually give dozen of cookies or delicious cup cakes and box them with a beautiful bow. That is, if I have the time to do it. If not, I just easily browse gourmet gift baskets online and luckily, www.gourmetgiftbaskets.com has a lot of superior quality gift baskets to choose from and backed with a 100% satisfaction guarantee. I don't have to worry about the arrangement and the content because their gourmet gift baskets are artfully arranged with exquisite full-sized treats and gifts. I usually shop by categories or per occasion and sometimes, by recepient because it is hard to select which one to give. Most friends and relatives who received some of my gifts were delighted.

How about you? Do you enjoy giving or receiving gourmet gift baskets?

Chinese Recipe Tips

Chinese recipes usually call for very specific ingredients and ways to cook everything. There are many tips you can use to save time and money and still have a top notch meal or add ingredients to make a good meal great. You can cut corners on rice, kinds of oil, even the kind of meats you use. Many people take the meat out of a recipe and call it vegetarian. A delicious alternative to regular cooking oil is sesame oil. Just a few drops mixed with your normal oil or used by itself, sesame oil makes any dish have a very unique flavor.


Photo by stevendepolo, on flickr

Shrimp cooked in vegetable oil tastes like greasy shrimp but shrimp cooked in sesame oil taste like a Chinese treat. Sesame oil has a strong and unique flavor that many people automatically associate with Chinese food. It is higher in fat so if you are on a diet, it might not be a good choice.

Rice is common in all kinds of Chinese recipes. If you make a lot of Chinese food, you can cook a lot more rice than you know you will use. You can freeze this excess rice and use it later on for fried rice. This will save you the trouble of cooking a whole new batch and it tastes just as good. Don t be afraid to change recipes. If you have a great recipe for chicken, try using crab or shrimp next time or changing some vegetables around. You might have just created your own unique recipe! This can be a lot of fun and the more familiar with Chinese recipes you get, the better your creations will be.

A SOFT DRINK A DAY

This guest post from Doris Dillon

This morning, I was checking my e-mail using my rochester clear internet and went to grab a Diet Doctor Pepper out of the fridge. If you have never had a Diet Doctor Pepper, you should. It tastes just like a regular Dr. Pepper to me and is much more crisp than a Diet Coke in my opinion. I try to limit myself to one soft drink a day, just because I know that if I start drinking more, I won’t be able to stop. Unfortunately, when I went to grab one out of the fridge when I was packing my lunch, I realized that we were completely out. Yesterday, I know that I had four in the fridge. When my husband woke up and started getting ready for work, I asked him about them, not expecting that he was going to start smirking. It turns out that he drank three Dr. Peppers yesterday. We had run out and he didn’t bother to tell me. Drinking that many Dr. Pepperscan’t be good for you!

Granola Recipes

Most people agree that granola is good for you and that it tastes great. The problem though is that they become tired of eating it plain, in cereal or in yogurt. They want something more appealing and that isn’t too hard to do. There are certainly plenty of delicious granola recipes out there to choose from. Some come on the packages of granola but most can be found online. Not only that, you can save money buy making various types of granola recipes on your own instead of already packaged.


Photo by Paulius Peciura, on Flickr
Granola bars are very popular and you can choose to make your own instead of buying them at the store. This is a great opportunity to add what you want to them. For example I love the peanut butter granola bars but most of them just don’t have enough of the peanut butter taste in them. I can make my own and I add more peanut butter than the recipe calls for. As a result I get a delicious tasting snack that I enjoy my way instead of how the manufacturer thinks I should enjoy it.

Trail mix is a very healthy snack and one you can make on your own. You can mix the granola with what you like and leave out what you don’t. Some people buy trail mix at the store and then pick out all the coconuts and complain there isn’t enough raisins. If you make it yourself you will be able to add what you want and leave out the other ingredients that you aren’t going to eat anyway. You can store it in Ziploc bags so it will stay fresh until you consume all of it.

Regardless of the granola recipe that you choose to make, it is important to use quality ingredients. You should always have old fashioned oats to work with. Don’t use oats that will cook in just a few minutes or you will have a gooey mess to content with. They also won’t get that crunchy taste that you desire from granola. You also need to let the granola bake slowly at a low temperature. If you try to do it at too high of a heat the inside of the granola will stay soggy.