orange county gourmet gift basket

While growing up in Saudi Arabia, I would watch our cook as he prepared complex, gourmet meals. It was not only a distraction in a place without neighborhood parks or television, but also a cultural adventure into his native Filipino culture, as well as romps to Italy, France and home to the U.S. I'd watch, fascinated, as he would remove the meat and bones from a whole chicken's skin, mixing the meat with vegetables and seasoning, and then somehow get it all back into the skin before stitching the floppy bird back together and roasting it.

I have never understood how a person could not know how to cook. Friends ask me to teach them a recipe or two, so before dinner parties, I call them into the kitchen. They are inevitably more concerned about what we are drinking, and are often back in the living room within five minutes.

Dining room diplomacy puts devolution back on

Assembly members and their staff may have been disappointed that they were unable to access their dining room offering such gourmet delights as pan-fried monkfish with pancetta and pea risotto and grilled fillet of beef with celeriac roast, spinach and wild mushroom gratin.

But many were more than happy to swallow the previously unthinkable image of the Rev Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams sitting beside each other, having concluded a deal which will see power-sharing in six weeks.

Over the weekend it had been clear that an historic deal was cooking at Stormont after the DUP insisted it had the ingredients for a return to government.

Mr Paisleys party warned that if Assembly members followed Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain's recipe for devolution, they would end up with a half-baked deal.

It's been two star-studded decades

My, how time flies. Thirty-one years have passed since I wrote my first restaurant review for the Twin Cities Reader, and 22 years since I joined the staff of the Minneapolis Star and Tribune (as it was called then). I had little expertise when I started -- just a love of food and a passion for exploring restaurants. But back in those days, little expertise was necessary: To be a restaurant critic in the Twin Cities, you needed only to be able to detect when food was either frozen, burnt, overcooked or oversalted. And now this is my final restaurant column for the Star Tribune.My passion for exploring restaurants began when I was a teenager and set out on a backpacking trip around the world. In remote corners of Turkey and Afghanistan, in towns where nobody spoke English, I discovered that the doors of the local cafés were points of entry into other worlds.

Are you eating enough colour?

Recently I was giving a workshop and talking about the importance of colour to a meal. One of the participants sniggered and asked if I was suggesting that she add food colouring to her food. Actually, I was referring, in part, to the revised Canada Food Guide.

The cover of the Canada Food Guide is designed to resemble a rainbow instead of the traditional pyramid. Colour is used to provide variety to your diet and they recommend that you should eat at least one dark green and one orange vegetable every day. There are plenty of dark greens, like spinach, broccoli, kale and a variety of lettuces but when it comes to orange vegetables it is a little more difficult to think beyond carrots.

However, peppers come in orange and pumpkins also jump to mind. At another workshop last week at Boularderie Elementary School, the students added yams or sweet potatoes and winter squash to the list.

Rough Diamond With A Heart Of Gold

Piet acknowledges that it's been a steep learning curve getting to grips with the complex world of wine. 'In my younger days I could not afford good wine, but it seems as if the fun we had was better then, even if the wine was bad! Can you imagine fixing a windmill in the Karoo in the middle of summer with only Hanepoot as consolation? That was memorable!' he says merrily.

'I may not be the winemaker, but I know planning is very important and one must always be prepared for the unexpected,' advises Piet. 'My taste in wine has developed considerably. It's a far cry from the attitude of 'anything goes' from my younger years. Now, I just can't bear to drink bad wine. So I'm forced to make good wine, and I think Raka qualifies!' he says proudly.

The Raka wines speak for themselves he maintains, and it appears the critics are sitting up to listen.

Preferred Boutique Introduces 'Run From Reality' Adventure Package

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., March 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Preferred Boutique, an exclusive portfolio of more than 80 member properties, invites travelers to live on the wild side with its new "Run from Reality" adventure travel package. The package highlights seven properties from Preferred Boutique's Adventure category -- Alisal Guest Ranch & Resort, The Pines Lodge, Snake River Lodge & Spa, Elk Mountain, The Lodge at Vail, Sundance Resort, and Beaver Creek Lodge. Available between April 1 and August 31, the "Run from Reality" package includes a minimum of two nights luxury accommodations, a high performance packed lunch, complimentary use of fitness facilities, and a customized, property specific adventure activity such as tandem paragliding, whitewater rafting, or a private horseback riding excursion.

Orange County’s Vitality Gourmet Throwing a Bone to Concerned Pet ...

SANTA ANA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Santa Ana, CA-based Vitality Gourmet, Southern California's premier provider of great tasting, gourmet, fresh organic meals, is launching a new culinary line where its chefs will whip up choice selection gourmet fresh food for your favorite canine pet. This new culinary initiative, Vitality Vittles, is the result of a long collaborative process with some of the top pet nutritionists, dog breeders and holistic veterinarians in the country.

"Most dog food today is about the lowest common denominator; it's overly processed using low quality ingredients, rancid oils and often contaminated animal byproducts," said Jodi Jones, president and CEO of Vitality Gourmet. "That doesn't cut it for Vitality Vittles. We never compromise our quality, ingredients or service.

Enjoy a taste of summer at the NEC

A brand new event for 2007, Music & Gardens for a Summer Evening, is debuting at The NEC and is running alongside the must-see gardening event of the year.