Food Picks

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Food Picks
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Gift baskets are always popular and a great idea to give as a gift. People love to receive gift baskets. Making your own food lover's gift basket is cheap and easy.

You can fill with a variety of inexpensive items and you have lots of choices. You can easily customize each basket to your recipient.

I've put together a few great ideas for making food lover's gift baskets, complete with instructions on how to make them. You can make inexpensive gift baskets or expensive gift baskets depending on your budget.

You can find many inexpensive items for use in making your gift baskets or filling your gift baskets at 'dollar' stores, craft stores, party stores, discount outlets, flea markets, close-out stores, etc.

For gift containers you can use: any type of basket, wicker basket, straw basket, bucket, laundry basket, plastic container, toy dump truck or other large toy truck, purse, tin, Christmas tin, seasonal container, large tea pot, large upside-down hat, or plastic storage container-put lid underneath.

Other items might be: extra-large coffee mug, boot, potted plant holder, wire basket, large pasta bowl, large popcorn bowl, cooking pot, clay pot, tackle box, colander, small wagon, skillet, antique trunk, champagne bucket, hamper, Asian-style trunk or picnic basket.

For gift basket liner you can use: tissue paper, shredded paper, shredded newspaper, tea towels, dish towels, hand towels, kitchen towels, colored towels, colored napkins, placemats, diapers, baby blankets or fabric pieces.

For gift basket filler you can use: shredded colored paper, straw, Easter basket grass, crumpled newspaper comics, a bed of wrapped chocolates or other wrapped candy.

For items in the container it'll depend on the specialty or theme of the gift basket. In this case, for a food lover. Here is a small random sampling to give you just a few ideas:

Flavored teas, green tea, specialty tea, herbal tea, biscotti, tea infuser, small tools, kitchen gadgets, healthy snacks, fancy chocolates, boxed chocolates, chocolate bars, hot chocolate mix, specialty coffee mix, or a handwritten food related poem.

Homemade cookies, homemade brownies, homemade jams, popcorn, caramel corn, giant-size boxed candy, candy canes, suckers, lollipops, apple, pear, orange, persimmon, mango, papaya, chips, pretzels, nuts, coffee mug, gourmet pasta, or gourmet olive oil.

Cooking tools, cooking gadgets, measuring spoons, pre-packaged food items, pancake mixes, brownie mixes, cookie mixes, wooden spoons, your best chocolate chip cookie recipe, Italian recipes, Mexican food recipes or other ethnic recipes, birthday poems, or cinnamon sticks.

For gift basket wrapping you can use tulle netting or I like to use cellophane wrap. You can buy it in large rolls. Look for specialty packaging outlets where you can buy it wholesale. Tie off the wrapped basket with ribbon. Wired fabric ribbon is best if you have it.

For bows: You can use pre-packaged bows but making your own bows is easy and the best if you can do it. Use a large or huge bow.

Assemble all your gift basket items, tools, etc. Now line your selected gift container. Now stuff the selected filler into the gift basket to give added height to your items. Place, layer and arrange your selected items on the filler in the gift container. Put the larger items in the back, the smaller items in front.

Fill in the holes or prop up with more filler (shredded paper, Easter basket grass, wrapped chocolates, napkins or holiday napkins etc.)

Also you can use 'picks' of artificial flowers to fill in space. Place your cellophane or other wrap under the gift basket. Center the gift basket on the wrap. Bring the cellophane or other wrap over the top of the gift basket and tie it with ribbon and or a beautiful bow! Use ribbon and bows to match your theme colors.

Tuck a card in the ribbon and that's it!

You can find fabric or wired ribbon cheaply at Costco-- especially in the fall prior to Christmas but often throughout the year in some stores. You can shred paper in a paper shredder. If you're going to need a lot of cellophane you can purchase it wholesale through the packaging specialty stores throughout the U.S. but should be easily found in craft stores.

General tips: Try to use non-perishable items except for fruit for fruit baskets. Use freshly packaged food items, because even packaged crackers and cookies can go stale in a couple of months.

You can find filler flower 'picks' at garage sales for pennies. If you buy wholesale they are usually around a dollar each. Try not to mix chocolate or other food fragrant items with non-food fragrant items in the same basket.

Also there's nothing like learning how to make gift baskets from a video or DVD for making cheap and easy gift baskets. You can view it over and over again and share with your children, other family members and friends.

You can even charge for classes with your new-found knowledge and/or start a home based business if you so desire. In any event, making a food lover's gift basket is cheap and easy.

For more information on how to make gift baskets and how to start a gift basket business, go to http://www.HowToMakeBeautifulGiftBaskets.com a website specializing in making gift baskets and gift basket business tips, help, advice and resources including information on drop shipping gift baskets

Wild Food Gathering as a Part of Camping

Recently I have been looking into using natural ingredients to use in cooking, thanks to a suggestion on our forum I thought it would be great to look into collecting and making my own food while out camping. Ray Mears is an expert at this but I thought I would try and find a few simple recipes to start with. The idea of being in the wild and collecting my own ingredients is something that I would love to be able to do. So far I have been researching what I could do and thought I would share these with you as well as some identification tips and benefits of using natural ingredients. In the near future we are looking to go and try these recipes ourselves but first I will take a simplified look at three different forms of wild food gathering over three articles:

1. Edible leaves

2. Fruits and berries

3. Fungi/mushrooms

Part 1: Edible leaves.

An easy one to start with:

Nettle Tea

Pick young, small nettles (be careful!)

Wash and then boil with water.

Remove the nettles when the water goes slightly green, if you leave the nettles in the tea it may be quite bitter.

Nettles are plentiful and easy to find and identify.  The benefits of nettles in your diet are iron, calcium and a loads of vitamins including A, C and E.

Herb Salads

There is a huge list of wild food salads that can be made out of a combination of herbs and leaves that are common throughout the UK. Below is a list of some of those that are edible; I have not included all, as some can be easily confused with poisonous species and varieties. 

Ivy toadflax leaves – Found growing near walls, the leaves have five lobes, are smooth and green on top and reddish-purple underneath. Better to eat when young as the leaves can become bitter.

Hairy Bittercress – Found on woodland floors and disturbed soil. Exploding seed capsules, leaves are hairy on stems that smooth and erect, branched from base.

Wood Sorrel – Sometimes referred to as a shamrock because of the leaflets being clover-like; three heart-shaped leaves with a fold down the middle. Often found in shady areas and verges of woodlands. Can be used in small quantities if cooked, be careful when using.

Wild Marjoram – Found in limey soils; in grasslands, hedge banks, and scrubland.  Round, dense, flower clusters of a purple colour. A popular herb from the oregano family.

Dandelions - Often thought of as a weed and the bain of most gardeners , the leaves are supposedly very tasty in salads, if picked when young and tender, usually during the spring. There are many inventive recipes that can be found online that incorporate dandelion leaves and also their flowers.

Hedge Mustard/ Garlic Mustard/ Jack-by-the-Hedge – Loaded with vitamin C, a popular addition to salads, pesto and stews.

Wild garlic (Ransoms)  – Broad, bright green leaves, flowers are white with elongated petals. Found in moist established woodlands and hedgerows, in season in spring. Known to help to reduce blood pressure and cholesterol especially by consuming the bulb.

Sow thistle – Found mostly along roadsides, have yellow flowers and bluey-green leaves.

Things to keep in mind:

• Have a plant ID book with you, make sure you know what you are looking for and have identified your plants correctly.
• Avoid picking in heavily polluted areas or near rivers and streams as plants may be contaminated.
• Wash everything very well.
• Don’t eat anything unless you are 100% sure of what it is and any effects it may have on you.

 

 

Looking into wild food gathering has made we realise what a lost art this is. While this used to be an everyday part of living it had now become almost a forgotten source of food in our diets. Knowledge in plant identification, seasonal plants and fruits, best time for picking, which part to pick, and preparation are all essential in gathering wild food. Ray Mears makes it look easy but he has spent his life researching, gathering and preparing food in the wild. So while I have listed only simple ideas I felt that a lot more time and knowledge is needed before commencing to more difficult stages! Look out for upcoming parts soon.

About the Author

Camping & Campsites UK

my dog is 56days pregnant and not putting on alot of weight she just picks at her food drinks water ok?

i went to the vet 2weeks ago she is having six pups will she put weight on in the final week?

With 6 puppies she should be putting on weight. If you had an ultrasound 2 weeks ago, you may want to take her in for another to be safe. Some dogs stop eating when they're close to whelping, but she's still too early for the puppies to have a chance.

Angelic program makes food affordable
EWING - To those who participate in Angel Food Ministries at Calvary Christian Fellowship Ministries, the outreach food program is heaven-sent. Angel Food Ministries is a program that supplies quality foods at a deeply discounted rate that anyone can participate in.

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