Gift baskets can focus on gourmet breakfast items, like pancake and waffle mixes, jams, and syrups, gourmet cooking items like vinegars and oils, or dessert ingredients such as pie fillings. Whatever ingredients you choose, they can be used in an astonishing number of different recipes.

You may have some of your own favorite recipes that can integrate one or more items from the gift box or basket; if not, look through women’s magazines or search the Internet for recipes which require one of your food items as an ingredient.

Some gourmet food companies offer recipes along with their specialty foods, sometimes incorporating them in some unusual and surprising ways. Stonewall Kitchen offers a variety of fine food items; their website also offers a whole collection of recipes, which you can print onto your own cards, emphasizing different foods. Searching their recipe database for Apple Cranberry Chutney, for instance, offers fifteen different recipes, from appetizers and hors d’oeuvres to beverages and desserts, from main dishes to soups and salads.

Their Free Form Apple Tart with Apple Cranberry Chutney combines apples, vanilla, lemon and nutmeg with Stonewall Kitchens popular chutney and puts it in a tart shell for a deliciously distinctive dessert. Another product, their chocolate peanut butter sauce, offers two great dessert recipes, Chocoate Peanut Butter Cookies and Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream.Plan a Dinner Around a Special RecipePlan a get-together with family and friends with a special gourmet recipe as the star attraction. Garlic Rosemary Chicken Skewers are created using Stonewall Kitchen’s Garlic Rosemary Citrus Sauce; you might also want to add a simple dessert like Lemon Pistachio Cookies, with Stonewall Kitchen White Chocolate Orange Sauce.A nice little gift for your dinner guests would be a jar or bottle of the featured ingredient; be sure you attach the recipe to the product with a decorative ribbon. Gift Baskets Make Great Fund RaisersIf your favorite nonprofit organization is planning a fund raiser, consider donating a lavish gift basket to be raffled off; make sure you tuck a collection of recipes into the basket, one or two for each product, plus information on how the lucky winner can get more of his or her favorite foods.There are an infinite number of ways you can extend the usefulness of a specialty food item or gourmet gift basket; use the ones in this article, or come up with your own, based on your personal knowledge of the recipient’s own favorites. Either way, your gift will be much appreciated as the loving gesture it is.

To stay on the right side of the law, you need to get yourself a license if you are 14 and over. The licenses are not that expensive (call the local chamber of commerce for prices) and they are available for three day or year long. This is for both in-state and out-of-state residents.

Legally, you can only keep the males. The females must be let go. You can determine a male from a female by checking their underside. Males have thin tail-like piece while the females have a round, wide piece. It’s pretty easy to tell them apart once you see them both. The measurement of the crab will also determine a keeper. As long as the male crab measures five and three forths inches across the back of the shell, not including the points, consider him dinner!

Now, the adventure begins! Crabs are usually caught by using crab rings or crab pots. You can have up to three of these devices per person. Lower the baited (use chicken, fish, turkey, etc) rings or pots into the water, wait about 5 - 7 minutes, pull them up and see what you have. If you come up empty handed, move them to a different spot and try again. The ideal spots are ones with very little current. You can leave the crab pots in the water for a bit longer than the rings. The local bait shops in town will be able to hook you up with the gear you need. Once caught, they need to be cooked as soon as possible, preferably within the hour. The catch limit is 12 per day.

Once you taste a juicy, Dungeness crab, you will think you have died and went to heaven!

The factors of coffee making that you need to consider are the grind of your beans versus the type of coffee maker you are using, the water, the measurements of coffee versus measurements of water, and the freshness of your coffee bean. You may wonder what could be so important about any of these things, but they are simply the fundamentals of coffee making.

What type of coffee maker you are using will determine how coarse or fine your grind needs to be. The coarsest grind is used with French presses, and the finest grind is used with espresso makers. When grinding your coffee, simply follow the guide on the grinder or in the manual, or ask someone who would know how coarse or fine of a grind you need for your specific coffee maker.

Since brewed coffee is 98% water, then you should use clean and fresh purified water. Also, the water should be no less than 190 degrees and no more than 205 degrees for the brewing. Between those temperatures, the water will better extract the full flavor of the bean. Water that is too hot will result in coffee that has a burnt taste.

It is very important that you accurately measure the amount of coffee and water that you use. Normally you can be sure to do this correctly by simply reading the directions on your container of coffee. Generally, though, good coffee is brewed with two tablespoons of coffee per every six ounces of water. If this produces coffee that is too strong for your liking, then the best thing to do is add hot water (between 190-205 degrees) after it is brewed. This way you maintain the invigorating flavor, but at a milder strength.

The last, but not least, important factor to brewing great coffee is the freshness of your coffee bean. Grinding your beans right before you brew them truly helps make a fresher cup of coffee. Even if you don’t do that, though, you can keep your coffee fresher by storing it in the refrigerator or freezer.

Maybe you didn’t know that your coffee could taste better, but now you do. If coffee is what you wake up to every morning, or if you drink it throughout the day, you owe it to yourself to make it as good as it can be.

I package my own soup for one in ziploc bags. They do not take up a lot of space and it only takes about 10-20-minutes to prepare a quick lunch, depending on what kind of soup I want. All the chopping, cutting and measuring is already done for me and I do not have to worry about a half of a pepper or onion spoiling in the refrigerator. Besides that I did not pay an arm and a leg for a couple cups of soup. I win all the way by saving money, time and effort.

For chicken soup I put enough dried vegetables in a ziploc bag to make a quart of soup. I put onions, diced carrots, celery and egg noodles. To make soup I heat up a quart of home made chicken stock and simmer the vegetables for about 10-minutes or until the noodles are done. If I have some leftover chicken I add it to the soup.

For beef flavored vegetable soup I put carrots, onions, celery, cabbage, diced potatoes, diced dried tomatoes and peas. I heat up a quart of beef stock and simmer for 10-minutes. You can use any combination of dried vegetables you want and add leftover meat to it or rice or noodles. Easy to do and no preservatives!

A kitchen scale is an essential part of any professional cook’s rig. A scale is highly accurate which provides a consistency and quality that can’t be matched by just using other means of measuring. Variations in climate, storage techniques as well as particle size will make a dramatic difference in your cooking. For instance, one cup of flour in a humid climate does not weigh the same amount as a cup of flour from a dry climate. Many recipes call for walnuts but do not specify weather or not the walnuts should be chopped coarse or fine. With a scale the size of the particles and the climate conditions do not affect the final outcome.

General Kitchen Tips

When chopping food always use a wooden chopping board. This will prolong the life of your knives. Using a plastic cutting board will dull the blades of your knives as well as leave plastic shavings in your food. Unless you like the plastic shavings in your food and just bought a new knife sharpener, use a wood cutting board. To easily remove the skins from almonds - let them soak in warm/hot water for about 15 minutes. In the pantry always put cleaning supplies or hazardous materials on the bottom shelf. This protects against a hazardous material leaking or contaminating your food. This also prevents the chance of a bottle or any other container of hazardous material from falling and expelling material everywhere. If you incur a burn while in the kitchen - the best thing to do is to apply some ointment or petroleum jelly. If either of the above is available - use a smashed banana. A great cleaning solution you can make! Just mix a 1/4 cup of baking soda, 1/2 cup of vinegar and 1 gallon of hot water. This will deodorize as well as clean grease, grime and buildup.

A few drops of green food coloring goes into anything you might want green, even a mug of draft beer. Anything made with Irish cream or Irish whiskey has the Irish spirit, too.

Authentic Corned beef and cabbage

Corned beef brisket, about 4 lbs.

1 juice orange

18-20 whole cloves

1 tsp. whole yellow mustard seeds

1/2 tsp. caraway seeds

1/2 tsp. whole black peppercorns

1/2 tsp. whole coriander

Put corned beef brisket into large pot for cooking. Take cloves and insert them, then sprinkle remaining spices on. Cover brisket with water, bring to boil, then simmer for 3 hours or until tender.

3 lbs. small potatoes, peeled

2 1/2 lbs. carrots, peeled and cut into large pieces

1 medium head cabbage

About 40 minutes before beef is finished, boil a large pot of water and cook potatoes and carrots. Add cabbage about 10 minutes before you’re ready to serve as it doesn’t need to cook long. Drain vegetables.

Arrange meat and vegetables on a platter and serve with your favorite mustards.

St. Patrick Day Cookie Pops (for the kids to make)

Box of Vanilla Wafers

Box of Popsicle sticks

Vanilla or chocolate frosting; or Peanut butter

Various decorations – chocolate chips, icing packs, assorted green candies, green sugar sprinkles, ju ju bees, sprinkles, etc.

Spread out ½ of the vanilla wafers, with the flat sides up on the plate. Take the vanilla, chocolate icing, or peanut butter and spread across flat surface. Next, take a Popsicle stick and lay it down with the end in the middle of the cookie. Top with another vanilla wafer to make a sandwich.

Now the kids can get creative! Turn the cookie pop into a green shamrock; apply vanilla icing and draw with green icing pack; make a pot of gold with candies; anything you want!

They make a great treat for the kids to take to school!

Easy Hot Whiskey Punch (for the adults) Serves 1

1 measure of whiskey

2 teaspoons white sugar

4-6 cloves

2 slices fresh lemon

7 oz. boiling water

Put whiskey, sugar cloves and lemon slices into a strong glass. 2. Pour on the boiling water until the sugar has dissolved. 3. Sip contentedly by a blazing fire.

Irish Scones

1/2 cup butter

4 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 cup milk

Note: You can add raisins, dates or other dried fruits, if desired.

Makes about 18 scones.

Preheat oven to 425°F.

In a large bowl, combine butter and flour until crumbly. Add baking powder, salt and sugar.

In a separate bowl, beat egg and milk. Mix into dry ingredients to make a dough.

Turn onto floured surface and roll to one-inch thickness. With a cookie cutter or the bottom of a drinking glass, cut dough into 2-inch rounds. Place on greased cookie sheet, about one inch apart and bake for 15 minutes.

When serving your Irish creations don’t forget an Irish toast to bless the meal!