Holiday Gift Guide--Fun Stuff

Last year I posted one all-purpose holiday gift guide. This year I am going to give you several gift guides. One for fun foodie gifts, a chocolate guide, a guide to my picks for classic and luxury gifts and finally a book guide. Today the fun stuff! I've tried to choose some things that are a bit out of the ordinary, I hope you like them.


How could I forget one of my favorite films of the year? Ratatouille on DVD has the added bonus of an interview segment with producer Brad Bird and chef Thomas Keller. Learn about the creative process from two masters.


I've been known to slip on my sunglasses when chopping a lot of onions, but onion goggles are much better.



Bacon, bacon, bacon! I'm still waiting for someone to get me a gift subscription to the famous bacon-of-the-month club but in the meantime I can settle for bacon novelty gifts. Since no actual pigs were harmed, it's possible even vegetarians will like these gifts. Bacon-flavored toothpicks, bacon bandages, bacon mints. Ok, maybe not the mints.



Foodie Fight is a trivia game that I reviewed earlier this year. It's not edible, but it is fun for foodies.



Route 29 Napa makes tasty retro candies that are packaged in tins you'll want to keep. The Chewy Peps are my personal favorite. They are less expensive if you buy them bulk or in a bag.



Dessert excuses, "Oh no, I couldn't" and "OK, just a sliver" or the classic, "Have another, they're small" are now available emblazoned on plates. Dessert excuse plates, of course!



I discovered Yum Yum dishes in Asheville, North Carolina. They really help you control portions of snacks or dessert in a fun way. Enjoy 4 ounces of a treat at a time. No sneaking back for refills!

All time top 5 TV chefs

I was watching a TV cookery programme this evening here in Ireland which was particularly bad and i was thinking about what makes a great TV chef and thought it might be worth listing my all time favourite top 5. I came to the conclusion that it was not just to do with cooking ability but that personality had a huge amount to do with it. When reading this list make sure to remember that it is not an indication of who is actually the best chef but rather the best TV chef....

5. Marco Pierre white
Had a distinguished career as a chef and retired at the height of his fame and returned his 3 michelin stars in a blaze of publicity. Came out of retirement to host the recent series of Hell's kitchen stepping into the rather large shoes of Gordon Ramsey.
4. Rick Stein
A a man with a huge passion for the sea. At home on any sort of boat and his programmes often turn into travel shows rather than following a traditional format. HIs passion for food is unquestioned.
3. Bobby Flay
I only discovered Flay when i was in America last year but he has a natural talent without trying too hard. His recipes are relaxed, functional and easy to follow.

2.Jamie Oliver
He is not a popular choice with other professional chefs but at the end of the day he gets more people cooking and that has to be a good thing. Took the world by storm and is still going strong.
1.Gordon Ramsey
There could only be one winner! A genius with a razor sharp wit. Watch him in action below in one of his best moments!

What are your thoughts and who would you like to have seen in the top 5?

iFoods DVDs

Don't have a laptop that you can take into the kitchen with you? Want to see the iFoods videos on the big screen? Then it's time to check out one of the series of ifoods DVDs which we now have available.
Not sure what to get that person who has everything this year? This could be the perfect gift for either a proficient chef or the total beginer. Find the DVD that matches your tastes the best from our range of series including, BBQ, family or meals to impress. This is just another in the latest series of developpments we are aiming to bring you in the next couple of weeks.

We are always keen here at iFoods to listen to what he customer wants so make sure to email us at info@ifoods.tv if you have any bright ideas or if something on the site really annoys you!

Healthy Banana Bread: Recipe

In my continuing effort to eat more whole grains, I have been using King Arthur's organic white whole wheat flour. Let me just say right off the bat, this stuff is amazing! It has a milder flavor and lighter more delicate texture than traditional whole wheat flour which makes it it terrific for baking. It's milled from high protein, hard white spring flour.

King Arthur Flour suggests you replace 1/3 all purpose flour with white whole wheat in your baking, but I've found in most quick breads and cookies I can replace half the all purpose flour with white whole wheat and barely notice a difference in taste or texture of the finished baked goods. I wouldn't use it for something super delicate, like a pie crust or angel food cake, but experiment for yourself.

I was looking for a recipe for a cake made with fresh guava, and read that you can actually substitute guava for banana in banana bread. I've now tried this bread with guavas and with a combination of guavas and bananas, and I've tried it using half white whole wheat flour. It is very low in fat and fairly low in sugar as well. It's not an oily greasy style banana bread. It's good fresh out of the oven, and toasted the next day and spread with cream cheese. If you happen to have fresh guavas around, this is a great way to use them.

King Arthur white whole wheat is available in organic or conventional varieties in a 2 pound or more convenient 5 pound bag. Look for it in stores before ordering it online.

Healthy Banana (or Guava) Bread
1 loaf

2 cups flour (I use 1 cup white whole wheat, 1 cup all purpose)
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 egg
1 cup mashed very ripe banana (or peeled and mashed fresh guava or combination)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl, then add the egg and fruit, mix well with a wooden spoon. Scrape batter into a greased 9x5 loaf pan. Bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer plunged into the center comes out clean.

Enjoy!

New Brownie points!

For those of you taking part in the competition every month trying to scoop the cash we thought it would only be fair to let you all in on the important rule changes! As of today you will be granted a massive 10 points for emailing a friend and having them succesfully join iFoods. This should even the playing field and hopefully help all of you give our 3 time champion foodwishes a run for his money! We will also be adding a featre this week where you will be able to give all your best friends and favourite iFoods members brownie points as a little sign of your apprecation of them!

More Exciting developpments

We are very happy to let you all know that we have been busy working behind the scenes here on iFoods and there are a few interesting new developments that we are super excited to announce. The first is that over the last few months we have been in negotiations with exciting new internet TV channel Joost and we are happy to announce we will be launching iFoods on Joost next week.
Joost has been created by the founders of Skype and Kazza and is seen as the perfect way of merging conventional TV with the internet!

Today was pretty exciting as we had to make a funky intro to be used on Joost and this involved standing for hours infront of a green screen which is basically the technology they use to make Star Wars and Lord of The Rings.
We should end up with a really funky intro which we will be unveiling at the end of the week.

Watch out in the next couple of days for some more very exciting developments here on iFoods.

Weekend in Monterey

This weekend I went down to Monterey, on the central coast. It's picture postcard beautiful with dramatic wispy Cypress pines, a rocky shoreline and plenty of sea birds and seals. The aquarium is a must-see. It was one of the first aquariums to focus on the local habitat which is rich and colorful, especially the undulating transparent jelly fish that glow in picture window tanks.

As far as dining goes, Monterey is not quite a destination, but there is some good food to be found in the area. Staying as a guest of the Hyatt Regency Monterey, I got to check out the relatively new restaurant TusCA. I'm not crazy about the name, which is meant to highlight the Tuscan influenced California cuisine, but I did like the food. The duck breast I tried was a huge portion that had been cooked in a wood-fired oven. It was crisp on the outside and juicy medium rare on the inside and served over a bed of wild rice, mushrooms and hazelnuts. At around $20 it was a terrific value. I also tried the Pacific sea bass which was served with roasted vegetables. Wines were a bit less of a bargain, I'm afraid and some were marked up around four times retail.

While the menu featured primarily local and sustainable seafood, the chef told me about his hopes to make the entire menu fit within the sustainable seafood guidelines put forth by the aquarium. Imagine if the whole Hyatt chain did that. They could help set the standard for hotels everywhere.

Do you have an updated version of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch card? There is a 2007 version available on the website that you can download for free. In addition to West Coast, there are Northeast, Hawaii, National, Southeast, Central US and Southwest versions available, each tell you the best choices for sustainable "ocean-friendly" seafood. If you'd like a nice wallet-sized fold out West Coast guide, be one of the first 10 people to leave a comment on this post, and I will email you for your address and send you one.