www.roanoke.com

Last year, we shared holiday wish lists, and I thought it would be fun to exchange foodie-related gift ideas this year, as well. Who knows, maybe our loved ones are keeping tabs on this blog? Or maybe it will give us some ideas for other foodies in our lives.

Most kitchen gift ideas need to come straight from the recipient because we all have odd little things we've discovered we need over the past year but haven't had the time, money or inclination to buy ourselves. I, for example, would love to have a candy thermometer. I also need a small roasting rack that will fit down inside my 13-by-9 inch baking pans so I can roast a chicken or a small rack of ribs or what have you without hauling the monstrous turkey roaster out of the basement.

What else? A big strainer, perhaps, to strain the mire poix and herbs out of the broth when I'm making those delicious sauces I recently learned to make. And a good stocking stuffer idea for bakers is a bowl scraper - I've seen cute, brightly colored ones in kitchen shops around town for less than $2 each that would take up far less storage space than a spatula.

Provisions Gourmet and Foodies, both on Franklin Road, sell the most delightful aprons in different patterns. Some of the fabrics are really beautiful, and I believe you can buy full aprons or half aprons. Another great idea is to build a basket of gourmet foods or, if you're on a budget, bake something special for the special person on your list.

Got any other ideas for home cooks or food lovers? What's on your list this year?

PLEASE keep those ideas for "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" coming (blog post below)! Meanwhile, I have big food news out of Maryland -- the 30th Annual National Oyster cook-off has ended and several people went home with shiny silver trays and big grins on their faces. I know Maryland is not super local to Southwest Virginia, but the winter holidays are probably one of the biggest oyster-eating seasons in these parts, so maybe you guys will enjoy these recipes.

Jackie Hardin of Galena, MD won Grand Prize with her Oyster Tacos with Chipotle Cream Sauce. Your first reaction may be similar to mine - oyster tacos? But they actually sound pretty good - fried oysters with a cornmeal coating served in soft taco shells with slaw and the sauce. If you like oysters and you like fish tacos, this might be a neat twist.

Other winners were Jim McDuffie of Durham, NC, with his Outer Banks Poached Oysters on Smoked Pimento Cheese Grits with Fried Green Tomato Croutons, Brendan Cahill of Lusby, MD with Beach House Oysters with Sherry and Loic Jaffres of Leonardtown, MD with Oysters Bourguignon in Puff Pastry.

I'm going to share a couple of these recipes with you now. I'm trying to figure out if the rest are available online somewhere or if you have to write in to the Maryland Department of Agriculture to buy the cookbook. As soon as I hear back from the PR lady, I'll let you all know.

Read more »

Chroniclebooks.com

I absolutely adore the title of this new book by Anita Chu, "Field Guide to Candy." I can't help but picture someone with the binoculars out, spying on a marzipan pear perched on a tree branch. Or a herd of gum drops slowly making their way across an empty field. Or a school of Swedish fish flitting in clear waters.

OK, so I spent way too much time as a kid flipping through the Audubon guides to plants, trees, birds and insects. Candy is oh-so-much tastier than insects, so flipping through this field guide to candy is even more delightful. And it's out just in time, folks. Because what better time of year for accurately identifying and making candy than the holiday season?

I know I'm probably freaking out those of you who hate any mention of Christmas before Halloween. Or before Thanksgiving, for that matter. I'm usually like that myself, but I just can't help but get excited about the cooking possibilities. Just the other night I read "About fudge" in "Joy of Cooking." Getting my mind in the right place.

I want to share a recipe from "Field Guide to Candy," but since it is a little early for winter holiday ideas, how about a recipe that'll be perfect for fall: candy apples! I know my co-worker and author of the Happy Wag blog, Nona Nelson, will appreciate this one. She was just craving candy apples the other day.

Chu offers up some great tips about candy making in this book. I'm not very adept at candy making, so I may invest in a candy thermometer. But she says if you don't have a candy thermometer, you can use the old-fashioned "cold water method," which involves dropping a drop of your hot sugar syrup into a bowl of cold water. What happens next determines the stage of your candy. Read on:

Read more »

Just a quick note this morning to tell you about two great food and drink deals I recently stumbled across in my social flutterings:

1. TGIFridays has one of the best happy hours I've found in Roanoke recently. Every weekday from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., all of their appetizers are half price and they have some extremely affordable drink specials. I think domestic drafts are $2, and they have mixed drink specials, too. We had some Jack Daniels chicken strips for about $5 and a three-for-all sampler for about $6.50.

2. Awful Arthur's in downtown Roanoke has a new bar menu that's available during happy hour and after kitchen hours. It offers some great deals on their appetizers - most are about $4.95. This includes a slider sampler that comes with two sliders (your choice of crab cake, burger or tuna) and a pile of fries. You can get two crab cakes, two burgers, or any combination of the three. Howard and I recently shared this appetizer and found it to be delicious and filling. Great value for the money.

If you know of any other great deals, please share them!

This week, I've received word that TWO fellows with local connections are finalists in national cooking competitions! Katsuko "Katz" Sandifer, who up until recently was a kitchen manager at The Casino Club at The Homestead in Warm Springs, is one of four finalists in the professional category of Ocean Spray's recipe contest. His dish is Asian Shrimp and Scallops with Ginger Cranberry Syrup. Patrick Maggi, owner of Blues BBQ in downtown Roanoke, is one of 10 finalists in the American Pizza Championship. His winning creation is a Prosciutto Pear Pizza, a sweet and savory combination of poached pears, prosciutto and Gorgonzola cheese.

Katsuko Sandifer

Katz was born in Japan but his family moved to America when he was about 13 and he went to high school in Chapel Hill, N.C. He received an Associate's Degree from the Pennsylvania Culinary Institute. He says he worked at The Homestead for about five years, starting as an intern and moving his way up to a kitchen manager. He recently quit and moved to Rhode Island to finish up his culinary degree at Johnson & Wales University. He would like to eventually be a teacher at a culinary school.

Read more »

Are you "amused?" There's one bad hint.

This word quiz was published the other day in the Kansas City Star. It's based on culinary terms that get tossed around on Top Chef. I had so much fun doing it that I pulled it off the wire to share with you guys. I'm going to be a trickster and wait to publish the answers tomorrow. I trust no one to cheat! And if you are serious about the quiz, you may not want to read comments on this post until you have done it. Some of them may give certain answers away.

25 FANCY FOOD WORDS USED ON 'TOP CHEF'

(Do You Know What They Mean?)

See how many of these food words you can correctly match with their definitions. See definitions below!

1. Ganache (GAHN-ahsh)

2. Ceviche (seh-VEE-chay)

3. Risotto (rih-SO-toh)

4. Carpaccio (kahr-PAH-chee-oh)

5. Hamachi (hah-MAH-chee)

6. Remoulade (ray-muh-LAHD)

7. Chiffonade (shihf-uh-NAHD)

8. Panna cotta (PAHN-nah KOH-tah)

Read more »

I'm going to do something really cruel here. I'm going to share a photo of the gorgeous prime rib roast my father made for Christmas, then segue into healthy eating.

But wait! It's not going to be as bad as you think!

I'm not a fan of January weight loss resolutions. For that matter, I'm not a fan of New Year's resolutions at all. They are cliche and they perpetuate the idea that January is the only time we can make a promise to ourselves to turn over a new leaf. Any time of year is a perfect time to start taking better care of yourself, whether physically or emotionally.

As big food lovers and good cooks, we have an advantage: we like vegetables and fruit and grains and other healthy foods and we know how to make them taste good without overloading them with seasonings. In fact, I'll bet a lot of us think of a baked winter squash or some roasted brussels sprouts with olive oil and sea salt as a delicious side dish, not diet food. Many of us love beans, which are high in fiber, and actually enjoy salads of all kinds.

Read more »

I hope everyone is having a lovely holiday season so far. I missed our banter while I was away from the blog. Looks like I was a tad bit early in my announcement that Geonetti's Specialty Subs was open, but they are open now. Maybe I'll head down there for lunch today.

If your holiday was anything like mine, you may feel the need to eat salads all week, though. We had so many cakes, cookies and pies at my father's house that cakes, cookies and pies were greatly devalued. I never even made it to the pumpkin or pecan pie and didn't eat any pound cake or chocolate bourbon cake. I only had eyes for the raspberry coconut cake and the lemon bars. The best mouthful of food I had all Christmas long, though, was a perfectly roasted prime rib my dad made for dinner one night.

I didn't get my KitchenAid mixer, but I did make out well with a new 6-quart, oval-shaped crock pot with a warm setting, perfect for big roasts as well as keeping appetizers hot. Santa also brought me an expandable salad bowl and a soap pump from Pampered Chef, as well as a miniature colander for berries and a jar of marinated artichoke hearts the size of my head. Santa knows what I like.

But with all that delicious food and all the preparations, Christmas still just wasn't the same. My hubby fell ill with a nasty intestinal bug early Christmas morning and didn't get to eat much of anything all weekend. A few of my co-workers were also struck down. That taught me not to pile so many hopes on one day out of the entire year. It's probably better to pray for healthy friends and family members so that even average days can feel special. When hubby is 100 percent, I'll fix him a nice dinner and we'll celebrate, whether it's a holiday or not.

What was your best mouthful over the long weekend? Did anyone get a spectacular foodie gift for Christmas or Hannukah? Fill us in.

Follow-up note: I left 6 cloves of garlic off the ingredient list for this stew. But the instructions do reflect what you should do with the garlic.

I know that my colleague, Outdoors writer Mark Taylor, would never toot his own horn. So I'm here to toot it for him.

For the second year in a row, The Roanoke Times newsroom turned its holiday potluck into a "Top Chef" competition of sorts. After packing in unwise amounts of food, we all vote for our top two favorite dishes. Last year, Taylor took top prize with his venison ragout over garlic mashed potatoes. And this year, he didn't disappoint us. He took top prize again with an Alaskan fish camp stew recipe he got from his brother, who used to work at a commercial fishing camp in Alaska. The flavors of curry, salmon and coconut milk surely warmed many a belly up in those frozen parts.

I can't complain too much, because my kind colleagues voted me in for the number two spot. I made what I'm starting to call The World's Best White Chicken Chili from a recipe I've shared here before. But I'll bet you'd much rather see Mark's recipe, so in the hopes that he doesn't mind, here goes:

Read more »