Foodie Gifts

Important: I just finished a blog entry for my gardening blog about the importance of growing a garden. There is a lovely video put out by Eat Your View that is a must see. If you are on Digg, please digg the entry to help get the word out about this very worthwhile endeavour.
The nice thing about being a foodie is everyone knows what to gift you with! This is rather convenient as instead of buying trinkets of travels anyone who knows me knows something food related would be very much appreciated. Trust me, bring something from the region or gift me with something food related and that does not mean expensive either and I will be drooling. My family and friends know this. At the same time my family and friends are foodies as well so I always know what to give them. Anytime a gift comes from the kitchen it comes from the heart :)

Gift Baskets

Parents to oldest grandbaby [and who just found out today they are expecting another] gifted me with two very generous gift baskets for Mother's Day and my birthday. The contents include several hot sauces with names like Pain 100% as well as salsas and popcorn from the Pain is Good line. I collect hot sauces so this was a very lovely and thoughtful gift.

My husband is being on his best behaviour carefully checking the baskets to make sure none of these hot goodies escape. He likes spice but not heat on his foods with my homemade chili being about the hottest in terms of spice that he will eat. Seriously my chili is not a mouth burning chili but it does have a nice heat to it. You would not get him crunching on jalapeno peppers or eating hot pepper jelly either. Honestly, he doesn't know what he's missing!

Zucchini

I've heard so many complaints over how zucchini can be so prolific. My rule of thumb is to grow 5 zucchini plants and because I pay attention to their needs they tend to thrive. We love zucchini! I normally pick it when it is about 6 to 8 inches long. My gardens are in progress this summer so I did not have zucchini plants. A good friend gifted us with these two huge zucchinis. I'm thrilled! Now what to make with them? Hmm, a zucchini loaf and zucchini muffins will definitely be in the making. Some will be grated and froze. We are going to be enjoying some sautéed in butter with mushrooms and onions, one of our favourite ways to serve zucchini. I think I'm going to try a couple of new ways to use zucchini so do check back to see what I come up with.

Lasagne

Throughout the year jars of my home preserved goodies and bounty from my garden make their way to family and friends. Last weekend the kids with youngest grandbaby were home visiting. I wanted a nice meal without a lot of effort as we have been spending a great deal of time working on the kitchen and as of Friday the sink and stove were not hooked up. Looking through the freezers I settled upon the tray of lasagne a friend had generously gifted us with. Served with a tossed salad and bread it would make a lovely meal while still giving me the chance to put a lot of tools away and straighten the family room.

I heated the grill to 350ºF then placed the foil pan of lasagne on the middle rack of our grill (indirect heat). From there the lasagne heated through much the way it would have if heated in the oven. I tented the top to allow the top to brown a little during the last 15 minutes of heating.

Note: When packaging lasagne for the freezer use a tin foil tray, top with wax paper then wrap the top tightly with tin foil. This allows you to re-heat in an oven or grill as well as make it convenient for gift giving.