MacGourmet News

I thought I'd throw out a few low-cost Christmas/Holiday ideas for current or beginning wine lovers in your lives. I've purchased or given all of these items and despite the cheap price, they are really useful gadgets to have or give.

First up is the Vacu Vin Wine Saver system. Cook's Illustrated rated this system highly, something I found to be true throughout my own long use of this product. A gift of the Vacu Vin Wine Saver Gift Pack will help someone keep those opened bottles of wine fresher much, much longer. It's a pretty simple system to use too, just pop in one of the rubber "corks," affix the pump to the top, and work the pump a bunch of times, the number depending on how much wine is left in the bottle. The pump will remove the air from the bottle, which will make the wine last longer. This gadget works.

Here is a gift that I am going to give many times over this Christmas, the Admiral Craft Equipment Deluxe Wing Style Cork Screw. None of my family members seem to own even a decent wine opener. Every time I visit one of them, I'm forced to use some fragile, plastic device that makes the simple task of opening a bottle of wine a real chore. If you can relate, why not do what I'm doing, and give one of these. They are cheap, but they work well. Personally, I think that's all you need. The $40 (or more) wine opener is more for show than for go. A couple of other similar, but pricier options are the Cuisinart Wing Corkscrew or the Pedrini Satin Finish Corkscrew. Whatever you give, make sure it's not made of plastic.

Finally, there's this cool way of saving the labels from your favorite wine bottles, Label Savers from The Wine Enthusiast. I use this to save labels for my MacGourmet wine notes. These are also good for people who might be interested in doing a physical wine scrap book for special occasions, etc. The label savers are pretty easy to use, and overall, will work well for most wine labels you'll come across.

Hopefully that gives you some ideas!

"Save up to 60%, plus Take $25 Off Your Order. Through November 27, save up to 60% on essentials for the kitchen and home during our Thanksgiving Sale. Plus, take $25 off your order today when you spend $125 on Kitchen & Housewares or Bed & Bath products offered by Amazon.com."

Get your holiday shopping done early!

Small appliances
Cookware
Cutlery and cook's tools

Find about everything that's on sale in Kitchen and Housewares at Amazon.com. Time is limited so act fast!

Just wishing all of our U.S. users and readers a happy Thanksgiving! May all of your holiday recipes turn out GREAT!

If you want to try something different with potatoes, try them with the leek and mash them. The potatoes are good with meat, fish or a Thanksgiving turkey. -- EclecticCooking.com

Ingredients:

1 lb floury potatoes
5 oz (150 g) whole leeks (ca. 2 leeks)
1 oz (30 g) butter
2 Tbsp fresh parsley, minced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Peel and cut the potatoes into small cubes. Trim and cut the leek into thin rings and rinse several times to remove all the soil; drain. Place the potatoes into a saucepan and barely cover with cold water, add a little salt and bring to boil. Cover the potatoes, reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the leek for about 5 minutes or until they are tender. Drain most of the liquid from the potatoes, leaving just a little.

Mash the potatoes and leek, then add the butter and olive oil and continue mashing. Season with salt and plenty of freshly ground black pepper, add the minced parsley and stir through. Serve with a daub of butter if you wish.

(Serves 4)

Leek and Potato Mash. To import, drag image to your MacGourmet recipe box.

MacGourmet for OS X, which is free to download and try, features lots of great features like drag and drop import, clipping recipes from web pages, publishing recipes to your .Mac account and much more. Give it a try today!

Read the latest Recipe of the Week.

I love it when I buy a product and instantly realize that the product maker really "gets it." Every time I purchase a product from Apple, from the purchasing process, to the box it comes in, to the packaging within the box, an finally to the actual product itself, quality and thought are in nearly every detail.

The same can be said for the products from SimpleHuman as well. Opening one of their boxes and taking out one of their products reminds me a lot of opening something from Apple. This is a very good thing.

I recently purchased a Compact Diskrack from them. After using it a few times, I can honestly say that this is a great product. The quality is first rate, with high quality stainless steel and plastics, and the components, from the utensil holder (which is removable, making rinsing silverware a much easier task) to the cup and optional wine glass holders, are really great touches. Their customer service is also excellent. When my dishrack arrived with a broken cup holder, a quick web site submission and a matter of hours was all it took to get them to send me a replacement, no questions asked.

Gushing about a dishrack, of all things? I know, but SimpleHuman is an example of a great company with great design, so I thought I'd share my experience with the readers here.

Perusing their website, I find lots of gadgets I plan to buy. From one of their recycling solutions to a grocery bag holder their stuff just looks like it will make your kitchen better.

We don't have any kind of referral or affiliate relationship with them. I just really like their products. If you find yourself ordering something from them, just tell them you read about it on MacGourmet.com on the order from.

Curries are a simple meal which have vegetables, meat and sauce in one dish. A great meal for a meal after a busy day. -- EclecticCooking.com

Ingredients:

1 lb turkey breast
2-3 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 red onion
2 large cloves of garlic
1-2 inches (5 cm) fresh ginger
1/2 Tbsp turmeric
3-4 tomatoes
1-2 red capsicum (bell peppers)
1 Tbsp Thai green curry paste
4 kafir lime leaves
1 tin coconut milk
Juice of 1/2 lime
Grated rind of 1/2 lime
Freshly chopped parsley or coriander

Directions:

Cut meat into small cubes. Peel and cut the onion in half then slice thinly. Peel and mince the garlic cloves. Peel and mince the fresh ginger. Cut the tomatoes in quarter, remove seeds and cut into smaller pieces. Seed the capsicum (bell pepper) and cut into cubes.

In a wok, heat the oil and lightly brown the turkey meat. Remove meat and set aside keeping hot. Saute the onions, garlic and capsicum (bell peppers) for 2-3 minutes. Add the curry, ginger, turmeric, coconut milk, and grated lime peel and simmer gently for 2-3 minutes. Add the meat, lime juice ad grated lime peel and simmer gently until meat is done. Season with salt and pepper, garnish with freshly chopped parsley or coriander and serve with boiled or steamed rice and chutney.

(Serves 4)

Turkey with Lime and Curry. To import, drag image to your MacGourmet recipe box.

MacGourmet for OS X, which is free to download and try, features lots of great features like drag and drop import, clipping recipes from web pages, publishing recipes to your .Mac account and much more. Give it a try today!

Read the latest Recipe of the Week.

This new book looks and sounds like a great one:

"The Silver Spoon is the most influential and successful cookbook in Italy. Originally published in 1950, it became an instant classic. Considered to be essential in every household, it is still one of the most popular wedding presents today.

A group of cooking experts was commissioned to collect hundreds of traditional recipes from the different Italian regions and make them available for the first time to a wider audience. In the process, they updated ingredients, quantities and methods to suit contemporary tastes and customs, at the same time preserving the memory of ancient recipes for future generations. They also included modern recipes from some of the most famous Italian chefs, resulting in a style of cooking that appeals to the gourmet as well as the occasional cook

A comprehensive and lively book, its simple and user-friendly format makes it both accessible and a pleasure to read. It provides an introduction to every course, and an explanation of the main type of ingredients. Never translated before, The Silver Spoon has now been adapted to an international market, with every recipe checked for suitability, measurements converted and methods rewritten to accommodate cultural differences, yet maintaining the authenticity of real Italian cooking."

I think I'll put this one on my Christmas list. Pre-order yours today!