Stamp Out The Competition

Just think how fabulous it would look the next time you are packaging up one of your prized pies to attach a customized gift tag adorned with your own stylish stamp?

Sweet Papery has a chic line-up of personalized stamps that would make great gifts. Ranging from trendy monogrammed stamps to “From the Kitchen Of” - I know hostesses everywhere would love one. I sure would.

Available online at Sweet Papery (www.sweetpapery.com).

Ranging from $35 to $45.

Non-Floral Centrepieces with Household Items

Spring is just around the corner and tulip bunches are making there way onto dining tables all around the country. To change things up, try a non-floral centrepiece for your next event. Most often, these centrepieces can be created from existing household items and will enhance your theme with little effort or money.

Take your favourite glass bowl or vase and fill it with lemons and limes or some bright red apples.

For an Italian theme, fill a basket with red, green and yellow tomatoes.

Use a cake stand to display candles of varied heights with cherry blossom cuttings or fall leaves scattered amongst the base of the candles. Or use that same cake stand and pile it up with shells for a beach theme.

For a movie/games night, fill vases with popped popcorn, M&M's and licorice or layer a number of candies.

Be creative, think outside the box and have fun!

Giving New Life To The Wedding Cupcake Tree

With wedding season upon us, no doubt some of you are either planning your big day or showers for friends who are knee deep in wedding magazines. As you scour the net for fresh ideas, consider these fabulous cupcake wrappers for your next event. While cupcakes have been a very popular alternative to the traditional wedding cake, they can now look that much prettier with laser-cut cupcake wrappers. Available in a variety of colors and patterns, the wrapper easily slips over your cupcake to help create a beautiful cupcake tree or a unique favour at individual place settings.

Available at Estilo Weddings (www.estiloweddings.com). They come in packs of 12 for $12.50 or packs of 50 for $48.50 plus shipping.

Sip It With Flowers

Valentines Day is around the corner and what better way to celebrate then with a little champagne. Only this time, make it even more special and sip it with flowers. That’s right, forget the overpriced red roses and instead, drop a flowering hibiscus into your date’s drink. All you need to do is pour a glass of champagne and add one Wild Hibiscus Flower. The flower will sit on the bottom of your glass and as the bubbles stream off, your flower will open. Pop it into your mouth and you can enjoy its raspberry and rhubarb taste. So pretty, romantic and tasty.

Available at Whole Foods and Gourmet Warehouse. Priced between $12 and $14 for a jar of 11 flowers.

Gourmet Dinner In A Bottle

It’s Monday night and you have offered to have friends over for dinner. After a long day at work and little time to prep a truly gourmet dinner, what is a hostess to do? Crack open a bottle of Fischer and Wieser’s Roasted Raspberry Chipotle Sauce and wait for the compliments to pour in. This smoky, fruit-forward sauce is delicious with pork or chicken.

I love to bake a pork tenderloin lightly salted for 45 to 50 minutes at 325 degrees, slice it and arrange it on a plate in a semi circle. Pour the sauce on top and serve with roasted baby potatoes and a spinach salad. You will look like you have slaved all day and still have enough energy to enjoy a couple of glasses of wine.

Fischer and Wieser’s Roasted Raspberry and Chipotle Sauce is available at Gourmet Warehouse (www.gourmetwarehouse.ca) for $7.99 per bottle.

Skip the Line at Vij's with To Go Options

Vij’s packaged meals are an easy way to entertain at home with little fuss. Pick up a couple of curries, cook some basmati rice in half coconut milk/half water and serve a green salad topped with mangos and fresh mint. One of my favs is the Raw Sugar, Garlic & Garam Masala Beef Curry. $10.50 for a package that serves two. Sure beats standing in line for a table.

To sweeten the deal, Edible BC in Granville Island is holding their annual January Winter Sale with everything at their retail store marked down 15-25%! The sale will run from January 25th - 31st. Some of the fabulous products that you will find on sale include Vij’s gourmet take-out meals. Yummy made easy!

www.edible-britishcolumbia.com/store/retail-store

www.vijsrangoli.ca/market/index.html

Evite is so 2008

Who doesn’t love receiving mail? No, I don’t mean those pesky credit card bills but the kind of envelope that you know contains an invitation for some fabulous party. For 2009, let’s say goodbye to those electronic invitations and hello to VistaPrint. I have been a huge fan of this site for over three years now with its product selection, flexibility and price point. Where else can you custom design one hundred glossy postcard-style invitations for less than $30?

Order from them once and you will receive all kinds of freebies by email from T-shirts to personalized note cards.

So for all of you who have friends getting married, baby showers to throw, milestone birthdays to host, check out VistaPrint for your invitation needs.

www.vistaprint.ca