This is the time of year when many folks are searching for Christmas presents and Buckeye Baskets, a division of United Disability Services, is offering a full line of gift baskets featuring mostly Ohio-made products.
The baskets include maple syrup, jam, jelly, nuts, candy, chocolates, tea, cookies, cheese, pasta, barbecue sauce, coffee and salad dressings, among other items, all made in Ohio.
Baskets are priced from $9.95 to $150, plus tax and shipping. Order online at www.buckeyebaskets.com, or by phone, 330-379-3341, or fax, 330-762-0912, between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Baskets can be shipped anywhere within the U.S.
Buckeye Baskets was launched in 2003 to provide employment for people with disabilities while helping to support the programs of the agency. United Disability Services is a not-for-profit agency that serves the disabled.
Wine for the holidays
For holiday wine shopping:
• The West Point Market, 1711 W. Market St., Akron, is hosting its annual Bubbles Bash Champagne Tasting from 7 to 9 p.m. Dec. 13.
There will be 24 champagnes and sparkling wines for tasting along with holiday party appetizers. The event is $45. Phone 330-864-2151 to reserve.
• Riverside Wine, 911 N. Mantua St., Kent, has scheduled its Holiday Wine Tasting for 1 to 4 p.m. Dec. 15.
There will be 25 wines for $25 in a casual walk-around tasting, which will include plenty of appetizers. Case discounts of 10 percent will be offered.
Four wine distributors will be on hand. Prepaid reservations are recommended. For more information, visit www.riverside-wine.com or phone 330-677-4400.
Show has Cleveland chefs
Tune in to Channel 25 WVIZ/PBS at 11 a.m. Saturday for four hours of live television featuring 10 Cleveland chefs cooking up their favorite dishes.
The show, D is for Downtown Cleveland’s Cooking, is part of the WVIZ/PBS Cooks! series. An encore of the live broadcast follows at 3 p.m. Featured chefs are:
Richard Sören Arnoldi, executive chef, Muse, the Ritz-Carlton; Jonathan Bennett, chef/partner, Red, the Steakhouse; Andy Dombrowski, chef de cuisine, Cowell & Hubbard; Brandt Evans, chef/owner, Pura Vida; Tony Fortner, executive chef, Stonetown; Brian Goodman, chef/partner, the Greenhouse Tavern; Chris Hodgson, chef/partner, Hodge’s; Al Ives, chef de cuisine, Chinato; Erik Martinez, executive chef, Cibréo Italian Kitchen; and Brett Montgomery, executive chef, Sans Souci.
Stefanie Paganini, who teaches at the International Culinary Arts & Sciences Institute and at its sister school, the Loretta Paganini School of Cooking, will host the broadcast and also will cook.
Each chef’s recipe, along with more than 100 additional savory and sweet recipes from the chefs, will be included in a cookbook that will be available as a thank-you gift for a pledge to WVIZ/PBS during Saturday’s broadcast.
Time for tea in Hudson
Hudson’s Secret Tea Society and its founder, Angela Strach-Gotthardt, will open a Secret Tea Society Holiday Pop-Up Salon and Shop at Brewster Mansion, 9 Aurora St., Hudson, today through Dec. 14.
The pop-up salon will be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Friday and Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday.
The tea salon and shop will offer a selection of specialty teas, pots and accessories as well as daily tastings of herbal blends, rooibos, white, green, oolong, black and pu’erh teas.
Strach-Gotthardt founded the Secret Tea Society in 2010 as a way to engage women in lively conversation and to indulge her love of tea. To learn more, visit www.secretteasociety.com.
Falls Road House closes
The Brown Derby Road House at Chapel Hill Mall in Cuyahoga Falls has closed. The company posted a sign on the door and a notice on its website. Other Original Brown Derby and Road House locations in the area remain open.
Guppies grand opening
The new Guppies restaurant, 493 Portage Lakes Drive, Coventry, will be having a grand opening from Dec. 15 to 21, with daily specials, drawings and giveaways.
Guppies opened in October at the location of the former Bialy’s at the Lakes.
Guppies owner Patrick Flanagan took over the space and reopened Guppies shortly after Bialy’s closed. It was incorrectly reported in Food Notes last month that Flanagan had purchased Bialy’s.
Lisa Abraham can be reached at 330-996-3737 or at labraham@thebeaconjournal.com. Find me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter @akronfoodie or visit my blog at www.ohio.com/blogs/lisa.