Here's a clever idea: online wine videos! It's The Winery Channel, and they have everything from instructional videos that teach you what foods go with what wine to visits to various vineyards and vacation spots.

The site has a sense of humor too. Make sure you watch Rex Havoc (and his horse "Brokeback"), who shows you the best wine bottles to use for shooting practice, and Dave in Los Angeles, who rants about his neighbor Walter, a wine snob. The stuff he says...well, you know people like Walter (and not just when it comes to wine). You'll be quoting a couple of Dave's lines to your friends later this week.

There are many "shows" to watch, including "Hot Legs," "The Wine Bar Show," and "Got Wine?" (the videos can be kinda glitchy - took me a few clicks to get each video working, but it's worth it).

Peanut butter preference can be a very personal thing. Some people like theirs chunky, others prefer theirs to be creamy and smooth. Some would rather have natural, others enjoy the familiarity of commercial brands that they ate growing up. Growing up, my family solved the problem of preference by having multiple jars of peanut butter on hand at all times, ensuring that everyone had something they liked for toast and sandwiches, in addition to making sure there was something to use for baking peanut butter cookies.

If you just want one jar in your kitchen, Food and Wine listed their three favorite brands for consideration: Peanut Butter & Co. Smooth Operator (ultra­creamy), Skippy Natural Creamy (unusually thick, natural) and Santa Cruz Organic Dark Roasted Creamy (deeply flavored, made with Spanish nuts). No chunky peanut butters made their list, unfortunately, but all three of these sound worth a try for those who like it smooth.

Whichever peanut butter you eventually opt for, don't forget to try it out in your favorite peanut butter sandwich recipe.

It's unlikely that you're going to find all the gifts that you want to give on one list in the same way that you're unlikely to find everything all at one store (with the possible exception of Amazon.com), so it's in your best interest to look at as many sources as you can for inspiration. Food & Wine's 40 Divine Gifts list definitely has some inspired choices on it. Their choices run from under $25 up to $250, so they've tried to cover every budget in addition to picking a wide variety of foods, kitchen tools and decorative items. On the low-end of their gifting spectrum, they recommend the Cool Jewels ice tray, which pops out ice shaped like giant gems and is great for making a splash at parties, the cookbook Cooking Up A Storm for culinarily inclined kids and the Life of the Snowman sugar dispenser. The higher end includes Emeril's Deep Fryer and gold-plated serving spoons.

When Food & Wine announced that they were going to be hosting a food photography contest, more than a few bloggers got excited about the prospect of having their work published on the site, not to mention the fact that the first-place prize of a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT camera kit as quite appealing. The winners have been announced and it looks like the competition was stiff. First prize went to Jessica Thompson, for the photo of Papaya-Jalapeno Sorbet in Black and White Espresso Cups on the left, above. There were four first place runners up, all of whom received copies of the books of F&W's Best of the Best, Cocktails 2006 and Star Chefs on the Road. One of the four was Nika, of Nika's Culinaria, with her photo of Spice Cake with Homemade Chocolate Sauce (right).

Other food blogging participants included Christine Cassidy, Anita of Dessert First (with this photo), Adrienne of Nosheteria and Lara from Cook & Eat. It's too bad that Food & Wine didn't publish links back to blogs, if the contestants had them, but if you are one of the runners up and I missed your blog here, feel free to leave a comment and I'll add it to the list!

There are a few articles in the Seattle Times' Food & Wine section this week -- restaurant Carmelita seems to be related to every other restaurant, experts offer tips on how to live a Champagne dining lifestyle on a beer budget, the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia holds a Wine Festival -- but the real highlight of this week is pumpkins.

They're not talking about those hulking orange orbs that we use to carve Jack O'Lanterns. They are gushing over the much smaller Sugar Pumpkins, which are the star in a whole host of pumpkin recipes, from pie to soup: Flaky Pie Dough, Maple Pecan Pumpkin Pie, Maple Pecan Topping, Pumpkin-Chocolate Chip Muffins, and Curried Pumpkin-Peanut Soup. And to kick it all off? A cocktail of course -- the Pumpkin French 75.

The best way to hard-boil and egg is to...remove the water?

British inventor Simon Rhymes has created a gadget that uses four 500-watt lightbulbs to cook the eggs, rather than boiling them in water (though we all know that we don't actually boil the eggs in water, right? We just let thim sit in hot water). Rhymes' gadget cooks eggs in six minutes, then automatically chops off the top to allow people to dip their toast in the egg.

So, this is different from say, sticking your eggs in high-heat oven...how?

Flatbreads are the most consumed bread in the world, whether eaten plain, or as part of a dish: Thyme Bread (Manaqish bil-Za'atar), Moroccan Flatbread (R'ghayef), Turkish Meat Bread (Etli Ekmek), Yemeni Fried Bread (M'lawwah), and Yemeni Cilantro Chutney (Z'houg).

The Working Cook keeps within the Mediterranean theme with Chicken and Eggplant Kofte with Bulgur, then does an Asian Spicy Shrimp with Lemon-Peanut Kale & Rice. The Moveable Feast also does Asian with a Mu Shu Vegetable Wrap, and Vijay Bist, owner of Amber India restaurants in Mountain View and Santana Row, shares his recipe for Konkan Steamed Mussels.

There's a whole slew of new restaurant openings around the Bay.

Susan La Tempa spent the last few weeks on a massive LA pub crawl and has found the fifteen best in the city, taking into account authenticity, and how well they pour.

SIV visits the new Simon LA and gives the kitschy cool place now famous for its junk food platter one-and-a-half stars (*1/2). Chiu-Chow via Vietnam can be had at Chaus Kitchen in San Gabriel, where the kitchen is "concentrated on perfecting a few house specialties."

For cooking at home, cookbook Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey, and Lebanon, offers recipes for "sophisticated tagines from Morocco, fragrant Turkish kebabs and a dazzling assortment of Lebanese mezes."

Russ Parsons cooks up a seafood stew, and reminds us that Brussels sprouts are sprouting up at the local farmers' markets.

..but not a bite to eat. With the beginning of October, the grocery stores in my area seem to be overflowing with pumpkins of all shapes and sizes. However, I'm a bit confused by the numerous pumpkins that are not recommended for eating. The small pumpkins in a large display by the store entrance are marked "for display only, do not eat!" and the pumpkins in the produce section are covered with stickers that read "great for painting!" Am I the only one who heads to the produce department looking for things to eat? So, stubborn as I am, I've become set on turning these decorative objects into food -- and hopefully something more interesting than the pie that everyone seems to be so set on this time of year.

I love hosting dinner parties, but know that it can be a highly stressful affair. Chefs offer a few tips to make it successful, including how to handle fussy guests, and offer recipes that keep the stress level low, i.e. that are relatively uncomplicated and can be prepared in advance: Herbed Lemon Orzo, Creamy Roasted Parsnip Soup with Chevre & Walnut Crostini, Spiced Chicken with Pears and Port, and Chocolate Espresso Martinis.

Pickiness isn't just the guests at your dinner party. The Times looks at pickiness in general.

As if the heavy stews and braises of autumn weren't enough, it's football season, which brings along with it lots of diet-killing "stadium foods." The Diet Detective offers tips on how to handle a giant plate of nachos.

These days, just about every organization has a fundraising event centered around food, but it all started with the Pancake Breakfast. The Seattle Times offers four recipes: Swedish Pancakes, Dutch Pancakes, Buttermilk Pancakes, and Blueberry Pancakes.

Two books are under review this week. A recipe for Slow-roasted Martini Shortribs comes from Kathy Casey's Northwest Table, and a quick review of Barbara Fairchild's behemoth The Bon Appetit Cookbook.

At the farmers' markets, broccoli rabe (rapini) is coming into season, and you can make a Rapini Frittata with Mozzarella.

We already got some advice on which white breads were the best tasting (although you can always opt for homemade if you want to avoid store-bought entirely) but what about whole grain breads? There are so many different varieties to choose from, it's actually quite a feat to narrow down your criteria to the point where you can compare similar breads. One glance at the shelf in the grocery store shows whole wheat, honey wheat, oat bran, oat nut, multi-grain, 8-grain and dozens of other "whole grain" breads. Rather than trying to work out which might be the best, Food & Wine magazine picked out a few of their favorite whole grain products as a jumping off point, a benchmark that you can work from to find your own favorites. They selected De Cecco Whole wheat pasta, Pepperidge Farm Natural Pepperidge Farm whole wheat bread and Keebler Wheatables.

It's worth noting that the Pepperidge Farm bread did well in the white bread tasting, too, but I would choose Kashi's Tasty Little Crackers over F&W's choice of Wheatables for a whole-grain snack any day.

If you've been ignoring all the tips, tricks, news and wagging fingers from your friends and family about eating healthier, maybe this will change your mind about adding dark green leafy vegetables and fiber to your diet. According to health psychologist Lynn Edlen-Nezin and Robert Fried, authors of the book Great Food, Great Sex, the healthier your diet, the better your sex life. Edlen-Nezin says that because the "plumbing is all connected, everything that's good for your heart is good for your sexual health."

So what do they recommend? Everything that's been touted for cardiovascular health is good for sexual health because they contribute in some way to blood-flow through the body: fruits, vegetables, lean meats, whole grains, and anti-oxidant rich foods. Just don't expect high performance after dinner of grilled chicken breast on a bed of blackberries, walnuts, and wheatberries. We know there's no such thing as instant magic.

When you're out to dinner with your friends, ordering wine can be fun. You have discussions about what to order, negotiate how much you want to spend, and even poke fun at each other by threatening to order "white zin."

However, in a business situation, ordering wine is a whole different ball-game. In fact, it's not a game at all. If you are wining and dining a client and are in charge, then take charge, and keep in mind a few guidelines. Forbes has consulted with some of America's top sommeliers and "The rules for handling wine at an important business dinner are pretty much commonsense and not very different from the rules for any kind of successful entertaining--be prepared, plan ahead and use the resources at your disposal." Here are their tips in brief:

• Call ahead to the restaurant
• Don't dawdle with the list
• Think back to examples of wines you actually liked
• Go for the lowest common denominator
• Go with what you know
• Dont' start too big with a Cabernet Sauvignon or Zinfandel
• Be direct about price with the server
• Don't wait too long before ordering
• Expensive is not always the best
• Consider the whole picture

We are a little late with the San Francisco Chronicle's Wine section - their changing the section from Thursday to Friday is throwing us off! But we plunge ahead with their feature article, which explains the rigorous process of becoming a Master fo Wine. The credential comes after a four day test, years of study, huge sums of money, and repeated failed attempts. For the 20 years that the test has been open to Americans, only 24 have passed!

The Wine Selection of the Week is South Central Coast Pinot Noir, just in time for the deep, spicy flavors of fall. Out of 66 wines tested, 2004 Roessler Cellars Sanford & Benedict Santa Rita Hills Pinot Noir came close to a perfect rating with three-and-a-half stars (***1/2). The Chronicle serves a Roast Pork Loin with French Plum Sauce.

The Bargain Wines of Week hail from the Iberian Peninsula, particularly the northern regions of Spain and Portugal, which are known for Garnacha, Carinena, Monastrell, Tempranillo and Touriga Franca. For our Indian summer in California, there are some rosés listed.