Here is a fantastic list of holiday gift ideas...food, cookware and kitchen gadget ideas for your favorite food lover.
It's that time of year. The season of all things bright and beautiful...and the season to avoid the mall AT ALL COSTS! I am not the Black Friday type. Crowds, fender benders in the parking lot, trampling...no, thank you! I was born to internet shop and that's why all of these gifts (every single one of them) can be bought with the click of a mouse.
Whether you are looking for a hostess gift or a bigger gift for that special someone, this list of food and cooking gifts has a little bit of everything. There are some of my favorite food treats, along with some of my most-used cookware items and gadgets. Well, not MY actual cookware and gadgets.
If you have any tried-and-true holiday gift ideas, I'd love to hear about them in the comments section. I need as much help as I can get!
Cookware & Gadgets:
Everyday Pan: If you follow my posts regularly, you will notice that this
Cuisinart Nonstick 12-Inch Everyday Pan is one of my most-used pieces of cookware. Honestly, I use it at least five times per week, and have for the past several years. It has held up like a champ! With a to keep everything warm, it can go straight from stovetop or oven to table with ease.
Le Creuset Saucepan: I inherited my Le Creuset cast-iron French oven from my grandparents. If it has held up for 50+ years, I'd say that it's well worth the investment! I use it for everything from soups to stews to curries. It comes in both 5 ½-Quart and 3 ½-Quart versions.
Slow Cooker/Crockpot: This KitchenAid 6-Quart Slow Cooker is awesome! It comes with four settings (warm, low, medium and high) and a timer. When it reaches the end of the designated cooking time, the slow cooker automatically switches over to warm. Clever little thing, isn't it?
Kitchen Containers: If you caught my How to: Organize Your Pantry post, you saw these OXO 10-Piece Good Grips Pop Containers in action. They are see-through, making it easy to see exactly what you have in your pantry, and the pop lids seal tightly to keep your food fresh.
Chef's Knife: If there's one thing every cook needs, a good chef's knife is it! This Shun Chef's Knife has been in my knife block for several years, and I absolutely love its feel and efficiency. It's solid, but not too heavy and slices through food with the greatest of ease. It comes in several sizes. The 8-inch and 10-inch versions are my favorites.
Cast-Iron Skillet: For a great sear on your meat and a "must have" piece of cookware, this Lodge 12-Inch Cast-Iron Skillet is perfect. This is also great for camping!
Cookie Scoops: These OXO cookie scoops are great for forming even cookies, but we also use them for portioning out meatballs or scooping muffin batter into the muffin tins. They are available in small, medium and large.
Crepe Pan: My family is in love with both sweet and savory crepes (though I don't make them often enough for their liking). This Cuisinart Nonstick 10-Inch Crepe Pan makes the job so much easier than a regular skillet. For some fun recipes, try Crepes: 50 Savory and Sweet Recipes.
Rice Cooker: I actually won this rice cooker at a blogging conference, and then it sat in my cupboard, untouched, for a year. What the heck was I thinking?! This Zojirushi Rice Cooker is the best! We can set the brown rice (our favorite for healthy meals) to cook, then head off to soccer practice or Kung-Fu class without a thought. When we get back, there's a pot of warm, tender rice waiting for us.
Dessert plates: These Mallorca Dessert Plates at Crate and Barrel are so simple and pretty. The scalloped edges add just enough "fancy" to these white plates.
Pie/Quiche Dish: Okay, I'm not much of a pie maker, but this Emile Henry 9-Inch Pie Dish makes me yearn to make a pie every week. It works really well for quiches too, such as my potato-crusted version.
Food gifts:
Butter Cookies: This tin of Royal Dansk Danish Butter Cookies is a memory straight from my childhood. With multiple layers of different types of cookies, most adorned with sugar crystals, these cookies make the perfect holiday hostess gift.
Gyoza Sauce: Okay, this is a completely selfish idea. We go through Trader Ming's Gyoza Dipping Sauce from Trader Joe's like it's going out of style. Any of your friends or family that like Asian flavors will love this sauce. It's perfect for dipping potstickers. If you have a Trader Joe's, definitely buy it there (it's cheaper there). If not, use the link above to find it on Amazon.
Grafton Smoked Cheddar: My husband and I fell in love with Grafton Village Smoked Cheddar when we visited the tiny town of Grafton, Vermont many years ago. We would munch on this cheese, washing it down with a good beer, as we fly-fished the ponds and rivers of Vermont. The cheese can be found at Whole Foods or ordered from the Grafton Village Cheese site.
Spices: This is a really fun gift idea for people who love playing around with different flavors in the kitchen. Penzeys Spices have an amazing array of dried herbs and spices, and some great gift boxes to make gift-giving easy. Plus, everything is very reasonably priced. Even better, right?
Your Own Virtual Olive Tree: Nudo's "Adopt an Olive Tree" program is such an original idea for your favorite food lover. In fact, we gave this gift to my parents a couple of years ago and last year they returned the favor. The olive oil from your tree, housed in decorative tins, will be delivered to your door two times during the year. If you just want to gift some olive oil or jars of antipasti, check out Nudo's gift sets.
Harry and David gifts: I am a Harry and David lover, through and through. A box of their special Royal Riviera pears, or some of their specialty chocolates and candies make a fantastic gift for adults and kids alike. The gift section on their site has everything from "fruit of the month" clubs to towers of Moose Munch and pears.
Squeezable Sauces: My parents gave us Terrapin Ridge's Spicy Chipotle sauce a few years ago and we became addicted immediately. They have a huge array of sauces, spreads, dips and mixes. But seriously, make sure you buy some of that chipotle sauce for yourself. It's fantastic on roasted potatoes, sandwiches and eggs.
Chocolates: Before I went to Kohler's Food & Wine Experience this fall, I had no idea that Kohler (you know, the toilet/bath/sink people) made chocolates. And they are really, really good chocolates. From the decadent terrapins (think chocolate, pecans and caramel) to the AMAZING Platinum collection, their chocolates will make you think about "Kohler" in a whole new light.
Vinegars & Olive Oils: O Olive Oil makes an array of vinegars, such white, port or fig flavors. There are plenty of gift boxes in their gift section, too.
Disclosure: I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
Liz @ The Lemon Bowl
I want everything on your list!! Why does that not surprise me? 🙂 Hope you had a great Thanksgiving, Dara!
Lea Ann (Cooking On The Ranch)
Great ideas Dara. Since I'm the food lover in the family, several of these items went straight to my Amazon wish list.
Katrina @ Warm Vanilla Sugar
So many great things here. Definitely a perfect gift guide for the cook! I'll be sending this to my man, lol.