A Few of My Favorite (Culinary) Things

About author / Victoria Wesseler

Healthy eating advocate; master gardener; local food expert. Even veggie haters love her recipes.

They should pay my mail delivery person by the pound during November and early December. Every day my mailbox is stuffed to overflowing with thick holiday gift catalogues. I usually toss most of them in the recycle bin except for the culinary ones. Those I save for later in the evening when I sit on my sofa after supper and read them slowly as if they were a great novel. I pore over each description of every item. I am entranced by the beautiful specialty cookware, think seriously about whether or not I really need another holiday themed cake stand, and mull over the merits of purchasing a second Madeleine pan since I have not yet used the one I bought on sale a few years ago. And the nearly $4,000.00 Italian espresso machine…SIGH…I pause briefly and longingly admire its Ferrari-like sleekness. Then in a moment of sanity I quickly turn the page.

Since most of my friends love to cook, we try to come up with creative culinary related items for each other’s presents. Here, in no special order, are a few of our favorite things to give and, Santa if you’re reading this, to receive:

• Cookbooks: We can never have too many, especially if they’re packed full of color photographs. They’re culinary travelogues for our taste buds.

• Culinary magazine subscriptions: Maybe an international magazine subscription to Donna Hay or Delicious.

• Cotton lint-free kitchen towels: Really big ones with fun pictures or silly sayings on them.

• Cheese: The more palate challenging, the better.

• Liqueurs: This year we are craving Barenjager, a deliciously sweet honey liqueur which comes in an adorable beehive capped bottle.

• Olive oil: A bottle of first press flavorful olive oil to drizzle over grilled bread or white bean soup.

• White or black truffle butter: To take a bowl of mashed potatoes to new heights.

• Fig vincotto: Because we’ll use this on everything from vanilla ice cream to salmon and salads, two bottles would not be a bad idea.

• Chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate: Champagne truffles are always in good taste.

• Bouquet of fresh herbs: The scent of fresh basil in December…need we say more?

• Salt: Smoked Danish salt, black lava salt, Hawaiian red clay salt, or pink Peruvian salt would add sparkle to a platter of roasted winter veggies.

• Peppercorns: A jar of green or pink peppercorns would be a welcome addition to our spice racks.

• Cinnamon: Spicy sweet cinnamon will wake up our oatmeal on cold winter mornings.

• Herbs de Provence: Just the thing for rubbing on a leg of lamb or Cornish hen. Or maybe we’ll simply open the jar and breathe in the lavender laced scent for a bit of mid-winter aromatherapy.

Lots of us are probably trying to think of creative holiday gift ideas for the foodies in our lives. So, let’s help each other out. What’s your favorite culinary gift(s) to give and/or receive?