Holiday Gift Guide 2009: The Foodie Edition

Wellness Mat – What true foodie wouldn’t love something soft and squishy under there feet while they’re working away in the kitchen. You gotta love that they’re “ergonomically engineered to provide maximum comfort, safety and relief.”

Citizen Bean – For that over-caffeinated coffee lover on your list check out Citizen Bean. They work with small batch, sustainable coffee roasters across the country and deliver a full pound of beans, “food samples, herbs, coffee accessories and/or other monthly delights” and they include both a how-to guide and a Roaster profiles. Makes me wish I drank more coffee.

Grill Grates – I bet each and every one of us can think of someone that loves their grill. Well thanks go Grill Grates, you can now grill to perfection without the flareups or drying out your meat. The grates allow for that perfect steakhouse sear all while letting the fat drain down through the holes.

Destination Dinner – I’ve always wanted to try my hand at cooking some more exotic dinners, but I always felt bad about having to buy all the spices only to never get around to using them again. Recipe Kits by Destination Dinners includes the pre-measured hard to find spices, sauces and dried items as well as step-by-step instructions, a shopping list for fresh ingredients and fun facts and trivia about the destination you are “traveling” to.

Bev Shot – When I first saw BevShots – beers, wines and cocktails photographed under a microscope and featured as modern art – I was immediately intrigued. Not only is it some cool and funky art, but it also pays tribute to your favorite adult beverage and gives you a fun story when folks ask about your art collection.

Freshman in the Kitchen: From Clueless Cook to Creative Chef – The perfect gift for that recent grad or foodie in the making. Freshman in the Kitchen is written with the budget-mined first time cooks in mind. Their goal was to get the inexperienced cook or future foodies to get excited about cooking from scratch and to ditch the frozen and fast food options. You can’t go wrong by learning some simple “getting started” recipes, adding “heat”, moving up to “grilling”, “cooking to impress” and trying your hand at “themed meals” before ending with some simple desserts.

Nutra Salt – Who isn’t trying to cut back on salt these days? There’s no need to scrimp on flavor though. NutraSalt are low sodium, sea salt season blends packed with a full day’s supply of potassium. Allows you to bring salt and flavor back to your meals.

Culinary Institute of America – The Culinary Institute of America is a lot more than just a cooking school. Not only do they have they own gift shop chock full of cookbooks, DVDs and kitchen essentials, but they also offer up some amazing experiences for the cook and foodie alike. You can take classes (or bootcamps) as well as experience up-close-and-personal visits with premier growers, vintners, chefs, and purveyors that let participants experience the best of California’s legendary Napa Valley or demonstrations, tastings, and hands-on cooking, where you can expand your knowledge, explore new flavor profiles or the world of wine.

Naumes Gourmet Pear Gift Box – You’ve got to love a giving a gift that keeps giving. The Naumes family have pears that not only taste good, they also do good! They ship directly from their orchards and have no middle man. For every fruit gift purchased, they donate an equal amount of fresh fruit — pound for pound — to a local food pantry or shelter.

Coombs Family Farms – What’s better than a winter breakfast of pancakes with hot maple syrup? Not much, which is why anyone would love a Coombs Family Farms basket filled with pancake mix, maple syrup and some maple sugar. Ahhhh…heaven!

Vineyard Sampler: Cheesecakes in a Jar –   Cheesecake is one thing. Vineyard-inspired cheesecake is something else entirely. What foodie on your list wouldn’t love to get their hands on some Blackberry/Cabernet, Blueberry/Merlot, Pear/Chardonnay and Port/Fig with a currant reduction sauce Cheesecakes in a Jar? And they can last up to six months in your freezer (if you can manage not to eat them all at once!).

Cali Bowls – Have you ever tried to spoon up some salsa using a chip only to end up pushing the salsa out of the bowl leaving you with a naked chip and a mess? Well, CaliBowl has a patent-pending design that puts an end to that. So whether you are using a chip, a spoon, chop sticks, your hand, or any other utensil the CaliBowl not only prevents the contents from spilling, but effortlessly guides the contents back toward the utensil making eating, mixing, feeding, cooking, whipping, and scooping more fun and exciting! Perfect for young kids.

POURPerfect: bowls, measuring cup & spoons – How many times have you tried to pour your batter from your bowl into the pan only to have some of it end up on the counter? The POURPerfect bowls have solved that problem. Thanks to the deep spout and high sides, it guides your ingredients to go exactly where you tell it to go. Even their measuring cups and spoons are designed to allow you to pour your ingredients exactly where you want them to go.

The I Love Trader Joe’s Cookbook: 150 Delicious Recipes Using Only Foods from the World’s Greatest Grocery Store – We have been going crazy for this book in Southern California. It’s a simple and delicious cookbook that takes basic ingredients that you your local Trader Joe’s store carries and turns it into something fabulous. We’ve had this book for less than a week and have already made three things out of it and told everyone we know to get it. Yes, it is that good.

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