| Holiday
Gift Ideas
The holidays are upon us and it’s time to think
of ways to bring holiday cheer to food-loving friends and relatives.
CF has culled the
best of the best just in time for all the chefs, home cooks, and
gourmets on your list.
 Here
are CF’s Top
Picks for holiday gift giving:
 Brighten
up your favorite cook’s kitchen with vintage product posters
from Art.com.
Art.com offers original vintage posters designed by some of the
world’s greatest poster artists such as Mucha, Cappiello,
and René Vincent.
 Sur
La Table’s gorgeous, fragrant Orange
Wreath made of bay leaves, dried orange slices, and
faux oranges makes a delightful hostess gift for all your pre-holiday
events.
Collectible cookbooks make great gifts for
 
home cooks and bibliophiles alike. CF
loves Betty
Crocker's Picture Cookbook offered
by Alibris.
Published in 1950, Betty
Crocker's Picture Cookbook
offers
a nostalgic look at the life of the post-war homemaker. Loaded with
practical tips and easy-to-do recipes for old-fashioned comfort
foods such as Snickerdoodles, Pigs in Blankets, and the “Six-Layer
Dinner”, it will appeal to both new and experienced cooks.
Temptations to Savor
At Fromages.com,
online purveyors of traditional French cheeses, you can compose
your own cheese board for the turophiles on your list, or take advantage
of one of their expert selections, such as the award-winning , composed
of Livarot, Machecoulais, and Pont l'Evêque.
  Give
a culinary adventure in a basket from iGourmet.com,
the online source for gourmet gifts, imported cheeses and specialty
foods. Selections include the Tour
of Italy Gift Basket, with handcrafted jams by Il Forteto,
spicy Provolone Piccante, Asiago D'Allevo, Olio Carli, an olive
oil from Liguria and Balsamic vinegar from Modena.
Hosting and Prep Help
Surprise wine lovers with the Eurotech
17 Bottle Cellar, a personal wine storage unit from
Wine.com.
Pefect for home or office, the Eurotech 17 Bottle Cellar holds up
to 17 bottles. Add Wine.com's
Napa
vs. Sonoma Collection, a luxury pack featuring delicious
Chardonnay and Merlot from Napa and Sonoma for an impressive gift
sure to please the the most exacting wine connoisseur on your list.
 Chef's,
the leading catalog retailer of top-quality cooking equipment for
home chefs and culinary professionals, makes gift giving easy. Choose
gifts by price, recipient, or make your own baskets. For the “chef
with almost everything,” CF
loves the Caviar
Staircase. Designed by chef Rick Tramonto,
this beautiful serving piece handcrafted from fused jade crystal
makes a dramatic presentation piece for caviar and accompaniments.
For a variety of kitchen necessities that anyone might appreciate
receiving, the Chef's
Clearance area features super discounts. Items move
fast, but recent listings included: a DeLonghi
12-cup Food Processor marked down $100 off its list
price; Cuisinart’s
Grind & Brew 10-cup Coffeemaker discounted 65%;
a Salton
Ice Cream Maker at half-price; and Freidrich
Dick knives offered at 65% savings.
 Recent
bargains on Overstock.com,
Inc.
included a handy portable butane gas range for only $29.99 at a
savings of 70%, and a Juice
Master fruit
and vegetable juicer for $55.99, a 56% savings from the list price.
Regional
Tastes
With Spain now leading the way in innovative regional cooking, Tienda.com’s
paella kits make wonderful gifts, as do their Spanish sausages,
piquillo peppers, select saffron and other Iberian delicacies.
But for the perfect item to bring to a holiday buffet, what could
be more spectacular than a lean and delicious Serrano ham?
And a whole manchego cheese round or a Spanish cheese sampler would
surely delight any cheese lover.
Awesome for Entertaining
Anyone into home entertaining will love receiving any of Andrea
Immer’s Entertaining Made Simple Series of music
CDs. Pairing music and wine with menu items, titles in the series
include the following. A super-special Santa might help prepare
for any dining occasion by sending the series: Champagne
Chocolate & Chopin; Chardonnay
Shellfish & Schubert; Merlot
Filet Mignon & Mozart; Pinot,
Pasta & Puccini; Bubbles
Brazil & Bossa Nova; Brew
BBQ & Blues; Big
Red Bistro & Ballads; Mojitos
Mariscos & Mambo.
Best Books for Favorite Foodists
 Food
pros and home cooks alike will be delighted with The
New American Chef: Cooking With the Best of Flavors and Techniques
from Around the World by Andrew Dornenburg
and Karen Page. This recently-released follow-on
to the authors’ best-selling hit, Becoming
a Chef, features the techniques of today’s
top chefs. Mario Batali, Daniel Boulud, Alain Ducasse, Paula Wolfert,
and many others share the foundations of (and nearly 200 recipes
from) ten influential cuisines: Japanese, Italian, Spanish, French,
Chinese, Indian, Mexican, Thai, Vietnamese, and Moroccan. Anyone
who loves to cook and wants to keep up with the latest global trends
will be delighted to have this new book.
 Tom’s
Big Dinners: Big-Time Home Cooking for Family and Friends
by Tom Douglas. The Northwest’s James Beard
award-winning chef offers 13 menus for entertaining, including everything
from cocktails and hors d'oeuvres to desserts and wine suggestions.
 The
Balthazar Cookbook by Keith McNally.
If you haven’t been to Balthazar, New York’s popular
SoHo brasserie, the next-best thing is being able to cook that deliciously
at home. The book features chefs Riad Nasr and Lee Hanson’s
recipes and techniques for Salade Nicoise, Steak Tartare, Bouillabaisse,
Coq au Vin, Duck Confit, Cassoulet, Steak Frites and other great
dishes, and any good cook would love the secrets to preparing these
to perfection.
Windows
on the World Complete Wine Course 2004 Edition
by Kevin Zraly. New York’s best known wine
expert makes it fun to learn about wine, and that’s why this
remains America’s top-selling guide. Zraly’s most complete
course yet includes an exclusive and invaluable "How to Buy
Wine" section that covers retailers, auctions, Internet sites,
and just about anywhere you’ll find a bottle of wine. An ideal
gift for anyone who wants to learn the basics and beyond of wine
appreciation.
Ripe
for Dessert: 100 Outstanding Desserts with Fruit—Inside, Outside,
Alongside by David Lebovitz.
This companion to Lebovitz’s best-selling Room for Dessert:
110 Recipes for Cakes, Custards, Souffles, Tarts, Pies, Cobblers,
Sorbets, Sherbets, Ice Creams, Candies and Cordials emphasizes all
the luscious possibilities one can prepare with almost every kind
of fruit. It’s perfect for a dessert-making or -loving friend.
 The
King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion: The All-Purpose Baking
Cookbook is the long-awaited definitive kitchen
resource for home baking. It covers ingredients (flours, sweeteners,
leavens, fats), substitutions and variations, troubleshooting advice,
baking secrets, and techniques. Any home baker will appreciate the
more than 350 recipes with step-by-step, crystal-clear instruction.
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