All year, THE NIBBLE elves seek out and taste (or test) thousands of foods and drinks, kitchen products and books.

When we find something that we think a food lover would really appreciate, we earmark it for one of our holiday gift lists.

• Book Gifts ~ General Gourmet
• Book Gifts ~ Healthy Cooking
• Chocolate Gifts
• Cookies, Cakes & Other Desserts
• General Gourmet Gifts
• Kids’ Gifts
• Kitchen Appliances
• Kitchen Gadgets
• Kosher Gifts
• Liquor Gifts
• Stocking Stuffers: Kitchen
• Stocking Stuffers: Savory
• Stocking Stuffers: Sweet
• Sugar-Free, Gluten-Free & Low Calorie Gifts

A six-ounce box of excellent chocolate-dipped
peppermint sticks is just $5.95. Photo
courtesy King Leo Candies.

You can find stocking stuffers for as little as $2. (Because of the recession, we didn’t create a “Luxury Gifts” list this year.)

If your mission this weekend is holiday shopping, consider clicking instead of elbowing the crowds. Don’t let shipping costs dissuade you. Think instead of gas, parking battles, lengthy treks and long waits to pay (or get a gift box!).

Our vote for World’s Best Toffee. Photo

It’s a very buttery toffee; and that rich, buttery flavor combined with excellent chocolate and nuts makes the product stand out.

There’s so much butter that the company recommends refrigerating the toffee (but don’t worry, it’s even delicious right from the freezer).

• The company also makes a sugar-free toffee that is almost indistinguishable from the full-sugar version (and to compensate for all the butter, we’ve come to prefer it)
• Toffee popcorn—loaded with real toffee, not caramel syrup—is also made in a sugar-free version
• Enstrom’s peppermint bark is another “best we’ve ever had” (no sugar free, alas) 

• Purchase online here.
• Find all of our favorite sugar-free gifts.
• The difference between toffee and buttercrunch.

In addition to serving crudités as an option to the seductive Brie Torte, provide fresh fruit for guests who are watching calories or carbs, don’t eat refined sugar or are doing their best to avoid plunging into your brownies and butter cookies.

Fresh fruit pickings are slim in December, but a big bowl of strawberries is seasonal in color, festive in appearance and usually abundant, thanks to California’s strawberry growers. (It’s warm enough in the southern part of the state to harvest strawberries in December.)

Packed with antioxidants that are heart-healthy, anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory. Strawberries are just about perfect as a fruit. Just compare:

A bowl or basket of strawberries is a healthy
and low calorie holiday option. Photo courtesy WellPict.com.

The numbers to note are carbs and sugar: Strawberries have half as much sugar than most other fruit, including canteloupe.

Serve strawberries with a low-calorie, fat-free cinnamon-yogurt dip. Sweeten with a non-caloric sweetener or low calorie, low-glycemic agave nectar.

Nutrition information from CalorieCount.About.com.

 
A nice presentation is to place the strawberries in a napkin-lined basket with a bowl of dip in the center. If the caps on the berries are bright green and perky, leave them on—they add to the beauty. Just provide a small bowl for the discarded stems.

We loved the fresh butter we churned in our
kitchen. Photo by Katharine Pollak | THE NIBBLE.

Here’s a nice surprise: churning butter is quick and easy using only heavy cream. It can cost less than buying the same amount of butter. And fresh out of the churn, it tastes better!

A by-product of churning your own butter in this manually-operated device is a delicious half pint of half-and-half. (Amazingly, the instructions tell you to “throw out the liquid”—perhaps the French enjoy only heavy cream.)

Adults and kids alike will enjoy watching cream magically turn into butter.

The imported butter churn is $109.95 at BroadwayPanhandler.com, and worth it. (Or phone 1.866.266.5927, as quantities are limited.)

• See more of our favorite kitchen gifts for Holiday 2010.
• Check out all the different types of butter in our Butter Glossary.

Things haven’t changed much since last year. Locally sourced ingredients and sustainability top the restaurant trends projections for 2011, and the rest of the Top 20 trends have been around as well. Now, let’s hope they go from “around” to mainstream.

The Top 20 Restaurant Trends for 2011

1. Locally sourced meats and seafood
2. Locally grown produce
3. Sustainability
4. Nutritionally balanced children’s dishes

Trend: Avoid out-of-season foods that burn a
lot of fuel to get to you (and don’t taste
as good as in-season foods). Photo by Alaina Cherup | SXC.

Thirty percent of chefs said mobile food trucks and pop-up restaurants would be the hottest operational trend in 2011.

Bon appétit!