Then here’s the perfect item: Belle Chevre’s Do It Yourself Goat Cheese Kit. It’s so easy (and fun) to make goat cheese at home.

Belle Chevre is one of our favorite makers of goat cheese: a Top Pick Of The Week twice for their wonderful flavored goat cheese spreads and heavenly goat cheese cheesecake.

The award-winning cheesemakers have put together a cheesemaking kit with everything you need to make goat cheese in your kitchen in just a few hours, and with only about 10 minutes of active kitchen time.

The gift-ready box and storage container includes:

 
You need only supply the goat milk, available in most supermarkets and all natural food stores.

The same day your kit arrives, you can be rolling your own chevre logs or mixing a bowl of fromage blanc, a fresh cream cheese that’s much lower in fat and calories (and one of our favorite foods).

 
And of course, there are hundreds and hundreds of recipes, from appetizers to desserts, like goat cheese cheesecake and ice cream.
 
Get your goat cheese kit from BelleChevre.com.

The kit is $27.95, but after you get the hang of it, you’ll be able to buy the ingredients for very little and make goat cheese for less than it costs to buy it.

What’s inside the box. Pick up goat’s milk at the supermarket. Photo by Elvira Kalviste | THE NIBBLE.

Long before the advent of Christianity, evergreen plants and trees had special significance during the bleak winter months.

Early Romans marked the winter solstice† with a feast called the Saturnalia (in honor of Saturn, the god of agriculture), celebrating that farms and orchards would soon be green and fruitful again. As part of the festivities, they decorated their homes and temples with evergreen boughs.

In Northern Europe the Druids,** the priestly class of the ancient Celts, also decorated their temples with evergreen boughs as a symbol of everlasting life.

The use of evergreen trees, wreaths and garlands to symbolize eternal life was shared by the ancient Chinese, Egyptians and Hebrews. According to the Encyclopedia Brittanica, tree worship was common among pagan Europeans and survived their conversion to Christianity.

Other ancient peoples would hang evergreen boughs over their doors and windows, a tradition that continues today—although back then, there was a prevailing belief that evergreens would keep away evil spirits, ghosts, witches and illness.

The decorated evergreen tree first appeared at the turn of the 15th century in the upper Rhineland, an area in the middle western border that includes Bonn, Düsseldorf and Köln (Cologne), cities on the Rhine River. The area is home to many evergreens, including fir, pine and spruce trees.

According to TheHolidaySpot.com, in 1605, a groundbreaking moment in Christmas occurred: an evergreen tree was brought indoors and decorated. It occurred in Strasbourg, a city on the Rhine that is now part of France. The tree was adorned with paper roses, lighted candles, wafers, nuts and sweets.

The concept spread through Germany, and in 1800 the Christmas tree was brought to the U.K. by Queen Charlotte, the German-born wife of George III, who decorated a small yew tree in with candles, sweets and toys. The tradition did not spread outside of the royal court until 1848, when the Illustrated London News magazine published an illustration featuring the royal family gathered around their Christmas tree. That’s all it took for Christmas trees to begin to pop up in British homes.

Germany, home of the Christmas tree, threw themselves into the tradition in a big way:

Electric Christmas lights were born in the U.S.A. It was in New York City, in 1882, that the first Christmas tree was lit by electricity.

This pioneering effort was accomplished by Edward Johnson, using 80 small electric light bulbs. Johnson was an inventor who worked for Thomas Edison, whose laboratory had delivered the first workable incandescent light bulb in October 1879. Johnson went on to create the first strings of electric Christmas lights, which were mass produced around 1890.‡

Tree lights really took off when American Albert Sadacca replaced the white lights with brightly colored bulbs. The company he founded became the largest Christmas lighting company in the world. The first artificial tree appeared in the 1930s. The early ones were silver, designed to be lit by a revolving colored light source under the tree.

An edible version of the historic Christmas tree. Here’s the recipe. Photo courtesy Cabbot Creamery.

HOW TO MAKE A CHEESE CHRISTMAS TREE

As long as you can cut even cubes, this is an easy and fun project.

Select your favorite semihard cheeses: young Asiago, Cheddar, Colby, Edam, Fontinella, aged Gouda, Jack, Manchego, Provolone and Queso Blanco, for starters (learn more about these cheeses in our Cheese Glossary).

Cheeses that already are formed into rectangular blocks are the easiest to cut into cubes. Here’s the full recipe.

*The word derives from the name of a pagan feast lasting 12 days.

†The winter solstice, which typically occurs on December 21st, is the shortest day of the year. It’s the on which the noontime sun is at its lowest altitude above the horizon. More.

**The Celts and Druids occupied Britain, Ireland, and Gaul (France), and possibly other parts of Celtic Europe and Galatia during the Iron Age. In Britain, they built the magnificent and fascinating monument, Stonehenge.

‡It seems amazing, but electricity in homes and businesses is fairly recent. According to Wikipedia, by 1900 most American cities had electric street lights and most new houses were wired for electricity. By 1920 almost all businesses had electricity, and many houses were converted from gas light to electric light in this period. By 1930 even cold water tenements had electric lights. However many rural areas and farms still did not have lights due to the cost of wiring. By 1950 most homes had electricity.

A brioche bun is a breakfast delight. Photo
by Elena Moiseeva | IST.

Almost 200 years ago, Brie was crowned the Queen of Cheeses. Following the Battle of Waterloo (June 18, 1815), representatives of 30 nations convened in Vienna to reconstruct the map of Europe. It wasn’t all work: During a lively discussion on the merits of different cheeses, Brie was unanimously proclaimed “Queen of Cheeses.”

But what about a Queen of Breads to go with the cheese? None has been proclaimed in the history books, so we’re doing the enthroning here.

The luscious butteriness that makes Brie a queen is the key flavor of brioche (pronounced bree-OASH), our nominee for Queen of Breads. In fact, it already has a crown (see Types Of Brioche, below).
WHAT IS BRIOCHE BREAD?

Brioche is a light, slightly sweet bun or loaf made with eggs, yeast and butter, and glazed with an egg wash. The butter and eggs make it very rich. Brioche is served as a breakfast bread, used to make French toast (better than challah!) and with luxury ingredients such as foie gras and smoked salmon. (Perhaps our favorite luxury food is pâté de foie gras on toasted brioche.)

The word comes from Old French, broyer, to knead. The expression, “If they have no bread, let them eat cake,” commonly misattributed to Queen Marie-Antoinette, is a translation of the phrase, “S’ils n’ont plus de pain, qu’ils mangent de la brioche.” The quotation was attributed by Jean-Jacques Rousseau to “a great princess,” possibly Maria Theresa of Spain, wife of Louis XIV (although how “great” a princess is who disparages hungry commoners is up for debate).

Almond brioche. Photo courtesy King Arthur Flour.

 
Beyond French toast, leftover brioche makes heavenly bread pudding, bread salad, croutons, eggs in a basket,* fondue dippers and grilled cheese sandwiches.

BRIOCHE HISTORY

According to LaGourmandise.net, the word brioche first appeared in print in 1404, although it could have existed hundreds of years before then. It is believed to have sprung from a traditional Norman recipe, though some culinary historians have argued that brioche is probably of Roman origin.

Want to bake brioche? You don’t have to buy fluted brioche molds: Here’s a recipe for a loaf of brioche.

Check out all the different types of bread in our delicious Bread Glossary.

 
*EGGS IN A BASKET RECIPE: Cut a round hole in the center of two slices of brioche. Melt a tablespoon or two of butter in a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add the brioche slices and brown on one side; flip over. Crack two eggs and add one to each hole. Cook until the eggs reach desired degree of doneness.

Gluten-free glory. Photo courtesy Cake |
Chicago.

While it may not be easy being green, it’s even worse to be gluten-free. When everyone else is enjoying cake and cookies, you’ve got to show restraint.

Unless you’ve received a box of “defloured” cookies from Cake, an artisan bakery in Chicago.

A gift box of three delicious cookies will make your gluten-free friend or family member very happy:

Glutophobes will grinning from ear to ear.
 
The deluxe gift box includes:

 
Order at Cake-Chicago.com.

The company also makes delicious cookies with conventional flour.

See more of our favorite gluten free gourmet foods.

Campbell’s Soup is one of those iconic brands that goes back so many generations as to be ho hum to today’s youth. So the company got hip and developed the new Campbell’s Go line: microwavable pouches of soup that heat conveniently in the microwave and pour easily into the nearest mug.

Not only is the new line can-free, but it’s spice-laden. The blander red and white cans of soup consumed by generations have given way to the hotter tastes of Millennials, who have been raised with access to curry, salsa and wasabi. This is not your mother’s Campbell’s Soup.

And the branding is “hipster-inspired,” with a different hipster model for each flavor. The target market: soup lovers 18 and up, with a focus on the nation’s 80 million Millennials between the ages of 25 and 35, whom the company describes as “restless spirits with adventurous tastes.”

At $2.99 for a satisfying 14-ounce pouch, Campbell’s Go is a more reasonable alternative than what you get at the deli (we just paid $4.99 for a takeout cup of miso soup at Whole Foods).

Dude! It’s time for soup! Photo courtesy Campbell’s Soup.

Hipsters, wannabees and the rest of us need only go as far as the microwave to enjoy Campbell’s Go. The pouches of soup require no refrigeration and no can opener. You do, however, need scissors to vent the top of the pouch before microwaving.

HOW GOOD ARE THEY?

Good! We would tweak a couple of the recipes as noted. The “bold and unexpected” globally-inspired recipes include:

We really liked these soups and will certainly stock up. But we’ll still be buying one of our favorite comfort foods, Campbell’s Tomato Soup. The one painted by Andy Warhol. In the red and white can.

Campbell’s Go is available at food stores nationwide. Learn more at the website.

One final note: The package suggests microwaving for 2 to 2-1/2 minutes. Our 1000 watt Sharp Carousel microwave delivered super-hot soup in just two minutes. Another half minute made the soup so hot, we were tortured by the tantalizing aroma while waiting for it to cool down.