Maple Pecan Cookies from Michael’s Cookies.
Photo by Dhanraj Emanuel.
Even if you dont go to holiday cookie swaps, sometimes, you find yourself with too many cookies at hand: your birthday, the holidays, an overzealous round of baking and recipe-testing…or maybe they arrive during a time when you’re cutting back on sweets. Supermarket cookie are baked with enough preservative to stay ”fresh” on the shelf for a year or longer. Artisan cookies are baked without preservatives, and need to be eaten promptly. The cookies taste best when they’re fresh out of the oven, or within five days of baking. So if you have too many cookies to consume within the “good eating” time frame and they are just too good to give away, read about storing cookies. To read reviews of our favorite cookies (including Michael’s Cookies, shown in the photo at left), plus yummy cookie recipes), check out the Cookie Section of THE NIBBLE online magazine.
If you start to salivate at the thought of a bowl of steaming hot clam chowder…then grow sad, wondering where you’re going to get that authentic vacation-in-Maine experience…we have the solution. Bar Harbor Seafood makes the real deal and cans it, so you can stock your shelves to get you through the winter in fine style. This is such hearty clam chowder, you can eat it as your main meal—no oyster crackers needed (but, feel free). The amazing thing is, this gourmet experience is just twice the price of a can of Progresso. Bar Harbor Seafood also cans lobster, clams and other seafood right out of the water (the boats pull up to the dock right in front of their cannery). The chowder is so good, you can give it as stocking stuffers—but make sure you don’t give it all away, or you’ll find yourself growing sad again. Read our full review. And, read more about our favorite favorite seafood products in the Seafood Section of the THE NIBBLE online magazine.
No oyster crackers needed with this delicious New England clam chowder.
Something different: a white chocolate chunk
brownie from The Exceptional Brownie.
If you’re kosher or have friends who are, we’ve compiled our favorite kosher food gifts (delicious for anyone who likes fine food—kosher or not—these artisan foods just happen to have obtained kosher certification). This year’s selections have something for everyone. For sophisticates, take a look at Dagoba Chocolate tasting squares and flavored cacao nibs, Lucini extra-virgin olive oil and Savannah Bee Company rare artisan honeys. For kids and families, Cream-Nut peanut butter and peanut butter clusters (better than peanut butter cups), Divvies kettle corn, Enstrom’s peppermint bark, the Exceptional Brownie in eight flavors and Sweet Riot’s pocket-size cacao nib snacks. For corporate gifts—or just about anyone—Galaxy Desserts’ fancy individual desserts send the patissier to your gift recipient (figuratively, not literally), and Michael’s Cookies beautiful gift boxes. Read the full review. See all of our gift recommendations in THE NIBBLE online magazine.
Filet mignon lovers: Is it worth 5 minutes of your time for a chance to win four tender, six-ounce filet mignons? It’s $86.99 worth of meat—who wants to spring for that at the checkout counter? If your response is, “Show me the tenderloins,” then click on over to this week’s Gourmet Giveaway and answer four quickie trivia questions about beef. You don’t have to answer correctly to win—just take your best shot and give us your email (and name, too—we like to address the winner by personally, rather than “To Whom It May Concern”). Even if you don’t win, you’ll know much more about beef than when you started, because you get the answers to: Who/what is Kobe beef named after, the difference between grass-fed and grain-fed beef, the top quality beef in America and where to purchase it.
Win me! Cook me! Eat me!
Tempted? Enter now. And the next time someone says, “Where’s the beef?” it may be on the way to your house! Learn more about the different cuts of beef in our Beef Glossary…and how to save on beef with the Best Value Steak Cuts. Moo hoo!
We thought of Cocoa Puro’s Kakawa Cocoa Beans as a gourmet gift for a connoisseur—until everybody at THE NIBBLE offices started to dig in, and wanted more. This is a unique product, a chocolate-covered cacao bean (not the nibs, which are the “seeds” of the bean). The finest beans are roasted until crunchy, like coffee beans; then they are enrobed it all three types of chocolate (white, milk and dark). Finally, the tri-chocolate-covered bean is rolled in cocoa powder to create a five-in-one chocolate experience—all of the manifestations of cacao in one bite. Each stage of production is a hand process: It takes a lot of artisan work and the most minute attention to detail to create these beans. Kakawa is the Olmec word for cacao; the Olmecs were the first people to cultivate the plant. Read more about Kawkawa Cocoa Beans, and why you might want to treat yourself to some of these beauties as a holiday gift. They’re wonderful with after-dinner coffee.
