‘Tis the season for gifting and self-gifting. Our favorite Levain cookies have a limited-time holiday flavor—Dark Chocolate Peppermint—that we love so much, we’re packing extras in the freezer to last us at least until spring.

Levain is known for its six-ounce jumbo cookie mounds—magnificent cookies that are crispy on the outside and gooey on the inside.

Dark Chocolate Peppermint, available through the end of December, has the company’s signature dark, rich chocolate dough mixed with soft red and white peppermint chips.

The result is cookies that tingle and delight, bursting with seasonal flavor. Every bite says “Joyous Holidays!”

You can buy Dark Chocolate Peppermint cookies (photo #1) alone or in combination with other flavors (photo #2).

And if you’re worried about eating a six-ounce cookie all at once, you can freeze halves or quarters, which are easy to slice and which will be delicious when thawed (or eaten frozen—oh yes, we do!).
 
 
WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE? 

In addition to an all Dark Chocolate Peppermint box, you can get a Holiday Assortment that also includes Chocolate Chip Walnut, Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip, Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip, and Oatmeal Raisin.

We’re not going to bias your choice by relating that our favorites, in addition to Dark Chocolate Peppermint, are Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip and Oatmeal Raisin. That’s just a suggestion for friends and family who don’t know what we want to find under our tree.
 
 
GET YOUR COOKIES 

Head to LevainBakery.com.

The cookies are also available at nine storefronts and
 
 
> The history of cookies.

> The 11 basic types of cookies.

> A glossary of different cookies.

[1] Perhaps the best chocolate-and-peppermint treat of the season (all photos © Levain Bakerey).

[2] There are gift boxes with everybody’s favorite flavors.

[3] These are so good, we want nothing else for Christmas!

[1] It’s the prettiest gin you’ll ever see (both photos © Empress Gin).

[2] A blue Martini.

This bright blue bottle of Empress 1908 Indigo Gin is a terrific gift for any gin lover. The bottle isn’t blue—the gin is, naturally colored lush indigo by the exotic butterfly pea blossom.

Handcrafted in small batch copper-pot stills by Victoria Distillers in Victoria, British Columbia, a blend of traditional gin botanicals has a subtle note of the signature blend of black tea served at the Fairmont Empress Hotel in Vancouver, built in 1908 (hence, Empress 1908 Gin).

The all-natural, modern-style recipe consists of gin infused with eight botanicals: cinnamon, coriander, ginger, grapefruit peel, juniper, rose petal, tea (which is an herb!), and the butterfly pea blossom.

The result is a balance of the traditional juniper and citrus notes of gin with a warm herbal earthiness from the tea: an elegant taste and delicate aroma.

The vivid color provides the perfect base for a new aesthetic of cocktail creation and enjoyment.

Enjoy it straight on the rocks, or as a base for a new aesthetic of cocktail creations, with colors from light blue and bright blue to shades of purple and rose. (See the recipes on the website.)

Here’s a store locator.

Here are online options.
 
 
 
 
> The history of gin.

> The different types of gin.

The Cheetos Duster is a gift for the die-hard Cheetos Fan. The snack brand is causing mischief in the kitchen with its first-ever cooking gadget.

What is the Cheetos Duster? It spreads Cheetle, the orange dust from Cheetos, to elevate your dishes to epic proportions.

From mac and cheese to salads to fries and beyond, your dishes can reach new levels of cheesy goodness. Here are some ideas to spark culinary inspiration:

 
To use the Cheetos Duster, simply fill the glass jar with any Cheetos snacks and press the power button. Cheesy magic awaits.
 
 
GET YOUR CHEETOS DUSTER 

Fans can purchase the Cheetos Duster exclusively on Amazon. You’ll also find an array of Chester-approved recipes to spark inspiration.
 
 
> The history of Cheetos & Cheese Doodles

[1] The Cheetos Duster (both photos © Cheetos).

[2] What will you dust first?

[1] Raspberry-Mascarpone-Stuffed French Toast with Balsamic Glaze (photo © DeLallo).

[2] French Toast banana split (photo © Tillamook County Dairy Association).

[3] Savory French Toast with cherry tomatoes and Parmesan cheese (photo © Castello Cheese).

[4] Monte Cristo, a French Toast sandwich.

[5] Croissant French Toast with cherries and chocolate (photo © California Cherries).

November 28th is National French Toast Day, and we have both sweet and savory French Toast recipes for you. First, a bit of history.
 
 
FRENCH TOAST HISTORY 

The dish known in America as French toast has roots at least as far back as ancient Rome, where it was a sweet dish.

In fact, pain perdu (or lost bread), the current French name for the dish, was once called pain à la romaine, or Roman bread.

While the story evolved that French toast was a food of the poor trying to scrape together a meal from stale bread, recipes from ancient and medieval times were food for wealthy people. Recipes used white bread, a luxury, with the crusts cut off.

Poor people ate brown bread, which was cheaper because the wheat endosperm did not have to be milled and sifted through screens to create white flour.

Costly ingredients such as spices (cinnamon, cloves, mace, nutmeg, and sugar), and almond milk are found in numerous recipes. The cooked bread was topped with costly honey or sugar.

And cookbooks themselves were the province of the wealthy: Only wealthy people and clergy learned to read.

In addition to savory French toast recipes for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, more recently, French toast has evolved into a savory sandwich, the Monte Cristo.

It’s an evolution of the Croque-Monsieur, a crustless sandwich of ham and Gruyère cheese, buttered and lightly browned on both sides in a skillet or under a broiler.

The Croque-Monsieur was invented in Paris in 1910. A variation with a baked egg on top is a croque-madame. Neither sandwich was battered, like French toast.

The Monte Cristo sandwich was invented in the Coronado Hotel in San Diego, according to the L.A. Times. The first recipe in print is in the Brown Derby Cookbook, published in 1949. It’s a triple-decker sandwich, battered and pan-fried.

Here’s a Monte Cristo recipe.
 
 
30+ FRENCH TOAST RECIPES

Sweet French Toast 

Sweet French Toast recipes can be served for breakfast, brunch, and dessert.

 
 
Savory French Toast 

Savory French Toast recipes can be served for breakfast, brunch, lunch, and dinner.

We love a good sweet-and-salty snack. Chunk Nibbles crunchy snack mix is based on a recipe that the founder’s grandfather had been using for decades.

It’s a mix of confectionary wafers, nuts, pretzels, corn squares, and different accents like graham crackers and marshmallows (for S’mores) or peanut butter chips (for Peanut Butter Chocolate).

The treats are both nostalgic and modern, packed full of delicious flavors and textures. You can “truly taste the magic of a Grandma’s recipe in every chunk.”

The snack mixes are handmade in small batches from quality ingredients.

In two sizes, they can be stocking stuffers, party favors, and additions to gift bags.

But before you give them away, make sure you have a stash for yourself.
 
 
CHUNK NIBBLES FLAVORS 

Available in 2-ounce “personal pouches” and 4.25-ounce pouches, flavors include:

 
There are also seasonal flavors:

 
We must admit a preference for Peanut Butter Chocolate and Peppermint (we haven’t tried Apple Cinnamon). Original is nice, but the other flavors are, understandably, more complex.
 
 
A FEEL-GOOD SNACK 

Chunk Nibbles has partnered with Blue Star Service Dogs, a non-profit organization that rescues and trains shelter dogs to be service dogs, and pairs them to military veterans living with PTSF or traumatic brain injury.

A portion of each sale is donated directly to Blue Star. Here’s more about Blue Star and its mission.
 
 
GET YOUR CHUNK NIBBLES 

Head to ChunkNibbles.com.

[1] Peppermint, delicious for the holidays (photos #1 and #2 © QVC).

[2] Pouches are available in two sizes.

[3] Apple Cinnamon is the fall flavor.