Looking for Mother’s Day gifts? Here are some tasty items that won’t break the bank.
 
 
1. CHUAO CHOCOLATE BARS

Chuao (chew-WOW) chocolate is one of the leaders in America’s artisan chocolate bars. We’ve been fans for a long time.

Give a gift set of these gourmet chocolate bars for to a chocolate aficionado, or give single bars as small gifts or party favors.

These delicious, creative chocolate bars are sure to please and are made in a broad spectrum of flavors: caramel, floral, fruity, nutty, salty, savory, spicy.

You can get a fun milk chocolate bar gift set filled with snack favorites (potato chips, popcorn…), a dark chocolate bar gift set, with flavors from spicy and pop rocks to salted almond crunch.

There are more than two dozen flavors in dark, milk and organic chocolate. The chocolatier specializes in artful flavors, including fun options that incorporate popcorn, popping candy and potato chips.

These are some of our favorites, but you can’t go wrong with any of these super-premium chocolate bars:

 
The 2.8-ounce bars are $6.00, and certified kosher by OU. Some flavors are available in .38 mini bars. The chocolate is Fair Trade Certified.

Get yours at ChuaoChocolatier.com.
 
 
2. GOLDEN DOOR FARMS FLAVORED HONEY

You may not be able to send Mom for a week at the Golden Door resort and spa, but you can send her one of their popular products, like artisan honey.

Honey is a 100% natural gift and one of the healthiest sweeteners.

For a special taste of honey in tea (or for basting, or whatever), we like the Delightful Honey Collection, which includes:

 
Three 2.6-ounce jars of honey in a gift box is $36.95. One hundred percent of Golden Door’s net profits go to help end child abuse and transform young lives.

Get yours here.
 
 
3. TABASCO DIAMOND RESERVE SAUCE

TABASCO calls its new, limited-edition TABASCO Diamond Reserve Sauce the “champagne of pepper sauce.” The premium, small-batch release created by the McIlhenny family celebrates the 150th anniversary of the iconic hot sauce brand.

The bottle is designed in the style of Champagne bottles; the sauce is made from a selection of the finest tabasco peppers on Avery Island, chosen for their superior color, texture and robustness.

These peppers are mashed with a small amount of salt and then aged—some for up to 15 years! They’re then blended with sparkling white wine vinegar.

The resulting pepper sauce has exceptional complexity, while maintaining the signature flavor and vibrancy for which TABASCO Sauce is celebrated around the world.

The six-ounce bottle is priced at $34.95. It is available exclusively at TABASCO.com and on Avery Island, Louisiana (the home of TABASCO Sauce).
 
 
4. TAY TEA

[2] and [3] The Delightful Honey Collection, flavored honey from Golden Door Farms.

[4] Tabasco’s Diamond Reserve Sauce, its 150th anniversary limited edition.

[4] Black tea with Persian rose petals from Tay Tea.

Instead of a bouquet of roses, consider a gift of Tay Tea Persian Rose Tea, black tea with rose petals.
You can give something as small as a $5 packet for a few cups of tea, to an $18 tin of tea that makes between 35-50 cups.

For your favorite hot mama, the company’s most popular tea blend is called Better Than Sex. An herbal rooibos tea blended with peppermint and dark chocolate, is also delicious as a hot toddy (add your spirit of choice).

Explore all the options at TayTea.com.

[2] White Chocolate Cashew Toffee.

Sometimes that tingle pays off on the palate, sometimes not. When you’re a food writer who has tasted thousands of products a year for 15 years, you acquire a deep perspective on what is good, great, and just O.K.

We hasten to add that, like the beauty in the eye of the beholder, individual tastes vary. We always use the chocolate chip cookie analogy. Even with a very good cookie, you have your preferences:

Chewy or crunchy, milk or dark, chips or chunks, nuts or no nuts, normal or densely-packed with chips and nuts, etc. Every chocolate chip connoisseur knows what his/her ideal cookie tastes like.

So how do you evaluate toffee? For us:

 
Fowler’s Toffee is a winner.

The family business has been making toffee for more than 20 years. It began as many artisan products do: batches given as gifts to friends and family.

The word got out, people came clamoring, and Fowler’s Toffee was born. It is available in:

 
The packaging is handsome: chocolate-brown boxes with grosgrain ribbon and a teal label. Custom labels are available for corporate gifts and special occasions.

If you like toffee as much as we do, click over to FowlersToffee.com and send yourself a treat.

Don’t forget Mother’s Day and Father’s Day gifts!
  

April 24th is National Pigs In Blankets Day. Some people call the food Pigs In A Blanket, but there’s only one pig per blanket. So, it’s Pig In A Blanket or Pigs In Blankets; and since no one has ever eaten just one, go for the plural.

But across the U.S., what caterers declare to be the most popular hors d’oeuvre is a cocktail frankfurter in a pastry blanket. Don’t forget the mustard.
 
 
THE HISTORY OF PIGS IN BLANKETS

Culinary historians have tracked the first recipes for modern pigs in blankets—small cocktail franks baked in a flaky crust—to 1950. According to FoodTimeline.org, these pastry-wrapped piggies are likely direct descendants of Victorian-era canapés.

The earliest recipe found in cookbooks that’s called “pigs in blankets” was published in the 1930. But there was no frankfurter or other sausage: It comprised oysters wrapped with bacon (strange, but perhaps plump oysters were seen as the “pigs”).

FOOD TRIVIA: Ask for Pigs In Blankets in the U.K., and you’ll get a cocktail sausage wrapped in bacon (a pig in a pig).
 
 
RECIPE: BLUE CHEESE PIGS IN BLANKETS

The recipe was created by Chef David Burke for Samuel Adams, incorporating Samuel Adams Boston Lager in the barbecue sauce,

Chef Burke calls the is recipe Bacon Blue Cheese Dogs, a more sophisticated term, perhaps, then pigs in blankets. He uses Kobe beef cocktail franks, but any high-quality cocktail frank will do.

Chef Burke also opts to trade the mustard for a beer-infused barbecue sauce.
 
Ingredients For Approximately 32 Pieces

 
For The Barbecue Sauce

 
Plus

 
Preparation

1. MAKE the barbecue sauce. You can do this the day before. In a heavy-bottomed pot, toast all of the dry spices (cumin, coriander seed, celery seed, paprika, chili powder) over medium-low heat. Once the spices are toasted (you’ll begin to smell their aroma), add the honey and brown sugar, and cook until the mixture begins to caramelize. Then add the vinegar, ketchup, soy sauce, chili sauce, beer, lemon juice and zest, orange juice and zest.

REDUCE until the mixture thickens. Season the mixture with salt, pepper and cilantro. Let it stand for two hours, then strain through a fine-mesh, conical sieve. Place in a serving bowl and serve room temperature or warm, as a dipping sauce.

[1] David Burke’s take on blue cheese pigs in blankets, which he calls Bacon Blue Cheese Dogs. The sauce uses Samuel Adams Boston Lager (photo courtesy Samuel Adams).

[2] You can get fancy with the pastry, following this variation that limits carbs by putting just a strip of puff pastry around the center of the cocktail frank (photo courtesy Hillshire Farms | Facebook).

[3] Another fancy variation (photo courtesy Pepperidge Farm—try this recipe from Life Is Sweet By Design).

[4] Samuel Adams Boston Lager (photo courtesy Samuel Adams).

3. BEAT the eggs for the egg wash, with 2 tablespoons of water (1 tablespoon per egg).

4. MASH together the blue cheese and minced jalapeños. Crumble onto the puff pastry. Cut the puff pastry into 1½-inch wide strips, wide enough to roll a cocktail frank and leave a ½ inch overlap per frank. Place a piece of cooled bacon on top.

5. BEGIN rolling the first cocktail frank, leaving enough puff pastry to fold over and seal it. Brush the ends of the puff pastry strip with egg wash to seal over the cocktail frank. Continue rolling the cocktail franks in the puff pastry, cutting and sealing as you go. Repeat until finished.

6. PLACE the pigs in blankets, seam side down on a parchment-lined sheet tray and brush with the egg wash. Bake at 375°F for 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Place on a platter and serve with the sauce and cocktail napkins.