Ben Picks Ten: Great Food Gifts

Our friend Ben loves food. And I love to get food as a gift. Hawk’s Haven, the cottage home I share with Silence Dogood in the precise middle of nowhere, Pennsylvania, is not exactly a palace or, God forbid, a McMansion. Being enthusiastic collectors, we’ve filled about every square inch with stuff. We don’t need gifts that will clutter our living space even more—we’re doing a fine job of that for ourselves, thank you. But food—especially our favorite indulgences that are hard to justify splurging on ourselves—is a great and very welcome gift. We love it, we eat it, no clutter! It’s a win-win for us.

So today, I’d like to share ten (plus, of course, one) of our all-time favorite food treats. Silence already posted about great condiments, from fruity green organic olive oil to Wickles hot sweet pickles, in her post “Great gifts for people who like to cook (and eat).” I suggest that you check that post out for wonderful gift ideas for cooks. For my list, I’ve chosen food treats that we consider decadent delights, and that you can order online no matter where you live. (You can often also find them locally.) Our friend Ben suggests that you print out the list and send it to friends, family, and Santa with your picks circled in red. Can’t wait ’til the holidays? Hey, you can always “preview” a few by ordering them for yourself!

Every one of these food treats has been personally sampled by yours truly (many times) and qualifies for a One-Ben Award in the ”absolutely fabulous gift foods” category. (For once, Silence even agrees.) So order and enjoy with confidence! And if I’ve omitted your favorites, feel free to let me know. I’ll add them to our Christmas Hints List! Without more ado…

1. Chocolate Bourbon Fudge with Pecans. Nobody made fudge like my mama, but these days, we’ve found a fabulous substitute in this luscious fudge from the monks of the Abbey of Gethsemane in Kentucky (www.monks.org). The texture is just as it should be, rich and sugary, not gummy or syrupy, and the flavor is all natural and all authentic. Mama didn’t put bourbon or pecans in her fudge, but I know she’d have approved. Christmas would not be Christmas around here without a box of this marvelous fudge.

2. Sugarplums. While we’re on the subject of sweet treats, our friend Ben and Silence were intrigued last year to discover that one of our favorite catalogues, The Vermont Country Store (www.vermontcountrystore.com), was offering sugarplums in their Christmas catalogue. Having grown up with annual readings of “The Night Before Christmas,” where “The children were nestled all snug in their beds,/While visions of sugarplums danced in their heads,” and having never had a clue as to what the heck sugarplums were, we were thrilled to find an answer. Are these really authentic sugarplums? We don’t know. But we ordered them for ourselves and for gifts last year, and these pretty, sizeable candies made from “luscious plum compote and wonderfully rich, dark chocolate” were a hit with everyone. (Our neighbors actually wandered over last month to ask where we had gotten them, a sure sign if there ever was one.) The Vermont Country Store also offers vintage candies, including another of our friend Ben’s favorites, GooGoo Clusters Supremes. Made in my native Nashville, these gooey treats include marshmallow cream, caramel, and pecans in milk chocolate. They are totally addictive. As the ad says, “Go for a GooGoo, it’s good!”

3. Basil Pesto. Leaving sweets behind for a second, our friend Ben would like to recommend another favorite, Stonewall Kitchen’s Basil Pesto (www.stonewallkitchen.com). Silence and I enjoy pesto on pizza and pasta, but we often find pestos, even many homemade versions (sorry, people), to be bitter, oily, and/or overpowering. Stonewall Kitchen’s is the best we’ve ever had. It’s a perfect balance of flavor and texture. Delicious! Try spreading a spoonful over mushroom caps and grilling them as an accompaniment to steak or Pasta Alfredo, too. Our friend Ben will admit that I could eat this right out of the jar (but I don’t—Silence would kill me). Yum!!!

4. Honey Roasted Cashews. Silence and our friend Ben love nuts, but not all nuts were created equal. Spare us the mealy Brazil nuts, the oily peanuts, the bitter walnuts, please. But bring on the cashews. We love cashews salted and roasted, and would be delighted to receive them as gifts as well. But for a real indulgence, give us honey roasted cashews. Our friend Cole introduced us to his favorite source of cashews and all nuts, Nuts Online (www.nutsonline.com). You’ll find every kind of nut at this site, including (ahem) dark- and milk-chocolate covered nuts, as well as dried fruit and other temptations, all for very reasonable prices. By the way, we also love hazelnuts and almonds, in case you happen to be thinking of us.

5. Pecans. Oh, my. Our friend Ben and Silence grew up in the South, where the pecan is king. We pity you poor Northerners who grew up eating walnuts instead. Walnuts definitely have their place in savory dishes—pastas, stuffings, breads, salads (we especially love black walnuts in hearty winter salads, paired with frisee, roasted beets, and feta cheese or flaked Parmesan). But their oily-bitter taste is not well suited, in our opinion, to snacking and sweet treats. Give us pecan pie, pecans in our fudge and brownies, pecan logs, and sugared pecans, please. Pecans in our sweet breads, cakes, candies, and cookies. You can buy your pecans from Nuts Online, or get them direct from a grower like Pearson Farm (www.pearsonfarm.com). 

6. Citrus. Yeah, yeah, you can go to the store and get oranges, grapefruit, tangerines and the like. But our friend Ben says: Do you?! If you don’t eat your vitamin C regularly for breakfast (don’t drink it—high sugar and no fiber does a body no good), ask for an indulgent gift of citrus. If you’re not paying for it, you can enjoy the premium citrus without comparing it to grocery-store prices. Our friend Ben’s Great-Aunt Ethel gave gifts of citrus to all of us every year, and our Aunt Peggy has taken up the beloved custom. Both placed their orders with Pittman & Davis (www.pittmananddavis.com), and our friend Ben and Silence look forward to their ruby grapefruit and navel oranges every Christmas.

7. Ginger Babies. Say what? No, we’re not talking about tiny gingerbread men here. Our friend Ben’s father loves crystallized ginger, and our friend Ben inherited the habit from him. So I was thrilled when Silence, who adores the King Arthur Flour catalogue (www.kingarthurflour.com), discovered that they’re offering crystallized ginger in tiny gingerbread-men cutout shapes. A great gift for my father, who’ll enjoy them like candy right from the jar, or as decorative toppings for icing on cupcakes, carrot cake, apple pie, cheesecake, or other wintertime treats.

8. Glaceed Apricots. Our friend Ben loves these rich, honey-dripping Australian treats dipped in dark chocolate, while Silence likes ‘em straight up. Either way, given their price, they’re not something you’re likely to eat on a daily or weekly basis, or (in our case) buy for yourself at all. Which makes them all the more appreciated as gifts. One source for these decadent delights is Williams-Sonoma (www.williams-sonoma.com), but our friend Ben also stumbled on an interesting site that apparently formerly carried glaceed apricots: JR Mushrooms & Specialties (www.jrmushroomsandspecialties.com). Check them out if you love mushrooms, truffles, and the like. 

9. Colorful, Flavorful Popcorn. Our friend Ben and Silence tend to regard the Lehman’s Non-Electric catalog (www.lehmans.com) as a great source of cooking implements rather than foods. Silence loves their canning equipment (get their Beginner’s Home Canning Kit for someone just starting out, or add some stocking stuffers to the experienced canner’s stocking from their wonderful canning helpers). Other useful kitchen tools include their ingenious Natural Peanut Butter Mixer and one of our friend Ben’s favorites, Our Best Nutcracker (trust me, it really works, even on thick-shelled nuts). But once cold weather hits, Silence and I get out our popcorn popper and start thinking about hot cider and buttered popcorn, and once again, Lehman’s comes to the rescue. No stale, flavorless popcorn there! You can buy bags of Yoder’s Amish popcorn (large, succulent yellow kernels grown locally since 1936) or Ladyfinger popcorn (a tender, delicious heirloom variety), or splurge on their Amish Country Popcorn Sampler, which includes bags of medium white, red, extra-large caramel type, rainbow blend, blue, medium yellow, baby yellow, and baby white popcorn. Our friend Ben says: Please get an extra box for me!

10. Native American Specialties. Our friend Ben knows this is stretching the point, but I can’t narrow our favorites in this category down to just one. Silence and I love the Southwest Indian Foundation’s catalogue (www.southwestindian.com), with all its amazing, locally produced treats. Like Lehman’s, it has local popcorn (in this case, Hopi Blue Popcorn), and like Pearson Farm and Nuts Online, it has pecans (you can buy chocolate, cinnamon praline, spicy chile, yogurt, and sweet & hot pecans, separately or in a gift assortment). But your options aren’t limited to those favorites. Southwest Indian Foundation offers an assortment of pistachio treats (including pistachio brittle and baklava as well as bags of nuts), salsas and hot sauces, Anasazi beans and Cliff Dweller Bean Soup Mix, Native American teas, and specialties like Pinon Nut Chocolate Chip Cookies, Indian Fry Bread Mix and Desert Blossom Honey, Hopi Blue Corn Pancake Mix and Prickly Pear Syrup, and Jalapeno Cornbread Mix and Jalapeno Pepper Jelly. If you know any fans of the Southwest or Native American Culture, this is a great site for gifts.

As always, our friend Ben has a bonus in my “Ben Picks Ten” category (not even counting the GooGoo Clusters):

11. Potato of the Month. In the age of orchid and other exotica of the month clubs, giving someone a potato sampler may seem ludicrous. But the lucky recipients won’t think it’s a joke if you’re giving them the Maine Potato Sampler of the Month from Wood Prairie Farm (www.woodprairie.com). This organic family farm offers an incredible assortment of the very best potato varieties, all grown by them, with three varieties in each month’s gift box, along with directions on how to use them (some are best for baking, others for frying, boiling, or potato salad) and Wood Prairie’s own potato recipe booklet. Know any potato-loving gardeners (does our friend Ben come to mind)? Get them one of Wood Prairie’s amazing seed potato samplers so they can grow their own, including the Red, White and All-Blue Seed Potato Collection and the Organic Potato Blossom Festival.