Gourmet Gift of the Day Blog

I’m so very proud of my husband - after 12 years of marriage he’s finally discovered the perfect surprise gift for me!  He knows I have an insatiable sweet tooth, and that I prefer unique flowers rather than traditional ones, so when he presented me with this floral box I was both stunned and elated!  The box looks like a standard floral box that would hold a dozen long stem roses.  But to my delight, when I opened the box I was rewarded with a dozen long-stemmed cookies.  The cookies came in a gourmet assortment that included chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, white chocolate macadamia, and double chocolate.  The presentation was unique - with greenery and actual stems on the cookies, the cookies were delightful - soft, chewy and fresh-baked, and my husband’s thoughtfulness was over the top - this was one of the best gifts he has ever given me!  Of course I had to peek to see how much he spent, and was happy to see that the dozen cookie box was only $44.

Until recently, I thought that Matzoh Ball Soup was a foreign entity, something that you only ate if tradition forced you to - similar to lutefisk or head cheese.  I had no idea that it is actually a delicious vegetable and dumpling soup, filled with large chunks of vegetables and tasty herbs.  For my first experience with Matzoh Ball Soup I searched for the best soup online and was led to The New York First Company.  Since I have ordered from them before I know that they offer only the best that New York companies have to offer and I haven’t been disappointed yet.

I ordered a half gallon container of soup for $49 (which can only be shipped via 2nd day air).  The soup arrived in a large plastic container and I could immediately see big cuts of carrot and celery and the large white dumplings.  I followed the cooking directions sent with the container, and was rewarded first with a delightful aroma filling the kitchen.  The steaming chicken broth reminded me of days when I was sick and mom would cook chicken soup to make me feel better.  There’s something about the aroma of this soup that will clear your sinuses and bring an overall sense of contentment to your home - even if it’s only for a little while!

The soup was quite flavorful and very delicious.  I was worried that the dumplings would be water-logged or gummy since they weren’t served the same day they were made, but they were actually still light and delicious.  It’s great to find a company that not only produces a superior quality product but also finds a way to maintain that quality while shipping across the country.  I was so inspired by this soup that I’m actually thinking of trying lutefisk - maybe!

Celebrate Independence Day this year with a colorful and tasty treat.  The folks at Holiday Gifts & Gift Baskets have put together a patriotic cookie bouquet that is a perfect centerpiece for your 4th of July party table!  With overnight shipping available, this bouquet can still arrive before the week-end.  It’s available with 3 to 12 jumbo buttercreme cookies decorated in bright red, white and blue.  The cookies themselves are crisp and tasty, they even come with instructions on how to enjoy them warm and soft!  Our taste testers each gave this cookie bouquet 5 stars for taste, 4 stars for presentation (one tester had issues with the blue tissue paper not matching the blue icing), and 5 stars for originality.  Overall the bouquet was a hit in the office!  We ordered the 9 cookie bouquet for $61.

Some of the world’s most famous and best tasting beef comes from the heartland.  Corn-fed Kansas beef cattle provide moist, juicy and tender steaks filled with flavor!  My favorite cut of beef is a strip steak, the lean cut comes from one of the most tender parts of the animal.

Kansas City Steaks offers their strip steaks in four sizes - 8 oz, 10 oz, 12 oz or 16 oz.  We ordered 6 of the 10 oz cuts, which are currently on sale for $49.95.  When they arrived yesterday we tossed them on the grill and served them with a simple green salad.  Our friends came over for dinner and they commented a number of times on the deliciously tender cuts of beef that they were able to cut with a fork!  It was easy to grill these steaks to the exact temperature our guests requested because our order included a free gourmet guide that provided cooking tips and recipe suggestions.  We are repeat customers to this gourmet website and now our friends will be too!

With kids out of school for the summer, parents can use some help finding projects to keep little hands busy!  One great solution is this crayon and candy bouquet offered by Gourmet Cookie Bouquets.  The gift includes more than 20 pieces of candy that is artfully arranged with a base made entirely of Crayola Crayons (4 - eight piece boxes).  The kids will receive a few special treats to enjoy, and will then be able to break apart the base and create some great art projects to decorate your home or office.  I know my son is filled with pride when he visits me at the office and spies one of his latest drawings hanging on my bulletin board - and I get to have a little piece of him with me every day!  The creative candy gift is available for $30 plus a mere $8.95 for UPS Ground shipping.

My dad loves to cook pancakes on Sunday mornings - especially when his grandchildren are around!  He fires up the extra-large griddle and stirs up a jumbo batch of buttermilk goodness, sometimes he will even make a few waffles because they are mom’s favorite.  Dad considers himself a gourmet pancake maker, regularly creating unique shapes and using fun ingredients like banana slices, fresh blueberries, even chocolate chips!  Each of his grandchildren receive a special “p-cake” from papa, and they love not only the food but the fact that they get to help.  One grandchild is in charge of stirring the batter, one heats up the maple syrup, one gets to help with flipping, and so forth.  Dad makes sure each family member is included in the fun, which is what makes this a great tradition.

This year we were able to spend Father’s Day with my dad, which meant another round of Papa’s Gourmet Pancakes.  We surprised dad this year and brought him a package of Daddy Cakes Sinful Cinnamon Pancake Mix to try.  It was hard to get him to stray from his usual recipe, but once he whipped up the batch and got the first few cakes on the griddle, he was sold!  The delightful cinnamon aroma wafted through the entire house, even enticing mom into the kitchen to check out the new recipe.  With 6 of us there for breakfast, the pancakes didn’t even have a chance to stack up on the serving plate, they were gobbled up as soon as they came off the griddle.  Served with a layer of butter and warm pure maple syrup, I can certainly see how the mix got it’s name! Everyone came back for seconds, some even for thirds, until the last bit of batter was scraped from the bottom of the bowl.

Now that I have tempted dad with this new flavor, he’s willing to try even more varieties.  I’ll be going back to www.daddycakesbakery.com for more mix, this time I may send dad one of each flavor and we’ll help him with the taste testing!  The 16oz pkg sells for $7.99 and Daddy Cakes offers some great free shipping specials - which is always a welcome treat!

Fitting for a somber occasion or a large celebration, this handsome wicker basket holds more than 20 gourmet food items and four delicious drink options.  We found this basket while searching for a sympathy gift for our colleague whose mother passed away recently.  Food is a great way to provide comfort to grieving family and to offer your condolences to people you may not know very well.  We were told the gift was well received and our colleague’s family appreciated our thoughtfulness, so in our opinion it was a good investment.  The large gift basket sells for $104 at All About Gifts & Baskets.

Last week-end we were at our cabin up north and I found a large rhubarb patch.  That reminded me of the delicious rhubarb pies that my grandma used to make when I was younger.  We would bring her grocery bags full of rhubarb and she would turn them into delicious blueberry-rhubarb, raspberry-rhubarb and especially strawberry-rhubarb pies!  The slightly tart flavor of the rhubarb blends wonderfully with the sweet berries and produces a flavor-filled dessert that is worth sharing!  The only thing that makes these pies better is a scoop of vanilla ice cream, which is exactly what we added to the Strawberry Rhubarb pie we received from Vermont Trade Winds.  While it wasn’t the same taste I remember from grandma’s kitchen many years ago, the pie was still juicy, tasty and delicious!  Tubby’s Homemade Fruit Pies still had the rich melting of flavors but the berry flavor was a bit stronger than the rhubarb flavor.  I could still find the tart addition of rhubarb, but I almost wish it would have been a little more pronounced.  In any case, the pie was a great throwback to younger days and I will certainly order it again!  We received 8 - 3 1/2″ pies for $48.95 plus only $6.95 for 2nd day air shipping.

My boys have been begging me to take them to the beach in town, but the water temps aren’t very warm yet and I’m a wimp when it comes to cold water!  So last week-end we set up the Slip N Slide in the back yard, set out our lawn chairs, invited the neighborhood kids over and had a “beach party” at home!  I made some sandwiches and ordered this cookie pail for snack time, and the kids loved it.  They even stopped whining about going to the real beach for a while!

The cookie pail was a hit with the kids, they each got to choose a different flavor to go along with their picnic lunch.  There was even a few leftover for me to review!  I tried an Oatmeal Raisin and a Frosted Cut-Out, which were both moist and delicious.  The $33 pail was filled with 18 assorted cookies that were all individually packaged, so they were fresh and would be easy to transport to the beach if the water is warmer where you are!

My cousin Greg is a vegetarian and he loves to tell me about the tasty vegetarian dishes he finds so I can try them myself.  He’s also trying to convert me, but I use the excuse that “I must be able to eat meat for my job!”  It may not be entirely true, but I could never give up a great piece of steak or savory chicken dinner.

I did agree with Greg that the Vegetarian Chili offered by Cafe Iris is a great find!  The chili isn’t super-spicy, but warms you both with the temperature and the flavor!  It is thick and hearty, and is perfect to send with my husband when he heads up north in the fall for his hunting trip.  He loves something that can be cooking in the crock pot all day, and if my cousin joins him for the day then he can also join in on the meal rather than having to prepare a separate meal.  The chili is sold in a 24 oz jar, three jars can be purchased for $12 plus shipping.