Gourmet Gift of the Day Blog

For your next baby shower, order some of these adorable cookie favors! Each cute baby onesie is decorated with your personalized message and pink, blue or green icing. The cookies have a delicious buttercreme flavor, are individually wrapped and can be used as a take-home gift for your guests, part of a baby shower game, or as a delicious dessert at the shower. Depending on the quantity you order, these jumbo cookies cost between $4.50 and $5.75 apiece (plus shipping). Baby Gifts and Gift Baskets also offers other shapes & designs of cookie favors.

Highlight your next date night with some premium fresh caviar. Choose from White Sturgeon, Siberian Sturgeon, Farmed Osetra or Beluga Hybrid. Ranging in price from $148 to $169 (plus overnight shipping), Caviar Star will send 2 ounces of their highest quality caviar, 16 mini blinis, 8 ounces of creme fraiche and a mother of pearl serving spoon.   All you need to add is a bottle of champagne by the fireplace to create your romantic rendezvous.

“Milk’s Favorite Cookie” just got a little more delicious, thanks to Gourmet Cookie Bouquets! Covered in luscious Belgian white chocolate, these Oreos are decorated with bright sprinkles and happy smiley faces. The center cookie is a large sugar cookie, covered in the same chocolate and colorful sprinkles, with a message to suit your occasion (Get Well, Happy Birthday, Smile, Congratulations or Thank You). The cookies are delightful, and the basket is sure to bring a smile to any intended recipient’s face! Prone to melting in the summertime, you must ship via overnight air until the weather gets cooler. Even taking the higher shipping costs into account, this gift is still very affordable at just $25 (before shipping).

Unless you grew up in Chicago, sauce on the top of a pizza may seem a bit strange. Well, not for Lou Malnati! In the business since the early 1940’s, Lou himself worked in Chicago’s very first deep dish pizzeria with his father. After opening his first restaurant in 1971, Lou and his family have continued the tradition, recently opening their 28th pizzeria in the Chicago area. Luckily, for the rest of the nation, Lou’s pizzas can be delivered to your doorstep! With a flaky, buttery crust, rich, whole milk mozzarella, and signature pizza sauce on top, you haven’t experienced a deep dish pizza until you have tried one of Lou’s. My favorite flavor is sausage, which has a large sausage “disc” that covers the entire surface area of the pizza. The spices in the sausage are perfectly blended, and are not too spicy but not too sweet either. I suggest the 4 pizza package for a price of $74.95 (which includes shipping). You will then understand why Lou Malnati’s pizza has been voted “City’s Best” pizza by AOL Cityguide.

Besides offering a variety of wedding favors and reception accessories, Wedding Favors Unlimited has a delicious alternative to your standard wedding invitation. Their Edible Invites Cookie Invitations are a unique way to invite guests to your wedding, bridal shower, or to ask them to be a part of your bridal party. An extra large sugar cookie is covered in Belgian White Chocolate and your custom image and/or wording is then screened onto the front of the cookie with edible ink. Since you can choose up to 35 words for the front of the cookies, the possibilities are endless - use them as engagement announcements, birthday or anniversary invitations, or to thank special participants in your wedding. The photo to the left shows an image as well as the custom wording, which Wedding Favors Unlimited will add for the same cost as wording only. There are also 9 different sprinkle colors to choose from, all for the reasonable price of $4.95 apiece. Overnight shipping is the only option offered in the warm summer months, but less expensive options are available during cooler seasons.

Voted “The #1 Ribs in Chicago” year after year, raved about on the Food Network and in a number of nationwide publications, Carson’s Ribs are a BBQ delicacy! For $140 (which includes overnight shipping), you will receive four slabs of ribs, each weighing an impressive 1 3/4 lbs. You will also receive 2 lbs of Carson’s Signature Au Gratin potatoes, French Baguettes, an extra pint of their Secret Recipe BBQ sauce, Four Huge Chocolate Fudge Espresso Brownies and 8 Carson’s Bibs. Founded by Chris Carson in 1977, Carson’s has perfected their sweet rib sauce and slow cooks their meat on a low heat pit smoker, using indirect heat from hickory wood. The ribs are dunked in sauce before cooking, so the sweet flavor can mix with the smoky hickory and permeate the meat while cooking. With a “safe & sophisticated cooler” and overnight delivery, you can rest assured that your order will arrive in mouthwatering condition! The ribs can be reheated on a grill or broiled in the oven in a matter of minutes. Offering nationwide delivery since 1996, their website address simply says it all - www.ribs.com.

For your four-legged friends, All About Gifts & Baskets has created a gourmet basket that has literally gone to the dogs! They have filled a dog-inspired gift box with a variety of items your pet will enjoy - including a giant paw print tennis ball, a rope & tennis ball tug toy, a humunga tongue, Bow Wow Bandana, a doggie birthday hat and 6 paw print “canine cookies” that taste like beef, chicken or peanut butter. To review this item, I had to defer to my niece’s dog Max. He wolfed down the treats and loved the tug toy, but he is scared of the tongue and refuses to wear the Bow Wow Bandana. Overall, the basket received a “paws up” from Max, and at $49 this is something to consider for your pet’s next birthday or as a welcome basket for a new puppy.

If you are looking for a new flavor on your toast in the morning, Rowena’s Inc makes a deliciously sweet carrot jam. That’s right - carrot jam. I was also leery at first, but now we always have a jar of this in our house! The carrot taste is not overpowering, and the sweet flavor is great with a bagel and cream cheese, on a bran muffin, or with toast and peanut butter. The thick jam has a color resembling marmalade, with a smooth texture and uniquely sweet flavor. Try a jar for only $6.50 and I bet you will be back for more.

Cookie Gift Baskets provides the perfect retirement gift - a retirement tin filled with 6 different types of gourmet cookies. The cookie flavors include semi-sweet chocolate chip, milk chocolate chip, peanut butter, pecan caramel, macadamia nut and oatmeal raisin. Each cookie is individually wrapped to preserve freshness, and the ingredients are listed on each wrapper in case you are sending to someone with allergies (although they are baked in a facility with peanuts, so steer clear of these cookies if your intended recipient has a peanut allergy). The nice thing about this gift tin is that you can choose which flavors you want included. When we ordered these for my uncle, we skipped the macadamia nut because he doesn’t like them. When he called to thank me, he that the cookies were soft and delicious, with lots of “dunkability”. I was very impressed with the price on this tin - only $31 for three pounds of cookies, plus $8.95 for shipping.

For a crunchy potato chip with an amazing flavor, you must try a bag of Zapp’s Potato Chips. These chips and their creator have been featured in People Magazine, and Oprah Winfrey and Regis Philbin have raved about them on their TV shows. The most popular Zapp’s flavor is the Cajun Crawtator, but I must admit I was scared to try it. I preferred the Salt and Vinegar variety, which was the best salt & vinegar chips I have ever eaten. I love a thick, crunchy, salty chip, and these were all that and then some. With 8 varieties to choose from, Zapp’s will have a flavor for you to savor! The 25 bag sampler pack is only $21.50, and that price includes shipping & handling (there is sales tax only if shipping to Louisiana). The sample pack includes five 2oz bags of their top 5 flavors - Regular, Jalapeno, Cajun Crawtator, Spiky Creole Tomato spiked with Tabasco and Mesquite BBQ.