Gourmet Gift of the Day Blog

Founded in 1968, the Eden Organic Food Company is the oldest organic food company in America.  Based in the heart of the midwest, a majority of Eden’s products are grown within a few hundred miles of their home in Clinton, MI.  Eden believes in supporting local organic farmers as much as possible, and their beliefs have founded a company with worldwide connections.

I decided to try one of their organic pastas – specifically the Kamut Vegetable Spirals.  Most of Eden Farms pasta varieties are made with vegetables and Khorasan wheat, which is a high-protein wheat that many people with wheat intolerances can actually digest with no problems.  All of Eden’s organic pastas are also packaged in 100% recycled cardboard boxes.

I substituted these pasta spirals in a summer pasta salad last week-end, and no one at our family picnic even knew the difference!  What I knew though, was that they received more protein, less carbohydrates, organic food and an overall healthier product than what I would normally use.  I ordered a case of these spirals, so since the picnic we’ve had them a few more times – with alfredo sauce and chicken, hamburger and tomato sauce, and in a tuna salad.  The kids love the fun colors and shape of the pasta, and I love the positive aspects of the product – both nutritionally and organically.  A case of 6 – 12 ounce boxes sells for $18.41 plus shipping.

I fell in love with Krispy Kreme donuts on a visit to Las Vegas, and was thrilled when they opened a store within 20 miles of my house!  Unfortunately, the downturn in the economy forced my favorite shop to close, but luckily I found an even better replacement – Holey Donuts!  The decadent doughnuts are moist, flavorful and delicious, and the best part is that they are low in fat!  The owner of Holey Donuts was raised in the back of a donut shoppe owned by his father, and he continued the tradition but modified his store to fit today’s internet shopper.  The tasty donuts pictured here are just a sampling of the more than 20 flavors – all of them with less than half the fat of a standard donut – and delivered right to your door!

The reduced fat pastries are baked fresh daily, flash frozen and shipped across the country via 2nd Day Air delivery.  I ordered Sampler Favorites A, B and C (18 donuts in all) for $35.85 plus $18.81 for shipping.  Although they were more expensive then what I could have picked up at the local bakery, the flavor was more pronounced and the calorie count was about a third of the local varieties, so I will be ordering again soon!

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!

Featured in Oprah’s Magazine as the “Best of Bread”, Hannah Banana Bread is wildly popular in Chicago and is quickly gaining fame throughout the country.  The company started by accident, when the founder was hosting a party for her daughter and ended up serving her fresh baked bread because the caterer was late.  The guests were so impressed with the bread that they convinced Lisa Spinner to start marketing it.  9 years later Hanna Banana Bread is sold to a number of retail outlets in the Chicago area and is available online through the company website.

My homemade banana bread has never won any prizes, but my family still seems to enjoy it.  However, I’m not sure they will ever settle for my recipe again since they tasted the Hannah Banana Classic loaves.  The bread had a crusty top (made by sprinkling pure cane sugar on top of the hot loaf), moist and tender inside, was easy to cut and delicious to eat!  We warmed the slices in the microwave and slathered them with butter, but then found the butter was not necessary because the sweet taste was perfect by itself!  We quickly “disposed” of the 8 mini loaves (12 oz apiece) and my boys were begging for more!  The classic pack of 8 mini-loaves cost $48 plus FedEx Ground shipping of $11.51.  I was a bit worried about the product’s freshness after being in transit for a few days, but the bread arrived tasting fresh and stayed that way for the 4 days it took us to devour them.

When I first saw this Middle Eastern Gourmet Pastry, I thought of a funnel cake that we buy at our local fair in the summertime.  While this pastry is similar in some ways, the taste is more refined and it is created a bit differently.  The traditional Mid-East Zalabia starts with a yeast dough that is deep fried, then soaked in a sweet lemony syrup and sprinkled with a cinnamon-sugar mixture.  The result is a mix of flavors – from the sweet sugar coating to the slight lemon in the syrup to the light and fluffy dough.  We ordered a large tray for our office and they disappeared before our morning coffee break was over!  The pastries can be shipped via UPS Ground, but the company recommends upgrading so they arrive at your door as fresh as possible.  The large tray cost $30 and UPS 2nd-day air shipping to our office was $21.85.

When I’m craving something salty, a handful of pretzels is one of my favorite choices.  I also love going to the State Fair in the summer and ordering a jumbo soft pretzel with extra salt and hot cheese dip.  Until recently I had never experienced a hard rolled jumbo pretzel, but now that I have I think Pennsylvania Dutch Pretzels are my new salty snack addiction!  The pretzels created by Mumma Pretzel Bakery in Lancaster, PA have been hand rolled and baked in an extra-large deck oven since 1923.  The family owned company has been perfecting their recipe for over 80 years, and they have gained national recognition by shipping their Pennsylvania Dutch pretzels from coast to coast.

For my first experience with hard rolled pretzels, I chose the garlic flavor and found that I love to heat them slightly and dunk them in spaghetti sauce.  They are also great by themselves, although I need to keep some gum handy because the garlic flavor is pretty strong!  The 2 lb box arrived quickly and disappeared almost as quickly!  There are 6 hard pretzel flavors available, or you can choose soft pretzels.  A 2 lb box sells for $15.50 plus shipping.

I love the smell and the taste of fresh baked bread!  But with 2 children and a full-time job, I have very little time for baking bread – not to mention that I have never made it from scratch before.  I may not be a baker but I am a superstar at online shopping!  Since we were out of town for the holidays, I ordered a gourmet bread basket to be shipped to my grandmother’s house while we were visiting.  Even though I didn’t bake the goodies myself, I was still able to add something to the holiday dinner table and I got to take the credit for this fresh and delicious basket of assorted breads, breadsticks, dinner rolls, jellies and beverages.  The large bread basket is $95, and can be delivered via overnight air to maximize freshness.

Five years ago, my husband and I took a trip that included an overnight stay at the Comfort Inn & Suites in Rapid City, SD.  What I remember most about the entire trip was the flavor of the Belgian Waffles that we had for breakfast at the hotel!  The waffles had a crisp outside and fluffy inside, with a rich malted flavor and a sweet maple syrup sprinkled with toasted pecans.  I have never been able to reproduce this recipe exactly, but the waffle mix and syrup I found online are the closest I have come.

Robert Rothschild Farm sells a terrific Pancake and Waffle Mix that produces sweet and thick waffles.  The recipe also says it can be used for crepes, but I haven’t tried it because a flavor this rich needs to be in a fluffy pastry!  I also liked the additional recipes sent in the package – including sweet breads and cookies.  The Roasted Pecan Syrup that we purchased to go with the Waffle Mix has a great maple base, then adds a deep layer of Pecan flavor – so tasty that you may want to order 2 jars right away!  The syrup also comes with recipe suggestions, but we have enjoyed the syrup so much with our pancakes, waffles, and ice cream that we haven’t had a chance to try any of the recipes yet.

You can get a 32 ounce box of Waffle Mix for $13.49, and a 12 ounce jar of Roasted Pecan Syrup for $9.49.   If you like to order in bulk, you will get a 10% case discount.

When I think of gourmet bagels, I immediately think of those made in New York City.  One of the most popular Bagel Stores in NYC is H&H Bagels, located in the heart of Manhattan at the corner of Broadway & 80th Street.

Being a true Midwestern girl, traveling to New York City terrifies me.  But I also adore bagels and was told that the ones available in the midwest don’t compare to a bagel that is baked up with a crust that crackles and a dense, chewy inside.  Imagine my delight when I discovered that H&H Bagels can be delivered to me from the NYC bakery via the magic of the internet!

I ordered the Breakfast Gift Box, which contained two dozen assorted bagels, two packs of Nova Salmon, two packages of cream cheese, and 2 authentic H&H coffee mugs.  The $89 gift box was overnighted to me and I swear I could still see the steam rising from the bagels when I opened the box!  My favorite was a simple plain bagel, covered with cream cheese and just a bit of salmon.  Although they were a bit spendy and I probably will not order them again (overnight shipping is the only option, and it adds $43.50 to the price), I was very glad to have experienced a true New York bagel.

The critics were right, you can’t get a genuine NY bagel here in the midwest.  The crunchy outside and slightly salty dough that make up these bagels created an awesome taste that I will always remember.  I even have two coffee mugs to remind me of my “authentic” bagel experience.

I never thought I would order bread online because I didn’t think it would stay fresh for long.  Fortunately, I was wrong.  The loaves of bread offered in this gift box were fresh, moist and delicious!  Even though there are only 4 of us in the house, these 4 loaves were gone long before they had a chance to get stale.

Zingerman’s offers a variety of fresh bread choices, but we wanted a sample of their most popular items so we chose the Deli Deluxe Bread Gift Box.  Containing Jewish Rye, Farm Bread, Better Than San Francisco Sourdough and Pecan Raisin bread, we received a vast range in flavor from heavy and rich to light and crisp to soft and sweet.  The first loaf to go was the Farm Bread, which was perfect for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!  The crust was crispy, but not so much that you couldn’t bite through it easily.  The next to go was the sweet Pecan Raisin – which was perfect for a quick breakfast.  The Sourdough was used for grilled cheese sandwiches, and was a perfect match to tomato soup.  My husband liked the rye, but the kids and I weren’t a fan of the flavor – probably because we had never experienced it before.  Overall, the bread box was a hit with our family, and at $45 plus $15 shipping we will definitely order again!