Short Orders Gift Guide 2010

So, another holiday season is upon us, and once again you're at a loss for what to get for the foodies on your gift list. We're a hard bunch to buy for at times, and perfect gifts like subscriptions to the Bacon of the Month club can be a bit pricey.

Fear not, gentle readers. I've spent all year sifting through the latest available in the Internet food world, and I've come up with the greatest selections for your holiday gifting. You'll find a bit of everything here, from salty to sweet and even a non-food offering or two!

But we're going to start off with the ultimate gift for any chocoholic on your list:

Do-It-Yourself Goodness

Do you know someone who likes to play with chocolate? No, I'm not talking about some "9 ½ Weeks" scene; I'm talking about doing stuff like smearing peanut butter on top of Hershey bars, then topping them with raisins.

If you know someone like this, then Chocri's customized chocolate bars are the ultimate gift. On Chocri's website, they can pick from dark, milk or white chocolates and add a truly dizzying variety of ingredients to make their own, personal, ultimate treat. I made one chili powder, bacon and "volcano" cashews that was a truly amazing spicy/salty/sweet detonation on the tongue. From stuff you'd think of (sunflower seeds, raisins, peanuts) to stuff you wouldn't (flower petals, cornflakes, goji berries), you could spend the gross domestic product of a fair-sized country before you ran out of options.

If you don't have anyone on your gift list worthy of such enjoyment, by all means buy some for yourself!

Try The Bees' Knees

A few weeks ago, it was my distinct pleasure to introduce you to Marina Marchese, proprietor of target="_blank">Red Bee Honey and expert on single-source artisanal honey. I would be remiss to fail to include some of her fantastic bee juice in this guide.

A visit through the honey page will give you all sorts of ideas, from the classic Tupelo honey to my personal favorite, the tulip poplar. But for a really elegant gift that doubles as a party game in a box, try the Honey Tasting Party in a Box, which comes complete with a variety of honeys and scorecards so you can rate each one, compare notes and enjoy. I find this sort of thing goes very well in an environment where wine, or preferably mead, is flowing freely. Do one tasting round, drink for a while, then do another. Compare the scores.

Popcorn With A Boost

If you're like me, many's the time you've enjoyed a tasty snack of popcorn or kettle corn and thought, "This is really great. I just wish it had a dose of caffeine so I could wake up while getting my snack on."

Fortunately for us, the folks at BioFuel Foods have seen the need and filled it beautifully. Their caffeine-enhanced kettle corn is just the thing to get you through your day. I'll let their own sales copy explain:

BioFUEL Sample Pack- Want to try all the incredible tasting BioFUEL varieties? We don't blame you! That's why we've created this handy sample pack for you to indulge in. Kick start your day with the all powerful XL, power through your afternoon with Original BioFUEL and wind the evening down with a relaxing movie and tasty serving of decaffeinated BioFUEL Kids.

You'll also be pleasantly surprised at the prices. If you've ever ordered popcorn products online, you know that often the combination of base price and shipping charge can make raising and drying your own corn seem like a more economical and stress-free option.

First Brownies, Now Lasagna!

Matt Griffin is one of my favorite folks in the world of foodie invention. A few years back, he came out with the Baker's Edge Brownie Pan, that uses a serpentine shape to guarantee that every brownie is an edge piece, with that wonderful crusty bit along at least two edges.

Obviously, man cannot live by brownies alone. So this year, Matt's expanded his original pan and tweaked the design a bit and given us the greatest gift to the world of Italian food since Batali's birth: The Simple Lasagna Pan.

What impresses me about this pan is the common sense involved in its creation. For instance, it's wide enough for standard lasagna noodles, so there's no futzing about trying to make things fit. Also, the anodized aluminum construction makes it durable, and the silicone coating makes it dead easy to clean. I haven't scrubbed melted cheese off my trusty 9x13 glass pan since the first time I used the Simple Lasagna Pan.

A Gift That Doesn't Stink

It's happened to us all at one time or another: You cook a new dish, burn something or create an unfortunate spice combination that leaves a reek hanging in your kitchen that not only drives away diners but has mysterious men in hazmat suits lurking by your back door. However, most products designed to drive away or mask kitchen odors do so by replacing those smells with ones at least as strong and/or cloying.

Into this breach step the folks at Fresh Wave. Their soy-based products, which run the gamut from candles and sprays to sachets and vacuum pearls, have a very light, pleasant aroma that I honestly didn't notice after an hour. I put the kitchen candle to a tough test, cooking sausage and cabbage on the stove, and it kept the smell well under control and contained in the immediate stove area.

The real discovery in the lineup was the sachet, (they call them Pearl Packs) which I fitted with my own bit of string and hung from the rear-view mirror of my car. Most car air fresheners emit such staggering amounts of fragrance that you feel like you can chew it when you get in, especially on a warm day. The Fresh Wave Pearl Packs just eliminated the various aromas that a minivan which routinely carries children can accumulate without making the interior smell like either a Turkish sin palace or a mutant pine tree.

If you have a college student anywhere on your gift list, the Stinky Dorm Kit is a fantastic stocking stuffer.

For The Tex-Mex Fan

My old friend Annie Dubois, founder, owner, package packer, inventory selector and all-around genius behind TexMexToGo.com has a new retail location in Salado, Texas, one of the Lone Star State's most picturesque towns. But lucky for you, fellow Tex-Mex aficionados, her website is still up and running as strongly as ever.

To find a gift assortment for any and every Tex-Mex fan on your list, visit her Gift Baskets section, where you'll find everything from awesome margarita and martini glasses to sweets, treats, salsas and cooking gadgets. Explore!

And should you ever find yourself in Salado, be sure to stop and visit the brick-and-mortar store. You'll find Annie to be knowledgeable about her products and boundless in her energy.

So that's it for this year's guide. If you've got something you'd like to see in next year's guide, or in one of the mid-year offerings for Valentine's Day, Mother's Day or Father's Day, drop me a line, anytime!