• Welcome to 101 Cookbooks, my recipe journal. I primarily feature healthy, vegetarian recipes - with the occasional sweet treat thrown in. To subscribe simply enter your email address, this way you'll never miss a recipe.

I love pulling together this holiday gift guide. Hopefully it will help with ideas for the cooks, chefs, and food enthusiasts in your life. Thanks to everyone who reminded me to get it together again this year. Does two years in a row make it a tradition?

Let's kick it off with some recipe binders from Russell+Hazel. I'm actually partial to their signature three-ring binders, I pack them with plastic sheet protector sleeves and slide (handwritten) recipe notes into the sleeves for safe keeping (until I'm ready to type them up). The cool thing about the full-blown recipe binder sets, when you are thinking in terms of gift-giving, is they come with tabs, recipe cards and menu planning sheets - a whole system.

Make your own custom, one-of-a-kind holiday tags. I just ran out of my letter pressed business cards and won't have time to go in and make more before next year. To get me through the next month I decided to make a quick set of Moo Mini Cards. It dawned on me as I was going through the process that it would be just as easy (and fun) to do a holiday note card series. In the informations fields where you typically put your name and contact information you can put holiday sentiments instead. Twenty dollars gets you 100 custom cards.

If you are feeling a little flush and have a hard-to-shop-for foodie on your hands - this is the gift, Visionaire #47 TASTE. Miraculously, you can still order copies of it from a small handful of sources. This is the limited edition love child of Visionaire and IFF (International Flavors & Fragrances). They enlisted Jenny Holzer, Heston Blumenthal, Bruce Weber, Ferran Adrìa, Nobuyoshi Araki, Laird Hamilton and others in an interdisciplinary exercise exploring the world of taste. The vehicle for delivery? Taste strips - like the ones you buy in the supermarket to keep your breath fresh, but these are more fun. You can still track it down here, here, and here. A sampling of flavors:

YOUTH - Bruce Weber - cherry licorice, ART - Thomas Demand - adhesive spray and glue stick, LIFE - Gary Hume - fresh soil, ADRENALINE - Jenny Holzer - jet Fuel and metal, EXOTIC- Nobuyoshi Araki - mango, orange blossom and pepper

I want this Lizzie Ridout welcome mat template. I can't figure out how to order it, but I want it in triplicate. Good for holidays, even better for housewarmings.

On the chocolate front, Katrina and her elves at Vosges are keeping flavors interesting with their Groove collection. For those of you looking for a bit more bling, you can opt for Luxe Groove - in a lucite box tricked out with Swarovski crystals. A few of the flavors:

Jack Daniels Tennessee whiskey + dark chocolate + sugar cane powder, buttermilk banana pudding + milk chocolate + vanilla powder, and free range apple wood smoked bacon + milk chocolate + bacon morsels

Caramel more your speed? Click here. I also like the brick of five Charles Chocolate bars for $20, I just wish they all slid into a nice sleeve instead of the ribbon tie (scroll to bottom of page).

Rancho Gordo Crimson Popping Corn Kernels are the ideal shade of red for the holidays. It pops up a bright, snowy white and you prepare it the same way you would standard popcorn, nothing tricky - $2.95. It would look great in this red-lined White Forest Pottery bowl. Have a look at these tiny ones as well.

These crinkle cups have shown up in a few of my photos (I picked mine up in Amsterdam) - here's where you can get them in two sizes. I also like these egg shaped mini dishes, a set of three are reasonably priced at $23. The Dish Up plate system (below) is great for a couple reasons. First off, they look fantastic arranged on a shelf, and for those of you who like separation on your plate, no mixing...this is the solution. (via Swiss Miss)

If one of your resolutions for 2007 is to start packing a lunch, the Mr.Bento Lunch Jar might be the motivation you need.

Pangea Organics has all sorts of delicious sounding bath and body products like their Egyptian Basil & Mint soap. All of their products are made from all-natural, organic ingredients. An increasing amount of their packaging is 100% compostable and get this, seeded. You can plant it and flowers or herbs will grow. Check out their holiday sets.

For anyone thinking about compiling a collection of favorite family recipes (a gift everyone loves), here's a post I did recently on how to create a cookbook.

Phew. Lastly, I've been doing my best to populate the 101 Cookbooks Amazon Store with my favorite things (and eventually the reasons why they are favorites). I'll do my best to keep it fresh throughout the year. I've got it set up with a photography section, favorite cookbooks, magazines, kitchen gear, etc.

Never miss a recipe!
Enter your email address to subscribe to 101 Cookbooks via email:

17 Comments Print-friendly Recipe Email this Recipe

Add to del.icio.usAdd to StumbleUponShare on Facebook