It's daft really isn't it; buying presents is the best fun, we all love making our houses look extra sparkly and Christmas dinner is really just a roast with extra vegetables - yet somehow we seem to get ourselves in an absolute tizz about the whole thing which is often over quicker than blinking.
With that in mind, for the last couple of years we've tried to get all our Christmas shopping done before the first of December so we can then enjoy decorating the house, planning all the food and watching Elf and The Holiday multiple times with one less thing to think about.
To hopefully make that process a little easier for everyone, I've put together a series of Christmas Gift Guides which will be posted throughout November. I've tried to steer away from aiming them at Mums or Grandads or Brothers or whoever and instead focussed on the interests of the people in our lives we need to buy gifts for. Hopefully there's something for everyone, and for a range of budgets too.
So first up, we have a roundup of gift ideas for food lovers...
This is something we came across on our recent trip to Stockholm, and I think it's the epitome of beautiful and useful combined. There is a small version for grating at the table, and a larger kitchen version for grating into dishes. I love how simple the design is and how it brings a real sense of occasion to seasoning your food. I think it would be perfect for someone who takes pride in the way their kitchen looks or loves setting a table to entertain. There's also a raw liquorice version if the recipient is that way inclined - which I am...liquorice hot chocolate anyone?
D bought me a Cocoa Runners subscription for my birthday back in September and I can't tell you how exciting it is to have a box of the worlds best chocolate drop through your letterbox. These are not your average bars of corner shop crap, but the most exquisitely flavoured (and packaged) bars of really complex and distinctive chocolate. If you know someone who is into wine or coffee tasting, this would be an excellent choice.
Every foodie loves a cheese board right? With this kit they'll be able to make 10 different varieties of cheese at home. I love that this gives total control over what type of milk is used and exactly how each one tastes. The kit comes with everything you need (except milk of course!) plus a recipe book, and enough ingredients for 40 batches of deliciousness!
I have a LOT of recipe books. Like, 300 a lot. However, I don't always cook from them, and more often than not we just make things up as we go along, or base a meal on a recipe but change it around according to what we have in the fridge. The Flavour Thesaurus looks like it would be so useful on those days when you can't decide what to eat, or when you know you fancy something cheesy but can't quite work out what else you want and you're not a student anymore so eating a single foodstuff and calling it a meal isn't ok. It's divided up into chapters based on the type of flavour, and has 99 foods listed along with pairings for each and over 200 recipe suggestions. Plus, who doesn't love a good book for Christmas.
The Raw Chocolate Pie Company are based in Cornwall and are a longstanding favourite of mine. Their Cacao Nib grinder is used all the time in our house, and is perfect for adding a really intense chocolate flavour to sweet dishes, some of our favourites being crumble topping, porridge and ice cream sundaes, but also for adding a really interesting depth to chillies and stews. I think it would make the perfect interesting stocking-filler-chocolate-alternative for a food lover.
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That brings us to the end of volume one. I hope it's got you thinking about your gift lists and maybe started to spark some ideas. Say tuned throughout November for more gift giving ideas, including guides for new parents, coffee lover, bearded ones and those annoying people who seem to have everything!
I think I may well benifit from the The Flavour Thesaurus - RRP £18.99��
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