Excellent Holiday Gift Guide
Holidays are not about gifts, they are about togetherness, cooking, and home. This holiday, however, won't have as much togetherness so it might be more about gifts.
Mushroom Grow Kit
Smallhold Blue Oyster Grow Kit
A great gift for the person who’s not sure if they want a pet or a plant. I found this mushroom kit very easy to work with and extremely entertaining to watch, as its spooky arms shot out the holes of the bag and began taking over the corner of our kitchen. The bag does yield a sudden abundance of oyster mushrooms, so your gift recipient needs to be prepared for that, but I put all my ideas about what to do with mushrooms in this newsletter from May.
Embossed Rolling Pins or Cookie Stamps
Embossed rolling pins from Poland
Cookie stamps hand-carved by Gene Wilson
A totally unnecessary kitchen tool, which makes it safe to assume you can get these for someone without worrying they already have one. You can quickly roll out a big batch of intricate-patterned cookies with the rolling pins. Or you can be one of the very last customers of Mr. Gene Wilson who is about to retire after a 46-year career carving cookie stamps and maintaining the best website left on the Internet.
Cabbage platters and dragon plates
Wing on Wo Porcelain Shop
This tiny porcelain shop on Mott street in Chinatown is filled with intricate, brightly colored dinnerware and tea sets, some vintage and some new. The shop also hosted artists in residence and community-based events about Chinatown’s culture, though these have been postponed during COVID. I love these cabbage platters and dragon plates in particular, though I don’t have them myself (hint..)
Sichuan Chili Crisp
Fly By Jing Sichuan Chili Crisp
If you’re already hooked on the umami-rich Chinese condiment Lao Gan Ma, or even if you haven’t yet been drawn into its savory embrace, you should try out this sauce that hits all the same notes but with a little more spice and fresher-tasting ingredients. The chili crisp is made by Jing Gao, a small producer who sources everything in Sichuan (I have some of the chilis the sauce is made from, and they’re amazing).
Tasty fermented condiments, Pandemic-style
Atina Foods Immunity Essentials Holiday Box
Every one of these jams, pickles, and preserves is delicious and interesting. Carrie and Suresh, who make the condiments in a small farm in the Catskills, tried to bring together Ayervedic traditions and flavors with local New York produce and ended up making something that’s completely their own. Their Immunity Essentials Holiday Box is full of garlic, turmeric and ginger that will hopefully make you healthier, but in any case will help you enjoy your home-cooked food more.
A box of the most delicious cookies
Archestratus holiday cookie box - Sold out for Thanksgiving, but the Christmas boxes should be up this week
The most delicious cookies, really? Yes, these are the most delicious cookies. The Pistachio Lace cookies, basically Florentines, are nutty and very chewy, the Casa cookie is an upgraded chocolate chip with pine nuts and almond paste, and the Rainbow Cookies are Archestratus owner Paige’s signature — rich and moist and extremely pretty, though prettiness has never been my priority in cookies.
A mask to look more like yourself
Maskalike
Have you ever wanted to look more like yourself while promoting public safety? These masks are printed with your uploaded selfie so that no one ever has to miss your sweet smile and lower jaw.
Body butter that’s good for everything
WHIP IT GOOD shea butter
Because I’m in culinary school during a pandemic, I wash my hands approximately 8888 times a day. One container of Phoebe’s raw organic shea butter whipped up with some natural oils has lasted me all of school so far. I put just a tiny bit onto damp hands at nighttime. There are still some 1oz mini gold containers that make a great small gift!
Challahday Cards
Catslock Greeting Carbs
Zoya’s food-based puns and illustrations are extremely cute and funny. “Sorry you feel like crepe” and “Chapati like it’s your birthday” and “You’re my everything” (pictured: bagel) are some of my favorites. The cards are nicely printed and blank inside so you can actually write a real letter to someone this year.
Online cooking classes
League of Kitchens
Migrateful
Brooklyn Brainery
Online cooking classes are pretty sad compared to real-life cooking classes, but they’re one way to spend time with someone far away from you instead of just drinking in front of the computer screen. League of Kitchens is a small New York-based company that features classes taught by women, mostly immigrants, with a lot of upcoming classes on Uzbek, Persian, and Indian cuisine. Migrateful specifically focuses on immigrant chefs and has more frequent classes — but it’s London-based so watch out for the GMT timezone. The Brooklyn Brainery is a community-driven effort in Brooklyn with accessible, low-priced classes about a wide variety of subjects, but I can vouch for Cheryl Paswater’s fermentation classes.
Water boilers and warmers
Zojirushi water boilers
This is one of those things I had no idea I needed until I got one (technically, “borrowed” it from my company when we were moving offices). It makes hot water available at any time, so I can make tea immediately or get a pot of water boiling for pasta or beans much more quickly. It requires cleaning every now and then, so you can throw in some of these tablets, but otherwise is extremely low-maintenance.
Homemade Fermentation Chamber
BN-LINK heating pad
BN-LINK thermostat
I built a simple fermentation chamber using a styrofoam cooler we’d received from Happy Valley Meat (which seems like a good company to buy your meat from) by placing a reptile heating mat at the bottom and plugging it into a thermostat that lets you set the temperature you want, and turns the heating mat on or off to approximate it. It’s been perfect for making tempeh, yogurt, and kefir. A cooler might make an okay alternative to the styrofoam, though there needs to be space for the wires to come out of the box. You can also use these tools for incubating seedlings or you can just get a snake.
PLEASE BUY ZANIES MICE << THESE ARE THE BEST TOYS FOR YOUR CAT
Zanies Rainbow Furry Mice*
These are the best toys for cats. All other toys are boring. They don’t have the delicious rattle that gets my heart racing or they’re too big so I can’t fit them in my mouth. Most toys simply not convincing, which is unacceptable for a cat. The thrill of chasing a Zanies mouse as it flies through the air with perfect aerodynamic precision is an experience your cat must not be allowed to miss. If you love them at all, you must get them this mouse.
*Human’s note: These toys are out of production, so some of the listings for them online are fake. We recently ordered from this site and the toys have been verified by our resident expert.