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Great cooking gifts for $30 (or less)
By Ann | December 12, 2008
With Christmas only twelve days away (YIKES), perhaps you, like me, need to pick up some speed on the shopping front.
Voila, here are this year’s Cooking-the-Books-approved suggestions for five gourmet gifts under $30.
1. Cheese – Specifically, Parmagiano Reggiano, which any cook worth her salt would adore. Famed Greenwich Village fromagerie, Murray’s Cheese Shop, is offering it for $20/lb, so $30 would get you a little over a pound + shipping and handling. If Santa has a bigger budget (and is shopping for a New York-based recipient) he could check out Murray’s cheese classes – there are a slew of one-night events for $50.
2. Vinegar – Specifically, this 25-year aged balsamic vinegar straight from Modena, which Williams & Sonoma is offering for only $22.95. Thick, sweet and tart, slightly syrupy, this is the kind of special cook’s treat that cooks (like me) might be too cheap to buy for themselves. It is fantastic drizzled on cheese, especially Parmagiano Reggiano, eaten with melon, sprinkled on a frittata or grilled meat, spritzed on strawberries, or shaken into a salad dressing.
3. Soap – Call me an idiot, but I only recently made the correlation between the leathery skin on my hands and the dishwashing liquid with which I usually wash them. Newsflash: cheap dish soap does not soft skin make. The good news is, I LOVE this EO lavender soap — it has a refreshing fragrance — floral yet also clean, almost medicinal — and its added lavender oil means your hands don’t turn into lizard-skin. Best of all, it’s only $7.99 and you can buy it at your local Whole Foods. Give this to your favorite cook and tell him to keep it next to the kitchen sink.
4. Cookbooks – The rumors are true: the publishing industry is in trouble and the only sure-fire way to save it is to buy books. There are so many cookbooks — classic or new — to choose from, but recently I have been immensely enjoying Patricia Wells’s Vegetable Harvest. (Full disclosure: if you’ve been wondering why this blog’s review of Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian has come to a screeching halt, it’s because I’ve been secretly cheating on him with Patricia Wells — and not blogging about it.) Why do I like this book? The recipes have a decidedly French twist, which appeals to me right now, living in Paris. Also, author Wells suggests unusual ways to use seasonal produce, and her food is light, with judicious (as opposed to gratuitous) amounts of cream or butter. Vegetable Harvest is $34.95 full price, but $16.99 with Amazon’s hardcover discount.
5. Champagne – Cooking, christmas and Champagne seem to go together like the three wise men. My absolute favorite non-bank-breaking bubbly is Nicolas Feuillate, which is real Champagne, from the eponymous region of France. This usually sells for about $32/bottle (slightly above budget — sorry), though a quick google search shows that winebuyer.com is offering it for $27.
Happy shopping!
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