Stockings

Believe it or not, Oprah is not the only one with a holiday list of favorite things. This week, I’ve been shopping instead of eating and I’ve found some great ideas for holiday gifts and stocking stuffers for those on your list who love to cook and entertain.
To make the experience fun for you and the gift recipient, shop early and try to think beyond the ordinary in terms of both subject and source. While kitchen shops always have loads of unique kitchen knickknacks, culinary items are available almost anywhere, including Web sites, discount department stores, dollar stores, grocery stores, hardware stores and bath and linen shops.
Cookbooks make an excellent gift, as do gift certificates to cooking classes. But if you’d like to give a little something more, read on.
With the sudden popularity of heat-resistant silicone in the kitchen, a company called Hotspot created The Food Loop – a colorful silicone food-trussing tool designed to replace standard linen or cotton trussing twine and toothpicks. The Food Loop fits around roasts, stuffed chicken breasts, bundles of vegetables and the like to keep them rolled up and intact during cooking. The $15 tool is heat resistant up to 675 degrees, dishwasher safe, reusable and totally adjustable. I first spotted the brightly colored gizmo in the kitchen section of Bed Bath & Beyond but have since seen it in many other kitchen shops and hardware stores around town.
If your favorite cook doesn’t have a set of silicone pot holders, you’ve got a great gift opportunity. Several companies produce similar products in the form of large oven mitts and small oven fingertip gloves, but for cooks with smaller hands, the gloves are too big and unwieldy. The round or square pot holders work the best all around. Even wet, they don’t let the heat seep through. They come in a variety of colors, and cleanup is easy – just throw them on the top shelf of the dishwasher. They’re all over town and generally priced at less than $5 apiece.
If the cooks in your house like to bake, load them up with a supply of clever disposable loaf molds. The molds are made from reinforced corrugated cardboard, coated to be heat resistant up to 450 degrees. The paper pans stand on their own but work best when supported by a baking sheet. They are perfect for gift giving or when you want to bake more loaves than you can accommodate with the pans you have on hand. They may be used in conventional, convection and microwave ovens and also freeze well. Spotted on the gourmet shelves at Blackhawk Hardware at Park Road Shopping Center, the pans come in two sizes and are priced at $7.99 for six miniloaf pans and $8.99 for six standard-size pans.
Have fun after the cooking is done with the Worst-Case Scenario card game. This game comes suited for many genres, like travel, sports and home repair, but the cooking version caught my eye. Test your skills and knowledge at avoiding culinary disasters by picking from a multiple-choice list of answers to the 108 different culinary questions. The first player to survive five consecutive scenarios wins. I found the game, $4.99, at Bed Bath & Beyond. The entire line of “Worst-Case” card games is available at www.areyougame.com.
If your favorite cook is like me and enjoys entertaining with all the frills, then you simply can’t pass up these fabulous, feathery glass slips from Lushlife. The velvet-soled coasters slip on the base of your favorite stemmed glass and add a rainbow of colorful feathers to your bar. The coasters, $7.99 at Bed Bath & Beyond, are packed four to a box in a selection of pastel or bright colors. (Santa, this one has my name all over it.)
For a touch of holiday glitter at parties all year long, a four-pack of jeweled place card holders, $24, from Pottery Barn is just the ticket. Pair them with the feathery coasters above for a truly glitzy affair. Bejeweled in a myriad of clear and colored rhinestones, the set includes 20 blank place cards. Use them for table settings or for identifying individual hors d’oeuvres at your next swanky soiree.
Also from Pottery Barn: a warm and fuzzy gift … in the guise of a faux fur wine holder. The brown-and-white fur wine sheaths, $9, make a great gift with or without a bottle tucked inside. Give them to friends or use them to tote along your favorite cellar selections the next time you go out.
If someone in the family is a pizza lover, then his or her kitchen-gadget collection would not be complete without the Versa-Cutter from Progressive. The cutting wheel on this easy-to-use tool is retractable and removable for quick and thorough cleanup. Pair the cutter with a basket stocked with homemade marinara sauce, a great wedge of Parmesan cheese and pizza flour for a great theme gift. The Versa-Cutter, about $9, is available at Belk.
Here’s an old-time gadget no cook should be without: a hand-held flour duster/miniature sifter. Squeeze the handles together to fill the coiled drum and then gently squeeze to sprinkle flour or cornmeal on a buttered baking sheet or cake pan or to sift powdered sugar on desserts. The sifter is also great for sprinkling cocoa, cinnamon and finely chopped nuts. This sifter is made by Best Manufacturers, the same people who produce some of the best wire whisks in the world. For the whole line of Best products, visit www.bestmfrs.com. The minisifter is $8.95 at Sur La Table.
These final two gifts may take the cake for the most unusual kitchen gadgets on this list, but both work well and are a must if the cook you care for loves to cook Asian fare. First is a Slicky – a unique plastic sesame seed grater from Japan. Fill the drum with toasted or raw seeds and then simply turn the handle to finely grind the seeds for stir fry or sesame-flavored desserts. The Slicky also grinds other small soft-hulled seeds like fennel or anise. The cost is $5.95 at Sur La Table.
Before you grind the sesame seeds, toast them in a clever sesame seed toasting pan, also from Japan and on the shelves at Sur La Table. To operate, lift the mesh lid and place the dry seeds inside – no oil needed. Heat the pan over a medium flame and shake slightly to evenly toast the seeds. Once they become aromatic, they are ready to be removed from the heat; allow them to cool, and use as directed in any recipe. Although the pan is designed to toast sesame seeds, I found it also works well with small batches of whole spices, seeds or shelled nuts. Be sure to remove the seeds, nuts and spices from the pan immediately after toasting or they will burn. This unique toasting pan is $9.95 at Sur La Table.