Best Creative Favorite Food Gifts of 2017 and more at chefshop.com/enews EXCLUSIVE SUBSCRIBER 5% OFF CODE twelve  Recipes | Chef's Pantries | Shop for Food & Ingredients | Food Blog The Best Food Gifts of 2017 This has been a roller coaster ride this year. With man made and natural disasters from DC to Texas, Florida, California and Puerto Rico! And as we try to adjust to the new normal, too much news, food traditions are more comforting than ever. This time of year we look forward to making mashed potatoes, turkeys, and all sorts of pies. It is also the time where the cookie people start the cookie binge. Like binge watching Netflix cooking shows, this is the time where you make all the cookies you did last year and then add a few more. It is also the time when you plop yourself down in your favorite Wingback, put your feet up to the fire in the hearth, hot chocolate simmering in a giant cast iron kettle (with a long enough ladle so you don’t have to get up), a side table next to you with a paper thin slice of fruitcake, chunks of Cherry Torrone, a toaster for the Stollen with a stick of butter to spread on top, Mary Pat's apple pie, and a whole Panettone on your lap. The holidays bring us comfort in food. We eat the good memories and avoid the bad ones. And this year is a great time to hunker down and share your favorite food gifts of 2017. We have a mix of holiday and the best foods of the year below. Enjoy! The best holiday gifts of 2017 - click here! * Food & Wine Magazine Top Pick It's a beautiful sight, the white torrone in its regal box of red, waiting to be disrobed. This soft "style" is luscious in the truest sense of the word! As a gift it makes the perfect statement as one of respect, caring without being overboard. Once you cut it open, the first bite is a hard soft bite that is not too sticky and, if your lucky, you will cross through a hazelnut on the way adding just the right taste. There are tiny bits of tingle or sugary feel as the torrone dissolves/disappears. It's that fast! "...I reveled in the ambrosial food that fructifies the soul, the mind, the heart." Mark Twain Shop now for our favorite holiday Torrone. * Spoon Ready All Day Long! It's taking amazing flavors, pistachio and cocoa butter, and creating heaven on earth. A Pistacchio Crema of luxury wrapped up in a jar. This rich pistachio green color crema is so soft to the tongue it literally melts like a “chocolate” bar of pistachio! Squeeze and lick your chops and the pistachio gusto starts in the middle (of your mouth) and then flows to the edges. This is truly a delight beyond compare! Shop now for Pistachio Cream like no other! * Amazing Combination Wowsa! A hot sauce that doesn't dull the senses, has plenty of heat and on top of it all, tastes like something you can recognize! Mix this, 1 to 3, with this coconut milk and it is the best dipping sauce for shrimp! It's so easy to make a zingy, fun taste that is perfect to take to any party and be a hero! Be a food hero with Habanero Carrot Curry Haute Sauce! * Stollen for Christmas! Along with the Panettone, we anticipate with great excitement the arrival of the first of Jean Claude's Christmas Stollen (Christollen). A classic German holiday bread, once swaddled in a blanket and carried to represent the baby Jesus. Many variations abound. Ours has candied orange peel, golden raisins soaked in the proverbial rum, and this beautiful center core of almond paste. We sample it (and eat it this way too) by toasting a slice (keeping mind not to lose the almond paste center) and slathering in butter! A contrast to the soft "cake" of the Panettone, this Stollen is much, more perfect for toasting. You can't go wrong with this holiday bread. I keep at least one on hand at all times for last minute sampling/gifting. Shop now for a Stollen! * Pearles du Médoc! Chocolate covered raisins were great when you went to the movies and you shared them with your date. Who cared about how they tasted, the movie (and the date) was what the evening was about. And now you can find the smallest chocolate covered raisins (I think there are bits, not even whole raisins) now in those tiny little boxes at the theatre. Well, we can tell you, that is not what's in these boxes. Large, plump (well, as plump as a dried fruit can be), dipped in a luscious dark chocolate, it is better than a movie and that date by far! Shop now for Pearls of Raisins in Chocolate! * It's a combo of perfection! Not everything is equal, but when you go 50/50 with Harissa and its brethren, Chermoula, you have the easiest mix together recipe for chicken! OR spread it on your next sandwich. It sings with flavor and a little heat. What could be better for a hot gift! A couple of jars that mix together are perfect! Spice it up – Shop now for Harissa! * Furikake It's one of those runaway hits this year. Furikake is made for topping rice. Though, every one who has come back for more says they sprinkle it on everything! From corn flakes to a tuna fish sandwich. Well, maybe not corn flakes.... A favorite? I can't remember which one is mine. Probably the seaweed or the yuzu. I keep it nearby and sprinkle liberally. Black and white sesame seeds and sea salt are the keys and then the zest makes up the rest. Shop now for Furikake Explosion! * Essenza This is one of the best hidden gems in the world of food. Quietly bottled, its pedigree is Tradizionale, its flavor is out-of-this-world. Thick and syrupy, with at least 5 notes of nuanced flavor, you can close your eyes and see Italy! San Giacomo is a very special small producer of Balsamic Vinegar. Perfection is what Andrea creates. There is no doubt when you taste this treat, you know that it is the real deal. Shop now for Essenza Balsamic! * Moist! If you like chocolate, then you should check out the Flamigni Brothers Panettone. Fruit and chocolate mixes are some of the all time Favorites. The bobble on top is part of the amazing "gift" packaging that matches the candied fruit inside! Often the moistest of the three we have, it will vary from year to year. Find your favorite and share! Shop now for Panettone Flamigni! * Handmade by Willow! Open this red box and lift the light covering of tissue to reveal the most beautiful shortbread you will ever see. The attention to detail is something you feel instantly as you pick up your first shortbread finger. And your palate tells you the same thing. The perfection from the "crumble" of the first bite to the final one is still perfect! Shop now for Heritage Shortbread! * Panettone Favorites! Just because the Sorrento Lemon Panettone is our "go-to" holiday gift, doesn't mean that other "fruits" from Albertengo aren't amazing as well! With just a few sold out so far, your options are still wide open! When you open the inner wrap the smell of the holiday wafts up to your senses and you can't help but to breathe in a giant whiff! It truly says tradition and that the holidays have arrived! Shop now for Albertengo! * Tradition is in Flamigni Panforte is a specialty of Siena, in the southern most part of Tuscany. Panforte Margherita is the most widely sold Panforte in Italy, named for the first Queen of the then-newly united Italy. Its sweet aroma and lighter flavor, redolent of nuts and candied citrus, proved to be her favorite. Flamigni's version is a flat, dense, round cake made with candied orange peel, sugar, almonds, candied citron, candied melon, and spices. Traditions make the food taste even better. And when you combine history, tradition and passion, you get this wonderful cake. Share it, keep it, eat it! Click here and shop now for Panforte! Holiday Store Hours plus Recipes Stollen for Christmas Fresh baked, arrives almost daily. A traditional loaf-shaped German sweet bread made with candied orange peels, golden raisins, rum and marzipan and covered with powdered sugar or icing. Originating from Dresden, Germany, stollen is usually eaten during the Christmas season when called Christstollen. Click to order your Stollen for Christmas! Holiday Store Hours - Party Saturday and Sunday Monday thru Saturday 10AM to 6PM. Sunday Noon to 4PM Shop now before everything is gone! Sample before you buy! ChefShop.com 1425 Elliott Ave W Seattle, Wa 98119 206-286-9988 Did you know that we have TWO parking lots? Easy open parking lot. Click here to see the map.   This Weeks Recipes Pan Fried Yams or Carrots Recipe Nothing could be simpler, or a better way to get your carotenoids (Vitamin A), than by eating Yams or Carrots. And nothing could be easier to make, or more delicious or sweet, than making your yams or carrots this way. Stirred Rice Pudding with Apple Balsamic Recipe This recipe was adapted from Cooking For Comfort by Marian Burros (Simon & Schuster, 2003). This pudding does not have any added fruit -- such as raisins. It is stirred, not baked - so it becomes very, very creamy. Adding Apple Balsamic gives it that slightly sweet, slightly acidic, something different kind of taste. Enjoy! Pain d'Epice (Honey Spice Cake) Recipe Adapted from "Chocolate and Zucchini" by Clotilde Dusoulier (Broadway Press).   See what you missed in previous Newsletters New - Lemon Coconut Cream - Sienna Tradition A New Love Story - Just Arrived from France - Recipe Ideas for Thanksgiving New New and the Holiday has Arrived in the Warehouse ChefShop.com Toll-free: 1-800-596-0885 You've received this email because you have purchased from us or subscribed. We respect your privacy online, and will never share your email address. Help | Contact | About | Terms | Privacy Policy | Search | My Account DESIGN: JODI LUBY & COMPANY, INC. NEW YORK CITY, NY; EMAIL STRATEGY: CRM Group USA, SEATTLE, WA