"gifts" news and stories

Still rounding out your holiday shopping list? Surely you've got an aunt, grandma or second cousin somewhere who lives for daytime TV, and for whom this would make the perfect (or ironic) gift: Soap Dishes: The Cookbook.

Billed as a collection of favorite recipes from your favorite soap stars, the book features more than 30 dishes from the villains and vixens of such daytime staples as General Hospital, All My Children, Days of Our Lives, Bold and the Beautiful, One Life to Live and The Young and the Restless.

So you're not cooking this Thanksgiving, but you're a guest -- which means you're looking for that perfect "thank you for slaving over a hot stove for hours and hours" gift to offer your harried hosts. But where do you begin? Start by thinking about their entertaining style, say the editors over at YumSugar. Are they bon-bon people, or do they serve up the latest cocktails? Here are 10 great gifts that will have you invited back year after year.

10 Hostess Gifts to Bring on Thanksgiving

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus but there is no such thing as a peach orchard on Fifth Avenue. Until now.

From October through January, the 75-year-old kings of the fruit basket, Harry & David, are bringing "pop-up orchards" as imagined by the king of restaurant design, David Rockwell and the Rockwell Group, to 16 cities across the country, from Fairfax, Virginia, to Manhattan's Fifth Avenue to the land of Georgia peaches, Atlanta (in the Lenox Square Mall). Channeling the company's Oregon roots, Harry & David re-creates the mood and pick-your-own experience of a country (albeit high-style country) farmstand, taking to the outdoors with the temporary markets featuring their Royal Riviera comice pears, Honeycrisp apples, and preserves made from sweet Oregold Peaches, and of course, the mile-high towers of fruit in gift baskets.

The Slashfood team always has their eyes open for off-the-beaten-path Valentine's Day gifts, especially of the chocolate variety, which is how we stumbled across this particular item: a 3-ounce hollow MK2 Fragmentation milk-chocolate hand grenade.

This is what happens when a group of guys -- guys who hunt, guys who camp, guys who don't bathe for days at a time -- start thinking about crazy things to do with a surplus of Belgian chocolate. Grenades might not be the first thing that comes to mind for many of us, but, then again, if our day jobs involved selling chocolate fountains (and the chocolate to go with them) to high-end Vegas resorts, it just might be.

The wood-crate tin packaging is an inspired finishing touch (it even locks), and we love the Martha Stewart-esque suggestion of storing your real ammo in it once the chocolate is gone. Plus, who could resist the heartwarming notion that this grenade offers "a more peaceful way to resolve any conflict"? The company also makes chocolate bullets and chocolate guns, in case this doesn't do the trick.

The other night, I decided to peruse Etsy in search for recipe cards that appeal to my foodie fanaticism. Of course, I was once again out of luck, but I did find some other great foodie pieces I had to share.

• Stand Mixer Hand Carved Rubber Stamp -- I just love this little thing, pictured above. It's wonderfully simplistic, but can also come personalized so that all of your foodie correspondences can have your stand mixer stamp. It also comes with a recipe card template.
• Fork Easel -- These are ideal for holding your recipes, notes, business cards, or even place cards at the table. All are made with old and varied forks, so it's also a classy way to reuse tossed items.
• "This doesn't taste like crap:" Recipe Cards -- They're not what I'm looking for to fill my own recipe box, but these suckers never fail to make me laugh every time I look for them. They're perfect for cheap and unique gifts for your spunky and unconventional cooks.