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Recipe Mutiny steals recipes from food blogs and recipe sites. Then we publish them. With credit (Naturally).
Tuesday, December 4, 2018
What’s in Season in December
What's in season in December? Check out our seasonal December Produce Guide and recipes for lemons, mushrooms, beets, butternut squash, collards, kale, and cauliflower.
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Themed Holiday Party Ideas That Haven’t Been Done to Death
You stand at the snack table, pouring yourself another glass of eggnog. As you sip and survey the room, you mentally note that the mistletoe is hanging in the doorway between your friend’s kitchen and living room and pledge to avoid lingering in that doorway at any time during the night.
Yes, friends, it’s holiday party season again.
The holidays are a perennially great time to dust off your finest party clothes, see your friends, and eat, drink, and be merry. As December begins you’ll accept invitations with genuine excitement, but as the month comes to an end you’ll be tired of trekking through the snow and about five pounds overweight from the gluttony.
But the truth is, though everyone goes through the same routine every year, the holidays truly are fun. If you’d like to host a holiday shindig of your own that will stand out from the other Facebook invites for the same night, consider more than just the traditional cocktail party. Below, six options to get you started:
The Nightmare Before Christmas Party
There’s a lot of genius in Tim Burton’s animated classic. For holiday party purposes, the genius is that the movie’s feel is part Christmas, part Halloween. And who doesn’t love a good Halloween party? Combine the two with a “The Nightmare Before Christmas”-themed costume party. Give your guests a chance to pull out another Halloween costume and encourage them to dress up as a character, prop, or scene from the movie, or something movie-adjacent. Decorate your home in appropriate gear: Add Jack Skellington pumpkins, Sally-like patchwork decorations, and split the room between Halloween Town and Christmas Town. Music for ambiance? The soundtrack, of course.
Nightmare Before Christmas Special Edition MP3 Soundtrack, $11.49 on Amazon
You know you'll want to sing along.
When it comes to food and drink, you have your choice between Halloween and fall-themed fare or traditional Christmas party appetizers. You could also reuse your Halloween candy if you have any left, or create something new, such as a Christmas ode to The Pumpkin King with pumpkin-flavored eggnog or character-themed cake pops.
Champagne Tastes
Creamy and frothy, this Halloweeny version of a traditional Christmas recipe takes only 10 minutes and can be doubled or tripled for parties. While the recipe uses raw eggs as in traditional eggnog recipes, it also provides alternatives if the danger of consuming raw eggs makes you a bit queasy. Get the Pumpkin Eggnog recipe.
Chowhound
As so many characters from the movie have perfectly round heads, they make excellent models for cake pops. Use this recipe as a start and make a sparkly batch for the Christmas side of your party, or coat in white frosting and decorate to look like Jack, Sally, or any other characters for the Halloween side. Get our Cake Pops recipe.
Chili Cook-off
Cold weather equals comfort food and chili is the ultimate comfort food. The great thing about hosting a chili cook-off is you get everyone else to do most of the work for you (shhh). Encourage your friends to enter their favorite chili concoction, and you simply provide the tasting cups and sides like cornbread, shredded cheese, oyster crackers, and beverages. Just make sure that you have enough surge protectors to take care of all the crock pots. Create a scoring system for attributes like taste, texture, aroma, and overall deliciousness. At the end of the evening, give out awards for most traditional, most original, and any other category you can think of. Don’t take the prizes too seriously though: Silly or random trinkets will do. Everyone will go home stuffed and gassy, but happy.
Eating On A Dime
Chili is a super easy recipe yet there are so many ways to do it: beef, turkey, vegetarian, beans, tomato sauce…the combinations are virtually endless. With this recipe you simply brown the beef, dump it in the slow cooker with everything else, and let the flavors meld. If you do enter your own chili in the cook-off, just make sure you have someone else tally up the points so you don’t get accused of cheating if you win! Get the Crock Pot Chili recipe.
Chowhound
If you have chili you pretty much have to have cornbread. This easy skillet recipe whips up in about 30 minutes, which means you can quickly make a double batch to handle all the chili you’ll be tasting. The recipe also lends itself to variations in toppings such as jalapeños or cilantro. Get our Basic Skillet Cornbread recipe.
Holiday Luau
People love the holidays so much that the “Christmas in July” themed party is actually a well-known thing. So why not switch it up? Get people out of the “snow everywhere” frame of mind and dress up your home with a tropical theme. People love tropical parties so you’re pretty much guaranteed to find the requisite decorations at your local party store, even in December. Provide Hawaiian leis, rum punch, margaritas, and hot dogs and hamburgers as if you’re barbecuing in the hot sun. Crank up the Beach Boys and decorate like you’re on the sand with inflatable palm trees, beach chairs, and pool toys. Maybe, just maybe, you’ll forget about the wind chill outside.
Typically Simple
While frozen margaritas are a little harder to make and replenish in big batches than mixed ones, this recipe makes it easy with just a few ingredients tossed into a blender. The reddish color from the frozen strawberries gives the requisite nod to the holiday season. If you don’t want to deal with blending but still want the color scheme, simply muddle strawberries into a more traditional recipe. Get the Strawberry Lime Margarita recipe.
What’s Gaby Cooking
In a nod to both the traditional Christmas ham and the Hawaiian theme, whip up a batch of this pulled pork and turn it into sliders by serving on small buns for easy finger food. To make this an easier self-serve dish, keep it on warm in the slow cooker and let your guests assemble their own. Get the Hawaiian Pulled Pork Sandwich recipe.
Terrible Movie Party
Sometimes you just want to do the opposite of getting all gussied up for a party and simply chill. In this case, amuse your friends by hosting a casual movie marathon of the Worst. Movies. EVER. While movie badness can certainly be subjective, go for the “This is so bad it’s hilarious” type films, not the “This is so painfully bad I’m going to slip out of this terrible party before anyone notices” kind of flicks. Suggestions include “Sharknado” (or any of its sequels) and “Plan 9 From Outer Space”. Never seen Plan 9? It’s generally considered the worst movie ever made. It wins the Terrible Movie title by, among other things, the fact that you can see the strings the spaceships dangle from and that the main bad guy spends most of the movie wandering around with his cape obscuring half his face: The original actor, Bela Lugosi, died mid-filming and it was the only way the director could substitute a new actor without the audience knowing. Since it’s a casual party, keep the food casual and easy with typical movie-watching finger food: popcorn, candy, pizza, and even nachos. Though it’s a Terrible Movie party, stay away from any foods that have Rotten Tomato associations. Self-explanatory.
Shutterstock
Nothing says movies like bowls of popcorn, but save yourself from artificial chemicals and the inevitability of over or under popping microwave popcorn. This recipe is super quick and easy, is virtually burn-proof, and provides a delicious seasoning suggestion, though you can customize your toppings any way you like. Best yet? Not a single kernel burnt. Get the Stovetop Popcorn recipe.
Chowhound
Nachos in general are a great finger food, but with a bunch of people crowding around a TV you’ll want to avoid encouraging them to get up again and again for seconds. These potato skins help out by providing a single-serving size portion of nachos in an easy to grab package. Get our Loaded Nachos Potato Skins recipe.
Holiday Movie Party
If you prefer to spend your hard-earned downtime watching good movies, go for a holiday movie theme. Studios spend lots of time and money cranking out a few of these every year so you’ll have your pick of favorites. To make sure you’re catering to different tastes, mix old and new, comedy and drama: “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation”, “Elf”, “Die Hard” (yes, it’s absolutely a holiday movie), “A Christmas Story”, or the classic “Miracle on 34th Street” are just a few to get you started—though unless you plan on an all day marathon, you may want to limit to just three movies. Make your food and drink selections easy so people don’t have to keep getting up and blocking the screen—anything in bowls or large plates means your guests can reach over and grab a piece of this, a spoonful of that. To stick with the theme, go for cozy and Christmas-themed food and drink like hot chocolate topped with red and green marshmallows.
Chowhound
This takes some time and effort but your guests will be super impressed by your light and fluffy homemade marshmallows. You can theme these up by using holiday cookie cutters to cut them into fun shapes like Christmas trees. Adjust or add to the powdered sugar coating with red and green sugar crystals or throw a little food coloring into the batter. Get our Classic Vanilla Marshmallows recipe. And serve them with our Real Deal Hot Chocolate recipe.
Red and Green Icebox Pinwheel Cookies
Erin Scott
As long as you’re sugaring up your guests…sugar them up some more! These pinwheel cookies take a few steps but the gorgeous results are well worth the effort and make a ton of cookies to handle a large party. Get the Red and Green Icebox Pinwheel Cookies recipe.
New Year’s Day Hangover Brunch
Hold on, hold on, I know what you’re thinking: “It’s New Year’s Day. Why in the world would I want to do any cooking whatsoever?” The great news is if you do it right, you’ll barely need to lift a finger that day. Everyone spends Jan. 1 in their pajamas, eating takeout and watching football or binging on Netflix. So why not do that with some of the friends you may or may not remember seeing the night before? The key to pulling this off is to get everything ready a day ahead: Set a timer on the coffee pot, lay out disposable or easily washable plates and utensils, and stock up on assemble-yourself-type food such a mixed fruit bowl, bagels, cream cheese, and lox. You can pull those out of the fridge and just set them on the counter for guests to serve themselves. Also prep this amazing breakfast casserole: It’s designed to be assembled the night before and left in the fridge, so all you have to do is roll out of bed, preheat the oven, and pop it in. Then hand your guests the spatula as you load up the Netflix account.
Pro tip: Only invite friends who live super close to you; if they have to get in the car and drive 10 minutes they’ll never make it. Those who live just down the street or on a different floor of your apartment building? You’ll be their hero.
Fully Loaded Cheesy Breakfast Casserole
The Slow Roasted Italian
There are a lot of great breakfast casserole recipes out there, but this one works particularly well for a hangover brunch because it’s got all the right ingredients to take care of your pounding head: hash browns, sausage, bacon, and cheese. Another option is to layer the bottom with chunky pieces of day-old French bread (day-old keeps it from getting too mushy) then put the remaining ingredients in. Assemble the day before and voila—brunch is ready. Get the Fully Loaded Cheesy Breakfast Casserole recipe.
Related Video: 7 Healthy Eating Tips for Holiday Parties
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Chowhound Gift Guide 2018: The Best Housewarming Gifts
Putting some thought into a housewarming gift is essential. If you go with something generic (hello, Yankee Candle!), you’ll just be adding to the clutter your friend is already sifting through in those stacks of moving boxes. The goal is to give something that feels special, but will actually be useful, and not end up as a fancy doorstop. Which is exactly why we rounded up these design-minded pieces that will make a statement in any new home (whether that’s yours or your buddy’s).
Ocean Shallow Bowl, $68 on Food52
Food52
This made-to-order bowl from Brooklyn ceramicist Helen Levi looks stunning on a countertop but also can actually, you know, hold food. Think of it as a functional piece of artwork.See It
Agraria Mediterranean Jasmine TasselAire, $39.94 on Amazon
AGRARIA/Amazon
This heavenly fragrance brand turns decorative tassels into diffusers that will upgrade any door hardware in the house.See It
Copper and Brass Louise Vases, $35–$195 on Food52
Food52
Place any one of these glossy vases on a side table and you’re done, basically.See It
Pendleton Motor Robe in Lost Lake Plaid, $99.48 on Amazon
Pendleton/Amazon
You can’t go wrong with a gift from heritage brand Pendleton, but we’re partial to the warm colors on this particular blanket. Plus, this one comes with a leather carrying strap in case your friend decides to move again.See It
Dearborn Pitcher, $130 on Food52
Food52
A pretty glass pitcher like this is one of those pieces you never you knew needed until someone else buys it for you. Suddenly, the kitchen feels much more sophisticated.See It
Natural Horn Salad Servers In Gift Box, $19.99 on World Market
World Market
These sleek salad servers are subtly eye-catching and probably the type of thing we all need a couple of (especially when the dishwasher is full).See It
MoMa
This jug from Danish design brand Hay looks way more expensive than it is.See It
Marble and Acacia Wood Cheese Paddle, $29.95 on Sur la Table
Sur la Table
It’s the details that really count when entertaining and this cheese board is a good-looking workhouse that’s bound to be pulled out anytime anyone comes over.See It
Ginkgo Leaf Flour Sack Tea Towel in Golden Yellow, $16 on Amazon
Heart and Harrow
Friends don’t let friends clean up spills with ugly, stained kitchen towels that got too much use in that old place. We love these colorful tea towels that absolutely should be shown off hanging from the oven handle.See It
“The Photographer’s Cookbook” by Lisa Hostetler, $23.32 on Amazon
Amazon
Compiled in the late 1970s, but published only two years ago, this cookbook brings together food-related photos and recipes from the likes of Ansel Adams, Richard Avedon, and William Eggleston. It will surely stand out on a shelf full of chef-driven cookbooks.See It
Aesop Reverence Aromatique Hand Wash, $48.94 on Amazon
Aesop
Rule of thumb: Expensive soap is the number one way to give a fancy gift without going over your budget.See It
Le Creuset Stoneware Rainbow Egg Cup Gift Set, $33.91 on Amazon
Amazon
There’s something both romantic and nostalgic about a soft-boiled egg (hello, “Call Me By Your Name”), and the egg cup is the superfluous-seeming, but all-too-necessary item that nails the experience of eating one.See It
Hay Kaleido Tray Medium in Dark Green, $29 on MoMA
Trust us. This tray is the ultimate piece when it comes to organizing and decorating. Another one from Danish design brand Hay, which makes them in different colors and sizes so you can fit one on top of another for different geometric designs.See It
Related Video: Top-Rated Party Appetizers
All featured products are curated independently by our editors. When you buy something through our retail links, we may receive a commission. For more great hand-picked products, check out the Chowhound Shop.
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The History of Cranberries
Did you know cranberries bounce if you drop them? Or that they help support your memory function? Or that Native Americans were the first to cultivate cranberries and used them for food and dye? Or that cranberry balsamic vinegar is absolutely delicious and you should be using it on all your salads?
These are the kind of trivia tidbits you’ll pick up on Wisconsin’s Cranberry Highway (it’s a thing!), a 50-mile drive across Wisconsin’s cranberry region. It’s here tourists can visit various farms and jump in a bog during the harvest, which runs from September to October. Chances are, the cranberries you’ll eat this season came from Wisconsin, where more than 60 percent of U.S. cranberries are now harvested. Though Revolutionary War veteran Henry Hall first cultivated cranberries in Massachusetts in the early 1800s, wild cranberries are native to the marshlands of central Wisconsin and growers there have been harvesting vaccinium macrocarpon (the cranberry’s scientific name) for commercial use for over 150 years.
uscranberries.com
Cranberries flower in late June and early July, but if you want to see the bright red cranberries at the top of water-filled marshes like in the Ocean Spray commercials, you have to visit in the fall. Cranberries don’t actually grow in water-filled bogs but on low-lying vines. The night before they’re harvested, the marshes are flooded with up to 18 inches of water. Thanks to the pockets of air in each cranberry, they float to the surface.
Cranberries are gathered through a process called wet harvesting. Water reels, nicknamed “egg beaters,” churn the water and loosens the berries from their vines. During this process, the cranberries float to the surface of the water. They’re then corralled, loaded into trucks, and sent to processing plants.
Chesapeake Bay Cranberry-Scented Candle, $11.99 on Amazon
Have the entire house smelling like fresh cranberry with this scented candle!
In the case of many small farms in Wisconsin, some owned by the same families for generations, the cranberries are taken to Ocean Spray, which is actually an owner-collective. Launched in 1930 with only three passionate, independent cranberry growers back then, Ocean Spray now boasts over 700 grower families as members. The collective allows farms of different sizes to thrive, and allows cranberry addicts to get their fix year-round.
We can also credit Ocean Spray with figuring out what to do with all those damaged berries from the harvesting process. In 1941, cranberry jelly made its appearance nationwide and has never left the traditional Thanksgiving and Christmas table ever since. But if you just can’t. do. cranberry. sauce. again. after having it at your mom’s Thanksgiving, and that Friendsgiving that followed the day after, remember you can always toss a few of these stunners in a tall glass of something bubbly during the holidays and you’ve got instant holiday decor in the form of a cocktail.
Related Video: How to Make Cranberry Sangria Punch
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The History of Hanukkah Food in America
As a kid, I’m not sure which I looked forward to more during the winter holiday season—receiving a gift each of the eight nights we celebrated Hanukkah (either small, like a book or a pair of socks, or big, like a toy I’d been wishing for) or the meal my mom made for the occasion. My family and I indulged with joyful abandon on tender slices of beef brisket swimming in a savory onion-laden gravy and shredded potato latkes—crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside—topped with applesauce or sour cream. But I never really stopped to think about where these food traditions came from.
Chowhound spoke with a Jewish food historian and a Food Network star to learn the history of Hanukkah food in the U.S. and how it has evolved over time.
Jewish Cuisine Rich in History (and Fat)
“I feel that, in trying to elevate Hanukkah from a minor holiday to a major one, Jews really knocked it out of the park with latkes, because potato latkes are everything a french fry is and more. You know, that extra crunch, those caramelized sugars giving it a deeper potato taste,” says Jayne Cohen, food historian and author of “Jewish Holiday Cooking: A Food Lover’s Treasury of Classics and Improvisations.”
Jewish Holiday Cooking: A Food Lover's Treasury of Classics and Improvisations by Jayne Cohen, $34.18 on Amazon
With a wide-ranging collection of traditional Jewish recipes and modern twists (including vegan variations), plus practical advice and creative suggestions, this is more than a cookbook, but a holiday handbook.
Foods cooked in oil, such as latkes (potato pancakes) and sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts), are traditionally enjoyed during Hanukkah to commemorate the story behind the holiday. According to Jewish texts, Judah Maccabee and his followers were participating in the rededication of a temple around 200 B.C. when they witnessed a miracle: a small amount of olive oil that should only have lasted one night kept candles burning for eight nights instead (thus, the eight night celebration of Hanukkah).
Chowhound
However, the latkes of yore were pretty different from those we eat today. Before potatoes came to Europe, they were made with cereal grains like rye and buckwheat, or root vegetables, such as carrots and turnips. Depending on where Jewish people lived, olive oil was either extremely expensive or hard to find, so they also often cooked their latkes in animal fat. This may explain why rich cuts of meat, such as brisket, and even goose, were often made during Hanukkah, since the fat that cooked off them could then be used to fry up a batch of latkes.
“Potatoes didn’t really become an important food for Jews until the mid-19th century,” Cohen explains. “That’s when they made their way into Germany, and then Eastern Europe. It wasn’t until then that they became so important to the Jewish diet for making things like latkes and kugels.” American Jewish food traditions offer a surprising amount of variety. Take latkes’ marvelous versatility and evolution as part of American Jewish cuisine, for example. Cohen remembers seeing a latke recipe in a Crisco cookbook dating back to the 1930s that called for using spinach as the main ingredient. As different groups from the diaspora became part of the Jewish communities across the U.S., they brought their own interpretations with them, whether it’s adding jalapeños to their latkes or topping them with smoked salmon and caviar.
Festival of Bites
“Latkes in the U.S. have sort of been like a blank canvas to experiment on,” Cohen states, “with toppings, added ingredients or the changing of basic ingredients.” One of her favorite ways to eat them is with butter and pomegranate syrup.
Hanukkah is also associated with eating dairy products as a result of the Maccabee story somehow getting conflated with the story of Judith, considered a heroine of Jews in the Middle Ages. Legend has it that Judith fed a cruel enemy a meal that included very salty cheese, which caused him to drink a lot of wine and enabled her to kill him in his drunken stupor to save her people from persecution. So it’s not uncommon for Jewish Americans to eat cheese blintzes, make their latkes with cottage cheese, and top both with sour cream to celebrate the holiday.
Meanwhile, doughnuts first became popular in Germany, where they were stuffed with fruit like apricots. “Then they became popular in Poland for Hanukkah,” says Cohen. Polish immigrants brought them to Israel, and from there, they came to the U.S. “A lot of people think they came from the Sephardic community,” Cohen explains, since Sephardic Jews eat bunuelos, a yeast-risen doughnut, for Hanukkah, but she poses this is not the case.
A New Generation of Hanukkah Foods
Molly Yeh, author of “Molly On The Range” and host of Food Network’s “Girl Meets Farm,” grew up making traditional Hanukkah foods like latkes and sufganiyot. “My least favorite part of those traditions was having to wait for the oil to heat up, I was always so impatient!” she writes via email.
Chowhound
Yeh is no stranger to coming up with innovative takes on traditional dishes. If you search her popular food and lifestyle blog, my name is yeh, you’ll find numerous creative Hanukkah recipes, like brussels sprout latkes with balsamic dijon sour cream and rose jam sufganiyot with vanilla glaze and pistachios. One of her favorite interpretations is sufganiyot filled with onion jam and tomato jam and dusted with za’atar and yogurt powder. “I love savory sufganiyot,” she enthuses. “Savory doughnuts are underrated.”
Molly on the Range: Recipes and Stories from An Unlikely Life on a Farm by Molly Yeh, $17.92 on Amazon
This book is full of delicious recipes celebrating the author's Jewish and Chinese heritage—and life on a Midwestern farm.
“Every year I love thinking up new sufganiyot flavors and new things to put on top of latkes,” Yeh explains. “A few years ago we put scoops of chocolate ice cream on top of latkes. It was just like dipping fries in a milkshake.” She adds, “There was some skepticism directed toward the latke ice cream sundae, but the few people who tried it liked it!”
Crispy latkes, savory brisket, and mouth-watering sufganiyot make for quite the decadent meal. Whether you choose to stick with tried and true traditional recipes or go wild experimenting with flavors and ingredients, it would probably be considered a Hanukkah miracle if you end up with any leftovers from the celebration.
Related Video: How to Make Apple Cider Sufganiyot with Salted Caramel Filling
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Best Gifts for People Who Love Food and Are Health Nuts
They won’t shut up about kale, flax seeds, matcha, juicing, protein powders, superfoods, low-carb this, and clean-eating that. You listen and nod, meanwhile planning your next bacon-cheeseburger. To each her own. Wellness is big these days, so you must know at least one person who’d appreciate a Christmas gift with health in mind.
Be careful not to insinuate with your gift that your friend, family member, or spouse needs to lose weight, especially if he or she hasn’t mentioned any such health goals to you. These holiday gift ideas are best for people who make it their lifestyle to be healthy, who do it because it’s a passion or philosophy. Or maybe your loved one needs your help after a serious diagnosis. Use your discretion, for the love of all things delicious and holy.
Remember, healthy eating doesn’t have to mean tasteless, joyless eating. These are not mutually exclusive concepts, by no means. And you never know, the idea might just rub off on you. After you polish off that cheesecake of course.
1. Cuisinart EasyPop Hot Air Popcorn Maker
Sur la Table
People who love food and strive for health know not to buy those bags of microwave popcorn. Oh, the chemicals. Your lovable health nut can pop healthier popcorn with hot air in this maker that’s easy and requires no oil. Kernels go into a popping chamber, and hot air sends as much as 10 cups of popcorn up and out the chute right into a waiting bowl. And it all takes less than three minutes. Spice it well afterward, of course.See It
2. Personalized Healthy Food Cookbook
Etsy
What better way to encourage the health-focused cook than a blank cookbook emblazoned with his or her name and passion for health on the cover? The book covers are made with two layers of plywood beech veneer, with the laser-cut design on top. Inside are 50 recipe sheets with space for ingredients, instructions, and other handy cooking prompts.See It
3. Hydracy Fruit Infuser Water Bottle
Amazon
For the friend who likes to carry around a water bottle, upgrade that healthy portable practice for her or him, and in a fancy spa-like way. This 32-ounce water bottle creates fruit-infused water, juice, iced tea, and lemonade. It’s leak-proof and BPA-free. We can taste the cucumber water now.See It
4. Spiralizer Tri-Blade Vegetable Slicer
Amazon
This is a great tool for anyone on a low-carb, Paleo, raw, vegan, or gluten-free diet. They can make “pasta” with beets, zucchini, and squash, slice some sweet potatoes into curly fries to be bakes, plantains can transform into tortillas for huevos rancheros, and spiralize salads with nests of carrots and other vegetables.See It
5. GreenPan Healthy Ceramic Nonstick Sheet Pans
Sur la Table
This two-pan set is free from toxic chemicals and more abrasion resistant than traditional nonstick, but still releases foods effortlessly and cleans up in a snap. Made of professional-grade, heavy gauge steel, these pans ensure even heat distribution, delivering extra-crispy results without the need for excess oil.See It
6. Japanese Ceremonial Matcha Tea Set
Etsy
What’s the deal with this matcha wellness cult anyway? Because matcha is made from ground-up whole tea leaves, it’s a more potent source of catechins (a great antioxidant) than standard green tea, which is consumed as an infusion and the leaves discarded. Matcha could contain three times more of the EGCG catechins linked to fighting cancer, viruses, and heart disease – than other kinds of standard green tea. Matcha relaxes you while providing slow-release caffeine as well, equivalent to a cup of coffee. The gift set includes a 30-gram packet of matcha green tea powder, a tea jar for storing the matcha, a bamboo whisk, bamboo spoon, and a traditionally inspired matcha bowl with double walls that will keep the tea hot inside but your fingers can still hold the bowl on the outside.See It
7. Sistema Salad To-Go Container
Target
Now here’s a way to do a lunch salad. Eating healthy on the move is easier with this container that keeps your delicate greens separate from the toppings, and the dressing separate and sealed from everything else. With the locking clips and rubberized seal, the food stays fresher longer. The BPA-free container can hold up to 4.65 cups of food.See It
8. Misto Aluminum Bottle Oil Sprayer
Target
Dressed in a chic houndstooth pattern, this slim sprayer is aimed to keep its user slender too. Pour olive oil or another heart-healthy oil into the bottle and it will mist onto your salads, potatoes, and other vegetables, so that you use just enough to coat food with flavor. This sprayer keeps its user from drenching his or her food in oil, which loads on extra calories. See It
9. Omega Nutrition Center Juicer
Amazon
This is a gift you give your significant other, parent, or child — or a boss you want to impress. It’s not a casual friend gift, unless you’re rolling in dough. But the Omega juicer is the best there is when it comes to cold-press juicers. You want cold-press because heat kills a lot of the nutrients you’re trying to extract in the first place. But this small appliance isn’t merely a juicer. It can make nut butters, pasta, make baby food, grind coffee and spices, whip up soy milk, juice wheatgrass, and mince herbs and garlic.See It
Some of these gifts can be useful in the recipes we suggest on our Christmas recipe page.
All featured products are curated independently by our editors. When you buy something through our retail links, we may receive a commission. For more great hand-picked products, check out the Chowhound Shop.
Related video: Healthier Versions of Your Favorite Christmas Cookies
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13 Ways to Survive and Thrive as a Guest: A Guide to Holiday-Party Etiquette
Walking into a room full of festively dressed total strangers who will all stare at you and judge you mercilessly is really intimidating for many people. ‘Tis the season of holiday parties, and invariably there will be the One: that one party where you know and adore the host but very few other guests, if any at all. Dreading a party is no one’s idea of a good time, so here are a few suggestions to help you through
1. Do not show up empty-handed. This is just basic party etiquette, but it will keep your hands occupied and give you a task when you walk in, ensuring that you don’t feel lost. It also gives you a minute to scope out the party. If it’s a cocktail party, absolutely bring booze to share! Don’t be stingy—get a bottle of something decent enough that you would drink it, but not so nice that you will be guarding it all evening.
2. Have an “out” time. In reality, you’re going to go home, wash your face, and wish there were a new episode of whatever it is you’re into while settling for watching Elf until you fall asleep. But instead of admitting your antisocial ways, you should say that you’re meeting friends for a drink. This way, you’ll have an escape route that doesn’t involve a British crime drama on Netflix.
3. Stand up straight and SMILE. Duh you’re a little nervous, but fake it already. Scowling and slumped over makes you look intimidating to strike up a conversation with, so look friendly. This means stay away from spinach and artichoke dip, mulled wine, and peppermint Oreos, all of which will (or at least ought to) make you self-conscious of those pearly whites!
4. If this is an eating and drinking party, wear something loose that you feel comfortable in. You do not want to be tugging at a shirt you’ve never worn before because you ate a few extra meatballs. Or all of the meatballs, and all of the wine.
5. Don’t show up so hungry that you don’t have a free hand to greet people. You don’t want to have to practice the delicate dance of holding a glass, plate, and napkin, while trying to dive into the platter of meatballs that you’ve been eyeing since the moment you walked through the door. Pace yourself. Patience will pay off.
6. Leave your phone in your pocket or purse for the entire evening. Wear a watch if you need to keep track of the time, and remember that Googling something is not a conversation. Not to mention that standing next to the cheese pretending to do things on your phone is just a terrible disservice to a lovely cheese. Don’t stress, the rest of your Instagram feed will still be there when you get in your cab.
7. Think Cady Heron and observe the party like a nature documentary (#eatenalive): Find someone outgoing who clearly knows a lot of the guests and introduce yourself. Play the “I don’t know anyone here” card and let them introduce you to some new party-goers.
8. Position yourself somewhere that is not a corner, but not a high traffic zone where guests are just trying to angle around you and no one is stopping to chat. Next to the cheese or the booze is a solid place to drop anchor for a bit and talk to people. It also provides immediate conversation, and either guest can walk away comfortably. Ask someone about the cocktail they’re making, or offer to make one for someone else. Inquire about the cheese. Asking questions will make the time fly by, and who knows, you may just meet your new best friend.
9. Avoid overconsumption. Don’t nervously sip/gulp your way into embarrassing yourself in front of party guests simply because you don’t know them (yet). You will see them again, and you will regret it, so rein it in!
10. Include everyone! When you finally find someone interesting to talk to, do not be selfish—rope more people into the conversation. If you see another guest casting glances around, welcome that person into your conversation.
11. Which reminds me: Never sit down on the couch. You won’t get back up, and then you’re stuck there with a potentially opinionated person who loves rock climbing and Dane Cook, and no one new will come save you because you’re sitting on the couch.
12. Compliment people! We are very vain, self-loathing animals so stroke our ego with a compliment as your opener. It wins more friends than “So what do you do?”
13. Follow TSA rules: If you see something, say something. Or do something. Give your host a hand, set a good example, and if you see a bunch of empty cups piling up, grab and toss them. Or refill the chips. The host will appreciate it, as will the guest who was wondering if there were any more Doritos.
Now you are free to leave! Don’t linger; just say your goodbyes and thank-yous to the host, and remember: Don’t be the last person at the party!
Related Video: 7 Trader Joe’s Hosting Gifts Under $10
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Images: Vintage Christmas Party from quotes.lol-rofl.com; Guests carrying wine from She Knows; Chowhounds’s Turducken of Cheese Balls; Chowhound’s Spiced Brandy-Pear Punch
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