I had my annual Christmas lunch yesterday with my girlfriend whom I have known since I was one year old (so let's just say it's been going on for a few years now!!). We have always exchanged presents at this time of year and this year was no exception. Although we also exchanged birthday presents at this time and considering our respective birthdays are in May and June it goes to show we haven't seen each other for a while! Anyways we had a wonderful pub lunch (good stick to your ribs beef dip sandwich loaded with mushrooms and thinly shaved beef!) and exchanged presents. Much to my surprise and pleasure she gave me two wonderful food products I have not tried before - The Herbery's Spiced Oil and Blueberry Balsamic Zest. It was to my surprise because it was the first food product gift given to me in quite some time. It's amazing that once food, cooking and entertaining become part of how you make your living people shy away from giving you gifts that have anything to do with food! It's like when I started my company The Cook's Companion a girlfriend gave me a new cookbook as a congratulations present. Her husband thought it was a ridiculous present to give to an owner of a cooking school. How wrong he was. Like most foodie's I need to find new inspiration daily, not just to make the nightly dinner but to inspire and motivate my clients. New products like food products and cookbooks can help provide that inspiration! So if you're still searching for that gift for that certain foodie in your life you can't go wrong with an exotic selection of products from your local gourmet food shop or browse the food section of your local book or magazine shop!
Happy holidays to you all and special thanks to my friends who help to keep me inspired!