
Gift giving: some people just love it. They spend the whole year intently listening for clues on what their loved ones might need or want come December; they make a detailed list and attack the shopping season early, with gusto.
These people are to be admired and applauded, but I am generally not this person. I thrive at the last-minute shop – looking to the expert recommendations of others for the best gifts to buy and give everybody on the list.
Google don’t fail me now.
Inevitably, I divide the shopping list into categories, and rank them in order of easiest to hardest to buy for. In every family and friend group, there is one group or individual that is truly difficult to buy for. For me, it’s my mother and all my many “foodie” friends.
Mom gets her own category because she makes returns and exchanges for sport – to the point where my sister and I just include the receipt with the gift, generally expecting the gift will go back as quickly as it arrived. “Nothing personal,” she says. Ruthless. I pledge to grow up with the same discerning tastes and a fervent dislike for bulky, space-sucking kitchen appliances and gadgetry with a single function. Here's looking at you, air fryer from 2017.
But I digress; let’s address those foodie friends. Are they a tad uppity? You bet. Do they make their own bitters and Instagram their bar cart on the regular? Yes indeed. Did they roll their eyes when Sourdough starter went mainstream in March? Of course they did, they grew starter before it was cool.
The foodies are hard to buy for; but, in fairness we’ve all been through it this year.
We’ve all used our kitchens and our cookbooks as lifeboats to survive a year in quarantine, and food has become an expression of our idle hands and 2020 anxieties. To be honest, our cuticles have stress baking to thank for their own survival.
So, if like us, you’re struggling to buy for a foodie friend, let us help you out with some fun and easy ideas to spark the imagination and hopefully relieve the pressure because 2020 isn’t like any other year, and neither should the gifts.