Taste of rhode island gift basket

There's no shortage of food and drink gift ideas for the food lovers out there.

Homemade Christmas cookies.

What to get that food lover in your life? Of course, there’s always restaurant gift cards or a gift certificate to the home cook’s haven Stock Culinary Goods in Providence. But if you prefer to get a little more creative with food gifts, then here are some tasty ideas that you can make at home or gather at a local shop or market to distribute to friends and family. Grab a bunch of local products and put together a food gift basket featuring jams and jellies, snacks, drinks and useful kitchen gadgets, or choose one of these ideas dreamed up by food writer Jamie Coelho and friends.

1. Make a homemade banana nut bread or stuff a gift box filled with a variety of cookies and include your recipes on a recipe card. These are my favorite cookies, Dorie Greenspan’s World Peace Cookies topped with a sprinkling of Newport Sea Salt.
2. Make your own pickles and package it with some bloody Mary mix and vodka. Include carrots, green beans, onions and green tomatoes in the pickling brine.
3. Purchase artisanal olive oils and balsamic vinegars from a specialty olive oil shop like Olive del Mondo in Providence, Nectar de la Vida in Warren or Virgin and Aged in Newport.
4. You can never go wrong with a bottle of wine. Bonus points if it’s from a local winery like Sakonnet Vineyards, Newport Vineyards, Greenvale, Westport Rivers or others.
5. Same goes for local beer! Tilted Barn, Proclamation Ale and Long Live Beerworks release coveted four-packs of special edition beers.
6. Go to the Hope and Main’s Meet Your Maker Market in Warren on Sundays starting at 10 a.m., or the Wintertime Farmers Market at Farm Fresh RI’s new hub at 10 Sims Avenue in Providence on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and assemble a gift basket of your own with all the local products you find at the market. Be sure to check out Harvest Kitchen for apple sauce, pickles and more. Harvest Kitchen is a culinary job training program for youth involved with the RI Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF)  who create the products using local farm produce, and they also get hands-on retail experience selling their goods at farmers markets and working in a Local Foods Café in downtown Pawtucket.
7. Rhode Island Food Fight Passports allow the foodie in your life to visit dozens of restaurants to try everything from wings and doughnuts to pizza.
8. Rhode Island Red Food Tours run fun food tours with tastings at six local restaurants in Providence and Newport, while guests learn about important historical sites, cultural folklore and Rhode Island’s architecture.
9. Buy some Bristol Harbor cookie mixes prepared in mason jars from Amos House, which helps the homeless. Varieties include Dark and Stormy Ginger, Mom’s Apple Crisp and Oatmeal Raisin.
10. Buy a gift certificate to Professor Chef cooking classes for a fun virtual thing for couples or mother and daughter and son pairs to do together.
11. Round up a bag of local coffee beans from Borealis or New Harvest and pair it with a coffee mug and Bellicchi’s Best Biscotti.
12. Put together a basket of items from Backyard Food Company, Chi Kitchen, Source Fire Sauce, Newport Sea Salt, Rhed’s Hot Sauce and more. Head to Stock Culinary Goods in Providence where they have shelves upon shelves of local products, and they can help choose a creative vessel and package it all pretty for you.
    

    A gift basket curated by Stock Culinary Goods.

13. Pair up local liquor from Sons of Liberty (whiskey), Thomas Tew (rum), Rhode Island Spirits (vodka, gin and more) and White Dog Distilling (whiskey, limoncello, rum and more) with a bottle of Anna’s Kitchen Shrubs or Bootblack Brand cocktail mixers.
14. Give a gift certificate for meat from a local farm like Blackbird Farm, Deep Roots, Baffoni’s Poultry Farm or Pat’s Pastured. Blackbird Farm is also selling Tomahawk steaks, perfect for your holiday celebration. Place your order on the website and pick them up at the farm store.
15. Rhode Island-based Gastros sells gift boxes of salami, sausages, charcuterie and hot dogs delivered right to the recipient’s home. There’s free shipping on orders over ten pounds.
16. Go for some local chocolate, including gift boxes of Anchor Toffee (try the holiday peppermint version). La maison de COCO is another locally based company in Portsmouth, Rhode Island, that makes beautiful chocolate truffles, bars and spreads in delicate flavors with tea infusions.
17. Excuse me while I do some shameless self-promotion. If someone on your list loves restaurants, why not get them a subscription to Rhode Island Monthly magazine? It’s a gift that will show up every month for a year, and they will gain access to all of our restaurant guides, plus our monthly restaurant reviews that highlight the hottest places to dine out. It’s only $17.97 for one year!

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