Foodie Holiday Gift Guide

It's a very COVID Christmas!

Too soon? Sorry. And yet-I think we can all agree that we pretty much could all use some extra cheer this year. And my food loving heart thinks that the best gift is a tasty one. So I've rounded up some of my favorite food gifts that you can order online and send to your loved ones. I can attest (through personal experience) that all of these companies make delicious delicious food and whoever receives them is very lucky indeed.

Is this list a gift guide for you or a wish list for me? You decide.

Little Red Kitchen Bake Shop

This one is super exciting to me-I met Susan (the woman behind the Little Red Kitchen) back when we were just a couple food bloggers in NYC. And now she has a successful baking business! Everything she makes is all natural (no preservatives and nothing artificial!) and baked fresh to order with high quality and mostly organic ingredients. And they are DEEELICIOUS. Little Red Kitchen Bake Shop offers cookies, bars (like brownies!), hot chocolate mix, cookie kits, cookie pies, and even a cookie of the month club subscription (the perfect gift for any cookie lover). When they were just starting I was lucky enough to sample some of the cookies (peanut butter, s'mores, and their signature chocolate chip: YUM YUM YUM) and I just recently got to try their Rocky Road Cookie Pie and seriously....I am a dessert snob. SO SO GOOD. The cookie pie didn't even need warmed up to be moist and delicious (and I almost always warm up cookies). Little Red Kitchen Bake Shop ships nationwide when you order from their website but they also can be found at certain markets and stores in the NY area and they have recently started being sold on Amazon! Tons of options to give the gift of sweet. 

Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream

Jeni's has my all time favorite ice cream. They originated in Columbus, Ohio (my home state) but have now expanded to various locations nationwide. Their ice creams are made with super high quality, whole ingredients are are fair trade/direct trade. Essentially it's artisan ice cream that meets really high standards and the company is awesome and the ice cream is crazy delicious. Salty Caramel is my absolute favorite but they have so many really cool and unique flavors, including consistent innovation with new seasonal and limited edition flavors rotated frequently. Jeni's is sold in lots of stores, there are scoop shops around the country, but you can also order online (including Jeni's cookbooks!) and-the ultimate gift for the ice cream fan in your life-they have a pint club:

"Every month, recipients receive a curated selection of four flavors (often before they’re on sale) delivered directly to their doorstep. Plus, to kick the subscription off right, the first shipment includes four of our signature flavors, a welcome letter with the ice cream delivery dates, and a set of our favorite ice cream spades. Giving Pint Club as a gift? We’ll help you keep it a surprise! Pint Club recipients will be notified of their membership with their first shipment."

Wafels and Dinges

When someone asks for recommendations on what to eat in NYC one of my first recommendations is Wafels and Dinges. They're also probably the #1 most missed food item for Michael and I. They're a bunch of food trucks (and they have a cafe now!) that serve Belgian liege waffles (extra sweet dessert waffles that are chewy and crisp and filled with pockets of caramelized sugar) with a bunch of different toppings-aka dinges-and they're heaven on earth. I have chronicled my missing them on social media and their brilliant social media team has sympathized and dangled the fact that they ship nationwide at me like a bright shiny dream. You can buy just waffles or a box that includes some of their popular toppings as well. Dear Santa, I've been super super good this year....

Imperfect Foods

I started using Imperfect Foods (if you use this link and decide to sign up you get $10/off your first box and I get $10 off mine as well!) a few months ago and I'm honestly just extremely impressed by them as a company and concept. Essentially they take food that would otherwise be wasted (for a variety of reasons such as cosmetic, discontinued labels, incorrect barcodes, surplus, etc. etc.) and sell it to us at a discounted rate. The people these foods come from aren't out the money, food isn't wasted, and we get really good stuff for less-it's honestly a win all around. There's no forced subscription (I always opt out of all future delivery dates then go back and opt in when I want a box) and you can choose what you get in your box. And they're offering holiday gift boxes this year that you can send to anyone in the US! Lots of tasty treats for only $24.99 (plus tax and shipping). 

Levain Bakery

Levain cookies are famous and there is a good reason. This NYC bakery makes massive cookies that are perfectly underbaked and gooey on the inside but nice and sturdy (and almost biscuit like!) on the inside. They're incomparable and another one of my most missed NYC items. Which is why it's pretty fabulous that you can just order some online to give to someone you adore. 

ButcherBox

ButcherBox is another subscription service that I actually tried out a few years back-I absolutely loved it, although I sadly haven't ordered in awhile! Their boxes feature 100% grass-fed, grass-finished beef; heritage-breed pork; free-range, organic chicken; and wild Alaskan salmon. You can get a mix or only a particular kind of meat and I can attest the quality is top notch and the prices are insanely reasonable. If you're the gift giver to a carnivore with high standards, I highly recommend giving a gift subscription!

DŌ

Who doesn't love cookie dough?? DŌ is awesome (and another NYC based company!) because they have made edible cookie dough fun, chic, and so so delicious. And there's a ton of different gift options on their website so we really have no reason to not all be eating their cookie dough all holiday season. 

Dana's Bakery

Another NYC based company (I found so many tasty things when I was there!)-Dana is a self professed mom-trepreneur and makes super creative and delicious macarons in a wide range of fun flavors (and she's introduced the Mookie-a macaron stuffed into a cookie. WHAAAAT?!) And there are so many fun things you can order for anyone else fun and cool that you may know. (Like me! Kidding...sorta lol.) 

Disclaimer-I was not compensated in any way for including anything on this list. I did receive a free sample from Little Red Kitchen but was under no obligation to give a positive review. All opinions are, as always, my own. 

Rose-8 Months!

Date: October 20, 2020

Sleeping Pattern: Naps haven't been amazing lately (I aim for 1.5 hours but frequently they're like an hour or less), I'm assuming partly due to teething. But it's not a big deal, we just do early bedtimes when they're too short.  Rose's first nap is usually like 2 hours and like 15-20 minutes after she wakes up in the morning and then her second nap is about 2 hours and 40ish minutes after waking from that nap. Then she's awake for like 3 hours and 45 minutes before we start her bedtime routine. Once she's asleep she sleeps all night, woot! Her sleep routines are all the same and she usually stays asleep on her back and doesn't really move much-there have only been a couple times she's rolled onto her stomach or scooted around her crib. It'll be interesting to see if that starts to change soon or not (her big brother started moving everywhere in his sleep like right away lol). 

Eating Habits: Nursing is still going fine-Rose definitely eats the most during her first and last feedings (and is hungriest at the first one) and then the 2 middle of the day feeds are shorter and she frequently gets pretty distracted by all the chaos of her brother. She's started occasionally biting down when she's kind of over it-luckily still no teeth-but not my faaavorite. But she's so cute it's hard to get too upset about it lol. Solids are still going super well. Rose is a champion eater-she does super duper well and loves everything. I have yet to find something she straight up doesn't like. Red peppers have been the only thing she's seem less enthused about but she still ate it. Little girl even likes curry and doesn't seem to mind the spice! I'm hoping she ends up being less picky than James and I (I'm also hoping he'll get less picky when he's not a toddler but I digress.) She's still eating twice a day (breakfast and dinner) and she just happily eats until she's done. I can usually tell that she's good when she starts just wiping her hands all over the tray and yelling a lot. Then I sign and say "all done", she smiles, I sign and ask "drink?", she gets stoked and then drinks some water (and I eventually pry it out of her hands because babies aren't supposed to have a ton of water lol).

Development & Firsts: Big month! On 10/8 Rosie CRAWLED! And she's been on the move ever since. She has become very single minded and goes after things she wants (much to the frustration of her brother, at times). She's also utilizing rolling much more easily now, but purely as a supplement to the crawling lol. Her communication has taken a big leap, too. She's pointing and waving and even started signing "more" (on 10/17) for when she's eating and wants more food (of course). And more on this stuff in the talking section. 

Mischief: Now that Rose is crawling she has become quite fixated on getting certain things--especially things that her brother is playing with or that she shouldn't have. You move her or the things away and she just goes right back to it. Seems I have two stubborn children, huzzah lol. And if you actually manage to remove the thing she wants from her she. will. scream at you. Rose isn't afraid of telling you like it is and making sure you know how she feels. In that same vein she's also still incredibly grabby lol. Otherwise, though, she's much more sweet than mischievious!

Cuteness: This is my least favorite section to write and here is why--it is IMPOSSIBLE to completely summarize how cute my babies are. Rose's happy little eyes, chubby cheeks, kissy mouth, big smiles, long hair (AND PIGTAILS), little baby hands with little fingers that are always pointing, tiny toes, chunky thighs...just all so cute. She's truly just pure joy. So happy, smiling so much. She's just thrilled to be with us. She's always smiling at Michael and putting her hand on his face and waving at him and saying "ahyada dadaaaaa". She also loves to try to feed him when she has food. She still fangirls over James. When we get her from sleep and he's with me her legs kick like crazy and she squeals while leaning out of my arms and reaching for him with a giant grin. They're always hugging and kissing each other and the look on her face when he gives her that attention...omg I melt. She just watches him constantly and thinks everything he does is so interesting and so funny. It's amazing. And she's always trying to be held and snuggled when I'm near her, she'll just bury her head in my neck and shoulder and is always kissing or chewing on any part of me in her vicinity. She loves to grab my head and give me giant (aggressive) kisses. And now when we video call her grandparents or aunts and uncles she gets so excited and grins at them and reaches for them and tries to like crawl to them. It's cute and sad. The first time she waved we were on a weekly Zoom call that Michael's extended family does and when we saw everyone on there she just lifted her little hand up and moved her fingers in the wave and she just has kept on doing it. She does it to Michael the most. She also is doing more imitating of motions-she saw my mom shaking her hands at her and Rose copied what she was doing exactly. She's always gurgling and doing raspberries/elephant sounds (she'll even raise her hand so she may actually be making the elephant sound.) Oh and she liked super loves her stuffed elephant that James gave her in the hospital. He lives in her room and she just like grins at him and reaches for him and oooooh. It's so cute to see her happily play with stuff and how determined she is to crawl after things. I love how into peek-a-boo she is also. She has tons of fun when you play with her but the best is when she raises her hands up or a toy up in front of her face then abruptly brings them down and you say "peek-a-boo!" and she grins and giggles! I love it. She frequently does this during meals so the messy face adds to the cute factor. Eating is adorable, too. She just loves it and is so pleased to be eating like...everything. She legitimately seems to have liked all food equally at this point (she miiight like red peppers and beets less than everything else and maybe burritos, pot pie, and strawberries more? But I don't know she gobbles it all up). And yeah as always...she's just sweet. And happy. And lovey. And everything about her is cute. 

Nicknames: Rosie, Rosie Rose, Rosie Posy, Baby Rose, Baby girl, Pretty girl, Coy fish, Lady, Young Lady, Chunk/Chunk-a-munk, "Little Chub/Chubby" (James calls her that), Grunty Girl, Sweetling, Sweetie-girl, Sweetie pie, Cutie-girl, Honey girl, Honey bun, Little miss, Missy, Ma'am, Sweetness, Love, combinations of all of the above...

Talking: Still constantly making sound-yelling, babbling, gurgling, blowing raspberries/making elephant sounds, and talking. She's saying the same words (may be saying "yeah" also and some babbles sound like words too but nothing concrete) but with more intentionality and consistency. She's always talking to and looking for "bruhbah" and has been doing a lot of waving at and asking for "dadaaaa".

Favorites: James, mommy, and daddy. Playing and cuddling with James (they still love to hug and smooch and cuddle and also yell at each other). I think she's recognizing people we see frequently on video calls and getting excited to see them (grandparents and my brother and sister-in-law in particular but she still just loves seeing any people lol). Smiling and attention. Eating food (still loves it all. Pot pie and burritos probably elicited the most of her signing "more"). Kisses. Being held and snuggled. Pretty much any version of loving, attention, and playing. Playing peek-a-boo. Toys (especially ones her brother likes). Still anything with a face but I think her stuffed elephant (that James calls "Willy", after the boy elephant at the Cleveland Zoo). Getting where she wants to go now that she can crawl. Baths. Mirrors. Watching any of us do something she finds amusing. And...honestly almost everything. She's still very happy like all the time. 

Dislikes: Still isn't a fan of me walking away from her but now that she can crawl she usually gets less upset about it. Definitely any lack of attention is not her favorite, though. When she isn't allowed to have something or when someone takes a toy she has away from her (she will scream/cry at you. Loudly.) And teething (I'm thinking she might actually get a tooth or 2 before her next update? We'll see!)

Concerns: Still everything COVID-related. Ugh. 

A Day in the Life: Rose wakes up around 7-7:30 and we go downstairs. She nurses, I change her diaper, I give her and James breakfast, we play, and then down for a nap after being awake for two hours and like 15-20 minutes. She usually sleeps about 1-1.5 hours then I nurse her, change her, play with her, then we get James down for his nap around1ish and she usually goes down after that (about 2 hours and 40ish minutes after waking up). James has started fighting naps so if I'm lucky I get a little break while they both nap and in the likely event that I'm not then James messes around in his room and I hope he doesn't disturb Rose. This nap is super variable (probably due to the loud brother) and can honestly be anywhere from 45-90ish minutes. After she's awake I nurse her, change her, I generally get dinner ready ASAP and then we all eat together. After that I maybe give her/James bath(s) or just play (maybe video call with someone). Bedtime starts 3 hours and 45ish minutes after she woke from her nap. Someone reads her a book, says goodnight to stuff around the house, then she says goodnight to her brother and goes upstairs. We read superhero rules, get her diaper changed and into her sleeper and sleepsack and then I nurse her and sing "Rosie". She usually falls asleep and I cuddle her for a few minutes before laying her down in her crib. Then she sleeps all night (with the exception of random crying that usually happens every so often). 

Rose-7 Months!

Date: September 20, 2020

Sleeping Pattern: We switched to a 2 nap schedule this past month with Rosie sleeping for ideally about 1.5 hours for each nap (but more often than not one of the naps, usually the 2nd, falls a bit short and then we have to do an early bedtime). Once we got the schedule and wake times all sorted out she still went down easy and then at night has taken to sleeping 11.5-13ish hours, depending on how her naps went during the day (and thusly if she needed an early bedtime). It was a really good sleep month, though! As usual it seems after her monthly birthday things have started needing adjusted potentially lol. 

Eating Habits: Now that she's only nursing 4 times a day Rose doesn't fight it as much, so that's good! She still usually only eats for like 10 minutes (15 if it's the morning or bedtime feeding) and is prone to being distracted (usually trying to watch and smile at her daddy and brother if they're about) but it's good! AAAAND little lady started eating solid food this month! We're doing Baby Led Weaning again and were excited to start (but also terrified of the inevitable gagging, etc.)--and of course the sweet girl took to eating like a champ. She loves food-so far hasn't disliked anything-and does a really good job taking her time to chew things well (and smile at us occasionally in the process). She's had some gags but they've all been dealt with super calmly and easily by her so turns out it hasn't been stressful like at all. Huzzah! We started just with 1 meal a day-dinner time as a family. But it didn't take long for her to pretty much insist on eating breakfast with her brother too so we're up to 2 meals a day. She also does great with her Munchkin 360 cup-we give her some water to take "sips" of after she's eating and she loooves water (that's my daughter! I LOVE water). I usually have to wrestle it out of her little hands because she tries to chug it. 

Development & Firsts: On 8/22 she had her 1st meal of solid food (filet mignon, yellow squash, and potatoes) and she did SO WELL. The steak was absolutely her favorite. She just chewed the heck out of it while grinning huge. Food is so fun to her, it makes her so happy lol. She also rode in the actual stroller (so not the carseat locked into the stroller) for the first time. And Rose is starting to roll more-she rolled from her back to her front for the first time and ever since she doesn't usually lay on her back for long before she rolls onto her tummy. This eventually led to her then doing her first little bit of travel by rolling when she rolled from front to back to front again (it also led to her first time sleeping on her belly when she rolled during the night on 9/6. So far it's only happened one other time during a nap.) She's still doing lots of scooting around, too, so I can tell mobility is coming. She's definitely sort of working on crawling or at least more rolling. Talking has amped up also-the same 3 words (mama, dada, buhbah) but she says "bruhbah" (brother) almoooost constantly. I don't know, just, in general, I can tell there's a lot going on. She's learning so much and growing up so faaaast. Oh, and 1 final (and very momentous) first: on 9/17 she got her first PIGTAILS. And I am now very obsessed. Little girl is almost unbearably cute in pigtails (also they keep her hair out of her food when she's eating lol). And then on the less fun side of development-separation anxiety has really intensified this month. Woooo.

Mischief: Still so so grabby. Always trying to get and grab anything and everything and frequently pulls hair. She's also becoming fond of trying to get things she's not supposed to (like some of James' toys) and usually has a sweet smile of happy mischief/victory if she succeeds in getting the thing. Especially if you say "Excuse meee? What do you have? What did you dooo?" 

Cuteness: I mean...you read that she's wearing pigtails now, right? GUYS THEY ARE SO FREAKING CUTE. I'm obsessed with them. Even she thinks they're cute-the first day she had them when she saw herself in the mirror she got so pleased. I also tried a top pony which was definitely cute but pigtails remain my favorite. Rose eating food is also super adorable. She'll just happily eat her food and smile at you while she's at it, ever so happy about the whole situation. She's always just so happy and wanting to talk to us and play with us. (On the flip side if I walk away from her she has the saddest cry ever.) You pretty much just need to look at her and she's thrilled to death. She gets so excited to see James she'll like wiggle around in my arms and smack my shoulder while grinning huge and giving tiny little half laughs when he and I go get her after she's woken up. He and her are always kissing and hugging and snuggling and smiling at each other and playing. The 2 of them oh my gosh there aren't words for how clear it is how much they love each other. Even when they yell at each other (hehehe I'm so amused when they act like siblings). Whenever Michael looks at her she has a special grin just for him. And me? Oh the lady loves her mama. She always is reaching for me to hold her, trying to crawl into my lap (although she can't crawl yet so she just like puts her arms in it), one time Michael was holding her in a standing position and I walked up and she grabbed my legs and just grinned up at me with the most pure ecstatic expression. She makes my heart explode. She will happily just be held and cuddled like indefinitely. My sweet snuggly girl. She just wants attention and affection, that's pretty much what she thrives on. And Rosie is always so happy to see people-I can tell she is just social and sweet. I can't wait until she actually gets to be with other people (I really hope soon, ugh). All of her sounds are also so so cute, she's always coughing and yelling and roaring and babbling. Honestly she just amazes me. I can't get over the depths of her cuteness and I'll never be able to fully sum it up. *sigh*

Nicknames: Rosie, Rosie Rose, Rosie Posy, Baby Rose, Baby girl, Pretty girl, Coy fish, Lady, Ladybug, Chunk/Chunk-a-munk, "Little Chub/Chubby/Chubby-bye" (James calls her that), Grunty Girl, Sweetling, Sweetie-girl, Cutie-girl, Honey girl, Honey bun, Little miss, Missy, Ma'am, Sweetness, Love, combinations of all of the above...

Talking: Michael's taken to calling her "Kayle 2" (I'm very talkative, if you can't tell). She's always telling us all about it. Whether it's the cute constant chorus of "bruhbah bruhbah" to her brother or the sweet occasional "mama" or "dada" or her very many grunts, roars, growls, squeals, and yells. She is not afraid to say what's on her mind and express herself. I love it. I mean....sometimes the constant yell-talking combined with her loud brother makes my head want to explode lol but overall, it's a delight.

Favorites: James, mommy, and daddy. Playing and cuddling with James (they're always hugging and snuggling and also yelling at each other. The sibling games have begun). Seeing people (on the street, at the doctor, or on FaceTime or Zoom). Anything with a face. Smiling and being smiled at/attention in general. Eating food (can't say that she has any real favorites yet because she just loves all of it. Maybe strawberries if anything?) Kisses. Being held and snuggled. When I make a surprised face at her (usually elicits a giggle). Tickles/raspberries. When we sing fun songs (especially Bunny Foo Foo). Peek-a-boo. Sleeping. Toys. Mirrors. Tags. Getting dressed up. She's just happy like all the time so it's almost like everything is her favorite.

Dislikes: Me "leaving" her (aka taking a step away from her) and not being paid attention to/not having attention from any 1 of us for any length of time. If James is too rough (she yells at him to inform him). Having to wait to long for her food. And yeah that's mostly it.

Concerns: COVID. Always COVID related. *sigh* Worrying about her getting it (presently a very slim chance due to our almost complete quarantine) and worrying about the lack of exposure to different environments, people, etc.

A Day in the Life: She wakes up around 7 (it's actually been more like 7:15-7:20ish and I must say I've loved that) and she, James, and I go downstairs. She nurses, I change her diaper, I give her and James breakfast, we play for a bit, and then down for a nap after being awake for two hours and like 15ish minutes. She usually wakes up in the 10:30-11 range and I nurse her, change her, play with her, then we get James down for his nap by like 1ish and she usually goes down after that (about 2.5 hours after waking up). I then get a blissful 45-90ish minutes for both children napping. Rose and James usually wake up around the same time as well (between 2 and 3 generally, I always hope for closer to 3). I nurse Rose, change her, then I usually rush to get dinner ready ASAP. We all have dinner as a family and then play (potentially do baths) until Rose's bedtime (which starts 3.5 hours after she wakes up, so it tends to range from 5:30-7 start....7 almost never happens lol). One of us reads Rose a book then takes her around to say goodnight to everything. Then one of us-sometimes the same one sometimes not-takes her upstairs and does superhero rules and then puts her in her overnight diaper, sleeper, sleepsack, and then I nurse her and sing "Rosie" (by Passenger) to her and then she eats until she falls asleep usually or is finished eating. If she's asleep I may snuggle her for a couple minutes, and either way I then lay her in her crib and tell her I love her. And then she sleeps all night. The end! <3