NEW YORK - It's Christmas Day, and your family awaits the holiday feast of its dreams: mouth-watering meats, exotic fruits, desserts to die for...
If you can't find a way to shop for and prepare all their favorites on time, your goose (and nothing else) will be cooked.
What do you do?
“Order holiday foods by catalog,” answers Amy Blankenship, director of the Shop-At-Home Information Center of the Direct Marketing Association. “Millions of Americans do. It's easy, convenient, and lets you enjoy time spent with family and friends without worrying how you're going to feed them. All it takes is one phone, fax, mail or online order to select soups, appetizers, entrees, desserts, or coffees. Sugarplums and other delicacies should not only be visions dancing in your head because catalogs can deliver them to your home within 24 hours.
“Gourmet foods also make wonderful gifts,” adds Blankenship. “You can send out-of-season fruits year-round through some catalog programs, or have regional treats, like New England seafood or rare Hawaiian white honey, delivered to homesick, faraway friends -- or to those with a taste for the unique.”
For an ideal holiday meal, begin with soups and appetizers from Omaha Steaks, followed by that company's beef or pork roast, chicken or, of course, steak. Or try the spiral-cut ham or smoked turkey available through Gracewood Groves; the same company has luscious oranges, apples, pears, nuts, and fruit- shaped sugar treats once known as sugarplums.
The folks at Hale Groves will send fruits, jellies, cookies, nuts, fudge or chocolates to your table, while Harry and David offers its exclusive Royal Riviera pears (juicy enough to eat with a spoon), plus mountains of fresh fruits and tempting treats, including a Chocolate Moose (chocolate in the shape of guess-what-animal.) And Plow & Hearth's gingerbread log cabin-- modeled after an actual cabin in Ruth, Virginia--features a chimney and other architectural details, all edible.
Finish your meal with a traditional fruitcake from Mary of Puddin Hill. (In January, the company, tired of fruitcake jokes, will send a sample of its cake in exchange for any homemade varieties still in the fridge). Guests will also enjoy brownies from Fairytale Brownies (flavors include amaretto, chocolate chip, peanut butter, raspberry swirl, and white chocolate chunk), accompanied by one of the many flavorful coffees available by mail from Starbucks.
Send friends who can't be with you a gift basket from The Pack Basket; the Adirondack-based company will deliver an assortment including Adirondack Harvest jelly, apple butter, and balsam-scented candles. Or, choose the “Micro-Brewery in a Bag” available through Norm Thompson; it is all you need to make 24 pints of fine beer. Creative Irish Gifts has an array of that country's teas and treats, including the much-loved Jacob's Digestive Cookies and an Irish Whiskey Loaf. The One Island catalog carries food from another island -- Hawaii; its offerings include white honey made from the flower of the Kiawe tree, and “Big Island Chunky Preserves.” And to nontraditionalists-- and seafood-lovers -- send a Cape Cod Lobster Clambake Feast from Clambake Celebrations.
Meat Industry Insights News Service
P.O. Box 553
Northport, NY 11768
Phone: 631-757-4010
Fax: 631-757-4060
E-mail: sflanagan@sprintmail.com
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