Last week, I wrote about some of my favorite canning tools and the reasons they might just make good holiday gifts for the canners in your lives. This week I want to feature some of the odds and ends that aren’t canning necessities but make a jar-filled life a little bit prettier and more fun (of course, I intended to get this posted on Monday, but that knock-out flu I had has put me behind in my posting. So sorry!).
First on the list is Weck Jars. They’re good for canning, for dry goods storage, and if you spring for a set of snap-on plastic lids, they make fantastic leftover containers. Because they’re a bit pricier than your average box of jars, they’re an indulgence, but isn’t that what the holiday season is all about? Once hard to find, they’re now available for online order from the U.S. distributor, Kaufmann Mercantile and Mighty Nest, and in Williams-Sonoma and Crate & Barrel stores.
For someone who has all their jar needs met, what about a pretty ladle? It’s good for filling your jars, scooping up servings of soup and chili and it looks fab sticking out of a crock of utensils. Available from Kaufmann Mercantile, it costs $32 and would be fun tucked in a stocking.
I love my stainless steel funnel
. The one I have is made by RSVP and I use it all the time. Not only is it useful during the canning process, but it’s also great for filling jars with dried goods and helping pour leftover soup into storage jars. I even take it to Whole Foods with me when I use my own container for bulk foods, because it allows me to funnel the food into my jars cleanly.
If I didn’t already have a stainless steel funnel, I might opt for this one
, because it has a strainer that can fit into the base should you need it. That would be an awesome helper for those moments when you find yourself pouring stock into jars and want to do a final strain.
Drink toppers are another fun gift for jar lovers. I’ve written about these a lot lately, so I won’t go into crazy depth about them, but they’re great. There’s Cuppow, EcoJarz, and a lid specifically for iced coffee from the Mason Bar Company (they’ll also sell you a straw if you want a plastic one. I like these stainless steel babies
better).
Once you turn your mason jar into a drinking cup, you need something to absorb the moisture and heat. That’s where a jar cozy or sleeve comes in. There are so many different Etsy shops making these. Here are a few of my favorites:
- Mason Bar Company (cute hand-crocheted cozies from the folks who sell the drink lids mentioned above).
- Greyslater (sleek waxed canvas sleeves).
- Fine + Dandy Knits (hand-knit cozies made from organic cotton, pattern is available).
- One Robin Road (charming cozies made from recycled sweaters. No two are alike).
- Cadron Creations (hand-crocheted cozies made to fit a variety of sizes, including the newly reissued pint & half jars).
- Two Tired Bike (mason jar sleeves made from recycled bike inner tubes. Great for jar lovers who adore their two wheeled transportation).
- Hide and True (hand-stitched leather sleeves. Spendy, but gorgeous).
- The Stowe (another leather sleeve, this time with a built-in handle).
Finally, the ultimate gift for jar loves is the Jars to Go tote from A Tiny Forest. Since I first wrote about the original two-jar bag, Kim has expanded the offerings in her shop to include a four-jar bag and single sleeves that fasten up over the top of the jar (perfect for packaging up super-special gift jars).
And since no gift guide is complete without a giveaway, here’s what I have for you today. There are two giveaway packs and we’ll have two winners. The first is from Kaufmann Mercantile and consists of a six-pack of 1/4 L straight-side Weck Jars and that lovely white enamel ladle pictured above. The second is a four-jar Jars to Go tote from A Tiny Forest in Kim’s signature blue-striped fabric (like this one).
Here’s how to get in on the giveaway:
- Leave a comment on this post and tell me about your favorite edible or culinary stocking stuffer (my favorite edible stocking stuffer is Pocky and my favorite culinary stocking stuffer is this little microplane nutmeg grater)
. - Comments will close at 11:59 pm on Saturday, December 8, 2012. Winners will be chosen at random and will be posted to the blog on Sunday.
- Giveaway open US residents only.
- One comment per person, please. Entries must be left via the comment form on the blog at the bottom of this post. I cannot accept submissions via email.
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My favorite edible stocking stuffer is Lindt chocolate bars with hazelnuts. I wish someone would fill my stocking full of those 🙂
I would love to win those jars! They are so pretty!
My favorite culinary stocking stuffer is a set of mini spatulas from Williams-Sonoma. I use them to get the air bubbles out when I’m canning. They also have cute mini pie molds–mini pies are a great way to use preserves!
Candy canes!
MMMM Maple sugar candies! Melt in your mouth! My favorite culinary stocking stuffer was a microplane…but my new fav will be a candy thermometer…if I get one!
Chocolates of course!
My favorite edible stocking stuffer is Reisen Chocolates and I could use a new cookie scoop. ;o)
Homemade candies and sweets. Fudge, rock candy, bon bons, just to name a few.
My favorite edible stocking stuffer is Green and Blacks organic chocolate bars!
The best stocking stuffer for my wife is some of the British specialty foods she grew up with. I make a trip to the British store and pick up some Cadbury Fruit and Nut bars (they are different from the American ones), digestive crackers, some Irish style bangers, and maybe some Yorkshire pudding mix.
Oh my favorite is scotchmallow bar from Sees candy – caramel and marshmallow covered in chocolate – YUM!
my favorite stocking stuffer are cordial cherries.
My favorite edible stocking stuffer: coal cookies (cookies that look like lumps of coal)
Non-edible: my Tiffany’s cupcake necklace I found in my stocking 2 years ago!
My favorite culinary stocking stuffer is a can opener (probably because I seem to need a new one every year). My favorite stocking stuffer would be shortbread. Mmmm
Homemade candies and chocolates.
Hate to say it but my favorite stocking stuffer is a piece of coal, along with a jar of homemade Apple Pie Jam.
My favorite edible stocking stuffers are M&M’s in those cany cane shaped containers. My favorite kitchen stuffer would have to be nice thick wooden spoons.
I love giving and getting windshield wipers for stocking stuffers…installation is also part of the gift.
Favorite culinary stocking stuffers are always the vintage/antique kitchen utensils my husband finds. I love the character of the painted wood handled spatulas and serving spoons!
Since I’m generally in charge of stuffing the stockings I always make sure there’s something from See’s candies in mine. The benefits of being in charge 😉
My favorite kitchen gadget is definitely my Kitchen Aid stand mixer. I even took it with me to my sister’s house for Thanksgiving this year to help with the heavy lifting.
I usually only stuff stockings for the little ones. But after this post I think I may need to hang a stocking for me. I have lots of grate ideas on how to fill it now thanks to you. 🙂
My favorite edible stocking stuffer is popcorn balls-my mom would make carmel and red hot candy popcorn balls. Last year my hubby put a kindle gift card in my stocking which I loved!
My favorite edible stocking stuffer, or stocking stuffer of any kind, are Mallow Cups! So hard to find, and my favorite candy since I was a wee lass. Sha-ZAAM!
my favorite edible stocking stuffer is chocolate anything! yum!
I love the pear vanilla jam recipe in ferny jars for stocking stutters and for a culinary goodies the new rocking garlic press by Joseph & Joseph sold at Sur la Table!
Oh Marisa and Food in Jars, I adore you! Thanks for these excellent ideas for the preserver in your life. My favorite edible stocking stuffer would be blood oranges to use in a delightful marmalade and a selection of Weck jars, of course!
My favorite edible stocking stuffer is ANYTHING CHOCOLATE. If it has toffee and chocolate even better. Best cooking stocking stuffer would be stainless funnels. I asked Santa for those this year.
My favorite edible stocking stuffer is a big, handmade candy cane from the candy store I worked at in high school. They’re almost an inch thick and eight inches high, and come in all sorts of flavors. I never ate mine, but I loved seeing it hanging off my stocking every year!
my wife is a baker, so i usually look for some little tool, food color, or cookie cutter she doesn’t have but would really use. otherwise, it’s a variety of fancy chocolates (chile for my dad, dark dark dark for the wife…anything chocolate will make mom happy).
Apple Pie Jam it is and mini spatulas make the perfect gift!
The best culinary stocking stuffer I got was a spoon rest that clips to the side of my dutch oven. It’s super handy. My second favorite is a wire whisk that has straight tines and small balls at the ends. I’m not sure what it’s called, but it works great and nothing gets stuck in the middle. 🙂
My favorite stocking stuffer to make is my husband’s favorite peanut brittle. The culinary item I’d be thrilled to find in my stocking this year would be an immersion blender!
Chocolate! What else?? I already have good chocolate for everyone’s stockings!
I love putting small containers of spice blends and rubs in stockings, they are great for guys and girls! And I’m not sure if it counts as a culinary stocking stuffer, but I always like to tuck a couple “chip clips” into stockings as well, I know at my house I’m always looking for one.
This year I’m making mulling spice pouches and Bailey’s hot chocolate kits as stocking stuffers!
My favorite edible stocking stuffer is chocolate from our wonderful local company, Esther Price Candies in Dayton, Ohio. Everyone loves to get some in their stocking!
When I was a kid my favorite stocking stuffer was Bob’s Peppermint sticks – peppermint is one of my favorites, I’d dissolve them in mugs of hot chocolate.
My favorite culinary stocking stuffer to give (or get!) is a little 4oz jar of homemade preserves, jam, or jelly. I just finished a batch of marmalade and I’m working on some variations on apple jelly.
I love cinnamon almonds in a stocking!
well, my favorite edible stocking stuffer has to be the large hershey kiss. its tradition! we got them in our stocking growing up. its christmas day breakfast!! 🙂 my favorite kitchen gadget for the stocking? Id love stainless straws! or a zester!
My fav edible is always some chocolate!!! yummy. This year my one stocking stuffer will be ecojarz lids. Love them!
My toffee has become a tradition, it’s so easy to make and one of most delicious treats ever…what can be better?
The best culinary stuffer is a set of random spices your would never buy. Like finishing salt, unique blends or a pepper that will blow your mind. Spices will inspire anyone to create something new.
My favorite stocking stuffer is a thermometer. Ours never seem to last last from year to year.
I love giving jars of jam, and this year I also made some magic salt to gift this year too
my favorite stocking stuffers are vanilla beans and homemade soaps and favorite gadget for a stocking is rubber spatula cuz every year I’m in need of anew one 🙂
My favorite stocking stuffer is anything chocolate!
Edible – chocolate coins! Culinary – I loveee egg poacher pods!
The best culinary stocking stuffer I’ve received is the Lamson “granny fork” that my father gave me the Christmas after my grandmother died. She was a great cook, and had used one like it for years; he wanted me to have something to remind me of her in the kitchen. Reminds me of both of them every time I use it.
What I could really use in my stocking this year is a candy thermometer (hint hint!), and I almost always get chocolates and pistachios, since my family knows I love them so. I have put fancy Mexican vanilla, and smoked sea salt in my mom’s stocking different years. I’m not done with my shopping yet for this year!
My favorite stocking stuffer as a kid was my grandpa’s walnuts. Somehow he would expertly open some up and stuff them with coins and glue them back together without showing any signs of ever being tampered with. We would scrutinize which ones we thought had money but ultimately had to crack open all of them to find out!
My favorite culinary tools are my Pampered Chef Toaster Tongs (which I also use for flipping bacon) and my Ninja 5 blade blender.
Best stocking treat is cayenne shortbread. Silicone spatulas are a great stocking stuffer too.
My favorite stocking stuffer has to be citrus especially Louisiana satsumas. It’s a tradition with my family.
My favorite edible stocking stuffer would be homemade jam! Or a good zester 🙂
My favorite stocking stuffer is any kind of See’s Candy, especially their box of Truffles. YUM! I savor them for as long as I can with a good cuppa tea.
I love Fannie Mae fudge.
My fave stocking stuffer is a few Ferrero Rocher candies!
My favorite edible stocking item are those tins of hard candy that is shaped like fruit. I think they’re french?
My favorite culinary stocking stuffer is a tie between silicone baking mats and silicone spatulas. I go through both frequently. I bake hard.
I love to find dark chocolate in my stocking. As far as a culinary gadget stocking stuffer, I need more wooden spoons!
My favorite edible stocking stuffer is pistachios. I always got them in my stocking as a kid. Sometimes the shells were dyed red. My parents didn’t buy them at other times during the year, so they were a special holiday treat for me.
My favorite edible stocking stuffer as a kid was mixed nuts and the non-edible was a nutcracker. One year I got a nutcracker in the shape of a squirrel. I think I will start that tradition with my kids this year!
Eek I am so obsessed with Weck jars, they are so beautiful! My favorite edible stocking stuffer is by far Maldon salt, you can never overstock and everyone loves it!
My fave stocking stuffer is anything I did not put in there myself–so it’s actually a surprise!
Chocolate covered cashews, mmm!!!
My favorite stocking stuffer is tea items, like a tea ball or loose leaf teas.
Favorite edible stocking stuffer-candy canes! Cherry preferred…
My dad and I both love to cook, and I love finding little cooking gadgets for his stocking every year. Don’t know what this year’s will be yet!
My Mom always put an orange at the toe of our stocking! It’s still my favorite tradition! (The jars of jam I made this year will be full on gifts, not just stocking stuffers this year! Also, a great kitchen tool that fits in a stocking is a vegetable brush/cleaner – the kind that slips on your finger and fits in your palm! No need to peel root vegetables, just give them a good scrub!
Chocolate covered cherries are my all time favorite stocking stuffer 🙂 I always love getting a new kitchen item for my mom’s stocking…
thanks for an opportunity to win! Yepee!!
My favorite stocking stuffer is a toblerone chocolate bar! My favorite kitchen gadge is currently my kitchen aid mixer that I scored at a garage sale this summer! I plan on making many holiday cookies this year with its help 🙂
My favorite stocking stuffer is Twix. I’m a sucker for those. I also love homemade jam and preserves. My best stocking stuffer was a mini lightsaber.
i have not had a favorite. my favorite is; surprise me!!!!!!! this year i got a box of mixed vintage candy from the 50s for my parents stockings and a box of mixed japanese snacks and candy for the kids stockings.
For many years a chocolate orange was a staple stocking stuffer for me….so much so that I have friends that are now addicted to them due to me sharing in college. My favorite though would have to be the lemoncello, nutmeg, and truffle oil from my parents after a trip abroad! Even if they don’t take me with I am lucky to get a little of the flavor of Europe.
My favorite stocking stuffer is a jar of pickles! Who doesn’t love that?
My favorite stocking stuffer was my grammas buttermilk donuts and my oxo pizza cutter, it cuts bars and brownies perfectly!
It’s abut old fashioned, but I enjoy a classic orange stuffed in a stocking.
Love carob peanuts & I’m not in the kitchen nearly enough to have a fave helper (but I’m working on it!)
Well. MY favorite stocking stuffer treat to find in my stocking is dark chocolate-covered cherries. But I like to get everyone else tiny treats from an import store: jelly in teensy jars, funny little candies not seen on the typical store shelf, dried spices. Last year I made chai tea kits with a package of spices I’d mixed with a can of sweetened, condensed milk to add. And I’ve discovered some nice veggie peelers from Kuhn-Rikon which will go into my sister-in-law’s stocking. She is always looking for a good potato peeler.
Well, I don’t get stockings anymore so I’ll stick with my favorite kitchen utensil.. I have a pampered chef chopper thing. I LOVE it and use it often.
My mom and I have a tradition of getting holiday chocolates from Moonstruck and Theo and putting them in stockings. Always a treat! One year I got a tiny whisk as well, and I’ve been surprised how useful it has been!
My favorite has to be mini snickers…I like them frozen!
My favorite kitchen gadget is my crock pot. I have one that the lid latches down…LOVE IT!
I always love to find a Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate bar in my stocking, not any Dairy Milk but the authentic imported pure sugar (not high fructose corn-syrup) candy bar. To this day it continues to bring back some of the greatest memories.
In the kitchen I admit that my favorite gadget has to be the mandoline, it has made dicing slicing and keeping things uniform so much easier!
i always get a jar of cornichons in my stocking–it started as a joke with my husband since i didn’t grow up with the “hide the pickle” thing, and didn’t understand why there were so many pickle ornaments, but i love cornichons so jokes on him! last year i got a hand carved wooden spoon in my stocking that is beautiful and useful, the best kind of gift.
Pie in a jar! Cherry and Apple! I’ve been working on making and freezing a bunch all this week!
While I do adore Pocky, my favorite delicious stocking stuffer is Almond Roca. It screams holidays to me, as that’s usually when I got it 🙂
love canning food
My fav edible stocking stuffer are “little cuties” tangerines. My favorite culinary tool stuffer is a set of mini silicone spatulas.
This year my favorite stocking stuffer will be a home made jar of my spicy red pepper jelly or red onion marmalade. I am learning how to can and these two items have been popular with my friends, so how nice to give a little something home made to share for the holidays.
My treat is Poppycock and my kitchen helper is my cast iron skillet.
My favorite edible stocking stuffer to put in my husband’s stocking is berry syrup made from berries over the summer & hidden away for just this time. Then when we do Christmas breakfast, we use it & taste summer’s bounty. The favorite thing to receive is any little gadget that I have been coveting at Fante’s (I have a revolving list, usually) 🙂
little bits of chocolate! and vanilla beans!
Pocky is great! I love some dark chocolate bar as a stocking stuffer. My favorite culinary tools are the microplane for zesting/grating and the dutch dough whisk for stirring batter.
My favorite treat is a chocolate orange. My helper is an antique glass lemon juicer.
My favorite is some sort of old-fashioned or obscure home preserve. One year I did corn cob jelly. It was a great hit with all!
My favorite edible to get in my stocking is a little peppermint pig…and my favorite kitchen helper (besides my husband!) is a tiny garlic clove mandolin.
My favorite stocking stuffer are those boozy chocolates shaped like the liquor they are filled with. My favorite kitchen helper is my dog. She lies patiently on the rug while I chop away. Oh…and my favorite knife.
Living in Seattle, my favorite edible stocking stuffer is a bar of local Theo dark chocolate — yum, sooooo good.
I love chocolate oranges as stocking stuffers. Also, I have a stocking in the shape of a cat paw where I put greenies for kitty.
We don’t do stocking stuffers anymore, but when I was young, we got a bunch of mixed nuts (to be cracked!), an orange, and a pop-tart. The orange was the only thing we had on a regular basis, in “real life”. 😉 I did give my brothers both heat-safe spatulas one year. I kept one for me, and use it all the time–so I think that’d be a great stocking stuffer!
I most love to find a Snickers soldier in my stocking – they’re really yummy!
My favorite kitchen helper is my immersion blender – I use it nearly every day and don’t know why I took so long to add one to my kitchen! (It never showed up in my stocking, but I suppose it could have!)
When I was a kid (maybe 9 or 10), I started to REALLY like pomegranates. They were hard to come by back then, and pretty expensive (well, at least for us at the time). It was always a special Christmas treat that at the very bottom of my stocking was a pomegranate. Family photos of me unwrapping presents showed the red stains on my fingers, PJs, and yes all over my face.
To this day, I still love them. Now… is there such a thing as a pomegranate jam recipe?
I LOVE pocky!!!! I always get one of those dark chocolate oranges that break apart into little segments. Love those. My favorite kitchen helper is my husband- he does the dishes.
Last year my stocking stuffer was a small box of Homemade Fudgy Chocolate and Cherry Brownie bites. My favorite kitchen helper is a Spiralizer.