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.
.
A good digital meat thermometer makes a great stocking stuffer!
I would have to say a flat whisk!
my favorite culinary stocking stuffer is a handmade wooden spoon. who cant use more of these?
My favorite edible stocking stuffer would have to be anything chocolate. Kitchen related would be a new set of silicone spatulas.
My favorite edible stocking stuffer is a jar of my home made apple lemon marmalade to go with some Cabot horseradish cheese. Non-edible is the scissors-type tea balls. I usually tie a red ribbon around them and sometimes hang them in the tree is everyone is getting one.
I’m gifting people with chocolate raspberry sauce but I still have a fondness for marshmallow santas
Jam!
Chocolate and Caramels! Love some new wooden spoon!
I never thought of what my favorite edible stocking stuffer would be! I am thinking a little flavored salt would be nice, although my mom often gets me swedish fish and I’m not sure if that counts as culinary, but I like those too 🙂
Fav edible – Green & Black milk chocolate bar. Fav stuffer – bacon tongs, which are basically giant heat-safe tweezers and so very handy!
I like a delicious olive oil in my stocking along with some wooden spoons.
My favorite Christmas gift is the popcorn tins that have caramel, cheddar and butter popcorn.
A Thermapen would be my favorite culinary “stocking stuffer.”
My favorite little treat to find in my stocking (I put it in everybodies stocking at home) would have to be homemade marshmallows. So delicious and easy to make….
My husband always puts tea and small packages of specialty cheese in my stocking! The cheese is my favorite!!
Chocolate. any kind.
Boy would I love those little jars. So cute and so many uses come to mind!
Chocolate would be my favorite edible stocking stuffer….and a wooden spoon with a flat edge….which is really difficult to find!
My favorite edible is chocolate, chocolate, chocolate! Milk chocolate or white. My favorite culinary are good quality kitchen accessories like spatulas, measuring cups, whisks, or canning supplies.
My favorite stocking stuffer is also my favorite edible stocking stuffer — Fran’s Gold Bites!
My favorite stocking stuffer tool was a ceramic ginger grater my mom gave me years ago – use it for so many things!
My favorite edible is a chocolate orange, or a raspberry orange. Mmmm.
Oh my favorite edible would be a bottle of Fiore grapefruit vinegar. I could drink it by the spoonful or just swig from the bottle! I’m not proud! Lol. I guess my favorite “tool” would be a small whisk. So small, yet so handy! Thanks for a great giveaway. I love weck jars, ridiculous!
my favorite edible is homemade chocolate dipped vanilla wafers…
I think a thermopen would be welcome in my Christmas stocking. And of course anything chocolate. nice giveaways…love those jars
Mini whisks are my favorite stocking stuffer
My mom usually puts mini rubber scrapers/spatulas in my stocking each year. I actually use those more than full sized ones! They’re so handy.
favorite edible stocking stuffer is bar of bittersweet chocolate, favorite culinary tool is my rocking (literally and figuratively) garlic press
My favorite edible stocking stuffer is a candy cane! My faorite culinary stocking stuffer is a wooden spoon! Thank you so much!
I haven’t had a stocking in a really long time but if I imagine having one, I envision chocolate enrobed marzipan and a Thermapen because it is my heart’s desire.
I think I’m going to have to stuff my daughter’s stocking with that beautiful ladle and ask Santa for some coveted Weck jars. My favorite culinary stocking stuffer is a tangerine from our trees outside (modeled on the orange we always got from Santa as kids). Lovely giveaway ideas Marissa, thanks for the great ideas!
My favorite edible stocking stuffer is anything chocolate.
My favorite edible stocking stuffer is a a bar or really good dark chocolate. The culinary one would have to be a garlic press or a set of pretty ceramic measuring spoons.
fav edible…oat squares cereal dipped in almond bark, fav stuffer.,.. 4T oxo measuring cup
Orange and Walnuts were always put in our Christmas stocking when we were kids and continue this with my kids..
I think I might need these as a gift. To me.
My favorite edible is an orange or tangerine. It seems to me to be the most traditional think I can imagine. Very Victorian. My favorite culinary choice this year would be a digital thermometer. That takes me from 19th century to 21st century.
A nice bottle of truffle oil!
My favorite edible stocking stuffer are Kinder eggs, which I can still find at Economy Candy in NYC. I’m dying to try something my boyfriend called a “chocolate orange” this year though! My favorite culinary stocking stuffer is a good wooden spoon or a le creuset silicone spatula.
Favorite edible is a dark chocolate “orange ” and favorite stocking stuffer is a mini whisk… adorable!
Favorite edible is granola, favorite stuffer would be a garlic press
My favorite edible stocking stuffer to give would be homemade peppermint marshmallows. To receive would be some new ingredient I’ve never used before!
I love chocolates and interesting, unique spices as an edible stocking stuffer, and as far as culinary: I agree, a microplane grater is pretty awesome, and they come in gorgeous bright colors!
I love doing homemade granola and salted
Caramel sauce
I once got to my grandfather’s house 3 months late for Christmas, and there was what had once been an orange in the toe of my stocking. It had shriveled into a small, hard, green, misshapen lump. I suppose that doesn’t count as edible, but it was definitely memorable. As for a culinary stocking stuffer, the perfect metal measuring spoon set would be great!
I can’t live without Earl Grey chocolates and a garlic press is the perfect culinary stocking stuffer.
I like the chocolate santas made by Hershey, and a no melting spatula which I use all the time.
My favorite edible treat is always chocolate. When we were young it was Tobler mocha bars, now it’s Frangos or Theo chocolate or other shaped chocolates for the holidays! And culinary stocking stuffer, a nice high temp spatula in red from williams sonoma or crate and barrel or maybe nice quality wooden spoons (I heart wooden spoons) or a nice set of measuring spoons orrr a really good paring knife? I love this contest! Good luck to all!
My fave edible is a satsuma (or clementine) and my fave stocking stuffer would be either mini salad tongs or a micro grater.
My favorite edible stocking stuffer is chocolate! Thanks for the great giveaway!
Best edibles have to be good chocolates! And a great culinary tool would have to be a quality veggie peeler!
I love anything edible in my stocking, especially things I haven’t tried before or wouldn’t buy for myself.
My favourite edible stocking stuffer is Jelly Belly beans. So delicious! My favourite culinary stuffers are those ceramic discs that keep brown sugar soft. 🙂
Oxo citrus squeezer or julian peeler as a gadget stuffer. Chocolate or trader joes organic lollipops for edible stuffer.
I love giving little mixed bags of Japanese savory treats and candies. Also orange-n-chocolate anything.
Lindt truffles! We always got a mix in our stockings, but I’d save the dark chocolate to eat last and trade away the milk chocolate ones.
Chocolate and/or peppermint covered spoons for hot cocoa are always a treat in stockings!
I like giving small jars of canned plums for Christmas stocking stuffers. They’re a gorgeous color and crazy delicious. I’m also drying some catnip to make some hand sewn kitty toys this year… no stocking left unfilled! 🙂
Great post. My favorite edible stocking stuffer is chocolate and my favorite culinary stocking stuffer is a garlic press. Blessings.
as a kid my mom would go downtown to an asian specialty shop (very rare back in those days!!) and buy us the rice candy with the paper you can eat…it was always a special treat for us.
now as a mother i put those same candies in my kids stockings each year. even though i can just buy them at most of the grocery stores in our city, i opt to only buy them at christmas so they remain special to my kids too.
I love chocolate truffles and I always add a vintage kitchen tool, cleaned up of course!
I think my favorite stocking stuffer via culinary fashion, would be candied orange peel dipped in a yummy dark Belgian chocolate. Oh my, I can’t wait to make some more!!!
I am going to give retro candy this year as stocking stuffers! My brothers and sisters who grew up during the 60’s and 70’s will fondly remember wax lips, edible flying saucers and candy cigarettes!! Should be fun!!!
My favorite is gum, the big hard round ones
To receive… unique chocolate bars, or varietal honeys. I think someone mentioned maple candy, which I would also love!
To give, homemade spiced nuts, cookies, or candied citrus.
Cadbury Dairymilk bars and copper cookie cutters and maybe some new rubber spatulas.
My favorite stocking stuffer is chocolate…any kind of chocolate. Santa’s are always good.
My favorite edible stocking stuffer in any kind of Theo Chocolate! (but the dark chocolate peppermint is always a good holiday cheery option! 🙂
I think my favorite stocking stuffer I received was either an apple or pear with my name carved in it — my dad was (he died 3 years ago) an orchardist (raised mostly apples when I was very young) and early in the growing season he would go out and carve mine and my brother’s names on a couple of apples. To me, as a little kid, I thought it was really neat and kind of magical — how did he grow an apple with my name on it?! We also always received chocolate marshmallow Santas and roasted nuts which we’d snack on all morning long!
My favorite treat in a stocking is a dark chocolate orange that you break apart. My favorite tool to give is a garlic peeler tube. What fun giveaways! Thanks.
My favorite stocking stuffers were the pecan logs my ex mother in law used to make. Also I have that Kuchenprofi funnel and love it. I use it exclusively for making my drip coffee directly into the pot. (weird I know but it works great) Also I’ve been wanting some of those jars really bad and the rest of the stuff is really cool too.
My favorite edible stocking stuffer is my mom’s homemade chocolate covered almonds made with the best semi sweet dark chocolate she can find. My favorite culinary stocking stuffer has been my egg slicer. I use if for strawberries, eggs, mushrooms and kiwi. I have had it for years and years. Merry Christmas everyone. I just love jars.
Maple sugar candy and my microplane, such a useful little gadget!
My favorite stocking stuffers all tend to be the edible kind. Good chocolates, unusual candies of just about any kind (Pocky is good, either the known tasty ones or some of the unusual flavors for the novelty factor), or small portions of homemade goodies like seasoned nuts or caramels.
Hmm, this is a hard one. It’s difficult to choose! Anything with chocolate is always good but I particularly like Ferrero Raffaello coconut almond truffles. The food item I like to put in my family’s stockings is a bag of spiced almonds dusted with cocoa and home made truffles. What I like to find in my stocking are really creative/artistic kitchen tools. I like functional art. That could mean tongs, measuring cups or spoons, anything that makes you look twice! Happy holidays to you and all your readers!
I have a special fondness for the oranges that filled the toes of our stockings every year. Of course I love all the candy (giant candy canes!) but the oranges are special for some reason.
Lindt truffles are a tradition for me for stocking stuffers and this year my husband is getting a new wooden spoon.
Favorite edible stocking stuffer = anything chocolate, of course! Though some seasoned nuts would make a fabulous little treat, too.
Edible stocking stuffers are the best! I adore the salted caramels from our local chocolatier. I’ve appreciated the paring knives with the protective cover I’ve received from my sister as a stocking stuffer.
My favorite edible stocking stuffer is Ritter Sport candy bars…we get a different kind every year!
Coconut chocolate candies are a dream for me!
Best stocking stuffer? Satsumas!!
We sometimes get those chocolate oranges in our stockings. I think they’re tasty (particularly the dark chocolate), but don’t usually splurge for myself, so it’s fun to find.
“Santa” always left oranges in our stockings. Among all the candy, it was actually appreciated. These days I love dark chocolate with sea salt. Or caramels. mmmm.
Santa always put oranges and other fruit in our stockings, and I still love sharing oranges on Christmas. My favorite culinary stocking stuffer is a microplane lemon zester. It’s one of my very favorite kitchen tools!
My favorite stocking stuffer this year is new and are Cuppow!s—everyone is getting one this year. I’ve become a fanatical convert. As for edibles, my favorite stocking stuffer is an unusual Pez dispenser (usually a nice nerdy one).
My favorite stocking stuffer is Godiva truffles? My favorite gadget is the micro plane grater.
My favorite edible stocking stuffer? That’s too easy–chocolate, of course! 🙂
My favorite stocking stuffer is chocolate oranges!
Locally made beef jerky…mmm!
Oh my goodness, Pocky (and those Koala shaped cookies) are my favorite stocking stuffers, too! No joke. My brother and I rarely ate a lot of candy, except on Christmas, when our stockings were filled with literally nothing but Japanese candy.
I love every year in my stocking Lindt/Lindor chocolate truffles! I never tire of them, and the dark dark chocolate in the black wrapper are especially nice by themselves, or on a cheese plate to enjoy with a cabernet or pinot noir. Now that my kids have gotten older, in their tweens, they have figured out that there is such a thing, as ‘good chocolate!” So they get it now too! I usually will put any type of kitchen gadget that catches my eye in my hubby’s stocking. One year it was a stainless steel bar of “soap” to get rid of the smell of onions, garlic or any odor that is hard to remove. (bed, bath and beyond has great selections of kitchen gadgets)
My favorite edible stocking stuffer have always been the dairy-free candies and chocolates my family gives me. I so appreciate the efforts they go to.
My fave stocking stuffer is flavored nuts we make…it gives a punch of protein on that morning and sustains us until our later brunch.
My favorite stocking stuffer is a chocolate orange, which my husband *swears* he’s getting me this year. And he’d better, cuz he won’t let me buy one before Christmas lol!
My favorite edible stocking stuffer are those chocolate oranges that look just like orange slices!
Ooooh! My fave culinary stocking stuffer would definitely be that little microplane nutmeg grater. I really need one & haven’t been able to find what I want in stores recently.
I love to put lovely chocolate truffles in stockings, and those little wine stoppers are great!!
my mom always stuffed my stocking with beef jerky, hence it is my favorite edible stuffer. my favorite beef jerky is made by the fatted calf.
I love peppermint bark as an edible stocking stuffer and am giving Cuppows this year also! Thanks for the opportunity to win some awesome things! Merry Christmas!