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.
.
My favorite edible stocking stuffers are oranges. We grew up getting huge ones in the bottom of our stockings and have tried to carry that tradition on with our kids. I love anything unusual for the kitchen. I bought my own stocking stuff for this year already… a marble mortar and pestle!! Been wanting one forever!!
Our stockings always have those little French bonbon in the mental containers. It would not be Christmas without them!
I hope Santa puts a strawberry huller in my stocking. Enough with the spatulas, mister.
Favorite culinary stocking stuffer is heirloom seeds; favorite edible is sardines.
I love oranges as stocking stuffers. Old school, but nice. Even better if I have time to stuff them full of cloves.
I find a good strawberry huller comes in handy when doing large strawberry jam batches or a mandolin for pickling thin sliced carrot or cucumber 🙂 I love helpful gadgets!!
I love to get chocolate oranges and give orange peelers. They are so handy!
My favorite stocking stuffer has to be a garlic press. Garlic is so sticky to peel. Use sooo much garlic around here 🙂
Is there anything better than homemade jam? There is not.
Clementines — nothing fancy, but they are such a fun juicy treat to cut the coffee and coffee cake sweetness that usually accompanies stocking unwrapping!
I love the Maple sugar santas! They are so decadent and wonderful 🙂
My favorite stocking stuffer is small jars of exotic mustard. I’m the only mustard fan at our house, so little jars of the best condiment on the planet are just right for me.
I’m a traditionalist when it comes to edible stocking fillerw. A satsuma fills up the toe and brings back memories of when they were so rare to eat. I think they were banned for a few years when I was a kid.
My favorite edible stocking stuff is good quality handmade dark chocolates. Can’t hang those by the fire for too long!
Our favorite culinary stocking stuffers are chocolate, fine tuned to individual likes: milk, dark, with almonds or with caramel. We always include socks!
I love getting a really good tiny bottle of Balsamic vinegar, the kind where you only need a couple of drops! I always get those chocolate oranges that are in sections when you open them up. So fun! Would love to find a good slicing mandoline in my stocking this year!
Crocheted dish washing cloths!
My favorite edible stocking stuffer is an orange, for tradition. It fits nicely right in the toe of the stocking. My 3 year old will be receiving his first culinary implement this year in his stocking: a crinkle cutter for chopping veggies.
I love fruit slices in my stocking. And I love to get the more expensive spices that I wouldn’t normally buy myself!
Favorite stocking stuffer… navel orange and Toblerone. I’ve gotten them in my stocking every single year for the past 40 years. 🙂 Our boys get their own jar of Nutella every single year… non-food… postage stamps! Yes i love to send and receive “snail” mail! 🙂
Great giveaways–thank you! Our favorite “foodie” stocking stuffers include crispy nuts (of all kinds) and a beautiful kitchen helper such as a handmade wooden spoon.
Call me old fashioned, but I think an organic apple is perfect! And for a tool, ANY microplane grater is ideal!
As holiday candy goes, I inhale Williams-Sonoma peppermint bark (I guess it comes in a tin that’s really too big for a stocking, but as a Jew, I’ve never actually had a Christmas stocking, so I can kind of do what ever I want in that regard). And culinary would have to be mini spatulas – so handy when trying to get that last little bit of something out of the jar.
Anything chocolate and a small Weck jar.
I just discovered one of my new favorites this year – the tiny little tins of maldon salt that you can buy online. The perfect stocking stuffer for a food lover!
My favorite edible stocking stuffer to give is Chocolate Covered Cherries to my dad. And as for a culinary stocking stuffer, I’d have to go with new pot holders.
raw kale chips or raw nuts(cashew,almond, peacan), slip mats for dehydrator
My family’s traditional stocking stuffers are always Gold Chocolate Coins (Trader Joe’s has them!), tic tacs (a family joke: when we were little & complaining that we were hungry my Mom would offer us a tic tac). Kitchen related: pop up sponges are a fav.
Each year I get my husband almond Christmas stollen for his stocking and some nice coffee. We always enjoy a slice of stollen as part of out Christmas morning breakfast. I usually get him some little jars of spicy mustard or pepper relish, just something to liven up winter cooking.
Oh, I haven’t done stocking in ages! My boyfriend looooooooves jam (eats it with a spoon), so I think that would be a good stocking stuffer for him 🙂
I love a great wooden spoon and it’s my favorite culinary stocking stuffer!
I love to make Cranberry vodka and gift it in bottles big enough for someone to have two cocktails (or one to share with another person)!
Can’t remember their name, but they’re little hazelnut hippo crunchy things at Cost Plus. And Toblerone!
This year I have tons of homemade jam & preserves & chutney for stocking stuffers, which feels super exciting. As for store-bought edible stocking stuffers, I love clementines and fancy hot chocolate mix.
Im old fashioned i like candy canes in my stocking! That said, my mom used to put little cloth napkins filled with homemade pecan sandies in our stockings, and chocolate chip cookies set atop some plastic on the lawn Christmas morning. She always told us the “reindeer left them”!
I always make granola for my mom at Christmas time. She likes to snack on it while knitting.
Caramels and fudge is a favorite of mine. I have also requested many culinary items this year. My list includes but is not limited to a new large glass measuring cup, a food processor, and new glass bowls. Oh, and remember when I mentioned “not limited to…”? I really love those Weck Jars sooo much. 🙂
We always got a clementine tucked in to the toe of the stocking every Christmas when I was a kid. We do the same thing now with our own kids…. but they seem far less impressed.
old wooden spoons are my favorite stocking stuffer.
I would have to say my favorite stocking stuffer is a mini whisk I got. I laughed when I got it but use it ALOT!!
Hmm, we always got an orange, a peppermint and a tube of toothpaste (I figured out, as a mom, that the toothpaste fills up a stocking nicely). For my Soviet-born kids, I always include a packet of “vaffli” — creme-filled waffle wafer cookies. One likes chocolate or orange, the other loves vanilla. And a clementine, for tradition’s sake.
My favourite food item would be good white chocolate, not the vegetable fat kind that has never even shared the room with a cocoa bean, but the real kind. Non-food item, it would be a set of silicone tipped tongs.
My favorite edible stocking stuffer is a small package of Almond Roca. My favorite culinary stuffer is the microplane grater that was in my stocking last Christmas.
Homemade caramel popcorn. Nutella fudge. MMMMMmmmmmmm.
My favorite edible stocking stuffer has always been the Reese’s Christmas trees that we have received since being a kid.
I have to say terry chocolate oranges or chili pepper chocolate bars (not sure what the brand is my mom gets)
My favorite edible stocking stuffer are those lifesaver storybooks. It’s been a tradition in my family since we were kids and I just adore them! Decorated tea towels are my favorite culinary gift I’d say…
My favorite is Terry’s All Gold Orange and I thought I had died and gone to heaven when I saw an all white chocolate version a while back. I haven’t been able to find the white chocolate version since.
I love flavored popcorn balls and homemade fudge as stocking stuffers!
Favorite stuffer is definitely a chocolate orange. Not at all fancy but a once a year treat that I always look forward to. Favorite culinary stocking stuffer would be something like cinnamon sticks or vanilla beans that I wouldn’t usually get myself.
There’s this store in Austin called Mi Casa, and every year around Christmas they sell molded Mexican chocolate hats and Santas. I got them for everyone last year as stocking stuffers, and I’m doing it again this year! A great stocking stuffer for me would be vanilla beans.
My favorite stocking stuffer is a gift certificate to my favorite seed catalog so I can grow more veggies for canning!
My fav. edible stocking stuffer is Hershey candies of all sorts. And my favorite culinary stocking stuffer would be measuring cups,any measuring utensil for that matter. I love getting kitchen gadgets for gifts!
I love any chocolate I can find in my stocking!!
Macadamia nuts….such a treat on Christmas morning.
So terrible but I love Peeps in my stocking 😉
My favorite ediable stocking stuffer is an over sized Candy Cane and my favorite gift stuffer is a tiny set of measuring spoons, smidge, pinch, dash. I love them!
When I was little I always hoped to get the Lifesavers package of about 8 rolls that opened up like a Christmas book. These days I always love a good piece if dark chocolate. Rubber spatulas from Crate & Barrel were another favorite tool I received a couple years ago.
Oh how my heart would sing, to win these jars and the joy it would bring!
I would fill them with relishes, sauces & jam for biscuits, crumpets & ham!
Not only would it bless my mood, but also to those I gave them to as gifts filled with food!!
Growing up, my siblings and I received very traditional stocking contents… a huge, perfect apple (my favorite), an orange big enough to feed a rough dozen, mixed in-the-shell nuts, and a variety of gem-like hard candies. There’d also be some little toy or, as we got older, a small roll of money tied with a ribbon. This year, I’m tucking tiny jars of apricot-pepper jelly into everyone’s stockings. Thank you, Marisa, for turning me on to so many great canning projects this year!
My favorite edible stocking stuffer is a really good all-natural candy cane.
My favorite edible stocking stuffer is pomegranites. My children love recieving them. Favorte culinary stocking stuffer is a honey dipper.
Chocolate! 🙂
Favorite edible stocking stuffer – chocolate covered marzipan – mmmmm.
Favorite culinary stocking stuffer – my Baskin-Robbins ice cream scoop (best one there is – I know because I scooped many a cone when I worked there!)
My favorite edible stocking stuffer would be homemade chocolates, or perhaps any small home made food item (spice blends, vanilla extract, etc). My favorite culinary stocking stuffer? I’d be happy with many things! Wooden spoons, that ladle, a new paring knife, etc.
My favorite edible stocking stuffer changes every year. This year it is going to be small pretzels in a cute Christmas themed candy bag – half dipped in white chocolate with milk chocolate sprinkles and the other half dipped in milk chocolate with white sprinkles. I’ll be dipping all weekend!
My favorite stocking stuffers are the ones that change- because my fella and I try to make something new for each other every year. I think his favorites are the homemade peanut butter cups from ‘The Kind Diet.’ sooooooooo delicious! And bigger than reese cups!
Vegetable seed packets fit perfectly for stocking stuffers, promise growth in the new year, and something yummy and homegrown on your table. And if you’ve saved seeds from your own garden, you’ve made your gift that much more special.
My favorite edible stocking stuffer is a bag of kumquats. I love them, but I usually only have them at Christmas. We try to do all sorts of “unusual” (at least for our geographic area) fruits in stockings. I often also get a new cookbook from St. Nick, and that’s a favorite on the culinary-but-not-edible side.
There may not be a stocking involved, but it’s nice to get some Hannukah gelt during the holidays. I always go for the silver wrappers-if you’re lucky, those ones are dark(er) chocolate 🙂
My favorite culinary stocking stuffer is a set of silicone pinch bowls. Makes seasoning your food, especially meat, a snap when you can’t put your fingers in your whole container of seasoning!
I can tell you what my favorite stocking stuffer is GOING TO BE: those Ecojarz lids!!! Just started a job where I have to take the bus early in the morning and was astounded when pricing travel coffee mugs. This is a way better idea!
Chocolate is always welcome. Also a heat proof spatula.
My favorite stocking stuffer is clementines. There’s something about that burst of citrus on a winter morning that’s great!
i always look forward to a nice, gourmet chocolate in my stocking!!
Clementines and a citrus press
my favorite edible stocking stuffer from last year was some truffle oil (wow, right?) and I have loved my nice set of spatulas that don’t melt in the pan!!
what a nice giveaway!!
Edible treat- P2C2 chocolates from PURE.
Kitchen tool – Lamson shucking knife and voucher for oysters from Island Creek Oysters!
My favorite edible stocking stuffer USED to be, when I was a kid, popcorn balls. But, as things go, now that I’m an adult they don’t hold the same wow factor for me. But because I have told my husband about my love of popcorn balls as a child, now I have to get one in my stocking every year, whether I want it or not!!! My more recent favorite edible item is a dark chocolate orange. That’s my new fav for sure!
My fave edible stocking stuffer is Brach’s Villa Cherries (milk chocolate). My fave other stocking stuffer is a good wooden spoon or a silicone spatula.
My favorite edible stocking stuffer is good chocolate truffles and my favorite culinary stocking stuffer would be more fun cupcake papers! By the way, I keep all my cupcake papers in a 1 1/2 qt. Italian canning jar!
I’m completely obsessed with that ladle!!!
I think you can’t go wrong with a lovely bar of chocolate for a stocking stuffer, but a small jar of homemade vanilla extract, or homemade almond extract is also quite nice.
My favorite stocking stuffer is a half pound of Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee beans. . . the BEST way to start Christmas morning!
My favorite edible stocking stuffer is a can of black olives. Culinary stocking stuffer, those little nylon square scrapers. They work on everything!
My favorite stocking stuffer would be homemade gumdrops. They are a treat that I only make at Christmas. My grandchildren love them. Oh, also my 92 year old mother!
i make & sell small batch jams all summer/fall. i saw some of my bests and they make great stocking stuffers.
My favorite edible stocking stuffer is clementines, and I would love a new wooden spoon in my stocking this year.
hm, stockings are new to me but my husband’s family always makes them for me now and i love when almond joys are tucked in there. and kitchen towels are a good “culinary” goodie i’ve received…a good way to add something fresh and practical to the kitchen aesthetic 🙂
My favorite edible stocking stuffer is the one that Santa’s been leaving since I was teeny – clementines and laughing cow cheese. Not fancy, but the perfect Christmas morning breakfast!
My favorite edible stocking stuffer is Toblerone. YUM!
My favorite edible stocking stuffer is candied nuts and my favorite culinary stocking stuffer is a garlic press. It is so basic, but I am always surprised by how many people don’t have one. I love those little jar cozies. I think I am going to have to try and make some myself.
Love love love the weck jars but as you say an indulgence…so thank you! Fave “shoe” stuffer (it is the French version of the stocking) is always the Whack ’em chocolate oranges, one for everyone. Fave gadget to give toss up between a micro plane or a japanese mandolin. Both handy.
My favorite edible stocking stuffer (because my whole family loves them) is Lindt’s Excellence White Coconut Bar. Creamy and yummy!
Green and Black organic fairtrade Maya Gold dark chocolate with orange and spice flavors.
my favorite stocking stuffer is Almond Roca – we only allow ourselves to eat it at xmas!
Generally get a couple of oranges from my father-in-law, but my favorite has to be the homemade fudge that he also includes! Cheers.
My favorite edible stocking stuffer is high quality vanilla extract.
My favorite edible stocking stuffers are chocolate covered coffee beans, I just love them and my favorite non edible is any kind of stainless steel utensil, I can’t get or give enough of them!
When we were growing up, my brother and I always grumbled about the orange in our stockings. It was a tradition harking back to the depression, when my grandparents were raising a family and an orange was considered a treat. Now that I have a family of my own, Christmas isn’t complete without an orange in the girls’ stockings! No longer a ‘treat’, but forever a simple reminder of my beloved grandparents.
My favorite edible stocking stuffer is homemade caramel. Yum!
favorite culinary…. plain and simple… gift cards to my favorite restaurants! stocking stuffer… I too, love the nutmeg microplane tool! It’s just so cute and little!