All I want for Christmas: gifts for foodies

I always enjoy shopping for food-related gifts. I mean, combining food, shopping and pretties - what's not to love? If you have a foodie in your life here's a few gift ideas:

First up, my life will not be complete until I have one of these:



That. Is. Awesome. The nail polish shaped cookie cutter is US$1.99 from Downtown Dough. Note to EEB: If you buy me one of these I will totally start baking again. Honest.

How to make vegetables pretty:



Milly's Veggie Twister, NZ$49.95 from Milly's. Note to EEB: I would totally cook more vegetables if I could make them look like this.

How about a big ticket item. In pink:



Pink KitchenAid Artisan Mixer £369.99 from Pink Princess. Note to EEB: If I had a pink mixer I'd totally be in the kitchen mixing ... stuff.

Don't you just love Bento? All those cute little pieces of food packed into cute little Bento boxes - adorable!



See what I mean? Kawaii Mameshiba 2 Layer Bento Box is US$22.00 from From Japan With Love. Too cute. Of course you need the cutlery to go with it:



Kawaii Mameshiba Lunchtime set is US$10.00 from From Japan With Love. Note to EEB: If we had cute little Bento sets like this I'd totally make your lunch for you every single day.

How about a gorgeous cake stand:



£28.87 from Bombay Duck. Note to EEB: if we had one of these it would constantly be filled with dainty sandwiches and cute cupcakes made by me, honest.

Of course you can't go wrong with a cookbook. The Edmonds Cookbook has been a staple in New Zealand for almost 100 years. At one time Edmonds would send a copy out to every newly engaged woman, and you'd be hard pushed to find a household in New Zealand that doesn't have a copy. I have two - one battered, coverless copy from 1969 that belonged to my mum, and one from 1992.

Edmonds Classics brings together many favourite Edmonds recipes from its 100 years along with Edmonds' famous 'handy hints', snippets of Edmonds history and recipe trivia. I've given copies of this to quite a few of our overseas friends and family, so now they too can make ANZAC biscuits (mmmmm, ANZAC biscuits):



Edmonds Classics, NZ$24.99 from Fishpond. Note to EEB: I already have an Edmonds Cookbook and let's face it I only ever go into the kitchen to make coffee, so you're plum out of luck.

Best ever celebrity couple and associated merchandise

Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer recently announced that they are dating and fans were, well, completely unsurprised. Seriously, talk about chemistry (and that's just from following their Tweets!). Anyway it led to the following conversation between the Eccentric English Boyfriend and me:

EEB: Did you see Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer are dating?
Me: Yeah, there go my chances with Neil Gaiman ... I mean ... well ... ummmm ... you know ... not that ... ummmm
EEB: Yeah, there go my chances with Amanda Palmer too.

So in celebration of the best ever celebrity couple, here's their collaboration book Who Killed Amanda Palmer, words by Neil Gaiman and deadness by Amanda Palmer: pre-order it here.



And from Neil Gaiman's NeverWear site, this t-shirt. 10 Year Old Boy looked at me like I'd gone crazy when I said I wanted to get this for him. Fine then, I'll just get it for me!



And finally, this Amanda Fucking Palmer tshirt. I bought one of these when we saw her live recently here in Auckland, and I always get comments when I wear it. Buy it here.