{"id":1014,"date":"2012-12-21T16:27:57","date_gmt":"2012-12-21T20:27:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/?p=1014"},"modified":"2012-12-21T16:27:57","modified_gmt":"2012-12-21T20:27:57","slug":"christmas-gift-ideas-for-santa-cruz-foodies-during-holiday-season-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/?p=1014","title":{"rendered":"Christmas gift ideas for Santa Cruz foodies during holiday season 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_1015\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/lets-cook-indian-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1015\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1015\" title=\"let's cook indian 2\" src=\"https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/lets-cook-indian-2-300x228.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"228\" srcset=\"https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/lets-cook-indian-2-300x228.jpg 300w, https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/lets-cook-indian-2.jpg 573w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1015\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">South Indian Lemon Rice prepared at Indian Cuisine 101 at Let\u2019s Cook! cooking school<\/p><\/div>\n<p>It\u2019s four days \u2018til Christmas, time to keep shopping\u2026below are a couple gift possibilities. And if you\u2019ve missed some of my other ideas in the last several days, here are a few links:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/?p=976\">Direct trade coffee and chocolate<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/?p=989\">Ice cream, nuts, and more<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/?p=992\">Gifts with a cause plus treats like Serendipity Saucy Spreads <\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/?p=997\">Book recommendations<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Know someone who likes to cook? Try a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.letscooksantacruz.com\">Let\u2019s Cook!<\/a> gift certificate for a fun gift. The cooking school has lots of great classes, and they\u2019re for cooks of all levels. Most classes cost $65, so that\u2019s what the standard gift certificate costs \u2013 if your gift recipient chooses a higher or lower-priced class, details can be worked out when they call the school to register. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.letscooksantacruz.com\/2011\/front-page-promotion\/gift-certificates-available\">Order online<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>A pound of coffee or a tin of tea, or a coffee\/tea-related gift, is often a good bet for friends or family. I recently tried a few holiday offerings from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.peets.com\/\">Peet\u2019s<\/a> and enjoyed them greatly. The 2012 Holiday blend coffee ($16.95\/lb.) is robust and flavorful. Each year, Peet\u2019s uses \u201cthe best of the best\u201d crops from that particular year. This year\u2019s blend highlights coffee from Kenya. Special holiday teas include Holiday Breakfast Blend ($11.95\/tea tin, $9.95 tea bags), a strong black tea that features Darjeeling and other varieties, and Good Hope Spice Blend ($6.95\/tea bags) Peet\u2019s first new herbal blend in more than 12 years (and only available during the holidays). I find Good Hope to be sweet in a balanced way; it includes South African honeybush, orange peel, and allspice. Other choices in Santa Cruz and nearby include <a href=\"www.vervecoffeeroasters.com\">Verve<\/a><cite>, <\/cite><cite><a href=\"www.santacruzcoffee.com\/\">Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting Co.<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.starbucks.com\/\">Starbucks<\/a>.<\/cite><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/kellysfrenchbakery.com\/\">Kelly\u2019s French Bakery<\/a> in Westside Santa Cruz has a few selections that are good for either gifts or for adding to your holiday meal. These include Buche de Noel ($22), strawberry rhubarb pie ($21), Stollen ($16), gingerbread or chocolate loaves ($8), and cookies (sable, gingerbread, prices vary). To guarantee availability, call (831) 423-9059 by Dec. 22 at 2 p.m. to place an order. Or you can walk in and hope for the best \u2013 just be sure to visit before 2 p.m. on Dec. 24, that\u2019s when Kelly\u2019s closes on Christmas Eve (and it\u2019s closed Christmas Day).<\/p>\n<p>Lastly, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.freshprepkitchens.com\">Fresh Prep Kitchens<\/a> is having a holiday gift certificate sale: Buy two, get one free. They are available in $35, $50 or $100 denominations through the web site, or call (831) 435-9260. The venue provides fresh, easy-to-prepare meals and you can pick them up in Capitola, or have them delivered (for no additional fee) to your door.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s four days \u2018til Christmas, time to keep shopping\u2026below are a couple gift possibilities. And if you\u2019ve missed some of my other ideas in the last several days, here are a few links: Direct trade coffee and chocolate Ice cream, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/?p=1014\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[396,20,80],"tags":[83,42,410,398,371,106,321,411,7,409],"class_list":["post-1014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coffee-2","category-cooking-chefs","category-food-food-news","tag-coffee","tag-cooking","tag-fresh-prep-kitchens","tag-holiday-gifts","tag-holidays-2012","tag-kellys-french-bakery","tag-lets-cook","tag-peets","tag-santa-cruz","tag-tea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1014","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1014"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1016,"href":"https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1014\/revisions\/1016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/santacruzfoodie.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}