Welcome to our 5th Annual Women Who Brunch Holiday Foodie Gift Guide 2024!
This gift guide is for the foodie or chef in your family or life.
This year we’re including categories like Kitchen Stocking Stuffers, Family Food Gifts, the Best Cookbooks of 2024. In addition, we love to shop local and included our favorite local Hudson Valley businesses and experiences. These small businesses include women-owned and food based companies and products. I hope you’ll support and shop local this year.
Some important reminders… you can view previous gift guides for inspiration below.
Explore Previous Gift Guides: 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020.
For easy shopping access, we’ve put all these items in our 🛍️ Amazon Storefront.
🛍️Shop on Amazon: Women Who Brunch - Foodie Holiday Gift Guide
2024 Cookbooks
📚 What to Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking by Caroline Chamber
Perfect for beginners and those seeking easy cookbooks for simple meals, What to Cook When You Don't Feel Like Cooking is the ultimate "I don't want to cook" cookbook. With its focus on efficient, flavorful recipes and minimal ingredients, this easy dinner cookbook appeals to time-constrained parents, working professionals, and anyone who craves delicious homemade meals without the fuss.
📚 Salty, Cheesy, Herby, Crispy Snackable Bakes by Jessie Sheehan
Jessie Sheehan’s lickety-split recipes, dynamic personality, and kitchen savvy advice have made her a beloved food personality on social media. In Salty, Cheesy, Herby, Crispy, she relies on the same assemble-in-minutes-with-everyday-ingredients mandate that has become her calling card, but now ventures into new flavor territory. Eschewing marshmallow creme in favor of pimiento cheese, Sheehan bakes up scrumptious, savory treats that are perfect for a snack board (“girl dinner,” anyone?), offer sustenance for game night, and can easily stand in for lunch or grace the table at brunch.
📚 The Feel Good Foodie Cookbook: 125 Recipes Enhanced with Mediterranean Flavors by Yumna Jawad
These recipes will teach you exactly what her mom taught her: how to build savvy kitchen know-how that gives you the confidence to cook consistently for yourself and others. Be inspired by White Zucchini Pizza with Garlicky Labneh, Tomato Rice Pilaf, Harissa-Grilled Shrimp Skewers, Seven Spice Roast Chicken & Pomegranate Potatoes, Tahini-Glazed Cauliflower, perfect Crispy Falafel, Three-Ingredient Mango Sorbet, Zaatar Manakeesh, and Olive Oil Cake, which you can enjoy alongside bright green Mint-Basil Lemonade or a homemade Rose Latte.
📚 Zoë Bakes Cookies Everything You Need to Know to Make Your Favorite Cookies and Bars by Zoë François
There are countless ways to make a cookie. Whether it’s thin and crispy or soft and cakey, everyone has a different version they crave. In Zoë Bakes Cookies, Zoë François shares the classic cookie recipes every home baker wants to master and adds in some personal favorites from different eras in her life.
She takes you through recipes from her hippie days in Vermont, with Ultra-Peanut Butter Cookies and Coconut Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. You get a chance to step into Bubbe and Granny’s kitchens, where Zoë has adapted their recipes like Lemon Lavender Shortbread Cookies and Chocolate Caramel Matzo. You'll find old favorites from her college cookie cart days, with recipes like Zoë's Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies and Smash Cookies.
📚 Pass the Plate by Carolina Gelen
Wildly popular blogger and viral recipe creator Carolina Gelen presents 100 crowd-pleasing, effortlessly delicious recipes that showcase her simple-but-sophisticated style.
Far from a fussy chef or unrealistic food influencer, Carolina learned to cook at home with a family who loved food but could rarely go out to eat. Taking that passion to the next level, she worked in restaurants and translated her skills into a successful full-time recipe developer who cultivated an online community of millions who love her recipes.
📚 Sweet Tooth: 100 Desserts to Save Room For by Sarah Fennel
Sarah Fennel began her website, Broma Bakery, as a hobby that combined her love of baked goods with her passion for photography. Soon, millions of readers fell in love with her reliable recipes for nostalgic desserts with a modern twist like Strawberry Shortcake Cake, Oatmeal Cream Cookies, and White Chocolate Brownies.
📚 Bodega Bites: Recipes for Sweets and Treats Inspired by My Corner Store by Paola Velez
Growing up in the Bronx, Paola Velez’s happy place was the bodega, a unique world full of color and flavor where the shelves were stocked with everything from M&M’s to Muenster cheese to majarete (Caribbean corn pudding).
Paola’s debut cookbook, inspired by these treasures and other ingredients available at corner stores everywhere, is a love letter to both her Dominican heritage and her New York City roots; its more than 100 recipes burst with distinctive flavors.
📚 The League of Kitchens by Lisa Kyung Gross
Founded in 2014 by Lisa Kyung Gross, the daughter of a Korean immigrant and a Jewish New Yorker, League of Kitchens is a unique cooking school that empowers immigrant women to share culinary expertise and culture through hands-on cooking workshops, both in their homes and online. The instructors pass on their knowledge, skills, recipes, and most importantly, their secrets for how to cook with love. At its heart, League of Kitchens is a celebration of the invaluable contributions of immigrants to our food culture and society.
Now, with The League of Kitchens Cookbook, you can bring these exceptional classes into your own home kitchen. This visually stunning cookbook features favorite family recipes that have been honed and perfected over the years and passed down through the generations: recipes from Mexico, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Ukraine, Greece, Afghanistan, India, Argentina, Japan, Uzbekistan, Lebanon, Iran, and Nepal.
Fun backstory, Lisa was one of our original Women Who Brunch speakers back in the day and had the privilege of taking an immersive Greek cooking class in Flushing, NY. It was an incredible experience and can’t recommend it enough.
Stocking Stuffers - The Best Kitchen Gadgets to Have in Your Kitchen
🎁 Brown Sugar Bear Original Brown Sugar Saver and Softener
Brown Sugar Bear is the perfect addition to baking supplies for preserving brown sugar and many other cooking and baking ingredients. Made from a specially fired clay, it helps to maintain desirable moisture levels in brown sugar and all types of sugar for approximately 3 to 6 months, depending on climate. No more chiseling through rock-hard sugar!
🎁 Farberware Meat and Potato Masher:
Easily cook ground beef and ground turkey with this multi-functional meat chopper utensil.
Alpha Grillers Instant Read Meat Thermometer
Every chef needs a meat thermometer, it’s a life safer. Easy to read and water resistant this thermometer goes from bbq to baking. This digital food thermometer for cooking is perfect for meats, liquids, deep frying and candy making, Air fryer, oven, grill, BBQ, Griddle, smoker, kitchen and outdoors.
🎁 Microplane Premium Classic Series Zester Grater:
These ultra-sharp grating blades adds zesty flavor to vinaigrettes, stir fries, salads, and baked goods. It has so many uses - grate ginger and garlic into a minced pastes to flavor many popular foods. Create ground spices from whole hard cinnamon or nutmeg. The possibilities are endless and a great kitchen tool to have around.
🎁 Kitchen Scale
This small and sleek scale is a perfect fit for most kitchens, occupying little space and easily storable in cabinets. It accurately weighs up to 11 lb/5 kg with 1 g increments. I love a kitchen scale for measuring and baking. It’s a tool I reach for often.
Family Fun Foodies
Family night done right. Bring all the excitement of this campfire tradition right into the comfort of your home. Make perfectly roasted s'mores every time.
My son loves making waffles with me, it feels like such a special treat. We especially love the Dash mini holiday waffles.
Going out to the Melting Pot was a huge treat growing up and was so much fun to experiment and try new things to dip into chocolate, cheese, and broth. This fondue set includes a base, bowl, temperature probe, 8-fondue forks, and fork rack for the full fondue experience and includes instruction and recipe booklet.
Make frozen desserts or drinks in as little as 20 minutes. It has a double insulated freezer bowl that holds up to 2 quarts of frozen dessert, paddle, instructions and a recipe book.
Fast gourmet popcorn, perfect for family movie night. No oil or butter needed. Hot air circulates preventing burning. Melt butter with the dual function lid for gourmet results.
⛄ Le Puzz - Wakey Wakey
Wake up sleepyhead it's puzzle time! Indulge your wildest breakfast fantasies. This one's a real grand slam from start to finish, very a la mode if you will.
Shop Small - Hudson Valley Vendors and Businesses
Flours Pasta & Bakeshop is a woman-owned cafe that offers fresh pasta, baked goods, from-scratch eats and great coffee in the historic river town, Haverstraw, NY. Their menu changes daily and can be eaten in-house and made for takeaway. They carry goods from other local small businesses and host cooking workshops for kids and adults.
Not only can you visit our shop, but they also come to you! Visit them at farmers' markets in the Rockland and Westchester areas.
Flours is committed to creating a business which represents core values, and to introduce the community– especially children– to wholesome, local food; making well-balanced, real food easy to prepare at home in minutes; and elevating fellow local small businesses.
Birdie’s Batch is a mother-daughter duo making classic baked goods and preserves from local ingredients. It was formed in June 2020 after what seemed like endless months of baking to combat COVID stress (and quarantine!). The team thought if their families found comfort in their old-fashioned treats like ginger snaps, coffee cake, pumpkin bread, and mega chocolate chip cookies, perhaps others in their community would too.
Thus, Birdie’s Batch was formed to whip up batches of homemade goodness to share with the community. One of their specialties are seasonal jams made with just-picked produce that gets processed within 48 hours to make sure the essence of the fruit (and season!) is captured in the jar. We hope when you take a bite of our treats, you not only get a sense of delight, but a sense of home, too.
Order products online or visit them at local markets. Full farms market list can be found here.
Astro Coffee Co. is a local Beacon coffee pop-up and catering company. Whether it's an office party, wedding, or outdoor event, their mobile cart will bring a touch of connection and warmth to any occasion.
When it comes to coffee, they have a 12 oz. bag of coffee called The Good Boy Blend. Their beans are sourced from farms with ethical, producer-centric farms and we partner with a local roaster in Beacon to roast our beans. Most importantly, they are a company that gives back to the community, as a portion of our proceeds goes towards supporting local animal shelters.
The Challah Pixie is a home-based women owned business based in Poughkeepsie New York. Specializing in delicious treats Items include and are limited to Challah, Rugelach, Babka, Scones and Cookies.
They also offer weekly subscription, if you need weekly challah, which can be paid monthly offered in Poughkeepsie and as far south including Beacon, NY.
Skincare Republic is founded by Larisa, a licensed Esthetician where she owns a facial studio in Red Hook, New York. She makes natural soaps and skincare, and are all about the importance of healthy skin at any age! They are woman owned and use zero plastic bags packaging of any kind!
Shop handmade soaps or grab a gift card on their online store.
Phat Olive, located in Katonah, NY, offers over 40 of the freshest olive oils and balsamic vinegars, specialty foods like hot sauces and pestos, and the perfect home entertaining goods! Whether you’re cooking for the holidays or visiting family or friends, Phat Olive has you covered with all those stocking stuffers, gift baskets, and dinner ingredients.
Sweetie Pies are homemade hand pies that are made from scratch using organic ingredients. Melissa, the owner, puts love in every step of baking these delicious pies.
Everything is homemade, down to the dough, fruit jams, fillings, and toppings used in each delicious pastry. Sweetie Pies offers delicious chocolate chip cookies as well. Sweetie Pies offers larger orders of the mini size for parties such as weddings, baby showers, bridal showers, birthday parties and any special occasion or event.
Hudson Valley Chocolates offers bespoke chocolate assortments, bags of buttery caramels, mouth-watering candied apple and many more.
All sweets are made by hand with no artificial preservatives, artificial flavors or colors.
They use simple but elegant packaging, choosing to concentrate instead on using the highest-quality ingredients and the beauty of the chocolates.
Hudson Valley Experiences
MadebyCJK - Beginner Weaving Classes
Learn the basics of tapestry weaving in this beginner weaving workshop. During this class led by Courtney [Made by CJK] , you’ll create your own woven wall hanging. You’ll also learn how to set up the warp thread on a loom, weaving stitches including rya knots, tabby weave, pile weave, and soumak weave, how to add fringe, and how to weave with fibers of various weights and textures.
You’ll leave with a small wall hanging and the skills to create more on your own.
Harbinger Perfume Making Workshop:
Amy from Harbinger will teach you how perfume is made and how different ingredients come together to create enchanting scents. Then, create a perfume that is unique for you!
During her workshops, the two-hour experience you will explore more than 50 unique ingredients and create a perfume that is completely YOU. Each participant will take home a 10-milliliter bottle of their unique creation.
Harbinger is a Wappingers Falls-based modern perfume brand which features 14 fragrances in their current line. Perfumer Amy has studied fragrance creation for over 15 years and launched her company in 2021. She teaches classes in various locations around the Hudson Valley, works one on one with clients, and is constantly adding new products to her every growing brand.
Watergrasshill B&B - Cooking Class & Activity Workshops
Experience one of Watergrass Hill B&B’s signature workshops in New Paltz, NY in their kitchen studio or barn, as a group or private class. They have everything from Italian cooking, Asian inspired cuisene, brunch, soups, plant based cooking classes, and so many more unique culinary cooking classes. In addition these classes, they offer pottery workshops, floral design, and cookie decorating classes. Love that they offer such a wide variety of classes here, scenery is beautiful, and staff is always great.
Candle Making at Mundane in Cold Spring, NY
Mundane is a woman-owned, hands-on retail experience highlighting an appreciation for life's (extra)ordinary moments. When you visit you'll create your own home fragrance products at their custom scent bar with 50+ scents. They offer candles, diffusers, signature scents, and other goods. All scented products are made in their shop.
Museum Membership Passes to:
Hope this list of food inspired gifts gave you some shopping inspiration, and if you’re local to the Hudson Valley please consider buying a gift from a small business near you. It supports your local economy and builds community.
