My mom has loved Clairefontaine papers and journals ever since my oldest sister lived in Montclair, NJ (we’re talking 1998-ish) where there is (was?) a small stationery shop that carried the brand. So, to help my parents remember a hiking vacation to Hawaii a couple of Christmases ago, I gifted her one of these travel journals found on Vickerey.com. The pages alternate colors as you flip through the book—solid black for images and white for text (or photos, I suppose). I’m glad to see they’re still for sale!

Obviously, this would be a bit big to actually take on a trip, but it does make for a great way to review any vacation or special event after the fact. Rest assured, though: in addition to the standard Moleskine, Vickerey has a lot of options for carrying in your pocket, which works especially well for those of us who like to have a pen and notebook on hand at all times:

Even though I haven’t bought anything from their site in a while, I’ve kept Vickerey in my bookmarks as a great source for gifts. Besides paper goods, their inventory ranges from yoga gear to uniquely packaged soaps and lotions and includes a fair amount of casual men’s and women’s clothing. Take a look. You might find something you like.

I forgot to mention (as Sue pointed out in her comment), that Reisenthel baskets make great gifts. More than just gifts, they make great gift baskets. For example, here’s a photo from Tom’s birthday present from a couple of years ago.

If you look closely at the contents, you’ll notice this basket is how Tom came to know harissa. 1.5 years later, we’re still going strong on this jar.

The gift focused around Claudia Roden’s The New Book of Middle Eastern Food. In the section on “Flavorings, Aromatics, Condiments, and Oils,” Roden discusses and defines many ingredients that are key to Middle Eastern cooking but perhaps not typical in the average US kitchen:

Harissa. This very hot chili-pepper past flavored with garlic and spices is much used in North African cooking. It can be bought ready-made in tubes and cans but it will not have the special perfume of the homemade variety. To make your own, see page 464.

I pulled items from this list and filled the basket with them, knowing that a lack of hard-to-find ingredients might inhibit Tom’s creativity when looking through the book for inspiration.

If you’re purchasing a new cookbook for a friend, consider throwing in some key ingredients when you give the gift. I remember the hunt for all of these items being a lot of fun, especially once I discovered a gold mine in Yasmeen’s Mediterranean Foods in Saginaw, Michigan. They don’t appear to have a website, but you can reach them by phone at (989) 791-3082 or visit their location at 3545 Bay Rd in Saginaw, MI if you’re in the area. If nothing else, pick up a bag of dried limes and make yourself a pot of Chai Hamidh, as Roden says, “made by breaking open dried limes [with a hammer] and pouring bowling water over them” (p. 483).

Also in the basket: Bodum’s Assam tea press, a mint plant, roseflower water, dried limes, orange flower water, pomegranate syrup, Mustapha’s Moroccan Harissa and Olives, Gilway Demerara Sugar Cubes, Urban Accents rice, and several large containers of spices including sumac and whole fenugreek and nigella seeds.