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.

I’ve talked before about trying to do good for the Earth. Maybe “Trashing the Fridge” is a bit extreme, so here’s something you are probably doing already: carrying reusable bags to your localorganicsustainable grocer. I’m big on reusable bags (as mentioned in the above post). Sometimes canvas totes, sometimes IKEA beach bags, sometimes nylon bags that can be squished into tiny sacks so as to fit absolutely anywhere, sometimes just regular paper sacks used again. When I find myself at the grocery  store *without* a reusable bag, I think about those tiny squished nylon pouches and feel a twinge of guilt. Why didn’t I just throw one of those in my bag assuming I’d be buying something somewhere that day?

Guilt-inducing aside, nylon sacks are great, but have you ever felt like a bit of a shoplifter carrying one around and throwing food in instead of using a basket or cart while you’re shopping? Maybe I’m out on a limb on that one, but just the same, handier still are these collapsible baskets. 

They do double duty—basket for shopping, basket for carrying the goods home. They take a little more forethought, true. But I assure you everywhere you go women (and men) will stop you and ask where they can get one too (this post is meant in part as a public service announcement). For those who regularly take the car to do the shopping, just keep them in the trunk!

If budget is not an issue, you can reliably find one at Garnet Hill’s website or through their clothing & home décor themed catalog. If you have a more conservative budget, try a trip to Marshall’s where they’re often available for $9.99. As always, you pay for what you get; the color choices at Garnet Hill are much more varied and so far it seems to be a steadily offered item. Reisenthel, the brand behind the Garnet Hill bags, offers a number of fun patterns as well. I also purchased the covers at Garnet Hill (to go w/ Marshall’s bought bags… bringing the total to $21/ea.).

And for your monthly (err, weekly) wine shopping, try Reisenthel’s 9-bottle carrier available from reusablebags.com. Trust me, you’ll be the talk of Trader Joe’s with this one.

Images: Garnet Hill (top 2), reusablebags.com (bottom)