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It surely won’t have escaped your notice that today is Children in Need day. You might have been busy knocking up cakes for cake sales, and if not then get ready for next year by stocking up at Lakeland now. There doesn’t appear to be a cookbook to support Children in Need this year, so here are five books out right now that support five very worthwhile charities.

Help for Heroes Cook Book

1. Food for Heroes - I’ve written about this before, and I make no apology about featuring this again, as the Food for Heroes Cookbook has it all. Great recipes, incredibly moving stories and raising money for a very worthwhile charity, Help for Heroes. With recipes from the chefs, celebrities and the heroes from the frontline, both today and in conflicts past, but not forgotten, you’ll find new stuff to cook. Even if you don’t, feel good about buying it.

2. The Caledonian Kitchen - a collection of recipes from around Scotland to
help raise funds for Action Duchenne, the UK charity working towards finding a cure for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Again, this is a collection of recipes from Scottish celebrities, chefs and regular Scots with great recipes to share, and supporting a cause that doesn’t get huge amounts of publicity.

3. Kili Cookbook - again, a cookbook to support a worthwhile charity that you don’t hear a lot about. Climb Your Mountain helps people who are suffering from depression, anxiety and stress. The charity recognises that exercise and the focus of achievement can make a real difference to how someone feels, so Climb Your Mountain offers a wide variety of activities and challenges along with support, training and motivation to help people climb their own personal mountain. These are family favourite recipes from Pené Morgan, who will be climbing Mount Kilimanjaro next year in aid of the charity. All profits from this book go to Climb Your Mountain.

4. Think Pink’s Fantastic Recipes for a Fantastic Cause- Must be something about Scotland, they’re obviously very fond of their food, and they are very fond of their charity cookbooks. Funds from this book are going towards funding a laboratory at the new Translational Research Centre in Glasgow as part of the £10 million Beatson Pebble Appeal campaign. Quite an extensive book with 350 pages of great recipe favourites inspired by local people from family, friends, acquaintances, MSPs, athletes, chefs, TV personalities and celebrities, including Gordon Ramsay, Alex Salmond and Lorraine Kelly.

5. The Fairtrade Everyday Cookbook - this is an everyday cookbook showing how easy it is to buy, cook and eat Fairtrade foods. These recipes are combinations from winners of a national competition run by The Fairtrade Foundation and then recipes from celebrities, chefs and other notable figures. And for every cookbook sold, a portion of the cover price will be donated to Fairtrade. I have no idea what Marma Banana Crunchies are but they sound good to me!

So cook good stuff, and do good at the same time! And don’t forget to donate to Children in Need!

Christmas is coming!

The launch of the Boots Gift Guide is one of those markers in the run up to Christmas, and it launched in stores today. No doubt there will be kids, big and small, busy putting rings round items tonight in the hope of Santa being generous, and buying into the Mix and Match three for two!

What about for the foodies amongst us, what temptation for us?

Before I tell you what I think, a bit of transparency. In my day job, the part where I have to stop thinking about food, I work for Boots at the main office in Nottingham. I don’t work in food, and I don’t work in gifts. But I do know who pays my mortgage. So, dear reader, please don’t expect me to round on the the hand that feeds. I will tell you honestly what I like and, if I don’t mention it, then I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions!

So, as long as we understand each other, here’s what I’m thinking about!

As an overall statement, I would say that I would want to go and look at some of these things in the shop, to understand the origin of some of the things. Lets face it, foodies are big on provenance, and I would want to know where my olive oil was coming from for example. That aside, these things are looking pretty good.

1. Jamie Oliver Flaked Sea Salt Kilner Jar - you know what, this is a great stocking stuffer for a foodie. You can always use salt around the kitchen or table, and Kilner jars always earn their keep around the kitchen. There is a cracked black pepper version, which is okay for use on the table but I would think most of us would want to grind our own at point of cooking.

2. Kschocolat Night In Gift Set- can’t beat a good chocolate gift, and this both looks attractive and is decent chocolate. Includes milk, dark and white chocolate, and I’m quite keen on the sound of toffettes and honeycomb!

3. Jamie Oliver Crazy Mother Cooker Apron – because there are so many of us about! The kids one is cute too.

4. Faitrade Hamper - doing the right thing and getting great tasting stuff too. A nice tea time collection, with tea, coffee and cocoa, as well as biscuits, honey and chocolate. And you get two new mugs, so you can clear out those awful tatty promotional ones from the bank that are lurking at the back of the cupboard!

5. CAMRA Real Ales Gift - good one for the beer lovers, and possibly more welcome than a four pack of Special Brew! I like that it has tasting notes, as well as three different bottles of beer, including Coniston Bluebird and Oakham JHB.

6. Burger Press Set - we love our burger press, and it’s a great piece of kit for a BBQ foodie. A Boxing Day BBQ with turkey burgers possibly on the cards?

So, there’s 6 I would definitely consider. Although, to be fair, I don’t often buy gifts from Boots, as everyone always assumes I have got them for free!

Oh, and if you are looking for a gorgeous fragrance gift, shameless plug for this one here.

Fabulous chocolate hampers from Chocolate Trading Co

It’s getting to that time of year when I get inundated with emails about hampers, and I often wonder who buys them. There’s the big corporate buyers, and I would think that a good hamper would be well received by many people. Even if you didn’t get the whole hamper, everyone on a team could get a share. Which you couldn’t say about the linen bedsheets I got given one year by a supplier, but that’s a whole different story.

I think there are the hamper that supplement your Christmas eating, or stock up your cupboards for January. You see these quite often with people like Park, or Webb Ivory. I have to say that browsing the Park website I was horrified at the Kids Treat frozen food hamper. Put it this way, I don’t think they’d get Jamie Oliver to endorse it. But you could put something like this together yourself, and I can picture my mum doing this for my grandparents. You can do stuff someone loves, or something they might have been wanting to try, or any theme you can care to choose.

And then there’s the stuff that’s just a great foodie indulgence, and there’s just so much variety around now, of every theme and price tag. There are so many choices, and I’m not going to list the obvious ones (if you’ve got the money for Harrods, you don’t need to be reading this) but here’s some thoughts from me on where to go and what I’d be looking at:

Chocolate Trading Co – some serious hampers for the serious chocolate lover. You can create your own, or there are some good selections already there including dark chocolate and organic chocolate. Or, if it’s only the chocolate that needs to be seriously good, then you could try the Fun & Funky hamper.

FunkyHampers.com - kind of does what it says on the tin! I would say this is not so much for the foodie, but a gift for someone difficult to choose for! Not just for Christmas, as they do great new home and new baby hampers. They are quite chocolate based but are good quality choc and nice accessories, not tat.

Ethical Superstore – a good stop for green foodies, the hampers here cover fair trade, organic and eco-friendly options. I like the Taste Of options, which include Italian, Indian and African versions. For the party animals though, I might be tempted to choose the Beer’n'Nuts Party Pack!

The Fish Society – if I had to fill my freezer up, then I’d choose to do it with fish, and The Fish Society have some great options. There are everyday versions, but if it’s for Christmas than have a look at the luxury version, which includes turbot and Dover sole, or the smoked fish version with smoked tuna as well as the more usual smoked salmon.

London Fine Foods Group – this is real foodie’s territory! I would say this was ideal hunting ground for fabulous stuff to make up a hamper with a difference for a real gourmet. I also really love the Cheese Towers, perfect for a cheese lover. Mind you, I always wanted to send a whole Iberian Ham on the bone, just to see their faces as they tried to guess what it was!

TeaWorld – for a country of tea lovers, this could be the perfect choice, but not if you’re after just your average cup of builders. There are easy tea gifts and more connoisseur selections, covering all kinds of tea from Liquorice through to chais and herbal teas.

Pong – this is a great place for cheese lovers and experimenters. Again, pick your own or choose from gift boxes such as the Ultimate Pong Box or the Chef’s Selection. Not a long lasting gift, but very tasty whilst it lasts!

Needless to say I would think all the high street and grocers will offer versions of hampers in the run up to Christmas, but these are just a few to allow you to find something a little bit different for your gift choices this year. And I think the answer these days is yes, I possibly would buy a hamper. Just not one that involved turkey twizzlers.