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Mom and Dad get us alcohol every year, usually good beer. It is always appreciated.

Mother and Father-in-law always give us cookies. I think they are okay, but my husband LOVES mom's cookies.

The best gift we ever got was homemade duck confit. Wow, that's a gift.

fresh white truffle from Alba

Probably liquor. I got a $75 bottle of fine bourbon once. I still have a bit left - cannot part with the last of that beautiful liquid gold.

A good friend and I make truffles to give to friends and families each year. This year we've got five types we're making - mango curry, raspberry, amaretto, chipotle dusted with cinnamon, and orange. They're always a great hit, and my friend and I get to spend a day together goofing off and drinking while handling vast quantities of chocolate -- a win/win scenario!

No wrapping paper, but this was the best: I climbed a peak and was out of water. Another climber gave me an orange.

My coworker's grandma sent me homemade jam. It was wonderful. :)

Definitely good bourbon. But homemade lebkuchen is a close second.

Home-made raspberry infused vodka. So good.

It wasn't specifically given to me, but my family. My family's electrician's (what, they had a lot of work for him!) wife would make cookies for us every year. With the assorted cookies came a piece of this truly yummy strudel thing that I still think about to this day. I should really try to get the recipe.

I think (IMHO) the best food gift we ever gave was shortbread cookies with lemon curd - all homemade, of course.

My parents gave my boyfriend a subscription to the bacon-of-the-month club at zingermann's last year. Seriously, the best gift. Even after we'd used all the bacon, we told the story to everyone.

My mother gives me the best food gifts ever. Like shredded sweet-sour-spicy mango chutney with mangoes from my parents' backyard. I am never home during mango season, so one year she tracked down a cannery and bullied the manager to can her mango pulp (30-40 cans). The poor guy tried to explain that they don't take such tiny orders, but my mother is persistent if nothing else. I get a couple of cans each year and that mango pulp is literally treated as liquid gold around my home.

This will probably disturb a lot of gourmands, but I got a hot dog theme gift basket, with amazing whole-seed mustard, soft, fresh hot dog buns, and Kahn's hot dogs.

laetitiae, where did you get your truffle recipes from? I was thinking of making raspberry truffles for my sister, but yours sound so much more exciting-- especially that chipotle one!

1. selection of unusual chocolates, as wasabi chocolate, red pepper, bacon and sea salt. we had the tasting feast right away!
2. one on my friend bakes all sort of funky breads , wraps them and pass them around. yummy!
3. cheeses of the month. was not my present, but my friends, who would invite us for cheese-bread and wine get together, when cheeses arrived ones a month.
4.huge bucket of popcorn with three different flavours in it. very handy for holiday pre-dinner munch.
5. linen sack filled with chestnuts from my co-worker's parents home.
6. exotic salt selection from napa-style catalog, in wooden box with compartments.
7. chocolate wodoo figure right after break up.
8. crooked cookies made and decorated by my 4 year old goddaughter.

Before Hill Country opened I couldn't get decent BBQ in NYC, so my brother would smoke a brisket for me to take home everytime I went to Texas. He'd give me that and a few cans of Ranch Style beans, which I never thought of as delicacy until I moved away and found out they aren't available nationwide. It was a great gift, a little taste of home.

I've gotten loaves of pumpkin bread and eggnog bread from students this year. They've both been very good. One little boy brought in a bag of donuts he made for me. Haven't tried them yet...

Luigi,

How come you didn't mention the Pierre Herme macarons that I brought back for you from Paris?!?!?

kathryn,
i was keeping it as our little secret. now, next time you'll have to bring back Pierre Herme macrons for EVERYONE!

as3087 - We get the recipes either from sites online (primarily epicurious) or just by experimenting. For the chipotle truffles, mix some chipotle powder into the center ganache of the truffle. I just mix it in a bit at a time until I get the desired level of heat. We typically then mix some cinnamon and cocoa powder together and roll the truffles in that. Remarkably easy and very tasty.

A bushel of oysters from the Chesapeake shore from my sweet stepdad. We had a case of Beaujolais Noveau because if was so great that year and had a series of spontaneous parties that we look back on fondly.

Just yesterday for my birthday I got the best "floral arrangement" ever. It was actually a bouquet of lettuce and chocolate fondue dipped strawberries from http://www.ediblearrangements.com/.

All of it was consumable and the holder was a re-usable, over-sized coffee mug. Excellent!

My favorite gift was a pound of french goose foie gras until I received an 8 oz. tin of Sevruga. It's hard to pick from those two.

This isn't something I've given or received YET, but I love the idea of a CSA subscription...CSA is Community Supported Agriculture. Members buy a subscription per season and every week or every other week (depending on how much fruit and veggies your household eats) you get an assorted box of seasonal, locally grown produce. Some growers even have flowers, herbs, eggs or dairy. Great for members, farmers and the community. A couple CSA farms I've looked in to are about $20-25 per box in San Diego...well below retail value for the quantity and variety, and it would totally encourage people (like me!) to cook with fresh, seasonal veggies more often...

http://www.localharvest.org/csa

A collection of French mustards in these little tiny jars... all different kinds. I love mustard. It was great.

i have several:

- a birthday gift in the form of a plate of nanaimo bars left in the fridge for me, two weeks after my actual birthday

- boxes of german cookies from my friend, always at just the right time during finals; she has her german grandmother's recipes, which she won't divulge - she just bakes hundreds of them every year to give to people (crescent horns, hazelnut butter cookies with a lemon glaze, chewy ginger cookies, etc)