Stocking stuffers for the culinary-inclined

You’ve probably finished all of your Christmas shopping by now … ho, ho, ho! But for those few of you who are still on the hunt, here are some finds from your foraging foodies.

Naturally, if we’re recommending a gift, it’s likely to have something to do with cooking. Although there is so much stuff available, it’s often hard to make a decision.

How does one choose between a chestnut-roasting pan, a sectioned alderwood box for finishing salts or a personalized silicone spatula? We can’t even begin to help you with this conundrum. However, we have found some wonderful stocking stuffers that cooks will really appreciate. Once you’ve used them, you’ll wonder how you lived without them.

Williams-Sonoma, in the Crystal Cove shopping center, is a cooks’ paradise. They have everything from the $60,000 La Cornue stove to a $2.50 potato peeler.

Terry, being a gadget freak, is always tempted to try the latest gizmo. Culling from her recent purchases, she has found a few gems (as well as a few duds, which we won’t mention).

The first of these has been around for a while, but it is so much better than anything of its kind, we want to be sure that everyone knows about it. This is the Microplane zester/grater. If you think it looks like an ordinary rasp from a toolbox, you are correct. That’s exactly what it was.

In 1994, a Canadian housewife, the spouse of a hardware-store owner, frustrated with her old grater, picked up a new rasp that her husband had just brought home from their store and slid it over an orange, “the lacy shards of zest fell from its surface like snowflakes.” Marveling at the performance of the tool, they changed the product description in their catalogue and Microplane was born.

What makes it so outstanding is the convenience of the shape and handle, its incredible sharpness and ease of use (no knuckle-scraping here). It removes only the zest and none of the bitter white. You can also grate ginger and nutmeg with this same tool. They now make several other products, including two sizes of cheese grater and a Mouli-type rotary grater.

Another nifty tool is the Egg Perfect egg timer. Unlike other egg timers that make no allowance for variables such as the amount of water in the pot, the size of the pot and the number of eggs, this little egg-shaped plastic thingamajig — that you drop into the water with the eggs — changes its color as the eggs go from soft to medium to hard.

Williams-Sonoma has a new and improved oven mitt called the Kitchen Grip. Water and stain repellent as well as heat resistant, it’s made out of some new-age fabric that has a tacky surface for better gripping and is smaller, thinner and more flexible than earlier incarnations of the modern mitt.

The Microplanes and the Egg Perfect can also be purchased at Coast Hardware.

Although it is not available except on line, the Aladdin knife sharpener, for a paltry $7, is as good as anything out there, except for a Japanese knife vendor in Tokyo with six different whetstones. It’s about three-inches long, is mounted to a wall or cabinet with one nail, and takes only about five swipes and no technique whatsoever to hone any knife. Elle finally has sharp knives after 40 years of dullness.

Another fantastic gadget available online is the JarPop. How many times have you frantically banged a jar lid against the kitchen sink or gone apoplectic trying to twist off a top? This simple, $5 device opens vacuum-sealed jars with just one flick of the wrist. It’s so easy, you’ll want to give this to everyone you know: a better mousetrap indeed!

If you would like to encourage the children in your life to take up cooking, so would the folks at Williams-Sonoma. To this end, they have devised some fun packages, such as their gender-based baking sets.

For little girls, there is the all-pink cookie-making kit with a princess theme: pink rolling pin, pink rolling mat, a pink apron, and pink cookie cutters in the form of a dress, a shoe and a crown. This may be supplemented with a pink hand mixer or pink spatula. There is also a version that includes a cookie-decorating kit.

For boys, the cookie-cutter set features trains, trucks and planes. There is also a nonsexist version depicting the ABCs. There are also pancake molds with the same themes.

Slightly more complicated are the 3-D cookie cutters using flat cookies that slot together to form Santa’s sleigh, reindeer and a tree. You can find some fabulous cake molds, most impressive of which are the football stadium and the model train set with five different cars.

For the shopper, these items are all cleverly arranged for one-stop shopping, with everything you need to complete the project in a single display.

On a noninteractive level are charming hot chocolate snowman mugs featuring lids that are hats. Matching pitchers and spoons complete the deal. At this display, you’ll find hot chocolate mixes and two kinds of artisanal marshmallows: chocolate and peppermint swirl.

Cooking with kids can be fun and educational as well as a bonding experience. Measuring teaches math skills; mixing ingredients and adding heat teaches chemistry — and any activity that you do with children teaches love.