Make a Chris -- um, holiday gift basket full of stuff from your region.

[KamaAina]

You know, stuff that's only found around there, that the recipient of the basket, a time zone or two away, wouldn't otherwise be able to find.

For me, this is kind of a no-brainer, since they actually make them: along with the chocolate mac nuts and Kona (usually 10% "Kona blend") coffee, I'd throw in a box of chocolate-dipped mac nut shortbread cookies from Big Island Candies, a local novel by Lois-Ann Yamanaka or Nora Okja Keller, and the "Slack Key Masters" CD that won the Grammy last year in the new Hawaiian category. Alas, 'ono local produce such as Big Island grapefruit, Maui avocados and the like can't be shipped to the mainland; it would actually be easier to export them if we were still a separate country!

[DS1]

1. I recommend putting your gift basket in a chilled area

[kick-ass-bob]

2. here:

[BigMcLargehuge]

3. well, from my current state/region, your basket would contain -

A jar of real maple syrup. A handful of granite stones, Books by both John Clayton and Fritz Weatherby (at the state level) and Robert Frost on the local level. I'd include a coffee mug inscribed with the legend of Ocean Born Mary. I'd also stuff it with some native sweet corn, strawberry and black raspberry preserves, and small book of famous French Canadian recipes.

If it was from the state/region where I was born the basket would contain -

A one pound box of salted codfish, a piece of etched scrimshaw, A pound of Melo's Linguica, a tub of Fresh Cheese, loaf of Sweet Bread, a bio of Fredrick Douglas, a copy of Moby Dick, and a picture book about Lincoln Park. a bunch of tigerlilly seeds, a grapevine starter kit.

[RubyDuby in GA]

4. Our's is rather simple:

+




and don't forget these (it's how we settle everything here...just ask Zell)


and i guess we'll throw in this:

[KamaAina]

5. Oh come on now. I don't even get a...

? Grandma and Grandpa (in Fla.) used to send us one of those each and every year. Mom got sick of 'em up to here...

[RubyDuby in GA]

6. I went to college in the town next to Claxton.

You get off the incredibly long and boring I-16 and either turn left to go to GA Southern or right to go to Claxton.

I hear they make good doorstops.....

[Kali]

10. SNORK

:spray: :rofl:

[bleedingheart]

23. hey where are the pecans????

hmmmmmm

[Terran]

24. LOL! n/t

[Bunny]

7. From the heart of Western PA:

First, a holiday libation:



Now, how about a nice sammich?



Fry up a big plate of these babies:



And,for dessert:



And you can wave this while watching the Steelers!



Happy Holidays!

[bleedingheart]

22. hey now...you forgot...

There is no ketchup but...

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Some kielbasa and Kraut to go along with those pierogies..

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[yellowdogintexas]

8. Lone Star Holiday Basket:

Raspberry or Blueberry Chipotle Sauce from Central Market
Stubb's Barbecue Sauce from Austin
Pralines
A Selection of Spices from Penderry's (formerly Ft Worth Chile Supply)
A blown glass ornament of a red Chile Rastra (hanging bunch)
Margarita Mix
Sweet Lemons from the Rio Grande Valley
Candy from Pangburns in Fort Worth
Assorted fresh roasted nuts from Vending Nut Company
Picante Sauce from Joe T Garcia's
Some Llano wine
Carol Nelson Douglas's Midnight Louie Thriller
Jeff Guinn's "A History of Santa Claus"

[KamaAina]

11. Um, pralines?

Wouldn't they be found in the New Orleans basket? Or is there a special Texas version of them?

Now, sweet lemons. There you have something. I don't believe I have ever seen a sweet lemon, and I've been around.

[RubyDuby in GA]

19. Nope, for the best pralines around:

http://www.savannahcandy.com/



Mmmmm...mmmmmmm........good.

[yellowdogintexas]

20. they are just enormously popular and many of the family type

Mexican restaurants sell them.

Pecans are grown in Texas as a cash crop, so probably that is part of it.

Inever saw these "sweet Lemons" until I started shopping at Central Market, but they are from the Valley

[Kali]

9. I do this a lot but the book by a local author is friggin' BRILLIANT

(I tend to focus on food and bev)

THANKS!

edit to add: or music!!!

[Kali]

12. Ok I get it now

a small cactus in a planter, a bottle of Arizona wine from Bowie/Dos Cabezas and or beer from the Nimbus Brewery, some homemeade beef jerky or a nice frozen roast or pair of steaks, pecans, some kind of local made (or homemade) salsa, tamales, the obligatory cactus jelly, and a scorpion embedded in plastic.

edit: oops, duh - a J A Jance silly novel, and one of the "Locals Only" CDs produced by community radio station KXCI

[Whoa_Nelly]

13. Direct, to You! From the California San Joaquin Valley!

And more!

[tjdee]

14. You can get everything in NJ everywhere else...can't you?

Someone suggested this to me, and I was like...uh....what does New Jersey have? I mean, I got some sand...there's not really a Jersey food, or anything.

If I could find something like that, I'd make millions, LOL! (That's from a movie I can't remember the name of.)

[KamaAina]

15. It so happens that Mom and Repuke Man have a weekend place in NJ

right on the ocean in Long Branch.
(Repuke Man = stepdad; he does manage to keep the horns nicely filed down and the tail neatly tucked in :evilgrin: )

Let's see: salt water taffy, Portuguese rolls from Newark, maybe an early Bruce bootleg from the Stone Poney days you scared up at a yard sale. Repuke Man also swears by the small Italian plums he gets at Super Foodtown down the street, but the season ended a couple of months ago.

[LiberalEsto]

17. Taylor ham

Nobody outside NJ has ever heard of it. Also known as pork roll.
But in NJ you can order it fried as a side to your morning eggs, or put it on a sandwich (fried, of course.)

Here's a link to more info on taylor ham:
http://www.porkrollxpress.com/newstore/index.cfm?Refresh=Yes

NJ has many excellent diners and great pizza. And don't forget the Rutgers Tomato, developed at our state university.

I've lived in Maryland for 15 years since we left NJ. One of the first things we do when we visit NJ is go to a real diner.

[KitchenWitch]

16. My basket would contain...

Various cheeses (Minnesota makes cheese too), Honeycrisp Apples and Wild Rice.

[pokerfan]

18. darn it, now I'm hungry

Apples (duh)
Smoked steelhead trout
Huckleberries
Sweet Onions
Cougar Gold Cheese (http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/10/27/WIGUGFC7BQ1.DTL&type=wine)
A CD containing our official state song, "Roll On, Columbia," by Woody Guthrie

[Burma Jones]

21. From the DC area we offer

CRABS!!!!!!!!


Chesapeake Oysters - now with fewer toxins than ever


Maryland Fried Chicken - It doesn't HAVE to be Purdue


Virginia Ham - Yummmmmmmm


The Grease and Oil for Frying


And the Hot Air to power it all....

[Terran]

25. From Mid-Missouri

Some good wine from Stone Hill in Hermann (Missouri had the second largest wine industry in the nation prior to Prohibition--surprising, eh?)



Some homemade bratwurst...



And a little something from the Candy Factory in Columbia.

[Love Bug]

26. Wild rice, nut goodies, lutefisk, lefse, the book "How to Talk Minnesotan"

a cd of Prairie Home Companion, and some kind of food on a stick.

[Tsiyu]

27. Lots of cool stuff

Salt-rising bread; a handmade scythe; Mennonite tomatoes, Strawberry Rhubarb Preserves, and Hot Southern ChowChow; hand-fired pottery and glassware; a Lodge castiron roaster; Coyote Cove "Summer of 69" spray.

And some moonshine to sip as you enjoy your gifts




from: www.slamdance.com/.../ film_detail.asp?film_id=53