ISO holiday hostess with the mostest gifts. What are the best you've received (or given!)? Kudos if it travels well!!

Sam, love your ideas. The fire starters are especially useful to people!
I have also given or appreciated getting gift cards to NimanRanch.com, worldspice.com, kalustyans.com or cookware shops like Sur La Table, etc. Wrap a gift card together with a little bottle of spice or some kitchen item and a nice bow.

Instead of food some good items they would use. Especially if you know they don't have them:
- A natural slate board for serving charcuterie. http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/3104379/?catalogId=60&bnrid=3120901&cm_ven=Google_PLA&cm_cat=Cutlery&cm_pla=Cutting_Boards&cm_ite=Brooklyn_Slate_Cheese_Board%2C_Grey%2C_10%22_x_14%22_|_Williams-Sonoma&srccode=cii_17588969&cpncode=35-135223055-2
Or make your own from slate tiles. http://mindyknows.com/tag/make-your-own-slate-cheese-board/

- A Granite Mortar and pestle from a Asian store.
- A Crock jar for fermenting cabage into kraut...with printed instructions.
- A table top gas burner. Again the asian stores will those. Or Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/Max-Burton-Table-Burner-Black/dp/B000G6S8Y8
Get extra canisters. Great for power outages or serving things for table top cooking, like Pho Soup. etc. Most Asian stores will have those and canisters for cheap. A must have IMHO when power goes out.
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If they have a wood fireplace..homemade pine cone wax dipped fire starters are good.

I love receiving really beautiful flower arrangements for the table. Some things I've given are pretty serving platters, teapots + tea with homemade lemon pound cake.

A pretty little flower arrangement (or garlandy - pine coney - berry-y thing for the holiday season)

As we speak I have a dozen half-pint jars of preserved lemons curing; http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2006/12/moroccan-preser-1/. They'll be ready for new homes right around Christmas. I'll give them away with some recipe ideas for how to use them.

I'm a big fan of amaryllis bulbs from White Flower Farm (.com). They're excellent quality, much better than any I've gotten from local nurseries or hardware stores. I've re-grown bulbs from them for 3 years in a row. I wouldn't recommend trying to schlepp one on an airplane but they ship anywhere in the world. You also have to not mind giving someone a bulb that is not yet bloomed. When you open the box, you're looking at a pot of dirt - you'd want to know that your recipient wouldn't mind that. But watching them grow is a big part of the gift!

I just got a jar of roasted nuts, cranberries and white chocolate chips. I think there was a spice on the nuts…..delish in a mason jar with a ribbon. Beautiful and relish!

Lemoncello....takes the sting off the holiday madness. There is always so much rich food around the holidays, I think a gift that doesn't have to be eaten right away is nice. I often make flavored salts (citrus, lavender, celery etc) in attractive little vintage looking containers with a little booklet of suggested uses for the non-expert cooks. That has gone over well.

One of my guests arrived with a basket full of the the next day's breakfast: a nice eggy dish to pop into the oven (it was a delicious cheesy item, too!) along with muffins, good butter, jam, and tea. After spending all afternoon cooking and the evening being "the mostest", it was nice to have a ready breakfast for me and my overnight guests the next morning -- tasty, thoughtful and appreciated!

A Laguiole 3-piece cheese knife set. They come in all price ranges and finishes but you can usually find them for under $50.

Love making black and white cookies in a pan

Depending on what type of food the hostess likes to cook, a Weck jar (or other cute jar) of homemade preserved lemons would be lovely.

I always have pots of herbs growing in the kitchen bay window. Tie a ribbon around one, and off you go.

I received a beautifully packaged bottle of homemade spice blend. I love it and the packaging was so gorgeous, a Sri Lankan roasted curry powder from one of our own Queen Sashy. She wrote what is in the blend. It's so nice!

Bottle of olive oil.

Homemade jam and bread, fudge, truffle oil, my own infused Vinigar, top quality Balsamic Vinigar, my own spiced nut with the recipe, etc. Always packaged in a special way for presentation.

Love bringing cookies in a cute cookie tin.