We are so remiss in our gratitude, or its expression. Years flit by, apparently without the time for acknowledgement. This year, out in the cheese department, we appreciate a refrigerator covered with the enchanting art of our patrons’ children. We thank you for Illustrated novellas from a loving five year old and the refinement of old world pastries from a most gracious septuagenarian. Thanks to you for the suave pear butter and the glistening black currant preserves made with those rare Bar de Luc currants. Thanks for pears, again, in crisp and crumbly pear tartes (Tatins or otherwise). Thanks for pungent, still-warm gingerbread, a quintessential German plum torte, and chocolate dipped shortbread. Thanks for a perfect bar of pistachio nougat tucked into a backpack in Paris. Thanks for 99% cacao chocolate, saffron and truffles from northern Italy, and journals and haberdashery from there as well. Thanks and props for coveted recipes that we would never dare ask for- from Italy, Iran, Puerto Rico, Greece, Provence, Spain, Louisiana and Center Square. Thanks for pungent La Mancha saffron somehow gotten through customs, and Spanish cheeses unavailable for export. Thank you for a munificence of homegrown vegetables, and for the resultant ratatouille on a torrid late August weekend. Thanks for a still-warm tortilla Espagnol one early Sunday morning, and for a profoundly nurturing potpie at a most somber time. Always, thanks for the hug, the advice and wisdom, the tears, the more frequent smiles.

Of course there is no way to thank all of you- our customers, members and staff. Perhaps we can make your life a bit easier this giving time of year with help with a gift basket, a hostess gift, or a recipe. We will make every effort to provide some new things for you to savor this season, and to share with those you love. Tanna’s Tuscan salt makes a nice gift, just as a jar of any of her chutneys, perhaps with a piece of goat cheese. We use the salt on ‘most everything. As for cheeses, we have several new varieties as well as traditional holiday favorites. Sample the new line of raw goat cheese from the Chaput cheese makers up in Chateauguay, Quebec. The Chaput family believes strongly in the health benefits of raw milk, for the sake of nutrition and immunity, and their several varieties of old-French style cheeses are an anticipated addition to our cheese case. Or try those new little “Chevrechard aux epices”, or “C. au pimenton d’espelettes” from la belle France. They look grand on a cheese platter and were a definite hit in November. A big chunk of Montasio accompanied by a jar of t pear Mostarda from Casa Forcelli would make a generous gift for your Italophile who has everything, as would a substantive shard of Grana padano, which is quite superior lately. We have haunting truffle cheeses and a good selection of fruity and satisfying wine-soaked specimens from Italy and Spain. We now offer six varieties of Manchego, a testament to our customers’ commitment and discernment. With any of those we might suggest a slab of the new Membrillo, or quince paste, that has a delightfully granular texture and a sharp note of quince, making for a brilliant accompaniment for any variety of Manchego. We promise to keep a good stock of Stilton for the traditionalist, and a selection of traditional style Cheddars, from BritainVermont. And there will be our usual array of celebratory triple crèmes and robioli. and

Those best-selling Grilled Green Olives from outside of Rome are now available in jars- perfect in a gift basket. We will have our usual selection of superior extra virgin olive oils and balsamic vinegars from 6 to 30 years old. Rustichella d’Abruzzo has several new pasta shapes, many in whole wheat and faro. We’d be happy with Mister Claus if he merely brought us a bag of their Fregola Sardo. If he added a chunk of Moliterno, and a jar of that Pommodoracio tomato antipasto, we’d ask him to stay for supper. The fregola, like a toastier Israeli couscous, might provide a nice bed for a roasted bird or a savory vegetable stew. We have the complete line of infused olive oil and vinegar from the à l’Olivier company. Finally, successful infusions! The celebrated Moulins Mahjoub Company has a beautifully packaged new couscous and two new harissa sauces if you need to satisfy a racier foodie pal. We have a new line of truffle products, including truffle flour that doesn’t lose its depth when heated (as truffle oil so often will). There are new truffle honeys and salts, and we have finally tracked down the elusive Italian Cremina Cremosa Tartufo, an erstwhile favorite around here. We might advise that you savor truffles in some form this winter before they become even more outrageously expensive. Likewise, saffron- we have the beautifully- packaged ounces-and is there a better gift for a culinarian whom you love? We have the best selection of preserves ever, including the intense Harvest Song sour cherry preserves that we love on a luxuriant triple crème. Mostarda, that enigmatically Italian fruit preserve spiked with mustard, is now available in pear, plum and crabapple. We love “gli mostardi” with our new Italian Tavoliere or Panarello, or alongside a big wintry roast or vegetable stew. From the elegant Marzoni Company we have fruit pastes, intense with pear, plum or fig.

Once again, we have those grand Italian holiday desserts, to whit the traditional Pannetone, Panforte and Turron from the Manicharetti folks. We ordered a lot of those gorgeously packaged Siennese panforte so we won’t run out like last year. We have a new selection of chocolates from Michel Cluizel, as elegant and alluring a line of chocolate as we know of. Michel Cluizel Chocolatier is based in Normandy and has been dipping and filling and spreading outstanding chocolate creations since 1948. They have long-term fair trade relations with the finest cacao plantations in the world. They use the finest bourbon vanilla and no soy lecithin, a blessing to those with an allergy to soy. We’ll have a très luxe ballotine of filled bon bons, with marzipan, praline and gianduja fillings. We all have someone on our gift list that doesn’t need but wants that! Les Normands will also provide whimsical mushrooms and the shatteringly crisp Maracolats, a form of macaroon filled with various ganaches. Plus we carry some of their single estate chocolate bars with cacao contents ranging up to 85%. (Adieu, Valrhona). April and Wei Zhang, no doubt with the assistance of the lovely Vicenza, continue to create their intense, beautifully- packaged truffles again this season. There will be the dark, dark espresso, the ginger milk chocolate, the superb malt ganache truffle with its smattering of pralin, as well as a recently developed jasmine-infused truffle. Mariam of Dutch Desserts will provide her usual array of crisp, buttery crusted fruit and chocolate “taarts”, as well as her new butterscotch shortbreads. We could never thank enough people like Mariam, April, Tanna, and Vittorio, etal, for their continued hard work and support year round.

Likewise, profound thanks to you, our customers, members and friends who share their gustatory pleasures, advice, talents, families, and lives with us- every day, year in and year out. Maybe some of the products mentioned above will make your gift giving easier, or give an old recipe new life. In any event, we wish you most convivial holidays and every blessing in the New Year.