A Few Low Carb Gifts

Still searching for the perfect gift for the low carber in your life? A few ideas:

* A nice low carb cookbook! Gee, I wonder where you could get one of those...

* CarbSmart has great gift baskets! A really impressive assortment, with a wide range of prices; you're bound to find something perfect for your favorite low carber.

* My publisher once gave me a membership to a Bacon of the Month Club for Christmas. How cool is that? A different variety of small-farm, specialty-cured bacon delivered to my door every month for a year. Google tells me there are several clubs, so you can pick and choose; just google "Bacon of the Month Club".

* I don't put candy in That Nice Boy I Married's stocking. I put expensive cheese, the sort of thing that costs $10/pound and up. Stilton, Old Amsterdam 5 year old gouda, whatever looks best at the cheese shop. An assortment of superb cheese on a nice wooden cutting board, plus a cheese knife, makes a great gift. Heck, throw in a bottle of wine.

* Want to send cheese, instead of shopping for it yourself? Consider the extraordinary raw, grass-fed milk cheeses of Bobolink Dairy. I've had their cheese, it's worth every penny.

* How about nuts? A big can of toasted pecans, a pound of macadamias, a container of deluxe mixed nuts, all make great gifts.

* Indeed, some of the big food catalog companies -- you know, the Harry & David or Figi's kind of thing -- offer packages with just cheese and nuts, and sometimes a few pieces of excellent fruit. Of course, many of their packages also contain candies, cakes and cookies, so read the descriptions carefully, but since these companies generally guarantee that your gift will arrive in time if you order by a set date, they're a great choice for those folks you love across the country.

* A gift card to the best local steak or seafood house will not come amiss.

* You could just send steaks!