3 Food, Organization and Decor Books That Make Perfect Last-Minute Gifts

Need a last-minute gift for the holidays? Check out these 3 must-have books that are guaranteed to make your loved ones smile!

Home Made Christmas by Yvette Van Boven

For the holiday lover

This year’s holiday season will no doubt be different, but that doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate (safely) by sharing a delicious meal with our close relatives. If you’re looking to create the perfect holiday menu, look no further: Home Made Christmas is the only book you’ll need!

Containing more than 100 festive recipes, Home Made Christmas is designed to make holiday cooking easier while allowing you to spend as much time as possible with your loved ones. To do this, the author has created step-by-step recipes divided into two sections (“prepare ahead” and “to finish it off”) so you’ll know exactly what to do and when. You’ll also find many menu options featuring recipes in the book (romantic meals, breakfasts, vegetarian meals, meals with fish, seafood or game, etc.).

Because our Christmas celebrations will be smaller this year, we plan to try the brunch for four, which includes pumpkin, feta and sage pull-apart bread, a wild mushroom and hazelnut soup, Scottish eggs, a portobello and pear salad, Dutch Baby puffed pancakes, and a hazelnut meringue log. We can’t wait to taste it all!

Open recipe book on miso soup, right side picture of an oyster left side recipe with an illustration of a jalapeño..

Your Do-Anything Kitchen by Food52

For the organized foodie

Chasing Paper offers a wide selection of wallpapers, each more charming than the next. Our favourites are the tile wallpapers, which are great for creating faux tile backsplashes in the kitchen or powder room (with fun options like terrazzo, Carrara marble, and concrete), as well as the kids’ wallpapers, which are perfect for nurseries and children’s bedrooms.

The Chasing Paper website even offers a handy tool to calculate how much wallpaper your project will require. Simply enter the height and width of your wall and the calculator will do the rest.

Open book on cleaning up.

Cooking with Scraps: Turn Your Peels, Cores, Rinds, and Stems into Delicious Meals by Lindsay-Jean Hard

For the zero waste lover

This zero waste bible shows that it is possible to turn leftovers into culinary treasures. And by leftovers, we’re not just talking about broccoli stems, but seemingly useless things like apple cores and peels, banana peels, carrot tops, coffee grounds, watermelon rinds, and even stone fruit pits. In a few easy steps, you can transform your leftovers into meals, desserts, sauces and even cocktails. Brownies, pesto, nachos, pizza, aioli, tabbouleh, hummus and granita are just a few examples that demonstrate the variety of recipes you will find in this book.

We were also blown away by aquafaba (the liquid in which chickpeas have been cooked and canned), which behave the same way as egg whites. Intriguing, right?

Open recipe book on miso soup, right side picture left side recipe.

We truly hope these gift ideas have inspired you to buy a book for someone (or for yourself)! Happy holidays!