What I “Added to Cart” for the Holidays

Velvety, Caramel-Sweet Dates from Rancho Meladuco
Between snacking on them a couple times a day and adding them to smoothies or chutneys, I know my way around a date. These Medjool dates from Rancho Meladuco are next level. Handpicked in California’s Coachella Valley, they’re grown organically in the breezes off the Salton Sea. They’re large, tender and fudgy—not fibrous, like grocery store deglets—and taste like butterscotch and brown sugar, with hints of citrus, maple and whiskey.

Rancho Meladuco’s four original trees have grown into a 200-tree grove. Harvest dates are between August and October, and each box is packed by hand (the perfect gift should you want to share your bounty!). Try these velvety, caramelly dates in savory recipes calling for dates, on a cheeseboard, in baking or milkshakes or all by themselves.

A Handmade Pasta Machine That Looks Like a Guitar
Handcrafted from beechwood in Pretoro, a medieval village in the hills of Abruzzo, the chitarra is Italy’s secret for fresh, rustic pasta strands that cling wonderfully to sauce. The chitarra is a sturdy, rectangular box wrapped with parallel wires similar to guitar strings—chitarra means “guitar” in Italian—that span from edge to edge. There are two sides, one narrow and one wide, so you can make thin spaghetti or thick tagliatelle and fettuccine. It’s the gift this year for the pasta lover in your life.

The Better Juicer from Dreamfarm
I finally bought my Mom her own Fluicer after watching her shoot lemon juice across the counter with a shoddy press one too many times. The handheld flat-folding juicer (“Fluicer” combines “flat” and “juicer”) is smartly designed to squeeze citrus from side to side, not top to bottom like most manual juice presses—a brilliant, “why didn’t I think of that?” take on juicing that Dreamfarm founder Alex Gransbury showed me as he was perfecting the tool.

It combines a clever hinge and two sturdy handles for an easy squeeze that requires much less force than other juicers we’ve tried (and still gets out all the juice). The best part is, the dishwasher-safe squeezer folds completely flat for efficient storage—no more getting your drawer caught on rounded cups.

The Pie Pan That Changed My Baking
Buying the right pie pan is hard—between decorative options that look nice on the table but underperform and utilitarian steel or glass pans that are flimsy and don’t last, options for a solid, beautiful pie pan that will deliver every time are limited. I can’t say enough good things about our pie pan, though. Modeled after eCommerce Culinary Manager Rebecca Richmond’s antique pan passed down from her grandmother, the Milk Street Pie Pan is made of enameled steel sourced from Türkiye, the home of the world’s best enamelware. That means when it comes to conducting heat, it laps glass and stoneware, which are slow conductors of heat and can lead to the dreaded soggy-bottomed pies.

The steel core conducts heat efficiently and evenly, for a browned, perfectly cooked crust every time (so you can finally cook your pies without blind baking them first). It’s extremely durable—sturdier than many cheap, light options on the market—and it’s resistant to high temperatures up to 450°F.

Vanilla That Gets Better with Time
I have a fear when I open a generic bottle of vanilla or a jar of spices that from the moment I crack the seal, the countdown on the content’s potency has begun. Not so with this small-batch vanilla extract from Kansas-based Vain Vanilla. The Original Baker's Blend is made by hand with top-shelf rum that emphasizes vanilla's sweet characteristics and adds its own cane sugar dimension. Plus, I love that Vain Vanilla leaves its vanilla pods in the bottle, which has two benefits. First, over time the extract will continue to deepen in color and become more complex as the pods release more flavor compounds. Second, when you're done with the vanilla extract, you can still slice open the pods and use the beans themselves in your desserts.