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Sunday, January 19, 2003

Did you find a check in your Christmas stocking? Have you resolved to put on weight in the new year? Or do you wish to do your part to pump up the economy?

Buy, buy, buy.

Here are suggestions from Nancy Hanst and me, friends who love to shop and eat. Throughout the holidays, we collected ideas for ways to do both.

Candy

Chocolat Debauve & Gallais, 30 rue des Saint-Peres, 75007 Paris; www.debauve-et-gallais.com; phone 011-33-1-45-48-54-67; fax 011-33-1-45-48-21-78. Delicious chocolate so intense that one piece divided into quarters satisfies four people -- honest. It's expensive to ship. If you have friends headed for the Left Bank, commission them to bring back a box.

Enstrom's Almond Toffee. Buy this in specially priced 5-pound lots, $65.35 (1 pound, $14.95), and divide into batches for friends. Find yourself, as we do, at the refrigerator at all hours, reaching into the box for one more small piece of chocolate-coated toffee with a toasted almond in it. To order from this Grand Junction, Colo., company: 1-800-367-8766; www.enstrom.com.

Acadian Maple Products Ltd., in Nova Scotia, offers a number of wonderful maple products. I picked up my first bar of Maple Cream in a supermarket by chance and brought it home as a gift for my daughter. It was delicious crumbled over oatmeal. We were so enthusiastic about the flavor that I called the company for information. Here's what we ordered: maple roasted peanuts, maple butter, maple hard candy and more maple cream. Exceptional, all.

For a full catalog, price list and complete product information: www.acadianmaple.com, or write Acadian Maple Products Ltd., 20 Maple Place, Upper Tantallon, NS, B3Z 1C6. All prices are in Canadian funds, a bargain in U.S. dollars. Telephone/fax: 1-902-826-2312.

Spices

White Flower Farm Superb Black Telecherry Peppercorns. Hard to find. Heady and pungent (but sneeze-free). One-pound bag (X51601), $10 plus $6.50 shipping. (Buy two one-pound bags; the shipping cost is the same.) 1-800-503-9624.

Culinary lavender is available at Penzeys Spices, 5875 Forbes Ave., Squirrel Hill. Pen- zeys uses lavender as an ingredient in its savory Herbes de Provence. Food-grade lavender makes a lovely cup of tea. Or mix a little lavender with coarse sea salt to sprinkle over lamb chops on the grill. Try lavender mixed with sugar over sugar cookies. One-half cup, $3.99. 412-422-3702; www.penzeys.com.

Bread

Whole Foods: East Liberty. Mount Athos Fire Bread, from Pittsburgh's MediTerra Bakehouse. Coarse, crusty, intensely flavored. Big breads are cut in quarters and sold in special wrap. Wonderful toasted with butter and honey.

A pause here to pay tribute to two men, recently departed. They are honey-man David Firestone of Connellsville, Fayette County, and Paris bread baker Lionel Poilane. Both men were consummate craftsmen.

Firestone spoke of his bees carrying him off one day, and one day they did.

Poilane was killed with his wife, Irena, and their dog when the helicopter he was flying to his summer house crashed in fog on Oct. 31. Poilane is credited with giving Paris back its artisan breads. In Paris, I liked to stay at the Lutetia Hotel because a shop of Poilane's was around the corner. Every morning I got in line to buy something -- bread, rolls, croissants or brioche, which Poilane liked thickly buttered and spread with orange marmalade. His daughters, Apollonia and Athena, have vowed to carry on their father's tradition, and David Firestone's son, Keith, will continue to blend honey in his father's style.

Firestone honey may be purchased at McGinnis Sisters, Monroeville; through Sandhill Berries in Mount Pleasant; and at their stand at the East Liberty and Pittsburgh Zoo farmers' markets. David's wife, Norma Firestone, also takes orders: 724-628-1228.

Cheese

Magtag Blue cheese, made in Newton, Iowa. It used to be you had to mail-order for this fresh-tasting, delicious and creamy cheese. Our hearts leaped when we saw it among the hundreds of cheeses at Whole Foods. $12.99 a pound.

Humboldt-Fog, also at Whole Foods. $19.99 a pound for a mellow cheese with a feta-like flavor. Buy a sliver of this and pass it around with salad for friends to sample at a dinner party.

Shelburne Farms Farmhouse Cheddar Cheese. Aged two years, this sharp Cheddar is as good as Cheddar gets. #124. One-pound block, $12; $8 for shipping. 1-802-985-8686; www.shelburnefarms.org/orderproducts.

Il Caprini Del Piedmonte. Here is what guru Steven Jenkins says about this cheese in his book "The Cheese Primer." "Rare. Absolutely delizioso! Nothing like it is made outside of Italy. All brands are excellent."

We bought. We loved this handmade goat milk cheese. Snow-white, soft-textured, sometimes flavored with truffles. Steve McDonald, manager of North Star Market in Richland, says the cheese is always on order, but delivery is erratic. Call ahead. It's worth any amount of trouble to get. About $11 for about 4 ounces. North Star Market, 6050 Route 8, Richland. 724-443-7240.

Books

"The Oxford Companion to Food" by Alan Davidson, for which I paid $65 in hardcover, is now available through The Oxford University Press, $27.95, until the end of this month. Hardcover is what you want if you use this book as much as I do. It is the magnum opus from one of the world's great authorities on the history and use of food. To order: 1-800-230-3242, code 23152, credit cards only. $5 shipping; $1.50 shipping for each additional book sent to the same address.

Magazines

Martha Stewart is on to something with her new magazine, Everyday Food. As a subscriber to her big magazine, I got a free copy of her little one. It's the size of a Reader's Digest and is available at supermarkets and newsstands for $2.95.

Mixed in among its many advertisements are about 50 appealing and wholesome, easy-to-make pastas, soups, stews, desserts, etc. Almost all are made with a limited number of readily available ingredients. There are also food features, including an outstanding one on vinaigrettes, and household hints.

With the directions in my hand I went into the kitchen to try one of the hints. To freshen a wooden work surface, sprinkle a big handful of table salt over the board and scrub it with the cut side of a lemon half. Repeat as necessary. The salt is an abrasive that scours the wood, and the lemon dissolves grease. It works.

A run of four issues is planned. Their success will determine the magazine's future.