Beautifully decorated cookies are a high-point of the holiday season for me. This year, I wanted to do a post on tips and strategies for creating gift-worthy sugar cookies at home, and I thought to myself, who better to turn to than the experts at Miette? Lucky for me (and you), Miette holds monthly classes on decorating sugar cookies. In class, you'll learn about necessary equipment, how to make and color royal icing like a pro, how to make parchment icing cones, and techniques for flooding and embellishing cookies. Owner Meg Ray and instructor Jeff Gosche were kind enough to let me sit in on the most recent cookie decorating class, snap some photos, and learn how the Miette elves create their stunning holiday cookies. Today, I'll share those tips with you.

Jeff was our trusty instructor and the man behind the sugar cookie magic at Miette. Jeff doesn't have any formal training or culinary instruction, but he's always been passionate about baking and decorating. He started helping Miette with cookie production solely around the holiday season and then about one year ago, Jeff was asked to stick around more frequently as a regular staple. After spending the afternoon with him, I can see why.

Jeff began class with a discussion on planning out your project and equipment. In terms of planning, it's important to be aware of baking times, cooling times, and setting times for frosting. Jeff recommends taking the entire project into account when thinking about how much time it'll take from Point A to Point B, especially if you'll be gifting or delivering the cookies. The last thing you want to do is rush the process! As far as equipment, a stand mixer, rolling pin, Silpat mat, and cooling racks are important for actually baking the cookies. For decorating, small metal bowls are handy for mixing up numerous different colors of frosting, good quality food coloring, parchment triangles to make your piping cones, and a spoon-spatula to spoon your icing into the bag. If you'd rather not deal with raw egg whites in your royal icing, Jeff recommended meringue powder as an easy and just-as-good substitute.

After we talked equipment, we set about making our own royal icing. Jeff did a demo using the whisk attachment on a stand mixer, turning it up to high (an 8 on a Kitchen Aid) and allowing it to mix for 3-4 minutes. The important thing to know here is that the icing should be quite thick--thicker than you think it should be on an actual cookie. You'll spend time later thinning it after you add the color, not now.

Jeff Gosche talking royal icing & our attentive class

After the demo, students all went back to their stations to add the egg whites and powdered sugar together and begin mixing away.

Learning how to mix up the perfect royal icing

Once everyone had royal icing down, we discussed the art of coloring the icing. Now anyone can throw green food coloring into a bowl of royal icing and call it a day, but it's often very difficult to get more subtle, interesting tones. This is where Jeff's icing tips come in handy:

• It almost always takes more than one color to get the shade you're going for, and Jeff gives an example of the infamous "Miette pink" used on so many of the in-house cookies. How to achieve that perfect pink? Add a little brown to the icing! Jeff explains how adding just a little brown to most colors of royal icing will just tone it way down and add more depth to the color.
• To achieve more warmth in any one color (Christmas red, for example), add orange. Orange is a miracle worker.
• When adding color to your icing, you may want to put the drop of color onto your spatula and work it in slowly. That way, if you add a little too much, it's easier to swipe off with a finger rather than having to scoop out color from the icing itself.
• When you're mixing up bowls of different colors of icing, you also want to cover each bowl with a slightly damp dish towel so the icing doesn't dry out.
• Don't thin out the icing until you're completely done with the color.
• To thin, just add a tiny amount (1/2 teaspoon or so) of water at a time. Ultimately, you want the icing to flow right off your spatula back into the bowl but leave a noticeable ribbon inside your bowl. So it shouldn't be liquidy, but it shouldn't be too thick either.

The Art of Royal Icing

After the icing was made and colored, it was time to get piping! Jeff showed the class how to form parchment piping bags and discussed how nice they are because you can just throw them away. With nicer piping bags, the royal icing can stain and they can be tough to clean.

Learning How to Make Parchment Piping Bags

Parchment cones are tough to describe in print but it turns out Wilton has a handy video so you can learn at home! With piping bags in hand, it was time to decorate the cookies.

Students decorating their Christmas cookies

Jeff's tips for decorating cookies were relatively straightforward and really involved a little planning and practice. He had templates on hand so students could practice their lines and shapes before really committing to a cookie. The gist of it? Outline the cookie first with the royal icing and then you flood (or fill) the cookie in a back-and-forth motion with the tip of the bag slightly immersed in the icing itself (this helps it flood more evenly).

Flooding Cookies

Then you can add sprinkles, add another color to do some blending, or wait around 15 minutes for the icing to dry so you can layer in another color. It does help to do a little planning and thinking about what you're going for with your design to ensure you have enough of each color and don't sit there stumped (as I did) seeking out inspiration while your icing is slowly drying out.

I can't recommend Miette's classes enough and thank Jeff and Meg for letting me tag along. The classes are sold out through February (so get on the March bandwagon!), but they're thinking about possibly adding additional cookie classes and, of course, there are other classes as well if you're ready to dive right in to the pastry/confection world. Happy baking and royal icing making!

Let the chestnuts roast and the eggnog flow, it's that time of year again! Here's our short list of unique food-centric gifts that will bring a smile to your favorite foodie's face.

1. Sushi Booties (For the Avant-Garde Baby)

Photo Credit: Sushi Booties (via Etsy)

You're never too young to develop a shoe fetish. These super soft fleece Sushi Booties ($24), fashioned to resemble your favorite piece of soosh, are the perfect gift for hip parents or the sushi-deprived mommy-to-be. Each set of booties is handmade to order and comes in a sushi bento box ready for gift-giving!

2. Booze-inspired jewelry (For the Life of the Party)

Photo Credit: Sora Designs

She's the life of the party. She's stylish. She's bold. She loves boozin' and she loves looking good while she's boozin'. This necklace was made for her. Local SF jewelry designer Yueh-Wen Chang (Wen) of Sora Designs has created the ultimate statement pieces with her Owl-t on the Town Bottle Opener Necklace ($35.50) and Fish Bottle Opener Necklace ($29.50). Gift your girl this necklace and she'll be the most popular person at the party…as if she weren't already.

3. Tell Tale Society CSA (For the Discerning Sweet Tooth)

Photo Credit: Tell Tale Preserve Company

Tell Tale Preserve Company is Pastry Chef William Werner's (formerly of Quince) latest project. The modern pâtisserie and delicatessen is slated to open Spring 2011 at 33 Maiden Lane. In the meantime, company's monthly CSA of heavenly confections is in full swing. Join the Tell Tale Society ($35/month) and receive a burlap bag full of inspired creations like Turrón of White Chocolate, Walnut and Yuzu; Hazelnut, Frankincense and Muscovado Toffee, and Pain D'épices Laced Caramels.

Customers can order one month at a time, or pre-purchase months in advance. Society bags can be shipped or picked up at the Ferry Building Farmers Market on Tuesdays (8:00 am - 2:00 pm) or at Coffee Bar. The bag of treats can also be purchased at the Ferry Building Farmers Market on Tuesdays and Saturdays (8:30 am – 2:30 pm) and at Big Daddy's Antique Trunk Show Monday to Saturday (9:00 am – 5:00 pm) starting 12/10. Come along, sugar plum fairies, come along.

4. Marianberry Confections Doggy Cookies (For the Furry)

Photo Credit: Marianberry Confections

Let's not forget your four-legged friend. He does put up with all your shenanigans. While Marianberry Confections focuses mainly on treats for people (like amazing chewy, crispy, thin Oatmeal Raisin cookies), they have baked up something just for that special pup in your life. Honey Crunch Dog Cookies nestled in a classic Black and White Bone Motif Bowl ($15). The all-natural cookies are made with whole wheat flour, steel cut oats, honey, milk & eggs.

5. Homegrown Mushrooms (For the Green)

Photo Credit: Back to the Roots

BTTR (pronounced better), which stands for "Back to the Roots," was started by Nikhil Arora and Alex Velez after they graduated from UC Berkeley last year. During their last semester, the two discovered that they could grow gourmet mushrooms entirely on recycled coffee grounds. And so, they created a 100% sustainable urban mushroom farm in Berkeley (which now diverts 10,000 lbs/wk of coffee grounds from Peet's Coffee & Tea, produces 500 lbs/wk of fresh oyster mushrooms, and sustains 10 urban school and community gardens by donating post-harvest grounds which have turned into nutrient-rich compost from the leftover mushroom roots).

BTTR now brings sustainable mushroom farming into your own kitchen with their Easy-to-Grow Mushroom Garden ($19.95). Just open the box, mist it twice a day, and watch your own science experiment grow. Harvest up to 1 pound of oyster mushrooms in as little as 10 days, and harvest as many as four crops.

This is the ultimate feel-good gift of the year. Support young entrepreneurs, recycle would-be waste, grow your own delicious , sustainable, as-local-as-it-gets mushrooms, and help raise money for the Susan G. Komen Foundation all at the same time (through December 5% of sales will be donated to support breast cancer research). This officially puts you on Santa's Nice List.

6. Breakfast in Bed (For the Sweetheart)

Kodiak Cakes Gift Bowl

Nothing says "I love you" like breakfast in bed. Especially when breakfast entails thick, fluffy flapjacks sweetened with a touch of honey. This pretty gift package from Kodiak Cakes ($29) includes their famous hearty and healthy Frontier Flapjack and Waffle Mix (comprised of only the finest American wheat and Canadian oats), all-natural handmade berry syrup, a soft dish towel, and a 10-inch wire whisk, all nestled in a jumbo 2-quart glass measuring bowl with a rubber lid.

7. Smocks (For the Stylish Hostess)

Photo Credit: Smocks (on the left: "Kelly"; on the right: "MacKenzie")

These sassy designer aprons ($34.95-$39.95) from Smocks are flirty, feisty, fun, and functional. Yeah, alliteration. They are inspired by contemporary designers and designed to fit and flatter a woman's body. Favorite picks include the flouncy Kelly, with deep pockets cleverly hidden on each side to avoid bulk on your hips, and the retro-chic MacKenzie with those sexy back ties.

8. Bacon iPad Case (For the Devotees)

Photo Credit: Media-Digest

This is for the die-hard bacon devotees. I know you're still out there. The Bacon Case ($59) from Antjes is the ultimate fantasy. Tasty fatty pork makes sweet love to sleek shiny iPad. There's something viscerally disturbing in that statement, but I stand by it.

9. Homemade Goodies (For the Crafty)

Homemade Christmas Cookie Jars

• Christmas Cookie Jars
• Homemade Granola (via Lick My Spoon)
• Cookies Galore (via Brown Eyed Baker)
• Candy Galore…and darling packaging ideas (via Martha Stewart)
• Flavored Salts (via Breakaway Cook)
• Homemade Vanilla Extract (via Use Real Butter)

10. Classes (For the Hands-On)

Photo Credit: Curiosity Atlas

If you’re a believer that things own you rather than the other way around, this could be your savior this holiday season. Curiosity Atlas is a Bay Area initiative that aspires to provide inspiration and access to unique, local and hands-on experiences that foster personal growth and cultivate community.

Today, Wednesday 12/8, Curiosity Atlas is hosting A Curious Affair, a unique experience gift market that will bring together a broad range of vendors who could very well hold the key to the perfect experiential gift for that special someone who is always impossible to buy for. Some food-centric experiences to look out for:

• Butchery classes from Avedano’s Meats
• Community dinner and food classes from 18 Reasons
• Cooking experiences from La Cocina
• Discovering the joys of preserving from Happy Girl Kitchen
• Workshops on topics like brewing Kombucha, baking bread, or urban gardening from Urban Kitchen SF
• Parties, classes and tastings from Slow Food SF

That's a wrap! Jingle bells, everyone!

For more foodie gift-giving ideas, check out last year's wishlist.

It's beginning to look a lot like Xmas!

All I want for Christmas is... not another pair of toe-socks (no offense, Mom) or body lotion/soap set.

The Bay Area is rife with unique eating experiences, culinary talent, and tasty goods made with lots of love. Why not support local businesses, while giving someone a gift they won't be re-gifting?

(Ahem, for the record, if you do want to re-gift any of these, I'd gladly accept items 1 through 10).

1. CSA subscription (for the Lazy)

Bay Area: Buy Fresh Buy Local

I love having my CSA box of fresh, organic, in-season fruits and veggies delivered right to my door every other week. Many are flexible, customizable, and available for convenient delivery to your home or nearby location. A few to get you started on your search:

• Eatwell Farm (includes option for pasture-raised eggs)
• Farm Fresh to You
• Frog Hollow Farm (all fruit; during the winter, supplemented with items from the farm kitchen like granola, dried fruit, and olive oil)
• Full Belly Farm
• Two Small Farms (Mariquita)
• Soul Food Farm (pastured poultry and eggs)
• Terra Firma Farms

2. Socola Chocolatier "Holiday Chocolate Truffle Collection {on a faux bear rug}," $25 (for the Cheeky)

Socola Chocolatier, holiday collection {on a faux bear rug}

This Oakland-based, sister-run chocolate company is modern, sassy, and full of delectable personality. The 12-piece holiday assortment includes the following flavors: Hazelnut Gianduja (a milk chocolate truffle blended with roasted hazelnuts "bundled up in a fashionable nutty parka"), Hot in Hia (a champagne truffle with notes of fruit and honey, named in honor of the bubbly personality of the girls' grandmother Hia), Le Frog Neat (a smoky confection made with 10-year-old Laphroaig Scotch whisky), and Pumpkin Burnt Caramel (a warm mix of pumpkin pie spices, burnt caramel, Hawaiian sea salt and a splash of brandy).

3. Recchiuti Confections "Creativity Explored III: Toys," $21 (for the Philanthropic Art-lover)

Recchiuti Confections, Creativity Explored III: Toys

These art-adorned chocolates combine Michael Recchiuti's signature Burnt Caramel chocolate confections, with the work of Vincent Jackson, SF native and long-time artist at the Creativity Explored studio. Creativity Explored is a Bay Area nonprofit visual arts center where artists with developmental disabilities create, exhibit, and sell their art. $2 from each sale goes to support Creativity Explored.

4. Jimmyjane Milk Chocolate AFTERGLOW Massage Oil Candle, $28 (for After Hours)

Jimmyjane, Milk Chocolate AFTERGLOW

If it's a different kind of chocolate experience you're after, look no further. When heated, this candle liquefies into high-slip massage oil made with jojoba, shea butter, vitamin E, soy, aloe, and other botanical extracts. Bonus: it comes with a body brush to assist in painting the warm oil onto the skin. Extra Bonus: it smells delicious.

5. Boccalone Large Gift Box, $52 (for the Carnivore)

Chris Cosentino, Boccalone

Nothing says Happy Holidays like Tasty Salted Pig Parts. This homage to salumi contains two 8-ounce Boccalone salami (chosen from available flavors like Orange & Wild Fennel Salame, Soppressata di Calabria, Brown Sugar and Fennel Salame, and Salame Pepato), a t-shirt, and one 9-ounce jar of Whole-Grain Mustard. If the whole gift box thing isn't your style, take your pick of hand-crafted porcine delights from the Boccalone meat locker. I, for one, may or may not be maxing out my luggage weight limit this Christmas flight home on Nduja ("en-DOO-ya")...so much velvety, spicy Nduja.

6. Jessie Steele Aprons, $30.95-$33.95 (for the Lovely Hostess)

Photo by Jessie Steele, from left to right: Bib Ava Cabbage Rose Apron, Half Audrey Cherry Cupcakes Apron, Bib Gigi French Toil Apron with Terry Towel

These vintage 1940's and 50's-inspired hostess aprons are so cute and fabu, they just make me want to put on my pearls, bake a cake and drink a martini at the same time.

7. Cookbooks from Bay Area Culinary Greats (for Those Who Can Take the Heat)

Ad hoc at Home

These cookbooks will be sure to inspire some magic in your home kitchen:

• Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller
• Demolition Desserts: Recipes from Citizen Cake by Elizabeth Falkner
• Fields of Greens by Annie Somerville
• Mustards Grill Napa Valley Cookbook by Cindy Pawlcyn
• Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson
• Into the Vietnamese Kitchen by Andrea Nguyen
• The Zuni Café Cookbook by Judy Rodgers.

Note: you may want to pair this gift with a laminating machine, drool.

8. La Cocina Artisan Gift Box, The Half-Pint, $35 (for the Snack-Happy Do-Gooder)

La Cocina Gift Box, The Half-Pint

These gift boxes are filled with an assortment of hand-made, sweet and salty snacks from local small food businesses enrolled in La Cocina's incubator program. Snack to your heart's content and feel good about supporting local food entrepreneurs.

9. Cooking Classes (for the Ambitious)

Group Cook

Because if you send someone you love to a cooking class, chances are good it will come back ten-fold! There are many options in SF alone, ranging in price, time commitment, and topic. For a more formal school setting, there is the highly regarded Tante Marie's Cooking School. Urban Kitchen SF hosts affordable, skill/project specific classes and workshops themed around the DIY Slow Food concept (e.g. brewing Kombucha, baking bread, composting), as does CUESA at the Ferry Building. And butchery is hot as ever, as Ryan Farr of 4505 Meats or Tia Harrison of Avedano's Holly Park Market can tell you. SF Station also has a comprehensive of culinary schools and social cooking classes in the city.

10. Unique Dining Experiences (for the Hungry)

Photo by Outstanding in the Field

And finally, you can't go wrong with a fantastic meal. There is no shortage of phenomenal restaurants in the Bay Area, but if you dig a little, you can also find some interesting out-of-the-box options. Outstanding in the Field offers gift certificates (although, be sure to stay on top of the 2010 schedule once it's announced because these stunning dinners book up quickly). For something more stealth and mysterious, check out the underground supperclub scene at The Ghetto Gourmet.

So what are you waiting for? Now Dasher! Now, Dancer! Now, Prancer and Vixen...

Happy holidays, happy gift-giving, and happy eating to all.

This pages of this week's Entertainment Weekly are sprinkled with their holiday gift ideas. (Dear Amazon: No matter how many mags, blogs, or reps flog your new Kindle, I'm never going to use it. While I don't love the space my biblio excesses take up, I love the smell, touch, and heft of real books way too much. Another thing I love too much? Spending $399 in far more worthy places. Love, Stephanie) As a television obsessive, a few EW foodie gifts stood out for me. There's the old-new hamburger phone from the new It-Movie, Juno $19.99 (wards.com), the Hung knife that will allow you to "chop like the champ" $210 (korin.com), and the wine, 2002 Conti Sertoli Salis Sforzato, that might make you feel dirty, sexy, and monied for $55 (vinositeshop.com).

That's all fine and dandy, but if you want to spread some San Francisco love across the country, try dousing your loved ones with these local gift ideas.

June Taylor Foodstuffs: Aside from her usual delectable pots of jams and jellies, at this time of year June Taylor also has port-soaked fruitcake and vegetarian mincemeat. Note to the ex-pats and Anglophiles out there: grab these while the going's good. She also has candied citrus peels (blood orange, Seville orange, Rangpur lime, Meyer lemon), fruit paste, and pears preserved in cassis. (Cake: $30; Mincemeat: $26; Pears: $36/$18; Fruit Paste: $15; Candied Citrus Peel: $14)

Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food: This new cookbook from the famed Bay Area chef is a must for those of us who collect cookbooks, meals, and menus from Chez Panisse. Far more simple and straightforward than her other cookbooks, The Art of Simple Food, not only takes individual ingredients and breaks them down into uncomplicated, delicious dishes but Waters teaches the salivator about pots and pans, menu planning, and how to stock your pantry and choose your ingredients. ($35)

Anything from Kermit Lynch: The man carries some wines as low as $11.00, okay? I mean, honestly, with Kermit Lynch vetting your wine, can you really go wrong here? I didn't think so. Bonus: you don't need your own globe-trotting Nick George/Darling to know it's going to be good.

Cocoa Bella Chocolates: If you opened a box of chocolates in my grandma's house, chances were good you'd be in for an unpleasant surprise. While she didn't bite into each chocolate to see if she was going to like it, she did jab a fingernail into the bottom, thus allowing the contents to ooze onto the frilled paper. With their custom box builder, Cocoa Bella ensures you never have to poke, prod, or bite a chocolate to determine its stomach worthiness. ($40 for 20 pieces, $75 for 40 pieces)

DeLessio's Chocolate Bubble Wrap: You use bubblewrap to pad your presents, why not eat it? As addictive as popping the bubbles themselves, DeLessio offers six different flavors for $16.50 a pound.

St. George Absinthe Verte: Last week, Lance Winters of St. George's Spirits in Alameda got the news that he could start selling his newly concocted Absinthe Verte. Banned in the U.S. since 1912, cocktailians can finally wrap their lips and brain cells around the anisette-flavored green beverage that reputedly made madmen out of some of history's most celebrated artists and writers. San Francisco's Green Fairy goes on sale December 21st and supplies are limited, so I shouldn't really be telling you about this if I want any left for myself. ($75)