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Healthy and Trendy

Father’s Day celebration, bruschetta and beyond: my Gourmet Gift Baskets review

shared by MickyN | Leave a Comment

 
 
Are you celebrating Father’s Day on Sunday? If so, how? We will fire up the grill to cook a variety of options, from veggies to bison burgers. I am also making desserts, and I am hoping enough food will be left over on Sunday to allow for no cooking on Monday (fingers crossed 🙂 ). As for snacks, in addition to our usual go-to option (I’m looking at you, pretzels!), we will be munching on items from the special Father’s Day basket I received from Gourmet Gift Baskets.
 
GourmetGiftBaskets.com was founded in 2002. After years of working in his family’s flower shop in New Hampshire, President & CEO Ryan Abood saw an opportunity to provide handmade, high quality gift baskets – and the rest was history, as they say: “What began with two family members in the basement of a flower shop has exploded into a multi-million dollar company recognized multiple times by Inc.500, Internet Retailer, Enterprise Bank, and more, while still remaining true to its core values of exceptional gourmet ingredients handcrafted with care.”
 
Gourmet Gift Baskets has a new collection of  Father’s Day gifts to match dads’ secret desires for delectable deliveries. Being the researcher that I am, I picked the Gift Basket for Father’s Day to review because I was intrigued by the gourmet items inside the basket.
 
 
According to the website description, this basket features an “impressive array of artisan meats, cheeses, and crackers,” with the creamy cheeses “pairing perfectly” with the other items. The basket arrived quickly, and the first impression did not disappoint. It was beautiful to look at, and all of the items fit perfectly inside the generously sized wooden crate with hand holes.

The basket included the following items:

  • Summer Sausage and Garlic Sausage by Hanover Smokehouse
  • Cheddar Cheese, Garlic Cheese and Smoked Gouda by Mountain View Farms
  • Sundried Tomato Bruschetta by Cucina & Amore
  • Stoned Wheat Crackers by Eleanor + Flynn
  • Olive Oil & Sea Salt Water Crackers by Mariner

I was particularly excited by the gourmet pairing of the Mountain View Farms cheeses with Mariner’s non-GMO crackers.

Such an outstanding assortment of small business produced cheeses!

And yet, perhaps no other item in the basket “spoke” to me as much as Cucina & Amore’s Sun-Dried Tomato Bruschetta.

Cucina & Amore was founded in 2007, out of a love of enjoying good food and gatherings in the kitchen. This small business creates products with only a few, recognizable ingredients, minimal processing, and GMO free – and their sun-dried tomato bruschetta is a case in point. Made of finely chopped sun-dried tomatoes, this gluten- and sulfite- free product also features minimally processed basil, tomato paste, olive oil, Grana Padano Cheese, walnuts, garlic, and pine nuts.

Just look at the gorgeous color!

I used this highly-acclaimed bruschetta topping as an ingredient in one of the dishes I am serving this Father’s Day weekend: peppers and tomatoes stuffed with chicken. For this recipe I used one pound of lean organic ground chicken mixed with half of the bruschetta, and some grated parmesan. I topped the stuffed veggies with freshly chopped parsley and grated mozzarella. I just couldn’t help it: I had to add more cheese 🙂

The bruschetta and the parmesan provided the chicken with the moisture and tenderness it needed, while also packing it with a punch of flavor. Meanwhile, the peppers and tomatoes themselves added veggie vibrancy and freshness, rendering the dish multidimensional and light.

The perfect, delicious summer lunch – not heavy in the slightest!

 So yum!

I was very pleased with the delicious tomato flavor imparted by the bruschetta upon this dish, and overall, I loved the Gourmet Gift Baskets package I received. I appreciated the thought process that went into putting together this basket which highlighted a variety of gourmet items created by small businesses. As you know, I am a big supporter of small producers, and as such I am pleased to see them taking center stage especially now, when they need support more than ever before. I will continue to shed light on these businesses and on Gourmet Gift Baskets more broadly – the quality is there, and so is the deliciousness, and so is the joy.

What are you cooking this weekend? Let me know in the comments 🙂

*Disclaimer: While I received complimentary products to facilitate this review, all opinions expressed here are my own.

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I have a passion for writing and an appetite for cooking. I love to tell stories about foods, cultures, and people - and I love to eat! Come join me on this delicious foodie adventure! Read More

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