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Great Harvest Gift Basket: Most Delicious Gift Idea of All Time

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Great Harvest Gift Basket

When looking for a PERFECT gift basket for any gift – don’t look anywhere but Great Harvest.

You are looking at perfection. This is one of the Gift Baskets from Great Harvest and it is… correction, it was… out of this world.  It’s from the Great Harvest store on Frederica in Owensboro, Kentucky and it was delicious right down to the last bite.

I read not long ago that, when it comes to favorite gifts, people tend to prefer experiences over possessions.  I had just gotten something pretty darn cool, so my reaction was, “I.. dunno….”  But, then I thought about some of my favorite gifts over the years and Great Harvest gift baskets came immediately to mind.  I also thought of gourmet coffee… but, then again, I’m a coffee fanatic, so I’m always thinking of coffee.

There are a lot of things to love about receiving a beautiful gift basket from Great Harvest:

  • The sight of the beautifully arranged and decorated gift basket, itself, makes you smile ear to ear.
  • The bread is always beyond fantastic – unlike any bread you’ve ever had.
  • A lot of baskets will include a soup starter, like the Chicken Dumpling Soup in the basket above.  They’re always fantastic.
  • The Vanilla Honey Butter (front and center) was one of the most delicious things I’ve ever tasted. I spread it on the Heavenly Cranberry Orange Bread and did a happy dance with each bite.  I felt like crying when the last bite was gone.  They make this Vanilla Honey Butter “in store” and you WILL NOT believe how good it is.
  • The Ham Spread is also too good for it’s own good.  When I finally pulled myself away from the Vanilla Honey Butter and tried the ham spread, I realized that it was the stuff dreams are made of too.  AMAZINGLY delicious!
  • The Kentucky Blend black tea included in a lot of these gift baskets is wonderful. I have to confess that I sweeten most of my tea, but I wouldn’t dare add anything to this particular tea. The flavor is more than perfect just like it is. Once you’ve had this blend, it’s hard to go back to any other black tea.
  • The cookies!!!  The best cookies from Great Harvest are their Snickerdoodles – which are more like giant sugar cookies.  I could eat 100 without taking a single breath. Their chocolate chip cookies are also fantastic – and so big!
  • After the wonderful food’s all gone, you’re left with a great looking and highly serviceable basket.  There was a card in the bottom of mine which said I could return the basket for a free loaf of bread.  Although that sounded delicious, I’d rather simply pay for the bread and keep my great looking basket for fruit, chips, and future loaves of Great Harvest bread.  One of our cats, Hannah, still uses a basket from 3 years ago as a bed. She recommends them highly.
  • Any jam or jelly I’ve had from Great Harvest puts store-bought jams and jellies to shame. They put tiny little paper sacks over their heads.
  • Not only do you get a huge thrill when you see the big and beautiful gift basket, you get a huge thrill each time you return to it for another bite!  If you’re keeping score, that’s a lot of thrills.

The gift baskets vary, of course, but I’ve had enough of them to know that it’s impossible to go wrong.  The friendly people who work at Great Harvest stores will fix you up with a gift basket that’s just right.

No matter where you live in Kentucky, there’s a Great Harvest near you. Simply go to Great Harvest’s Website and click on “Find a Great Harvest”  at the very top. Whether you go for a couple of loaves of bread, a stack of cookies, or a gift basket, you can rest assured that you’ll be nothing but blown away.

Fair warning, though. If you buy someone a gift basket, they probably aren’t going to share. You’d better secure some baked treasure for yourself!

EDIT 3/23/2015:  I’d love to see Great Harvest incorporate “gluten free” bread into their stores. Even if they were unable  to make it “in store,” due to cross-contamination, maybe they could provide gluten free bread (and even pastries!) from verified gluten free sources.

As it is, I really miss their gift baskets!

Kentucky Blend Black Tea

You won’t believe how wonderful this tea is!

Kentucky State Parks: Last Minute Christmas Shopping in Kentucky

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Rough River Dam State Resort Park Gift Shop

Looking for original and unexpected last minute Christmas gifts your family and friends will love? Look no further than your nearest Kentucky State Park’s gift shop.  The one pictured above is the beautiful gift shop at Rough River Dam State Resort Park in Falls of Rough, Kentucky. Rough River has one of my favorite gift shops. Kentucky Dam Village State Resort Park, Lake Cumberland State Resort Park, Lake Barkley State Resort Park (gorgeous lodge, gorgeous gift shop!), and Pennyrile Forest State Resort Park also have great gift shops.

One of the friendliest people I think I’ve ever met was a woman working in the Pennyrile Forest State Park’s gift shop.  Her smile lit up the entire lodge.  She has a warmth about her that made you think, “I wish there were more people like you in the world.”

To be perfectly honest, I’m somewhat obsessed with Kentucky State Park gift shops (just ask my husband) and could, literally, spend hundreds of dollars in one trip (again…. just ask the husband).  I don’t care who’s on your gift list, you’ll find something that’ll blow them out of their chair.

Kentucky State Park gift shops have a little bit of everything. Things like…

  • Kentucky Cookbooks –  with recipes you absolutely will not find anywhere else.  These are true, legit Kentucky cookbooks featuring recipes passed down from generations of Kentucky cooks like our grandparents and great grandparents. As a cookbook collector (with a collection numbering in the hundreds), I promise you, these cookbooks are the best in the world. Why? Kentucky food is the best in the world.  I’ve also found a lot of other types of books in Kentucky State Park gift shops – historical books, bird guides, regional guides, etc.  Great stuff for book lovers.
  • Toys and Candy – perfect stocking stuffers.
  • Kentucky food! I always, always, always have at least 3 jars of jams, jellies, preserves, and local  honey I’ve bought at a Kentucky State Park.  You’ll also find BBQ Sauce, relish, and other food items that’d be fantastic as gifts and equally fantastic on your holiday table.  Don’t tell, but here’s something I’d love to do for my aunt and uncle this Christmas: Grab a great looking basket, line it with colorful tissue paper, and fill it with Kentucky food from Rough River Dam State Resort Park’s gift shop (the park closest to us).  They would have enough jams, jellies, honey, coffee, relish, and BBQ sauce to last all year – and they’d think of us each time they enjoyed them.  Win/Win!
  • Coffee Mugs.  This is something else I collect and I’ve found some of my favorite coffee mugs in these gift shops. They’ll often have the most amazingly gorgeous pictures of local wildlife and birds on them along with “Kentucky” or the name of the state park.  Packaged with a bag of coffee beans (or ground coffee), one or two mugs makes a perfect gift.
  • Candles, Soaps, and Other Kentucky Crafts. Who doesn’t love candles?!
  • T-Shirts, Hats, Etc.  You can also find clothing and accessories in a lot of the Kentucky State Park gift shops.
  • More Kentucky Handcrafts, Dishes, Knick Knacks….  I couldn’t possibly list all of the beautiful gifts you could find in these gift shops.  Suffice to say, you’ll find more than you could ever hope for. You’ll know you’re giving a great, high-quality gift that’s also unique and completely unexpected.  That’s my favorite kind of gifts to give!

If you have the time, try to hit several Kentucky State Resort Park gift shops.  Here’s a perfect day, in my book:

  1. Have breakfast (and coffee) at one state resort park, enjoy the scenery, take a few pictures, and shop in the gift shop.
  2. Head for your second resort park – have lunch in the lodge’s restaurant (the hamburgers and catfish sandwiches are awesome, but so are the soup and salad bars), look around, take pictures, and shop in the gift shop.
  3. Take off for the third resort park! Eat dinner in the lodge’s restaurant, shop in the gift shop, then head home with your loot!

Awwww… what a perfect day.

See the Kentucky State Parks Official Website for Resort Park locations, so you can map out your big day.  You’ll also learn more about their gift shops and restaurants.

We wish you and your loved ones the most magical and beautiful Christmas ever!

The Hitching Post & Old Country Store in Aurora

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The Hitching Post & Old Country Store, Aurora

 

You already know how fond I am of Aurora, Kentucky and I’ve made it perfectly clear that I could spend all day in The Hitching Post & Old Country Store. So, there’s really nothing left to say.

Except for…

  • The homemade fudge served in The Hitching Post will bring you to your knees.
  • Kentucky Crafts make excellent gifts for Christmas, Anniversaries, Birthdays, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day….
  • The Jams, Jellies, Preserves, Honey, Relishes, and other delicious Kentucky food is better than anything you’ll find in Kroger (or any other grocery store).
  • Did I mention the homemade fudge?
  • If you love photography, this is a trip you have to make.
  • There are A LOT of fun toys, novelty gifts, figurines, jewelry, t-shirts, etc.
  • I’m crazy about the regional cookbooks.
  • You’ll find countless collectibles – whether you love historical collectibles, nostalgic collectibles, or antiques. You’ll find them all.
  • If the people in The Hitching Post were any friendlier… scratch that – they couldn’t be any friendlier.
  • Oh! I almost forgot – the delicious homemade fudge!

Take it from me, once you use the locally made jams, jellies, and preserves from The Hitching Post, there’s no going back. These are extra special and my buttermilk biscuits wouldn’t dream of allowing any other preserves touch them!

 

 

SeeThe Hitching Post’s Website for More Information!

More of The Hitching Post on Genuine Kentucky:

Kentucky Food: Delicious AND Much Closer than You Think!

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Kentucky Jam and Buttermilk Biscuits

Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits and Yoder’s Jam… Delicious!

As you may know, one of my favorite things in the world to do is cook for my family. Today, for example, I knew my daughter Brittany had to get up early for work (something she HATES to do).  I knew she’d get off around noon, so I timed a batch of homemade brownies to be ready to come out of the oven just as she poured herself into the back door.

The look on her face when she opened the back door to a kitchen filled with the unmistakable aroma of chocolate made my day.

Actually, I think it made my month.

Whether it’s brownies, spaghetti, pancakes, sourdough bread, roast beef, tacos, or something completely out of left field, cooking special things for the people who make my world go round makes me happy from the inside out. So I guess you can imagine how important great ingredients and condiments are to me, right? I’m always on the look out for fun, delicious new lovelies to serve up.  One of my favorite things to bake (and one of my family’s favorite things to eat) is bread. Whether it’s my world famous (okay, maybe not world famous) buttermilk biscuits, cornbread, or sourdough bread – we LOVE bread in this house.

One of the funnest parts of eating bread is, of course, what you put on it. As far as I’m concerned, nothing… absolutely nothing... beats Kentucky jams, jellies, preserves, and honey.  If you don’t think they’re 100 times better than the stuff you buy in Kroger (or Wal-Mart, or Winn Dixie..)  – then you simply haven’t had the same Kentucky goodies I buy.

When I’ve told people before about the Kentucky made food I’m so fond of, they’ll always ask, “Where in the world do you find it?!” The answer’s always the same:  I find them at Kentucky State Parks’ gift shops and a very charming, fun, outrageously cool country store in Aurora, Kentucky: The Hitching Post & Old Country Store.

At The Hitching Post in Aurora you can find Kentucky jams, jellies, preserves, honey, red pepper jelly (HEAVENLY on cornbread and spread over a block of cream cheese, served with Ritz Crackers… yum! ), barbecue sauces, sorghum, and a heckuva lot more.  Click the link above and you’ll even find a few things you can buy on their website. Of course, it’s a lot funner to actually visit the store in person. It’s really a special place.  If you time it just right, you can enjoy a Chicago Style Hot Dog from the venders out front – truly the best hot dog in the world. I could eat one every day for the rest of my life and never get tired of them. They’re awesome.

When you visit The Hitching Post, be sure you try the Apple Butter, Blackberry and Boysenberry Jams, and Sweet, beautiful Kentucky Honey!  I wouldn’t dream of serving biscuits without these delicacies.

As I said, Kentucky State Parks are also a perfect place to find Kentucky food (as well as Kentucky crafts!). On a recent trip to Cumberland Lake State Resort Park, I found something I’ve been looking for forever – Plum Jam.

Holy cats, I love Plum Jam!

It’s so incredibly delicious, but can be tough to find.  When I saw it on the shelf in Cumberland Lake State Resort Park’s gift shop, I nearly let out a whoop.  I’d gone in there for Kentucky honey (which I also found, by the way) – but, as always, I scoured the jams and jellies for blackberry and plum.  I couldn’t wait to show my husband the treasure I’d found!

Kentucky Plum Jam

Yoder’s Plum Jam: Extra, extra, extra, extraordinary!

Ironically, on the front of my beloved Plum Jam, the label says, “It’s like going home to Grandma’s.”  It was actually in one of my grandma’s kitchens I fell in love with plum jam.  My dad’s grandmother, “Grandma Sarver,” was a sweetheart who lived in Scottsville, Kentucky.  My mom, dad, and I would make the trip from Madisonville to Scottsville to visit her as often as possible.  She’d make enough food to feed an army! She knew how much I loved plum jam, so she always had plenty on hand.

The problem was, we could never find any in Madisonville or anywhere else for that matter! It was always a mystery how Grandma Sarver always found a stash.  I think she had elves in her basement.

Anyway, as soon as I open a jar of plum jam – to this day – it takes me back to being a little girl in my grandma’s kitchen.  When I opened this jar from Lake Cumberland’s gift shop, the aroma had already whisked me back to the 1970s in a Scottville, Kentucky kitchen. When I read the words, “It’s like going home to Grandma’s,” I just thought, You have no idea how right you are.

Kentucky Honey

Nobody makes honey quite like Kentuckian bees… know that.

Did you know that locally made honey helps ease seasonal allergies? It’s the gospel truth. I have ridiculous allergies and have found that since I fell in mad love with locally made honey, I buy a lot less Benadryl. There’s magic in them there bees!

As one cook and lover of food to another, I urge you to visit The Hitching Post in Aurora as well as Kentucky State Park gift shops and load up.

More of the Hitching Post on Genuine Kentucky:

"When reading about a Kentucky event, please be sure you check the date. Old events are not always deleted from the website. If you have an event you'd like to see on Genuine Kentucky or a 'Made in Kentucky' food or product you'd like reviewed, please contact us! " ~ Joi ("Joy")

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Pennyrile Forest State Resort Park Trail Through the Forest