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Last Minute Christmas Gifts II

A few gift ideas for your low-carb or paleo loved ones:

A pressure cooker. In an age of little time and less patience, it's unclear how this time-saver fell out of favor. It'll cook a three-pound roast in under an hour--perfect for a meat lover who doesn't want to wait hours for dinner.

A gift card to a coffee shop or grill. Yes, a lot of gift cards go unused. Make sure the person you're shopping for lives or works near the coffee shop or grill and would actually go there: don't get a Starbucks gift card for someone who hates corporations, no matter how much you might disagree.

French Cooking in Ten Minutes or Adapting to the Rhythm of Modern Life (1930) by Edouard de Pomaine. "First of all," writes Dr. Pomaine, "let me tell you that this is a beautiful book." How French is that? Not all the recipes are low-carb, but they're mostly meat and vegetables and the rest should be easily de-carbed. My favorite recipe so far is Liver American Style, or what Americans would call "chicken fried liver." (I use coconut flour and ground almonds in place of wheat flour and bread crumbs.)

A bottle of wine. My best friend and I loved Red Bicyclette syrah; California pinot and Washington reislings are wonderful as well. La Crema, Robert Mondavi, and Bex are some more I recommend. There are hundreds of great $10 wines out there--don't worry much about the price. And don't worry about notes and hints; many people can't detect them. A naked wine is one aged in a metal barrel, and a screw cap doesn't necessarily indicate an inferior wine: a small portion of corked bottles of wine go bad. The screw cap, for some vintners, is a quality control measure.

Books, magazines, book store gift cards, or a Kindle. As a group, low-carbers seem to be voracious readers and libertarians. Just make sure of their tastes before you give them a subscription to Reason or something by Thomas Sowell. It's a bit like giving lingerie: make sure it really is for the other person's enjoyment.

For further last-minute gifts: http://relievemypain.blogspot.com/2010/12/last-minute-christmas-gifts.html
Books recommended by Dr. Michael Eades: http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/category/book-reviews/

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