We’re in our third holiday season here at Green Aisle, our third holiday season making gift giving easy on you. No need to trudge through the mall, risk a pepper spray attack by derange shoppers or develop carpal tunnel shopping online. Just give us a call, Tweet, Fache message or email for one of our holiday gift boxes. We’ve got seven different styles this season, from the bitters-filled Booze Box to the Backyard Box made with products crafted right in South Philly. And for something new this year, we’ve put together a whole menu of pre-wrapped grab-and-go gifts (think Cafe con Chocolate hot cocoa mix and Whimsy & Spice marshmallows and organic soap trios from Green Pad Living) all for $20 or less. Perfect for hostess gifts, Pollyannas and inexpensive emergency  presents for those people you forgot to buy for. Check out our full list of holiday gifts after the jump. 

Baby Booze Box

Fee Bros. Bitters

Fee’s Bros. Flower Water

Bittermens Bitters

Bottle of Jin-Ja

2 Bottles Q tonic

$50

Big Booze Box

2 Fee Bros. Bitters

Fee’s Bros. Flower Water

Bittermens Bitters

Bittermens Shrub

Large Bottle of Jin-Ja

2 Bottles of Q tonic

2 Bottles of Boylan’s Seltzer

Girls Can Tell Beer Nerd Notebook

$90

Brunch Box

ReAnimator Coffee

La Copine Preserves

Three Springs Apple Butter

Kauffman Farms Pumpkin Butter

Christina Maser Pantry Pancake Mix

Bionaturae Organic Italian Fruit Nectar

Mini BLiS Bourbon Barrel-Aged Maple Syrup

$55

Brooklyn Box

Brooklyn Brine Pickles

Mast Bros. Chocolate Bar

Stumptown Coffee

Whimsy & Spice Marshmallows

Girls Can Tell Brooklyn Bridge Tea Towel

$60

Boot Box

Umbrian Truffle Oil

Severino Pasta

Martelli Pasta

San Marzano Tomato Sauce

San Marzano Tomato Paste

Amore Anchovy Paste

$50

Backyard Box

La Copine Preserves

Urban Apiaries Honey

Cafe Con Chocolate Hot Chocolate

in a Girls Can Tell Canvas Lunch Bag

$50

Bath Box

Christina Maser Soy Candle

2 Stewart & Claire Lip Balms

Green Pad Organic Soap

Green Pad Organic Shea Butter

Green Pad Organic Bath Salts

$50

Grab & Go Gifts $20 and less

Green Pad Soap with Soap Dish $10

Green Pad Soap Trios $14

Stewart & Claire 4-pack of Lip Balms $18

Cafe con Chocolate Hot Chocolate with Whimsy & Spice Marshmallows $19

Urban Apiaries 5-Zip Gift Set $20

Taza Chocolate Sampler $20

Christina Maser Candle and Soap Set $20

Green Aisle Gift Boxes are pre-order only and can be picked up anytime before Christmas.

All orders require a 50% deposit.

It seems a little early to be thinking about Thanksgiving, but pre-ordering a turkey can take a load of your mind. It gives you more time to plan fun side dishes, like stuffing. And stuffing. And some more stuffing…

Stuuuuufffffiiiiinnnnggggg

Green Aisle is bringing you birds raised by farmer Barb Shelley from Mountain View Poultry in Walnutport, PA. The turkeys are sustainably and humanly raised, meaning no hormones or antibiotics and the birds are free to graze as they like. They’re the same birds as last year so if you’ve had one before you remember how succulent and fresh they were.

Barb!

When ordering, you have three turkey sizes to choose from: 15-20 pounds, 20-25 pounds, 25-30 pounds. Each turkey is $5.99 per pound and your order requires a 50% deposit based on the highest weight in your chosen range. When you come to pick up your turkey, you simply pay off the balance.

Tuuuuuuuurrrrkeeeeyyyyy

There are two pick-up dater options: the Sunday before Thanksgiving (11/20) or the Wednesday before Thanksgiving (11/23). Make sure you pick the day that works best for you.

Turkey pick-ups can be stressful. Fun story – I was actually yelled at by a cop while picking up my mom’s Thanksgiving turkey. So order from Green Aisle, where Adam, Andrew, Mica, or I will be more than happy to help you. We want your turkey getting experience to be as pleasant and easy as possible.

This is actually what it looks like at Whole Foods when you pick up a turkey.

And delicious. Did I mention delicious?

Some of you may not know what a pawpaw is. I’ll be honest, I didn’t know it was anything other than part of a children’s book until we got them in at Green Aisle. When I saw it I thought “Huh, check out that tiny papaya. Can you grow papayas locally?” Well, not really.

Pawpaws, which are most definitely not papayas, are indeed local to the eastern United States. They look like a papaya on the outside, but on the inside they have a creamy color and are custardy, kind of like a mashed banana (they’re actually called “Poor Man’s Banana” in some places). They contain largish black seeds, reminiscent of a kidney bean. They have a short, fall season.

Photo courtesy of Mellody Brewing Co.

Anyway, back to Sean and his beer. Since he discovered the fruit last year, Sean has been yearning to create a pawpaw infused pale ale, but the short season got the better of him. Patiently, Sean waited for the new season to begin and jumped at the chance to bring this beer to life. While he waited, he changed his mind to experiment with a porter rather than a pale ale.

He checked in with Ben Wenk from Three Springs Fruit Farm who didn’t have any, and then turned to us. We had just gotten in a shipment of pawpaws from Green Meadow Farms and were more than happy to oblige.

Sean picked up 32 pawpaws, removed the fruit from it’s thin skin, and froze the pulp to make his beer. He’s got a few ideas he’s mulling over, including a slightly chocolate porter with pawpaw. We can’t wait to see what he comes up with.

Sean's pawpaw pitting party. I think he won.

Oh, and he let Adam name it. Pawssyunk Porter.

If you haven’t heard of La Copine (“girlfriend”), then you’ve really been missing out. La Copine is the delicious baby of chef Nikki Hill and musician Claire Wadsworth.  The two met at a dinner party in 2009 and since then have been working towards something that combines both their creative abilities. And voila! La Copine was born.

This small business has a lot to offer. There’s the monthly Supper Club, which showcases food as an experience using all local and sustainable ingredients, dinner party catering with custom made menus (they recently did a French themed 4 course vegetarian dinner for the senior management at Free People), and their weekend brunch truck, which was a finalist in the Philadelphia Vendy Awards.  The brunch truck hangs out at Garden Variety at 209 Poplar St and is open from 12pm to 4pm. Their menu can be found here and follow their twitter for daily specials.

La Copine plans to jar the jams and mustards they use at the brunch truck and details will be forthcoming.

We at Green Aisle are carrying their delicious, amazing, delicious banana bread, something which occasionally graces the brunch truck menu and most definitely should grace your tummy.

Little Baby’s was founded in May 2011 and is owned by three Philadelphians: Pete Angevine, Martin Brown and Jeffery Ziga. They hand-make all their ice cream in small batches and specialize in “unusual and surprising” flavors. (What could be more surprising than Earl Grey Sriracha?) Flavors include Cardamon Caramel, Balsamic Banana, Strawberry Pink Peppercorn, Birch Beer Vanilla Bean, Bourbon Bourbon Vanilla, Blue Bottle Coffee Toffee, Vegan Mint Oreo, Vegan Coconut Tea, Peanut Butter Maple Tarragon, Chipotle Chocolate, Blueberry Ginger, and Yerba Mate.

The ice cream is moved from place to place via tricycle. You heard that right, ladies and gentleman. Little Baby’s Ice Cream is served out of a trike. This isn’t just any trike; it’s a fully customized, one-of-a-kind trike. It boasts storage for gallons of water, a water heater, a pump, a freezer, speakers and lights, and it’s all powered by an electric generator. Check out this interview with Pete for Zagat where he goes into details about the tricycle’s origins.

Vegan Banana Chip and Strawberry Pink Peppercorn

In addition to riding around the city on a tricycle, the guys sell their pints exclusively here, at Green Aisle. If you can’t get to their location (which they announce regularly on their Twitter) you can stop by our store and pick up your own for at-home enjoyment. There’s also a special Green Aisle flavor in the works, which won’t even be sold out of the trike.

Balsamic Banana

Little Baby’s is available for events. They’ve sold at neighborhood festivals, concerts, art openings, block parties, fetish dances, roller derbys, hair salons, birthday parties, farmer’s markets, film festivals, and many other locations. These guys get around and Philadelphia loves them.

Cardamom Caramel

Check them out here and take some home to try. You won’t be disappointed. Might I suggest these combinations?

-Bourbon Bourbon Vanilla with Popcorn, Indiana Kettlecorn and a drizzle of BLiS Bourbon Barrel-Aged Syrup

So good.

-Balsamic Banana with Strawberry Puree

-Balsamic Banana and Strawberry Pink Peppercorn

-Birch Beer Vanilla Bean Float made with Boylan’s Creamy Red Birch Beer

-For the daring, Earl Grey Sriracha plus a little extra Sriracha

Note: It pains me to share this. I know it’s silly, but I hold all the recipes my mom uses close to my heart, even the ones she gets from cookbooks. So, easy as this recipe is, I’m sharing an important part of me with you. It makes me uncomfortable, sad, and nostalgic. So pardon any cheesiness (although I am the least cheesy person on earth) and accept this gift I present to you (which is not at all a narcissistic sentiment).

I’m a big advocate of my mom’s cooking. Seriously, my mom is the best cook in the world. She’s better than your mom, hands down. Oh, your mom was taught by her authentic Italian G’ma? Yea, mine’s still better. Oh, your mom was trained by Julia Child? My mom was trained by herself. Oh, your mom is a chef at some super classy restaurant? Whatevs, my mom pwns your mom any day of the week.

Like I said, I’m devoted to my mom’s cooking. This is mainly because she taught herself. She wasn’t always better than your mom. She used to be just as terrible (if not moreso) as me. She tells this story about the time she made moussaka. My dad’s ex, Julie, was coming over to visit and mommy wanted to impress her. Mommy found a recipe for moussaka and thought “This’ll do it.” Unfortunately, mom didn’t precook the eggplant so it was pretty much raw when the dish was finished. It ended up being completely terrible.

I hate moussaka so much.

And yet, my mom has persevered. She has taught herself how to cook and has surpassed your mom in every way. Your mom can only hope to be as awesome as my mom.

There aren’t many things that she makes that I can make. However, I can bake like my mom. She has a couple of signature baking recipes (at least in my mind they’re signature) and this is one of them. It’s the greatest crumble recipe of all time. She makes it all the time during the summer. She whips it up real quick and serves it with vanilla ice cream or, in British fashion, heavy cream. It stirs up childhood memories of eating on the patio, watermelon in the pool, and warm breezes passing through my parent’s gorgeous backyard.

We have a pond with frogs.

The recipe is very simple. You’ll read it and go “Wow that’s simple.” It’s so simple even Adam and my boyfriend couldn’t screw it up. Trust me though. It’s the greatest crumble recipe ever. Plus, you can easily substitute whatever fruit you want into it; peaches, strawberry, rhubarb, raspberry, pear, apple, chicken livers (lol jaykay youseguys)…

Anywho, here it is. The best, most versatile crumble recipe of all time. And don’t knock it or I’ll exact bloody vengeance on you in the name of my mother. I mean….Enjoy!

Esther’s Mom’s Crumble Recipe That Is Better Than Your Mom’s Crumble Recipe Stop Arguing

Get this:

Topping:

1 c flour

½ c whole wheat flour

1/3 c sugar

5 tbsp butter

Filling:

Enough fruit to fill a pie pan (in this case, blueberries – about 1 quart)

¼ c brown sugar

1 ½ tbsp cornstarch

Heat oven to 400F

Mix the blueberries with the brown sugar and cornstarch in a bowl (the cornstarch will help the juice thicken during baking). Let sit.

Put flours, sugar, and butter in a food processor or do by hand until the mixture resembles crumbs. It may not resemble big crumbs, but it’ll look crumbly. You understand, I’m sure.

Pour the blueberries into the pie pan and top with the crumble. Put in the oven for 40mins, give or take. Smell the deliciousness.

Serve with (good) vanilla ice cream and/or heavy cream. Worship Esther’s mother.

(Sorry the pictures suck)

Go make a crumble.

Esther

These went in my belly.

Those muffins were pretty good. But that got me thinking. Are they really better than Thomas’? How could they be? Thomas’ have nooks and crannies and are pre-sliced. Surely that makes them an excellent contender. So here I sit, comparing the two to determine, once and for all, which muffin of (apparently) English origin is superior.

Let’s start with Ric’s. Ric’s doesn’t look like your typical English muffin. They don’t have those holes inside when the muffin is opened up. The inside is full, thick, and soft. The dried fruit (apricots, craisins, raisins) provides just enough sweetness that there’s no need to add any jam or even butter. Although butter is fine. And so is jam. Gosh darn it, what I’m saying is a spread could be added if desired, but it isn’t necessary. What good is that? English muffins are supposed to be so tasteless that you need 2lbs of butter to make them taste good.

This muffin was immediately nommed by me.

You also need to take the extra step of cutting them in half since there’s no machine to pre-cut them. It’s totally such a hassle. In those two seconds of cutting I could have snarfed down an entire Thomas’ muffin. Seriously, Ric’s. What’s up with wasting my time?

NO PRE-CUT LINE!

Now for Thomas’. Thomas’ has those nooks and crannies you can fill up with lots of jam and butter to make it taste good.

See those nooks and crannies??

AND they're good for your heart!? Competition won!

They catch every little bit of spread, but the great part is they don’t soak it up since they’re flat and thin. They even taste grainy! Not to mention they’re pre-cut so you don’t have to take those two extra seconds to cut them.

It holds everything perfectly.

Obviously, Thomas’ wins.

P.S. This is all totally a lie. Ric’s is freakin’ awesome. Put a little Local Strawberry Jam from Fond on it and your life is much better than it was before.

Esther

This woman has no time or money. I can only assume it's because a morning show told her so.

Ever find yourself buying a duplicate of something? It’s frustrating to buy a spice or bag of sugar only to find you already had it at home. Maybe you pick up a head of lettuce and there are already two in your crisper. So there’s money and time you’ve wasted. Doing an inventory of your kitchen will help.

I did one yesterday morning. Type A personality that I am, I went through my entire kitchen and inventoried all the food related items I had. It took an hour, but trust me, it was worth it.

You wouldn’t believe what I found. There were three empty jars of jam in my fridge, cans of evaporated and condensed milk that had expired two years ago, multiples of spices (who needs three jars of ground cloves???), a really, really rotten green pepper, and stuff I had no idea I owned (coconut toast spread, jerk chicken seasoning, chili oil).

There were six cans of tuna. Six.

This is the fish equivalent of how many cans of tuna I have in my fridge.

It was fascinating. I wrote every single item down, how much I had, where it was located, and how old it was. As you read this, I am probably entering it into a spreadsheet that I’ll be sending to the boytoy as a reference when it comes to time to cook.

Oh hey cutie, you gonna make me dinner now?

For me, part of the inventory was the money factor. I have two jobs and can’t get a third, so there’s no extra money lying around to pay for stuff I don’t really need. Now that I know what’s in my kitchen, I won’t rebuy. Seriously, I found a full bag of confectioners sugar when I just bought a new one last week. That seems like a small amount of money, but what if it had been something like truffle oil? Buying another bottle of truffle oil when you already have one? That’s a waste of money.

What? Too cliché?

Sure, I could look for things before I go shopping, but what if I have a surprise shopping trip? No going home beforehand to check out the whole freakin’ kitchen to see what’s available. My kitchen is so tiny anyway. Space is cramped. It’s a pain in the ass to have to dig everything out and put it back the exact way that makes it fit. It’s like Tetris. I hate Tetris. That’s why I hate playing Freezer Tetris in the store and complain about it on Facebook (oops).

THANKS A LOT FOR LIKING MY PAIN, SHERRY. GEEZ.

Another part of the inventory is knowing what I have. I can reference my spreadsheet whenever I want and use it to plan a meal. Example: I didn’t know about the jerk spice and I also didn’t know I had four chicken breasts in the freezer. Boom. Dinner for at least 2 days. So easy.

My spice cabinet, while teeny, is filled with deliciousness that I should absolutely experiment with. Surprise! Here’s a set of gourmet salts my mom gave AU for Christmas. Oh look! Here’s some LAVENDER EXTRACT!?!?!??! What’s this? LAVENDER SYRUP!?!?!? And I’m not CAPSing to be obnoxious. That’s how excited I felt when I found those two things. I was CAPS-LOCK EXCITED!!!!!!

I'm as excited as this dog in a stroller eating meat.

There were even fennel seeds.

Which I hate.

I don’t know why I have them.

Ew.

It went so well I’m planning on doing it for the rest of my apartment. Bathroom supplies, cleaning supplies, food storage supplies, what the hell is in my storage closet, office supplies, clothes, and what books I have. I have like 150 books in my itty-bitty apartment and I don’t know what they are or if they’re even worth having. The possibilities are simply endless. My home will look like an Ikea catalogue.

This will be my home. Minus the kids. They'll be wrapped in plastic so they don't get anything dirty. The opposite of my G'Ma's couch.

That’s not to mention how much stress it would get rid of. I get extremely agitated when I don’t know where to find everything. I would know where everything was. I would be like the flipping Big Brother of my apartment.

That’s right.

I’m going to 1984 my apartment.

I'm watching you, paperclips.....

So really. Do a kitchen inventory. It might take you a while and irritate your significant other, but it’ll save so much time and money in the future. Again, who needs 6 cans of tuna and a pound of rotten potatoes hanging around? Not me.

Esther