Chocolate and gingerbread and cookies -- oh, my!

Are you done with your Christmas shopping yet? I am. I think.

If you're in Rochester and need a few last-minute gifts, I have a suggestion that will work for almost everyone. That's Stever's Candies. It is located on Park Avenue, a trendy street that has lots of fun little places to shop and eat. I lived in the area for four years in my 20s, and I love going down there, even if parking can be a pain. And, for that matter, so can the lines in Stever's -- but that's part of the ritual at this time of year.

Stevers is known for their chocolates in a wide variety of shapes -- I spotted every Christmas shape, plus musical instruments, sporting equipment, computers, cell phones, flip flops, etc. I have to believe there's a shape that would apply to almost everyone. I thought this skyline of Rochester was pretty cool, and bought it with the idea of using it to create a new title banner for this blog. Well, I didn't like the way it looked as a banner, but I'm sure it will make a nice gift for someone. (By the way, I did end up recreating the title banner ... I'm interested in hearing what you think!)

I couldn't pass up buying one goodie for myself -- sponge candy! Yes, they carry sponge candy in bulk at Wegmans and Tops, but this stuff is tons better. The dainty bites have a thick layer of creamy Stever's chocolate. The inside is both crispy and ethereal, melting away with a fleeting taste of honey. I'm not sharing it. Nope. No way.

I got a bunch of little gifts but don't want to reveal too much in case any of the recipients read this. In the end I dropped $72 there. Yikes!

So now I need to mention some fun holiday round-ups on a couple of other blogs:

- The Christmas Cookie Roundup on Food Blogga continues to grow. I contributed a couple of recipes. If you need to do some more baking and want some new ideas, that's a great place to look.

- The gingerbread house roundup on YumSugar includes our "Boy Humor" gingerbread house. I laughed when I saw the first photo on the post -- a Snoopy gingerbread house. It is much more successful than our attempt during last year's gingerbread disaster! It's fun to look at what other people created.
- If want to see more gingerbread, I just stumbled across another local food blogger who took photos of this year's George Eastman House gingerbread house display. I usually go to see the display, but missed it this year. It was nice to see what I missed. I especially like the replica of the Highland Park Diner. If you still want more gingerbread, my photos of last year's display are here.