Holiday shopping bargains on wine and cookbooks

The tough economy sparks great, limited time, ideas for the budget conscious, foodie holiday shopper.

Thu, Oct 22 2009 at 12:44 PM EST

I’ve got a couple of bargains for you today that may help you get a jump on some of your holiday buying for entertaining or gift giving.

If you’re looking for some healthy cookbooks to give as gifts or to get some new ideas for holiday recipes, BookCloseouts.com has an additional 35 percent off of their already discounted prices on cookbooks.

You can get some real bargains on this site. Several months ago, I got the hardback version of Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything for half of the cover price. The number of copies of any book on this site is always limited (sometimes they only have one copy of a book), but there are real bargains to be had.

Here are a few cookbook titles that you might want to check out:

Bittman’s How to Cook Everything is no longer available on Bookcloseouts, but his Bittman Takes on American Chefs is $6.49 right now – that’s 74 percent off.
From Jesse Ziff Cool, who wrote Your Organic Cooking that I love so much, is a cookbook titled Toast. Recipes like Toast with Wild Mushrooms, Truffle Oil, and Marsala, make it sound like a cookbook called Toast might be worth the price of $4.54 – that’s 74 percent off.
30 Minutes or Less – Fresh Food – Healthy foods with fresh ingredients ready in 30 minutes. This book is $3.24 right now – that’s 67 percent off.
Autumn Cooking – This book will have lots of recipes for what you can get at the farmers markets right now. They’re selling it for $4.54 right now – that’s 70 percent off.

There are 1,772 titles available in this limited time, 35 percent off offer right now. To browse their selection, click here. Not all titles will be of interest to those interested in healthier cooking, but many of them will be. And remember, there are limited supplies of any title.

On to the second bargain. This one is wine.

Red Truck Wines, the makers of the organic Petite Sirah, Sauvignon Blanc, and Zinfandel that I really like, are having an online 20 percent off sale right now on all the wines on their website. The sale runs through Sunday, Oct. 25, so you need to act quickly.

You can purchase individual bottles or get all three in a 3-pack for $32 plus the discount. If you’re going to need a lot of wine for holiday entertaining or you want to give wine as a gift, check this out.

In addition to the organic wines, Red Truck offers their signature Red Truck Red Wine in a fun barrel that holds the equivalent of four bottles. It keeps fresh for six weeks after opening. It’s not one of their organic wines, but according to their website, the packaging has less than half the carbon footprint of their glass bottles and is almost 100 percent fully recyclable. If you’re looking for a good, inexpensive wine to serve at a casual occasion, this is a good option.

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