Solid Settings

For special occasions, here’s some heavy, oversized hand-forged flatware in unique patterns at a reasonable price. It’s four complete settings (knife, salad and dinner forks, soup spoon and teaspoon) in stainless steel with antique-finish handles (not dishwasher-safe). Made in India.

Tools of the Trade 20-piece flatware set, $145 at Macy’s.

Twisted Aprons

The Texans who brought us last year’s notorious Buster the Cat apron have a new crop of twisted apron ideas, including the vegetarian cow gourmet Moorie Antoinette (“Let Them Eat Tofu”) and “Help! My souffle’s fallen . . . and it can’t get up.”

Moorie Antoinette and fallen souffle aprons, $16.95 each plus shipping & handling from the Imagination Assn., (800) 835-5802.

Cruets Unusual

Do they come from a scientist’s lab or a designer’s atelier? Actually, they come from your pantry. These conjoined oil and vinegar cruets (the 4-ounce vinegar holders are actually inside the 8-ounce ones holding oil) come in various pleasing geometrical shapes. They’re hand-blown, lead-free glass in round, wine bottle, pear or dome-top shapes.

Cruet Duet, $19.99 from Metro Marketing, (800) 367-0845.

Southern Comfort

Virginians are proud of their heritage and of their food. Country Comfort Cuisine is a collection of some of Virginia’s finest foods. Together they make an excellent meal. Start with Blue Crab Bay Co.’s Crab Norfolk chowder with ham. An already cooked and sliced (thin, of course) Virginia ham from S. Wallace Edwards & Sons is the main course (refrigerate upon receipt). For dessert, enjoy a loaf of Rowena’s Luscious Lemon Pound Cake with an accompanying jar of Lemon Curd Sauce. A recipe for Sweet Potato Biscuits is included.

Country Comfort Cuisine, $39.95 plus $7 shipping and handling; serves four to six. To order, call S. Wallace Edwards & Sons, (800) 222-4267; Blue Crab Bay Co., (800) 221-2722; or Rowena’s Inc., (800) 980-2253.

Egg on Your Face

Take your eggs out of the kitchen and into the powder room. These egg-shaped vegetable oil soaps from Foodstuffs are seasoned with honey, almond and vanilla and herbs and packaged in an egg carton.

Among other Foodstuffs items are a chile-pepper-shaped pen specially weighted for smooth writing, handcrafted bell pepper- or pear-shaped 100% beeswax candles and salt and pepper shakers cast and painted to look like baby vegetables--two artichokes, two garlic heads or a shallot and a red onion.

Egg soaps, $17 per half-dozen; chile pen, $32; set of three bell pepper candles (one red, one yellow and one green), $29; set of two pear candles, $20; each salt and pepper shaker set, $33, plus shipping and handling based on total of order. Mail order only from Foodstuffs, (888) F-STUFFS.

Too Hip Candies

A snazzy Camarillo outfit named Jerbeau puts out incredibly stylish chocolates for the holidays--triangular boxes and round or triangular metal tree ornaments filled with ball- and pyramid-shaped chocolates. The ornaments can be reused.

5-ounce Jerbeau ball ornament, $11; triangular Insignia tree ornament, $12; Insignia holiday 10-piece assortment, $22.50; from Jerbeau Chocolate, (800) 755-3723.

It’s a Junk Food World After All

Wow: a monthly selection of junk foods from all over the world--Dutch syrup wafers, Italian chocolate nougats, Japanese chocolate-covered whatsits, etc. They start out with three months, but you can negotiate longer memberships. And you can specify shipments of 1 1/2 up to 4 pounds-o’-junk a month. It’s, like, a dream come true.

International Junk Food of the Month, $19.99 (plus $5.50 shipping and handling) to $39.99 (plus $7.50) per month, (888) 762-2584.

You Need Glasses

Handblown glasses are always a classic gift. The small glasses with studs are by San Francisco State graduate Larry Newsom; the larger glasses with gold overlay, UCLA alumnus Kerry Feldman.

Small glasses, $40; large glasses, $44; from Freehand, Los Angeles.

Plates of Leaves

A West Virginia ceramist named Charles Malin impresses pottery with natural leaves and then colors the impressions after firing the works. The result has all the distinctiveness of natural leaves.

Charles Malin oval plates, $61; square platter, $110, from Freehand, Los Angeles.